Lorena’s Mexican Restaurant

CLOSED!!! Tried to go here for lunch today, but everything is gone! It’s a shame, because they had really great food. Now where will I get awesome tableside guacamole in the Hollywood area? I have no frickin’ idea. SO sad.

A very sad day! My wife and I had our last meal at Lorena’s, our favorite place! They are closing in a few days! Last night the staff worked their tails off making everyone feel comfortable! I heard one table exclaim for their first time «This is wonderful! we need to come back!»
To David, his lovely wife and our favorite waiter AKA concierge Kevin and the rest of the staff — Thank you for remembering us and treating us like family! Never had a bad experience in our 20 plus visits to your fine restaraunt! I feel bad that so many have missed out in experiencing what a great place Lorena’s is! Best of luck to you my friends and THANK YOU!!!

I know it’s really hard to find good Mexican food in Portland, but you can do a lot better than Lorena’s. With that being said, it certainly isn’t terrible, but it’s overpriced for what it is. The food feels like Mexican chain restaurant, lacking highly in creativity and quality.
The service was pretty good here, so at least there’s that. We ordered a few Margaritas. They were having a special on them that night but the special wasn’t honored on our bill. After reading some older reviews, it seems like a lot of people had this same problem. Unfortunately we were in a rush and couldn’t get the bill changed. Bummer. The Margaritas were good, however, especially the Prickly Pear.
We started with the Queso Dip. It kind of tasted like a frozen cheese dip you would get at Costco. Not that this is a really bad thing, because sometimes processed cheese just hits the spot. The complimentary chips and salsa they give you is good. I dig their housemade Mexican coleslaw.
I got the Chicken Fajitas. Not because I was feeling particularly boring that night, but I just didn’t feel like anything else on the menu. I actually really wanted Carnitas, but they weren’t on the menu. The Fajitas were $ 17 and waaay overpriced. They were under-​seasoned and very, very run of the mill. They give you a lot of food, which is good, but not so good when you spent so much on something so bland.
My husband got the Mole and it just looked like a hot mess. He wasn’t impressed with it.
We split a fried, sugary tortilla and ice cream dessert that was good, but you can’t really mess up fried sugary things.
I wouldn’t return unless they seriously lowered their prices. I feel I can get better, higher quality food for half the price at Chipotle. I’d probably return for Margaritas, though!

Had dinner here tonight with the in-​laws. They came up from the coast for some shopping and had a coupon for this restaurant. so why not? Non of us had been there before. The interior and ambiance is sort of. ho hum at best. Boring, generic, and the seating is a bit awkward. The prices were a bit higher than I like for nothing special mexican food. We waited quite a while for our food and the service was not attentive to my water glass. I ended up guzzling down all the waters at the table before they finally came back by to refresh our empty chip basket and water glasses. However they did then bring a pitcher of water to the table without my having to ask. :)
Now, the reason I went with three stars instead of two. In general I wasn’t much impressed with the place, I wasn’t horrified and I wasn’t blown away. Pretty much a straight down the middle of the road experience. But when our food came the portions were generous and everything was good. I appreciated that my fajita fixings weren’t drowning in oil or overcooked. Hubs got a crab chimichanga that he was very happy with. Everyone was satisfied but not sick from overeating. :) The staff was friendly, and our server didn’t give me any attitude when I made special requests due to my dietary needs.

I recently went here on a whim (and thanks to a Groupon deal). I’m glad I found this place — it was quite delicious. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the salsa and slaw condiment served with the chips. I would have given this place 5 stars if they made their own chips in house.
The dinners were good and the margaritas strong. I’ll be back!

What a nice staff. It’s so great to find yummy mexican food in Portland.
Drinks were great, and the food was tasty.

We were super surprised that they had been here for over a year. The décor looked as if they had just moved in or had taken over another restaurant. There was only a couple other people in there. I guess they have live music and even the waiter (who perhaps is also manager?) said that he left because it was so loud; he described a drum/​keyboard combo that had just been in. There doesn’t seem like there would be a ton of room. It was cold in there. Icy A/​C despite the fact that it was only in the mid 70s outside. The veggie burrito was full of really fresh tasting/​looking veggies, though! And the blended drinks were big and strong! Also they bring their special coleslaw to the table with the salsa and chips.
My boyfriend had some sort of seafood burrito, which he liked. What was kind of annoying — and maybe it was because it was so empty, was that there was almost TOO MUCH wait service. I swear the waiter kept coming back a bunch to check on us. It feels rushed or like you can’t have a conversation when someone keeps coming in and checking on you.

