La Superior

Counter Service type restaurant
W side of N Lombard St between N Penninsular Ave and N Burrage Ave
Holy Mole Batman… this place really knows how to make that magical Oaxacan sauce known to some as the «Sweetheart’s Dish!»
Sure their menu isn’t that large and is more scaled down to include just the basics for one to enjoy, but this place is great!
Check out this big bad a$$ Burrito with that molten yumminess just flowing over it’s large body:
Yep that’s right. What you are witnessing is the Mole Wet Fatjita Chicken Burrito… it’s the size of a baby’s leg and loaded with delicious ingredients that will through various textures and flavors tell your tastebuds a detailed story… much like all their food. I have found all their food to be delicious no matter how I had it.
They sell their delicious Mole and trust me, I’ve been tempted to buy some.
Décor is kind of modern and despite the majority of their palate being red and black they still have quite a bit of vibrant colors on their palate as well.
Seating comes in the form of regular tables… I believe on nicer days they will even put some tables outside as well.
This is one of those quick service restaurants where you order then take your food to your table when it is ready.
Parking is found on the nearby streets as there is no dedicated parking lot.

Super nice staff, clean restaurant for dining in, and yummy food. I’ve tried almost half the menu and haven’t been disappointed once! Haven’t had the bad experiences some of the negative reviewers shared. Much less greasy food than King Burrito across the street (save that place for your drunken late night adventures instead). In all honesty, La Superior is probably best for take-​out now, though, since they walled off the extra dining space so the dine-​in area is just a few small tables.

Wow. So disappointed in our meal.
We live 1.5 blocks from La Superior, and we’ve eaten here many, many times, but the place has just gone terribly downhill in the last six months. As recent reviews have noted, the ambiance is now terrible, after walling off half of the restaurant. (You now have to go outside and walk around the restaurant to wash your hands or use the bathroom).
We ordered around 7 pm. When I asked for guacamole, they told me they were out. They were out of chorizo. They were out of chips. Every person I heard come in after me was told the restaurant was out of something. «End of the night,» said the counter person. They don’t close until 9 pm.
More disappointing was the food. It was cheap, for sure, but for the dinner «platter» there were two bites of beans and three or four bites of rice. The fajitas my wife had weren’t much better. My wife and I both felt like we needed to eat another meal we had dinner.
After eating we both settled on the fact that the food was just «not good,» something we’ve never said about this place in the past. We’ll never be back.

I moved to Portland after 13 years in California and have been so far really frustrated with the Mexican food up here. Not so at La Superior!
The salsa is great — fresh and handmade and the spicy is *really* spicy: a good start.
My date and I both had burritos and they were both very tasty. The meat had been properly slow-​cooked so that it was shredded and flavourful.
The only downside about the place is the ambiance, which is pretty dreadful. They could make it a lot more attractive just by turning off the awful overhead fluorescent lights (it burns!) and putting some candles on the tables in the evening.
Still, it was wonderful. I’ll go back. Tomorrow, probably.

I was TERRIBLY disappointed with my experience at this location, having been a regular customer at their beaverton location. After my husband and I made the long trek from beaverton (A long drive for us for dinner…) we walked in to sticky floors and and a musty stinky smell. We should have immediately walked out but because our previous experiences were so good, we figured we would give it a shot.
The atmosphere is odd and very rundown, they had some type of spill in the new dining area (and had a fan blowing to dry it out?!). They also no longer sell alcohol or cocktails as their beaverton location did.
The food was bland and as we sat there eating we could hear the employees horsing around (instead of cleaning the sticky floors?!) coming in and out of the backroom.
The whole experience was a severe letdown and left us convinced that something terrible with the management had occurred. We left crossing our fingers that we didn’t get sick.
Avoid this place, there are MUCH better Mexican food joints to spend your money and much better atmospheres to be in.

This place wasn’t so good, the meat didn’t taste very good. it doesnt even come with chips or salsa, I think the farther you get from the mexican border the worse the quality of the food gets. being hispanic myself I wouldn’t recommend this place definitely will look for a better mexican place around portland

Always the nicest people working here. Food is pretty good too. We typically get the Cheese Enchiladas with green sauce fwiw.

I have only been here for lunch. I like that I can build my own burrito with several options for ingredients, and it’s a pretty decent burrito, for the price. The ingredients are far better than most taco trucks or hole-​in-​the-​wall Mexican establishments, so I support that the prices might be a couple of dollars higher for a better quality product. The service is friendly and I never leave hungry.

