Sal de la Tierra — Restaurant in Portland

This is a tidy, no nonsense/no pretense eatery that provides excellent Salvadoran, Mexican, and Puerto Rican dishes. This is not some Gringo interpretation of these cuisines, nor is it an attempt to adapt them to local tastes. This is the real deal, authentic food prepared well by people who grew up with it. I’ve eaten there twice, and am heading back there tonight to try something else. My first time there I had the Montañero, a massive plate of meat, rice, beans, patacones (green plantain sliced sideways, fried, flattened, and fried again), salad and probably more that I am forgetting. It was a daunting task, but I did finish it. The second time I had mofongo, Puerto Rico’s entry into the pantheon of “heart attack on a plate” cuisine. It’s basically smashed green plantains mixed with bits of chicharrone (fried pork belly) and meat of your choice and much more. I had been craving it for years and was too intimidated to try fixing myself. I thoroughly enjoy it, and will order it again, as soon as I’ve run through the many other things on the menu that I just have to try first. The atmosphere is fairly plain and stark, but very clean and tidy. Anyone who has eaten it NYC inexpensive Hispanic restaurants will be right at home. I really hope that you will give this place a try, and I don’t think you...

Disappointing. Came all the way from Massachusetts excited to try the food here. No papusas, so that wasn't a good start. So we ordered chicken quesadillas. I wanted some authentic Spanish rice but was told they didn't have yellow rice in stock. So we had to get white rice..after a bit of a wait we got our quesadillas but the waitress forgot our rice..quesadillas were plain with no blended cheese? There was a good amount of chicken but it wasn't seasoned well and the cheese was a white cheddar? No flavor. Was served on a paper plate with a mound of lettuce, sour cream,jalapeños, some red onion, but no guacamole or salsa, which I found odd. Finally after 15 minutes I went up to the counter to ask for my rice. Waitress apologized which was nice, but forgot that she had charged me already for the rice. So I had to show her the receipt to prove it. Maybe the staff had an off night but I wasn't impressed. I'd be hesitant to...

It was my first time here and the food was very very good! I would definitely recommend. However, I would have given 5 stars but deducted 2 because they pressure you to tip before you get your food. After you order and get ready to pay the cashier... she turns this TV size screen around to face you and there is various degrees for tipping. 10% 20% 25% and so forth. And she asks you how much you would like to tip. My first thought was if I don't tip are they going to do something horrible to my food!: So I tipped reluctantly. First of all why am I tipping you? Your not waiting on me at a table like a waitress. 2nd why are you pressuring people to tip? 3rd why are you asking for tips before I get my food. 4th why are you asking for tips at all? Just another scammy way to take people's money they didn't earn. However, if you don't mind tipping for no reason the food...