Customer Review: El Portal Taqueria

This is a customer review of El Portal Taqueria restaurant located at 13354 Lincoln Way, in Auburn, California. El Portal Taqueria serves Mexican food and is open 7 days per week. Restaurant hours are 10am-8pm Monday through Thursday, and 10am-8:30pm Friday through Sunday.

GETTING THERE - Heading East or West on I-80, take Exit 121. If you were heading West, turn left at the top of the Exit, over the overpass. If you were heading East, turn right at the top of the Exit. At the first intersection, turn right, and this will put you onto Lincoln Way. Drive one block and you will see a shopping plaza on the left. El Portal Taqueria is located near the East entrance of the plaza.

ATMOSPHERE - This Mexican restaurant is located in a typical glass-front plaza shop space. There's not much seating inside, just a few booths and a handful of tables. The restrooms are grimy, as is the overall condition of the entire restaurant.

SERVICE - Mediocre, at best.

PRICING - Although the prices weren't very high, they were still too high for the amount, and quality, of food served.

FOOD - Some of the worst Mexican food I've ever had.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: My family and I decided to try out El Portal Taqueria during the first week of March, 2010. Having recently moved to the Auburn area, we were in search of good Mexican food. We are originally from Southern California and as such, are accustomed to fantastic Mexican food offerings at every turn. We were hoping to find some really great places near our new residence.

As previously mentioned, El Portal Taqueria in Auburn is not the cleanest place you'll ever see. However, those who know Mexican food best also know that the greatest Mexican food does not always come from spotlessly clean restaurants, so we didn't let the moderate grime scare us away.

The employees we encountered were less than pleasant. Despite the fact that we did not visit El Portal Taqueria during a busy time or make any special requests when ordering, the employees seemed annoyed and not personable. Don't you hate restaurants where the employees act irritated that you had the audacity to come into their place of business and spend money?

None of these issues would have been enough to keep me away however, had the food been really good. Unfortunately however, the food at El Portal Taqueria in Auburn is some of the very worst Mexican food I've ever eaten. I wanted a shredded beef taco, however El Portal Taqueria does not have shredded beef. I ended up with a carnitas taco and a shredded pork tamale. The carnitas were bland, and the tamale was the absolute worst tamale I've ever tasted in my entire life. Seriously, I bought a case of frozen tamales a few days later at Costco that tasted ten times better than the one I had at El Portal Taqueria. These two very small items came with a very small serving of rice and beans (about half the amount most Mexican restaurants serve on a combination plate), and cost roughly $9.

My husband ordered a carne asada burrito, which he said tasted pretty good, and cost roughly $6. My son ordered a bean and cheese burrito from the kid's menu, which turned out to be a tortilla with cheese and about a tablespoon of beans. There were a few tablespoons of rice and beans on the plate, and although my son usually devours all rice and beans on his plate at most Mexican food restaurants, he barely touched the ones at El Portal Taqueria. His meal cost roughly $5, drink included. The drink was the best part of the meal.

When searching online for good Mexican food in the Auburn, Ca area, many people go on and on about how great El Portal Taqueria is, and I've even seen some reviews that call it the best Mexican food in Auburn, hands down. If this is the best Mexican food in the area, I'll be waiting until my next trip down to SoCal for a burrito! I would never waste my time, or money, at El Portal Taqueria again.