Quiero Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

I liked the option of ordering and paying online or over the phone. Other orders/bags were waiting on the counter when I picked ours up, so I think that might be their main business right now. One couple seated inside, and a family at the outside tables. We ordered the puerco, frijol, and queso empanadas, and a Cubano sandwich.

The frijol empanada was delicious! I'll definitely get that again. The other food was good but wasn’t amazing, but they may still be adjusting to business in the time of Covid. We’ll take that into account and eat here again. The pork in my Puerco empanada was dry, The pieces were large, which didn’t help the dryness, and the flavor was bland until I got to the strip of plantain after a couple bites from the edge. I had hoped for an appreciable amount of plantain, throughout, and found that towards the middle. The queso empanada was good, but it tasted a lot like mozzarella and didn’t have much texture, similar to a calzone without any sauce—too one-note. Don’t get me wrong, I love cheese anything, but I was expecting something more flavorful, similar to a queso dip with a bit of mild spice and maybe a couple different Latin American cheeses. A place nearby has the most decadent, flavorful, texturally interesting cheese arepas, and that’s what I‘d hoped for here. The empanadas were large, so I didn’t finish these two and didn’t try the frijol yet. I have a feeling that will be my favorite. Update: the frijol was my favorite. I loved it!

My husband’s Cubano was good, but smaller than we’ve gotten at other places. By smaller, I mostly mean it wasn’t as full of ingredients, not as plump and decadent as they usually are. We normally can share one and be very full, or if one of us gets it, it’s enough for lunch the next day. He could’ve easily eaten this...

On vacation with the wife. I’m black, but the wife is Hispanic. I found this place & thought we’d check it out since I knew they had cuisine that are staples for her! We went for a late lunch & I really just enjoyed the authenticity & freshness of food!

I’m one of those people who subscribes to Chipotle as the guacamole standard- they definitely gave it a run for the money! You can tell the ingredients were fresh & thoughtful! Really enjoyed a more avocado-focused expression that was colored by a more forward presence of cilantro! If there was any acid in it, I didn’t notice & I didn’t care!

I enjoyed their interpretation of a Peruvian dish that included steak, rice & potato wedges! Portions were great! Steak was cooked with a good chew. Wish the pickled onions had more of a presence, but they nevertheless helped to round out the dish.

Wife enjoyed some tostones with a garlic aioli- that was good! Also their Cuban sandwich: pulled pork offered a sweetness that really caught you at the end of the bite! Very nice!

I was surprised at their collection of smoothie options. I had the rosado, & it helped really round out the rest of my lunch! The owners seem authentic & they clearly know what they’re doing! Great...

This was not my first time coming here, but it will certainly be the last. My colleague and I were so excited to dine here as we had in the past, but this was the WORST service experience we ever had. We arrive, and they don't even take our order for 20 minutes. We finally order at 11:45 (per my receipt), and we proceed to wait until 12:20, and still not get our food. In the meantime, 2 different customers who ordered AFTER us are getting their food. I finally take my receipt up to the front, and air my frustration. The server/Cashier (Erick I think his name was), tells me "our order is next ". It is a lie, they just plain forgot about us. At this point, we cant even stay and enjoy our food because it has taken so long so we tell them to just pack it to go. By 12:30pm, we finally get out food. The server just tosses the bag in our direction, no apology for the horrendous service, NOTHING. I get it, it was busy, I worked in a restaurant many years ago myself, I understand. But that is what separates restaurants who truly value their customer experience, how they behave WHEN it is busy. It's fine, there are plenty of other restaurants to dine at. No need to spend my hard...