Los Portales Mexican Restaurant

My mom and I came here after a rough day of cleaning an old apartment and moving more items into the new one. A modelo especial sounded amazing, so I searched Unilocal for a good local Mexican place and behold, Los Portales did not disappoint!
This place is clearly is authentic. When we walked in we were greeted by a nice waitress who let us sit where ever. There were children in the restaurant hanging out, they must have been family.
The chips and salsa was perfect, fresh chips and perfect amount of spice in the salsa. I was on the verge of starvation so went for probably the biggest plate they had, CARNITAS and they were AMAZING! My mom got the fish tacos which I tried, they were flakey and perfect. My eyes were apparently bigger than my stomach because I felt completely stuffed and managed to take half of my plate home. Prices here are extremely reasonable, most dishes around $ 10 or so. This place has a great value, friendly service, and a local feel. Check it out!

I have been looking for some yummy authentic mexican food and Los Portales was close by so we decided to try it out! Its a little divey, but family owned and the smells coming from the kitchen were amazing.
We ordered their signature margaritas and my goodness are they delicious. Los Portales has three different margarita sizes; small, medium and large. The large is basically a bucket of margarita goodness, but you may feel a bit tipsy afterwards!
I ordered the smothered shrimp burrito with salsa blanca and my fiancé ordered chicken enchiladas. We munched on their delicious chips and salsa and sipped our margaritas. Our food came out in no time.
I gave three stars because I liked everything but my entrée. Just a fore warning for anyone ordering salsa blanca and seafood, I wouldn’t do it. The salsa blanca was heavy and tasteless. My burrito only had a couple shrimp and was mostly filled with imitation crab. It was salty and really not very good. I will update my review after trying other things on the menu because I think this restaurant definitely has potential. But my burrito and the quality of their seafood was kind of a disapointment.

We saw a good review on this place — It was very authentic Mexican fare. (I love it when there are photos of the entrees on the menu.) Anyway, I found the salsa to be very fresh (with lot’s of cilantro). The fish tacos (3) were served wonderfully hot (temp), and came with pico, avocado slices and lime. It was very good food. :)

I was raised on mexican food in southern California. I find it hard if not impossible
to find California style mexican food in Colorado. I finally found it! My wife and
I were in the mood for some mexican food and we happened to be in the general
area of this restaurant. We googled mexican food near us and found Los Portales.
It had a 4 star rating, so we decided to try it. It’s a smaller place just north of
285 on Logan. WOW! This place is great! We started off with some chips and
guacamole which was awesome! The salsa was great too. Both were definitely
home made! I had a shredded beef chimichanga with rice and beans and it was
absolutely awesome. My wife had 3 cheese enchiladas and she loved them too.
The flavors were just perfect. Great green chili too! This is probably the best
mexican food I’ve had since moving to Colorado in 1994! And I’ve been searching
and searching and searching for good mexican here for the past 21 years! This place
is the best!

From looking outside you wouldn’t expect much from this restaurant, however, I picked up some tamales the other night and wasn’t disappointed! The restaurant looked very clean and inviting. The tamales were great– a good ratio of masa and pork. They went well with my homemade green chili. We are normally a Santiago’s fan, but this restaurant seems to be like a great alternative! Will come in for dinner soon.

I’ve been eating at Los Portales for 10 years and I can still say it is my favorite Mexican food in Denver! My favorite is the Mexican steak! Great job Jose and family!

My favorite Mexican restaurant :) I was really sad to see a few 1 star reviews as every visit I’ve ever had here over the past 11 years has been good. Yes, the building it’s in is old & a little run down, the décor kitschy, & Hacienda Colorado it’s not, but it’s every bit your typical mom-​n-​pop family ran, traditional costal Mexican food. Although the salsa can be a little hit & miss, I still highly recommend their food. Must try their Chili Relleno Estillo Colima: a publano pepper stuffed with cheese (& shredded chicken for a buck more), lightly breaded & deep fried. A simple tomato salsa is served over it. The shrimp chimichanga is another personal fave, as well as their fajitas & other seafood dishes. Though, I haven’t tried one of their margaritas, I consistently keep reading & hearing about how awesome they are. As for the review commenting how everything tasted like it came from a can & the poor vegetable quality, I have to say that I happened to be having lunch here one day & personally witnessed them receive a fresh produce delivery, straight from the farmer, himself, as well as tossing homemade tortillas inside the kitchen.

