West Coast Burritos Mexican Food

This is the most authentic Mexican food I’ve eaten in Portland. I’ve only been a gringo tourist in Mexico, but my girlfriend grew up around Veracruz, and she agrees with me. There are a lot of great food carts in Portland, but this is the only one we make plans to go to. The bus is probably not for everyone. If you want to sit down to a gigantic burning-​hot plate filled mostly with beans and rice, go to Chevy’s. But we will be driving out of our way to a desolate parking lot way up on NE Sandy & 131^st Pl for our burritos. The inside of the bus is a lot more fun anyway. The only reason I’m not giving them five stars is because their service is like a taquería in Mexico– a little slow and unorganized. The women’s kids act as translators, but if you want to make sure your order is understood, you may as well dust off your high-​school Spanish skills.
Note: there are two Unilocal pages for West Coast Burritos. I guess they’re hard to pin down since their sign is tacky and they’ve recently moved locations.

I feel bad only giving this place three stars, as the co-​workers I went with seemed to have enjoyed a much better experience than I. This is a bus, with the first half being a seating area and the back half a kitchen. There is some fine taco bus ambiance with a deer antlers hanging over the driver’s seat and a Mexican talk show playing on an ancient television. Upon arrival we were met by a nice lady who called in a translator from the store next door to take our orders. They were unfortunately out of pastor so I ordered two carnitas tacos and one carne asada. Tacos were $ 1, $ 2 if you wanted her homemade tortillas. In hindsight maybe I should have stepped up for the $ 2 option, as my dining companions raved about the quality of their items. My tacos were merely average, with an very large chunk of fat in one. The green salsa provided (I believe house-​made) was excellent. No chips are available here, but you can order a side of guac and tortillas. Service was friendly but slow, with considerable mix-​ups between people and a reminder required for at least on person’s item. Based on what I heard from others, the pastor burrito is the way to go here, I wish she had not run out of that item before I ordered.