Tortilla Flats on Glisan

This place is now closed. Following is an article from Willamette Week 1÷7÷15:
The food scene in Montavilla North – a.k.a. Northeast Glisan Street – will be blowing up even bigger this Spring.
Zoe and Levi Hackett, two of three co-​founders of Cocotte bistro, are starting a Mexican-​inspired Pacific Coast restaurant, café and commissary kitchen in the former Tortilla Flats and Burger Barn location at 7901 Northeast Glisan Street.
For now they’re calling the spot «Ballena» (or «Ballena the Beauty») and they’re planning a three-​phase rollout after an extensive rehab of the run-​down space. By spring, they hope to have a commissary kitchen both for Zoe’s current Coco Catering business and for other chefs who want to hire out a kitchen by the hour.
«I’ve been doing my own small events,» she says, «and it’s hard to find a kitchen that doesn’t make you sign up for a regular schedule.»
But eventually, by spring or early summer, they hope to have a lounge and restaurant serving food inspired by the cuisines of the Pacific Coast from Oregon down to the tip of Baja, where both Hacketts have done a lot of traveling and eating. Levi Hackett spent a fair portion of his boyhood in Mexico, says Zoe, but they remain equally interested in the local foods of Oregon.
Despite the «Ballena» name – Spanish for whale – they don’t anticipate a specifically seafood focus, although they do have plans for ceviche and a lot of bright flavors such as lime. On the boozy side, they will focus equally on bold, bright flavors with a menu centered around on big, fruity citrus cocktails.
For the third phase, the pair also plan to open out an event space that will double as a daytime café – perhaps by summertime.
All plans are tentative for now, but they do know one thing for sure, Zoe says: «No tacos or burritos.»

Awesome tacos. Cold beer. Good Margs. Just what this neighborhood needed. Eat here. This place should be supported.

Ugh, not good. Not good at all. I came in for lunch and had to throw most of my food out. I had the carnitas platter. The carnitas were so bland. Half of what they gave me was chunks of fat. The beans were hard still as was the rice.
Avoid this place– I know I will.

I stopped off the other day at Tortilla Flats for a quick lunch. I wanted to test them out before I made a dinner commitment.
RATS. Since we live nearby, I was hoping for an awesome Mexican restaurant. I had two ‘street’ tacos and a diet soda to go. I had one chicken taco and one pork. The chicken was in chunks, like it was out of a bag. Zero flavor. The pork was just as dull.
I will say that the veggies they put on the tacos were interesting and fresh. I’ve never had cucumber on a taco.
The owner was there. He was nice. But heck, I had to wait for him to finish cleaning something for my tacos to be handed to me.
I really really hope they get better.
Right now: No dinner on the list.
P. S.: WAYYY too much syrup in the soda. I had to toss it out.

Damn! I was really hoping for a delicious Mexican restaurant a short walk away from my house. I’m giving three stars because they just opened, I like the owners, and the service is excellent. Though the food was bland, terribly bland. I added salt to everything I ordered. I had a carnitas burrito; I don’t even understand how pork can be bland. The chicken tacos were bland, the pico de gallo was bland, the guacamole was bland, the rice was bland, the beans were bland. I’m actually really sad they changed their menu from really bomb burgers to really tasteless Mexican. I still have hope this place will get better with time.

Horrible.
In the 70’s we would go to my Aunt Laqueta’s house and have her «Mexican» beans (made with Dr. Pepper) and her «guak-​a-​moll» (her pronunciation) and her cold, store-​bought tortillas with shredded cold cheese and jalapenos on everything, including her catastrophic «Mexican Salad» which was basically mid west diner-​style with cabbage, cucumber, and tortilla chips. (Thousand Island was an option on her table.)
Basically, everything on my Aunt’s «Mexican Menu» was a mid-​west diner-​style something with jalapenos and tortilla chips. Because of her, I believed that I hated Mexican food for YEARS.
It wasn’t until a road trip that took me from Jalisco, through Michoacan, to Mexico city– that I learned to cherish Mexican food. Then I lived in border towns for 20 years and it became a staple in life– enough to learn a few things from neighbors. Before long, it felt like everybody should know how to soak their chilis, know the difference between ancho and guajillo, and know how to make a basic maza.
I also believe that if you can walk past fresh tomatillos (that are everywhere– even at freaking Fred Meyers) but you cook like you haven’t the foggiest idea what tomatillos are– then you really have no business opening a restaurant and calling it Mexican.
So this place brought me right back to Aunt Laqueta’s table. Right up to the cucumber in my *cough* «flouta»… with a cold tortilla. And my green «salsa» that is either package-​made or contains a fair amount of plutonium to reach that particular shade of neon.
I had a weird feeling from the start when they talked about their refusal to have something as basic as frijoles refritos on their menu. It just seemed weird since you can get a lobster in Baja and it will STILL be served with frijoles refritos and arroz a la Mexicana.
But I hoped that their reasoning was because they were aiming for some regional specifics to their beans.
Yeah, no. Unless the region is «St. Helens, Oregon.»
With all of the wonderful Mexican restaurants in Portland that will happily (and more cheaply) serve you a rich range of authentic flavors that spans from Baja to Yucatan– why in the world would anybody roll out a joke of a restaurant like this?
I feel bad for the owners. I really believe that they likely have just never *had* any real Mexican food, and I know what that is like.

