El Palenque

Like everyone living in Portland who has spent time in Mexico or the towns along the US southern border, I dream of finding 1 reliably great Mexican restaurant, hole in the wall or even cart. Unlike most reviewers, I find that the tortillas stand as the barrier to greatness here. My latest stop was El Palenque, which served as a convenient point for my wife and I to meet two friends from Spain. It was a quiet afternoon; the only other table seated held 4 Mexicans, including a typically curious young girl who visited our table regularly to stare at us and run away. We ordered a variety of entrees from their menu, which describes the food as Salvadoran and Mexican. I have never been to El Salvador, but the menu included pupusas, which many web sites cite as the country's national food. Also used in several dishes was loroco, a flower native to El Salvador and Guatemala. The beer list included many from Mexico, but none from El Salvador. With 3 Spanish speakers at the table, we were able to pass some time discussing with our very friendly server the details of the menu and the items unique to Salvadoran cuisine.

So we ordered with hopeful hearts, and received generous portions of food. I was the only vegetarian at the table, but as the Mercury review notes, many vegetarian options exist, and many other dishes can be easily changed to vegetarian if you ask. Overall, the food was...fine. CitySearch user comments show a similar range of reviews, suggestive of a restaurant that copes poorly with a busy night and with uneven quality control in any case. So many ethnic restaurants struggle to maintain quality and availability for the very specialty items that should make them worth the journey. El Palenque seemed to have everything available for our visit, but others report worse luck. Using the Michelin guide ratings (3 forks: worth a journey; 2 forks: worth a detour; 1 fork: worth a stop), El Palenque seems only worth a stop if in the area. And with the better and more lively San Felipe not far away, the area left to El Palenque is not large.