La Superior is your average taqueria, EXCEPT for the following:
–Super attentive service
–Dry Erase burrito menu with more options that Star Wars sequels
–Real ingredients (not sketch baby shrimp from a can, or cartilage for chicken)
–Holy Mole… like so good it should be Holy.
Not sure there’s a lot more to say, cheap, delicious fast, GO!

My friends and I ordered burritos, I love the white card system, but whoever made our food got our orders all mixed up. We figured, whatever, we’re hungry — burritos don’t have to be perfect to still be great. But when we bit into them they were COLD, and the service was really fast, which means their ingredients are just hanging around in the kitchen at room temperature. GROSS. My friends wanted to send them back but we figured they would just microwave them or something. I feel lucky we did not get food poisoning from this place. BEWARE!

My lunch here was really great! I ordered a burrito bowl with chicken and tried the mole’ sauce as well as the green hot sauce. It is true, NOT VERY SPICY! BUT delicious enough to make me not care. My boyfriend loved his burrito.
I would suggest paying the extra $.50 to order the Mole’ on the side instead of ordering your food «wet» if you are concerned about your burrito being drowned in sauce. And if they ask what you want to drink and you say «water» make sure to clarify that you want the self-​service water and not the $ 1.25 bottled water at the counter. I have to give this place props for making things in-​house (mole’ sauce, green hot sauce and tortilla chips!)
In regard to price, this really depends on what you order. The burrito and the bowl were both only $ 4… I’d consider this fair. But there were things on the menu I would consider over-​priced. My biggest complaint, the SUPER LOUD air conditioner inside. I could barely hear my partner talking.

La Superior? En serio, no me digas!
If you have the nerve (and the gumption) to open «yet another» taqueria in No Po, with an extroverted, dive-​bomb personality and charge $ 2 – 3 more for most of your big arse burritos than most taco shops/​trucks in town, you better be vale la pena! In otras palabras, your food better be so freakin’ good, the penny-​pinchin’, EBT card-​lovin’ set so numerous in that zip code don’t even flinch at the higher prices.
But Ay madre, papi! I have not discovered a menu item there that hits the bullseye. Worse yet, their salsa and hot sauce were weak tea. True, I’ve only been there a couple times and have not by any means canvassed the entire menu. But I trust my picks pretty well at this point; I have not been to every Tex Mex eatery in town, but I’ve sure been to a bunch of ‘em, and La Superior is strictly middle of the pack.
La Superior, lose the lofty attitude and loftier prices and pretty please! — learn how to put heat in your salsa! If you do these things, you may yet expand your fan base a bit. La Superior? Por favor! More like «La Vanidosa» or «La Presumida»… or maybe even «La mundanería «Típico, ordinario, mediano… «entre uno y otro»

I use to love love this place, but I had stopped coming here originally because their service was painfully slow, finally gave it a second chance and was disappointed.
I recently visited with the intent on staying because I had no where to eat before my next destination. The guy up front asked if I was going to eat there and after saying yes I sat down. The food was brought to me to go and I felt at that point I was being pushed out the door since it was 8:30 and there was some type of meeting going on up front with employees (they close at 10). I reluctantly left with no salsa, as I did not see the salsa bar that once stood to the left of the register. I assumed (my bad) that there might be salsa in my bag since I didn’t see their salsa bar. When i got to my next stop i went to eat my dinner in my car and found no utensils, ONE napkin, no salsa and my limes marinated in my beans. Needless to say I felt pushed out the door with dry food and no way to eat it.

I have gone to this establishment three times now as it is convenient for me to visit after a long day of work and learning. Each time, the food has been fine (not spectacular) but the service has left something to be desired. The service has not been consistant.
For example, the first time my two friends and I decided to try this establishment we entered and paid and ordered at the counter in the front. We then sat and waited for our food to arrive, no chips, no salsa. Serve yourself water.
The second time, we were seated by what seemed to be a waitress and were waited on as if we were at a Buffalo Wild Wings. We had chips and salsa and water and our checks even brought to the table.
The third time we went to La Superior, we went through the counter-​ordering system again however this time we had chips, an improvement, but I would still like to see consistency.
While the food at this location is generally appealing, the steak is sometimes a bit dry and overcooked and the chips are a bit greasy/​salty.
I will continue to go to La Superior based on its connivence factor, their daily Groupon (before 5pm). With this in mind, I do hope to see consistency develop in the future in terms of their customer service and ordering procedure in efforts to streamline the process and improve overall.