After living in Southern California for seven years we have come to know good Mexican food. This place is not good Mexican food. The food is bland and just didn’t have any umph to it. The margaritas taste like lemonade concentrate with tequila. Yuck.
My view is a bit skewed since we went in on a very busy night. They were hosting a fundraiser (awesome way to support the local schools) however the Groupon deal was also expiring this week so it hectic as all get out. Why those two events were planned for the same week, I don’t know. We were seated and ignored for quite a while. Eventually we were greeted and ordered our food. The server tried to smooth it over but he just wasn’t making it work. He gave us a free meal card but we probably won’t be back unless we had no other choice.
You want good Mexican? Go to Santeria downtown. Avoid Lorena’s, it is not worth your time or money.

We had a great time at Lorena’s. Good service and a pretty extensive menu. This is not just a taco/​burrito place. We used a Groupon and we’ll come back.

First impressions are often correct.
I’ve actually been back to this joint twice since my last review which was 100% about convenience.
People saying this place has large portions are quite probably delusional.
Ordered $ 20 steak fajitas. Mostly onions and bell peppers with 4 thin strips of steak that had a very vinegar-​ey tasting marinade. Nothing had been grilled, rather nuked in a microwave and tossed into a hot cast iron serving dish.
Maybe I just don’t get it, or was spoiled in my homeland of Tejas … either way … this place disappoints on many levels. Giving it 2 stars because the owner is nice and the coleslaw-​ish salsa is actually a very nice touch.

Ugh, how many ways can you say slop on a plate? I would not eat their yucky beans, I would not eat them with some greens. I would not eat their tasteless cheese, I would not eat it if you say please.
The only thing saving this place from one star is that the service was good and the server was friendly. I had the combo lunch with a bean tostada and the cheese enchilada. Everything on the plate was goopy, bland and blah. I might as well have been eating a plate of slop. It wasn’t inedible, just tasteless. My friend had the cheese tacos, which appeared to be cold, shredded cheese stuffed into taco shells with some lettuce and diced tomato.
The chips and salsa were pretty good, which is another reason I’m not giving one star. I know the NW region is not particularly noted for Tex Mex cuisine, but I think this is the worst I’ve had.

Service is friendly and attentive. The food is good (I think you have to make an effort to mess up Mexican food). We even had margaritas for a change and they were quite tasty. Reasonable portions at average prices. It’s a nice clean place. I would recommend going here if you’re in the area.

First visit to Lorena’s and went there because of a Groupon. I have mixed feelings about this place. The place was pretty empty on New Years Eve and the service was a bit slow at first, especially getting the cocktails.
I must say the margaritas packed a nice punch and were not too sweet. I liked the salsa and the table side made guacamole was a nice touch having great flavor. The food arrived timely and I was very happy with the Carne Asada burrito. I loved the chipolte sauce. It wasn’t over the top gut wrenching as many mexican restaurants and didn’t feel bloated afterwards.
The décor in this place was quite bland and some random wires hanging out of one of the walls was quite tacky. Music in background could of been played a little louder for an ounce of ambience. The server was friendly so no complaints there. This place could easily improve as the food is above average, they are just lacking in the intangibles.

3^rd visit to Lorena’s — this time from a Groupon they recently did. Overall, same feedback on the food — totally solid and i was very happy with what i had, and the groupon was a great value for something i thought was pretty reasonable to begin with. My main gripe this time was with service — not the quality, but the quantity.
We came in early, probably 5:30 or so (we have a 2 year old), before the dinner rush, but there was already probably 6 tables seating (groupon factor, i assume) but only 2 people on the floor.
What that meant was that we didn’t get the attention we should have gotten and while service was courteous and friendly, they missed opportunities to sell us more drinks, apps, desert, etc. One thing that baffles me about businesses who do Groupons — if you’re gonna do it, make sure you’re staffing to handle it and capitalize on the opportunity. It’s a really expensive way to get people in the door, so once they’re there make sure you’re turning them into lifetime customers by killing them with quality and service.
Other than that, food’s still good — I’m sure we’ll be back again.

I was excited to come try this place; I love a classic Mexican sit-​down with combo plates and big margaritas, and Portland is hurting in that department. And the Hollywood district could definitely use a few more decent food options, but this place isn’t one of them.
The vibe was totally weird and the décor was nasty. The prices were totally off-​base for the location and kind of food being served. $ 20+ for a plate of mediocre shrimp fajitas? $ 9 for an 8 ounce just-​ok-​tasting margarita? No thanks.
We were still in the mood to have a good time, but the service was super unaffected and generally shitty. The manager (on the night of Tuesday, ¹⁰⁄₂) was completely unhelpful and actually totally rude when we had an issue about our check. I won’t ever come here again.