This was perhaps the worst Mexican food I have had in Portland. The food was very bland and much of it tasted like it came from the Mexican frozen section of the grocery store.
I don’t know if the owners think their food tastes good but if they do they are sadly mistaken. Oh and don’t let me forget to mention that its also pretty spendy compare to any of the good joints in the neighborhood.
I tried their Enchilada, Tamale, Beans and Rice and none had the flavor you would expect of Mexican food and the portion was small too.

Oh boy where to begin. So my wife told me about this place to get an amazing burger, and for her to recommend a place to me (a chef of 25 years) it must be good. We go there and upon walking in to the Burger Barn, we are greeted with Mexican music and sombreros adorning the walls. The very nice waitress was quick to identify that the owners switched up the concept because the cost of beef had skyrocketed. I agree prices are out of control for product so it was understandable. She then told us they were now a Mexican restaurant and again the super nice waitress said we could dine if we wanted or we could go elsewhere if Mexican was not in our plans. We decided to give it a try. This is where the the whole experience tanked. I will preface this with the waitress again being awesome. She apparently remembered my wife and son from the burger barn days and also remembered my son was infatuated with a plastic barn play set. She was able to locate the toy in the back room and brought it out for him to play with. Now to the food. The chips that were delivered to our table were flour tortillas which is not common and didn’t work well for my gluten free wife. The chips were slightly chewy and extremely greasy. This is consistent with old fryer oil which also left a bitter aftertaste. The salsa tasted like it came from a jar, and clearly a cheap one at that. We ordered a burger and tater tots for my son (it’s one thing we can get him to eat) the tots again were grease soaked and bitter. The burger, well it was clearly a pre cooked frozen patty warmed in a microwave… it not only looked pale but lacked flavor consistent with beef. My wife ordered chicken fajitas. Now I am not saying all fajitas are created equal but these were an abomination of the word. Pieces of chicken and some veggies were served on a cold plate, not a sizzle platter one would expect. The corn tortillas were rolled up in wax paper and tucked under the edge of the plate and we both thought it was flatware rolled in a napkin so then thought the cook forgot about them. This our error… I guess. So onto my meal. I got a combo plate. In this case the word combo can mean a collection of items on a plate so if one part was no good another item could take its place. Unfortunately each replacing item was worse than the previous. I had a beef enchilada with red sauce. Again this must be from the Mexico located somewhere other than North America because it was horrendous. A tiny amount of beef with the same jarred tasting salsa wrapped in a greasy tortilla. I also had a chicken taco but it was the same as the enchilada except chicken., oh and about 2 pounds of cilantro. The rice looked inviting but greatly reminded me of boil in the bag minute rice with a touch of tomato sauce and topped with raw onions and jalapeños. The beans tasted like canned pork and beans but not as good. I guess in short, the whole experience was beyond disgusting. If it hadn’t been for the really sweet waitress, it would have been difficult to give even one star. Waitress, whatever your name is, if you read this, get out of there while you still have your pride. This place is going to give you a bad reputation and you will be the one dealing with the massive amounts of complaints that will surely come knocking.

Absolutely LOVE the tacos, habanero sauce, and friendly service! I used to drive 20 minutes each way to get the tacos at Mex Pacifico in Clackamas, and am thrilled to have it closer to home!

Looks like they didn’t make it.

Having lived in Colorado and New Mexico for years, I have a passion for Mexican food. ¡Yikes! This place was such a disappointment. Underwhelming, bland, uninspiring food. Flauta came out as just a cool flour tortilla filled with a little meat and veggies. Tamale tasted like it came straight out of the freezer. Enchilada had so little flavor, the sauce was more like a marinara than an enchilada sauce. Not sure what they were going for on the rice side, some kind of white rice with pico type ingredients, but certainly not Spanish rice. And the beans side had zero spice/​sauce/​flavor– they were the kind that goes inside a burrito, not on the side of a «platter» style entrée. I know they just opened, but it’s like they’ve never cooked (or eaten) Mexican food before.
Service was friendly enough. Décor is ok, but the tweaker who kept coming in and out and going back to the odd little video poker area in the back was kind of annoying. Wish this was still the Glisan Burger Barn, the food was decent, and it was the only burger joint on this strip. If you want much better, authentic Mexican food in North Tabor, go to Los Taquitos.