When we 1^st moved to the area a year ago this was one of our 1^st stops. Food was decent, service left a little to be desired. But they were new as well so we cut them some slack. After several more visits over the year, the service hasn’t changed, unless it was to get worse. The food, which we originally thought had some promise, well the promise never really materialized. Though never bad, bland and same old certainly seem to rule the day.
They’ve recently started brunch on Saturday and Sunday. Though the menu looks interesting, I can’t say we’ll be in to try it. For us at least La Superior is much more mediocre.

The best tacos around. Yes, its a bit pricier than King Burrito across the street but everything tastes better here and I don’t feel like its a coin flip whether or not I get salmonella. Tacos on their own are a bit over priced at $ 2 per but the taco dinner is a steal at $ 6 for 3 tacos plus very decent rice and beans. I think they use a bit too much cilantro and onions (easily brushed aside) but they typically don’t skimp on the meat. The wife usually gets a burrito and is always pleased. GolTV, FSC or a Mexican league soccer game are always on the TV which is an added bonus to me.
Despite the fact that this is the best taco shop around I’m still going to complain a bit in the hopes that they actually fix some of the problems. Get an air conditioner that works. It was 95 outside the other day and at least 100 inside the shop. Please get some chairs that are functional. Just because they look kinda neat doesn’t mean that they are comfortable. I tend to do take out just because of how awful the seats and tables are. You are leaving drink sales on the table because of your tables! The chips and salsa are just plain bad. There is no other way to put it. Please, always include rice and beans in the taco dinner. Sometimes if I forget to ask for that I wind up with a double helping of rice. Who wants 2 sides of rice?!
All that said, I like the staff, I love the food and the fact that its around the corner from me doesn’t hurt either!

I ordered the chilaqillas and they where AMAZING!!! Nice and spicy with crema fresca. Also when you order, they give you chips and have a good selection from the salsa bar.
The menu is big and I saw they also serve mole which is hard to find at taquerías. I’ll have to order them next time.

The burritos are AMAZING! Fresh tortilla, perfectly seasoned meat, and beans like my grandmother used to make. Also, their service is always fast and friendly.
Really, the only thing I’ve had there that I really don’t like is their chips. But is that such a bad thing?

Quite frankly, I just want to live here. I can’t imagine anything could make me more happy.
The stand out item at La Superior are the tacos. The tortillas are fresh and do a perfect job carrying the meat. They are topped with a good amount of onions and cilantro — the way tacos should be made. My carne of choice here is carnitas all the way. The pastor is a little sweet for my taste. Although all of the meats I’ve tried have been plenty worth it.
Since the tacos are so delicious, it is tough to convince myself to try the other menu items. Typically I will get a couple tacos and try something new. That way if the new thing is no bueno, the tacos certainly won’t let me down. So far I’ve tried the chile relleno burrito, carnitas burrito, a sope, and a taco salad. All were okay but do not compare to the tacos. I think a torta is next on my list.
If you eat there then chips and salsa are complimentary. The salsa that comes with it tastes oddly like… maybe…spaghettios? Pass on it and go for the two green salsas and the habenero salsa at the salsa bar.
I could really go on about La Superior all day. But I think I will leave it at this:
Go to La Superior. Get a plate full of tacos. Squeeze fresh lime over the top. Apply salsas as needed. Enjoy… and hope the food coma doesn’t prevent you from getting home.

C’mon people! You’ve got to at least buy me dinner before you go and shove your tongue down my throat!
Or that’s what I told my friends when they practically pried apart my jaws and stuck their lengua taco in my mouth. Okay, so it wasn’t quite THAT forceful of an entrance, but let’s face it: I’d never tried tongue and I had no real desire to do so. But… they made me… and I did it… and it was… good. It was one of those guilty moments (like the time I unknowingly tried… and liked… menudo) in life where you really don’t want to admit that you really kind of liked it – or that if given the option again you’d willingly order it. Life is so hard. Le sigh.
Does the Neverending Quest for Good Mexican Food end here? No, because it really is neverending. But it could. Dear lord, it could.
I’m always extra skeptical when any place self-​proclaims themselves the «best» or the «most authentic,» and with La Superior, it was no exception. Really? You’re REALLY going to claim the BEST mole? Eek!
So of course, I took this as a challenge. Like them saying, Hey Danielle, whatcha gonna do now, huh? Huh?!
Let’s just say… my pollo en mole platter did not disappoint. Everything was solid, although if I *really* have to pick things apart, I might say that I thought the mole could use just a bit more piloncilo; the spice factor was GREAT, but it was just a little more bitter than I prefer. Other than that, La Superior has a real good thing going on. Decent prices. Solid food. Lovely salsa bar.
Come to Albany. Plz?