I apologize for giving a restaurant such a bad rating, but this place is barely subpar at best. And I feel they deserve to know exactly how they are doing. We tried it today for the first time, on a recommendation from my wife’s grandmother. We were under the impression that this was going to be delicious. The salsa tasted rotten, the avocados on our burritos were brown. The peppers and onions definitely were not fresh at all. Honestly, I’ve had better mexican food off a food truck at a jobsite. My wife ate 2 bites, and tossed it in the trash. What a waste. We will never return.

Unilocal brought me to this fabulous gem in a little strip mall parking lot. there was only one other couple in there when we went in. The margaritas were amazing the food was awesome and the service was fabulous!!! If you want a great Mexican this is the place to go.

Love this little gem of a restaurant!
I came here with a friend for happy hour, which the waitress told us they did not offer. It ended up being just fine, though– we split an enchilada plate, got complimentary chips & salsa (always a plus), two margaritas, and two sopapillas for under $ 30 total! Great deal, friendly staff, and authentic, incredibly yummy food.
And the margaritas come in funky neon glasses, which is great!

Perfect breakfast with just the right amount of bite from the fresh jalapeños and the service is fast and friendly. Vegetarian friendly green chili!

Really good food and service. The spicy items are really spicy! The diablo shrimp is almost too hot to handle. I like spicy food, the hotter, the better. Clean restaurant with good service.

I usually don’t review my favorite places because I want to keep the secret… authentic with several estilos de Mexico. Cozy. Divey. Family run

Absolutely fantastic Mexican food!!! My favorite are the carnitas — always super tender and fresh. This is our new «go-​to» favorite Mexican restaurant. Also, the sopapillas are TO DIE FOR! Don’t miss out.

Yummy! Unilocal and trip advisor had good reviews and after traveling for a week we were in dire need for good drinks (mango margarita is excellent) and some quality Mexican cuisine. The only reason we give it 4 stars is that our waitress wasn’t friendly or around. The food amazing! Service not so much, and I wished Spanish speaking folks would attempt to earn better English while living in America, especially in the service industry. So 5 star food — 4 star service. But a nice treat in Denver.

Wonderful authentic Mexican food! We have been looking for a Mexican restaurant close to our home for some time now and came across this place in our search. The food choices were great and the two meals we tried were delicious. I had the chicken fajitas and my husband had a combination place. We thought the portion size was perfect and the food was delicious! We got sopapillas after our meal which were the best I have had in years. Definitely a place to check out!

Waitress has no personality. I think her face will actually crack if she smiles. Foods good though and my grandma lives this place.

I’m going to start off with the tip I left for Los Portales – they charge $ 1.50 for chips and salsa refills. What the fluck?! Are we at Chipotle or somewhere where they charge for chips and salsa? This right here was completely offputting especially since they have gave me a half full basket of chips while I was waiting for a friend (even though I’m pissed off, I still remain an optimist!) If you’re going to charge at least start me off with a nice portion!
Ugh.
Besides that this place was just ok, they have a great selection on the menu of both breakfast and dinner items with reasonable prices. It’s pretty run down and right near Swedish Medical but I’ve never noticed it before. It’s kitchy inside and they have booths and tables. The girl-​who-​likes-​to-​talk-​on-​her-​cell-​phone was there and yep, busy on her phone while tables flooded in. We had to ask for refills each time she passed by even though she saw on glasses empty. There was one other girl helping and she couldn’t answer any questions about liquor because she said she didn’t work the bar. Odd. I ordered the carnitas and they were pretty awesome – succulent, full of flavor and melted in my mouth. It’s served with rice and beans and guac, pretty simple and even though I swore I was going to save some for leftovers, I was practically licking the plate because they were so good.
Even so, the charging for chip and salsa really pisses me off and I’m likely not to come back because of that. Stop being cheap Los Portales!
And I continue my search for reasonable, tasty Mexican food in Denver…

Nom Nom Nom
I like the fact this place is not Tex-​Mex and is the best Mexican food in my Neighborhood.

The service is stellar and the restaurant is clean. Their combination plates are enormous. You have so many options including the delicious chicharron burritos! The green chili is a tad salty, but it is also very smoky and earthy, which gives a great depth of flavor.
The tamales could use more filling. The crispy rellenos are very tasty with a generous amount of cheese.
This is one of the better Mexican restaurants in the area. The prices are very fair and the food always tastes fresh and not reheated. For less than $ 20.00 two people can eat well at Portales. Gracias!