Nuestra Cocina — Restaurant in Portland

Awesome restaurant. Make this your next date night (huge points for a first date night).

This is the place that friends and I visit for special occasions (and whenever we need some amazing pork tacos and a spicy margarita). Like all good restaurants it gets a little busy at times, but not overwhelming. I've never had any issues standing at the bar and waiting with a delicious spicy margarita (arguably the best spicy margarita in Portland).

The food here is absolutely amazing and the restaurant feels like a family reunion. I've been coming here for close to 10 years and many of the employees I saw on day 1 are still here! That speaks volumes about the ownership and employee satisfaction.

The owner Benjamin is a straight faced, no nonsense chef who has come up with some really fantastic dishes and deserves credit for really creating some distinct and delicious flavors. When it comes to servicing his customers and taking care of his employees, it's clear that he's one of the good business owners who truly cares because it shows throughout the whole establishment.

If you go and you can't get seating at a table, don't fret, try the bar. A seat usually opens up within a reasonable amount of time. In fact, it's such a nice little bar that my lady and I will just eat there when we get our seat. You can only order apps at the bar, but there are so many great things to choose from, you won't even feel bad about missing the entrees. In fact, the appetizers are all I ever order.

Things to try:

Spicy Margarita Pork Tacos Soupa de Lima (second favorite soup ever) Tamarind Shrimp and pretty much everything else. HA! Chips/guac/salsa their homemade tortillas and spicy roasted pepper...

I’ve noticed this restaurant for many years on Division and have wanted to try it. I’ve always heard good things about it and the line proved others felt the same way. On a Friday night the wait for a couple was about a half hour which wasn’t bad since we could go over to Double Barrel bar (where I really enjoyed the atmosphere) and have a couple drinks and then head over and our table was nearly ready. The margaritas here are quite good and I recommend getting one. The food itself I would say is an exploration in changing up what you might normally think is Mexican food with some more interesting flavors/ingredients and lovely presentation. You can tell a lot of thought and love went into these dishes. Our first two small plates were quite good. One being the Poblano Relleno Picadillo which had nuts and raisins and shredded pork inside. We also had another dish with mushrooms and crema on top of homemade tortillas that was my favorite. Then it dropped off after that because they ran out of Carnitas and the carne asada just had no flavor at all - so I would not recommend it. And the chicken enchilada was just okay and I wouldn’t really recommend that either. Their salsas were quite good! They seem to be ground down to a paste and each chile (Arbol being the “hot” one) was quite tasty and unique. Overall I’d say it’s a restaurant that had good flavors and interesting ingredients but I don’t think I would crave it enough to...

Last night's dinner with 5 people ran the gamut from superb to disappointing. Service was wonderful and friendly in a warm, lively environment. First, the dishes that pleased us: Enchiladas Blancas (shrimp enchiladas) – I didn't get a taste, but it was a hit. Both Chile Relleno dishes (one with pork and one with vegetables) – excellent; the Pork con Picadillo was especially flavorful. Sopes de Chorizo, Friholes Y Chile de Arbol con Queso was delicious and complex with a satisfying texture from the fried masa cake. Guacamole & chips were very good and the desserts were very good – loved the Flan de Naranja. Overall, I had to recalibrate my expectations about flavor to appreciate the quieter nuances that were presented. Once I decided this was going to be the style, I better enjoyed the understated flavors of the salsas and other sauces. Things that let us down were the Camarones con Tamarindo; grilled prawns in full shell, burned and dry, without flavor assistance from the marinade, AND Cochinta Pibil; a large, nicely roasted chunk of tender marinated pork placed on a plate of black beans with a grilled serrano and topped with (tasted like vinegar-marinated red onion). The absence of flavors from the recado and cooking juices with their spices etc., was much missed. It seemed like an incomplete deconstruction with a small ramekin of citrus-bright condiment not producing my hoped...