Portland Mercado — Restaurant in Portland

This review seems long overdue.

The very fact that a non-white-owned food consortium exists in relatively close proximity to the central city is mind-blowing. Like, completely and totally wonderful and worth supporting in every way.

I have some favorites. Namely, the Oaxacan food of the magicians at Tierra del Sol (blue corn tortillas, omg), but there’s gems from nearly every vendor if you look long enough.

The salsas at Kaah are practically world famous at this point, and they have a tasting bar to prove just why.

I’ve never been truly tempted to try the coffee or the actual drinks at the other kind of bar, but both are on my list of things to stop being uptight about.

The inside seating area is essential in the cold months, but there’s always wild ones outside braving the cold too.

Do yourself and your neighbors a favor and spend...

What a fun place! The Mercado is primarily a very clean outdoor food court with several food trucks serving the most amazing, authentic Latin American foods. You'll find food from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru and other areas of South America and Central America. I chose QueBolá? and had the Camerones al Ajilla and it was on point! The shrimp were perfectly seasoned, the plantains, decadently sweet and traditional black beans and rice. I also had a mango agua fresca from another cart which was delicious as well but I don't remember the name of the cart. There are large, communal picnic tables and smaller tables as well as limited indoor seating. Inside, there's also an on-site butcher's market, fresh smoothies and coffees. Although I haven't been to an event yet, they do offer comedy and music occasionally as well. I'll be...

I'm sure all the independent food carts there are all delicious. But back when I was a delivery driver dropping off some flour inside the community kitchen, whoever was in there at the time was downright hostile to me. He refused to let me out of the building and laughed at me for "locking myself" in. I had delivered there several times before and never had a problem with people letting me out. When I finally decided to escape by setting off the alarm, he yelled at me and said he was going to call my work to get me fired. My work didn't fire me but I was instructed to never step foot in that kitchen again and leave the packages outside. And if anything ever happened to those packages, 1. They were insured and 2. We would just assume it was the...