I am guessing as part of the employment perks for this place comes a key fob for a nearby tanning salon. Never mind that though.
Let me just break it down for you.
Authenticity of cuisine: fail (Sauteed mushrooms with my shrimp? No dude.)
Customer service: fail. (We were not allowed to use a mobile coupon that we were told we could. My girlfriend had to drive a couple miles away to FedEx to print the coupon in order for them to let us redeem it. They were unapologetic and did not give us a good reason as to why this was the case. So dumb.)
Décor: fail. (Business park/​man-​ish office style and colors in full effect; cheap looking glass vases that don’t make any sense.)
Value: fail. (A $ 9 margarita should have more than 6oz of liquid.)
Parking: fail.
We only tried this place out because we had a coupon. We could have been happy customers that probably would not have returned BUT because the service left such a bad taste in our mouths I had to create a Unilocal account just to talk some trash. I have to admit, I feel much better now.
It’s really sad because Portland could really use a spot like this if it were well executed.

Disclaimer: I moved here from Albuquerque, NM so I am a bit of a Mexican food, salsa snob.
I’m HAPPY there is a Mexican place in the Hollywood District. It’s actually as I rated it A-​OK. It doesn’t suck, there’s a good selection of vegetarian items on the menu (called out as such). No, it’s not the best Mexican I’ve ever had — but I don’t expect to have my socks knocked off (OK well maybe a little — hence the disclaimer).
Pros: the place is beautiful. Very clean and contemporary décor. Feels like a more fancy restaurant. Salsa is good, has a little heat and tastes fresh — plus it’s complimentary (unlike other places that charge you if you want more). There is actually parking in back of the building (but you wouldn’t know it until you go into the restaurant). There are daily lunch specials — and there’s a GIANT jug of water on your table in an old Tequila bottle. Cool.
Cons: the plateware is BEAUTIFUL. Why is this a con? Because the plates aren’t heated, and when your food comes out it doesn’t stay hot — so your chili sauce won’t really stay at the right temperature for your dish. Beautiful dishes — gorgeous actually (which fit wonderfully into the feelin’ fancy décor) — but they should be heated prior to service. Pricing is good on the lunch specials, I’m not so sure about the rest of the menu — I will have to update my review after a few visits.
Overall I like it, it is standard American/​Mexican fare — with decent (but I bet they are canned) sauces, beans, and cheese. I’ll be back because of the vegetarian options, and like I said, it is A-​OK.

This is just what the Hollywood District needed: large portion, old school (American) Mexican food with efficient super sweet service! No oxtail, tortilla’s substituting as chips, and pork belly offered, just the standards — taco, echilada, burrito, etc. — with beans and rice. I love the high-​end fare of Mextiza, Nuestra Cocina and the like, and definitely am a fan of the carts, but it’s nice to have a family-​type restaurant in the area.
The cute sweet girl who I thought was on her way to age of 21 is actually the owner!
The sangria was a great deal for $ 5.50. None of what we ordered was stellar, yet it was all very good. The fresh fried chips were the only dissapointment. If they can’t be improved, then just go with popular out of the bag Juanita’s brand that’s all over town. Lorena’s is just a minor notch under Cha Cha Cha. Factor-​in price and it’s a winner.

Thank GOODNESS the Hollywood District finally has a new restaurant that isn’t Asian food! And that goodness it’s good!
The staff is friendly, and attentive for the most part (I have been there three times since they opened, and they messed up my order once, and I had to wait awhile for a refill once).
The food is very good, cooked well, and the portions are HUGE, so don’t get turned off by the prices at first glance. I recommend splitting something with a friend or partner.
I will say that there is something lacking though… it may be the décor and general ambiance of the place… it feels slightly sterile instead of welcoming and warm.
But overall, excellent!

My family went there for the Father’s Day dinner, because during an event I did @ the Whole Foods Fair, we were given a discount coupon — so we decided to use it and try out the restaurant.
They have nice décor. The restrooms were clean & wonderful. I love the floors on the way there. I also love the ceiling and my family pointed out to me, the basket-​weave tiles. I have to go there 2x, to see what they’re talking about, I guess I missed it the first time, since I only went there to see the ceiling. They are shared by other businesses in the K2 Building. The service was friendly, they did forget the napkins, for the past 20 mins. we have to ask for the place settings, while we’re eating our chips & salsa.
My food was huge! I ordered Crab Chimichanga. Our youngest son ordered Arroz Con Pollo and hubby ordered Chicken Relleno. Actually, I tasted the Arroz, and the carrots should have been cooked a tad more. It’s like eating stir-​fried! Otherwise, they both said their meals were great! Will recommend. Plenty of free parking, out back.
Photos on my profile page.
Paul Revere was gone, there’s also a photo of the Monkees and Paul Revere on their bathroom ceiling!
BTW: as I started to say, Paul Revere who used to be there, after Yaw’s. .. I hope Lorena attracts many customers in the future. We needed a good Mexican Restaurant in that part of town, other that Taco Time.