Trébol

If you drink enough tequila, anything will taste good. Unfortunately, the food at Trebol requires a healthy primer of liquor before ingestion.
One star because the people, including the bartenders and waiters, are very friendly.
One star because there is no wait. There is never a line here.
I really wanted to like this place but, ultimately, the food here is just not good. There are better places nearby (e.g., Por Que No, Lovely’s, etc.).

Review #1 of 2014!
My friend and I had a good time here but I do agree it’s filled with ups and downs.
The blood orange and mint margarita was great and very tasty. It was a little light on the mint but it was a good strength.
There’s really no difference in size between the small plates and the entrees. We split three plates:
–Kale salad with spiced beets, caramelized onions and fried garlic: this was one of the best kale salads I’ve ever had. I don’t like beets so I ate around that but the caramelized onions were perfection with the kale. I don’t think there was any other dressing but the flavor was spot on and I’m going to start making kale salad with caramelized onions and fried garlic at home now!
–Black bean tacos: these were ok but its kind of annoying they come in 3 and we could’t mix and match the protein options.
–Black bean nachos: I liked that there were so many toppings including green olives which I found unusual. I didn’t really like the chips though.
The prices were great! Dishes range from $ 5 – 12. All these plates plus our two margaritas came to under $ 40. We liked that everything was perfect for sharing but I wish there was more variety for vegetarian dishes besides black beans.
I would come back for the kale salad and would like to try the black beans and coconut rice.
3.5 stars

Cucumber margarita was great.
Gazpacho was too smoky — not at all Spanish in flavor or character. The braised pork was dry, the vegetables in the sauce nearly nonexistent, and the whole dish was mis-​described on the menu. To a person, our entire party of 7 was underwhelmed by the meals. Pity the poor person who ordered the chilaquiles, which looked like a large bowl of mushy Gravy Train.
As if the food wasn’t bad enough, the service was ridiculous. The guy who brought food to our table was professional. The waitress was too cute, to disengaged, and frankly too caught up in her own little world to be effective, let alone welcoming. Not one single beverage came without someone needing to prompt her, even to pour more water.
I will NEVER visit this place again.

The flavors in their dishes are magnificent and love love the margaritas.
This is haute Mexican not street Mexican.
You must try it once just to be part of the group who might know about this little secret gem in NoPo
And I love a place that has a happy hour for those of us between jobs :))

The margarita I got was overpriced but the tamales I got were really tasty and moist. The service was a little iffy.

Try the Happy Hour! The margs are awesome! The greens and cheese quesadilla is out of this world. The vege and chicken tacos are amazing! This is our favorite place to frequent any night of the week.
We recommend coming for the Happy Hour. The dinner menu is also fantastic… but pricey for a graduate student. Two happy hour dishes and a drink is enough to fill me up.
Try the tequila flight if you’re into it.

If I had the option, I’d have given Trébol 2 ½ stars. Sadly, they didn’t live up to the hype I’d been told about. However, they have definite promise!
We received a Living Social as a gift and were told by a few family members how fantastic Trébol is. I love upscale Mexican food and was looking forward to something truly great. We had a reservation, so that got us a booth, rather than places at the communal table. The décor is great — I love the colors, art on the walls, the tequila bottles behind the bar. Overall, ambiance is very well done and welcoming.
Our server was good too, and shared some of her recommendations when asked. Although when my husband ordered a Coke, she simply turned the menu over, pointed at the drink list, and said «Really? We have all these aqua frescas and tequilas…» and proceeded to look very disappointed in him for ordering a Coke. Customers should be able to order what they want without feeling judged, right?
We split the huraches for an appetizer, and the house salad with jalapeño lime vinaigrette. The huraches were quite good, the only thing that set them a notch above a taqueria was the high-​quality steak on top. The salad was pretty basic — lettuce (with most pieces left huge so a knife was needed) and a few shredded carrots. I could not discern the dressing at all — I was expecting to taste it at least a little!
No sooner than the appetizers were delivered, the same kitchen guy returned with our entrees. He looked surprised, and a bit flustered and unsure where to put the dishes on the table. Remember, he was JUST at our table not 2 minutes before. So timing was not great. At all.
We had the green pork mole, which had a ton of flavor (including lots of garlic). The pork was 2 grilled cutlets atop some polenta. It was tasty and the mole was good. We also had the seared tuna, which came with mashed potatoes and a ragout with yams and squash. The tuna was fab, encrusted with pumpkin seeds, barely seared. Yum. But the potatoes were so soft they were practically liquid. The ragout was flavorless and the veggies were so overcooked they fell apart at the touch of my fork. It was just all too mushy.
Prices were not too high, in my opinion. They have potential, but aren’t quite up there with the best places.

Food, delicious. Waitstaff, good, except for Jenny. Really… even though you have a smile on your face as you are being rude to your customers, doesn’t make what you’re saying nice or polite.
We were there Friday night, March 1^st and I believe the bartender overheard your original rudeness, Jenny. Yes, customers stand at the waitstaff bar pickup station. That happens. Deal with it, politely. Your job is to be an excellent customer service representative for the estabilishment that employs you. Do not handle it in a manner which makes the customers feel bad for entering the establishment, standing at the bar and ordering a drink. I believe your words were, as you gave your drink order to the bartender for a table you were waiting on, «this order needs to be done first.», after correcting us for standing in your way. Rude, plain and simple.
Let me mention, this is a lovely restaurtant. We were greeted nicely when we entered. Atmosophere was very nice and they have a wonderful selection of tequilas.
After we were seated, not-​so-​nice Jenny was our waitress. This is a nice restaurant, with what looked like an interesting menu. Give us some info, Jenny. Tell us a little bit about the food. Nope, nothing like that. She just wanted to know if we were ready order.
Our food was really good and the other waitstaff was excellent. They cleared our dirty dishes as we finished… pre-​bussing is always a nicety and appreciated.
Speed up til the end. When Jenny delivered our check, she let us know that she was too busy to split our check up. At that time, they weren’t even that busy. Since we had 7 people in our party an automatic 20% gratuity was added on to our bill. Whoa! Seriously! I would not have had a problem with that if we had good service, but we did not. Again, a plastered on smile + rude words does not make good service. When an establishment adds on automatic gratuity, make sure the waitstaff is worth that automatic gratuity. Make sure your waitstaff makes it an experience customers want to return to, an experience customers want to tell their friends about. This was not the case.
To sum up, food — excellent, tequila selection — exellent. Try this place but watch out for the smiley, rude waitress with big glasses.
We will not return.

Not typical Mexican food, or at least not the sort of menu one usually associates with a Mexican restaurant. The menu is creative, and the food delicious.
I ordered a seared tuna, and it was done perfectly. Similar to seared tuna at any number of trendy restaurants downtown. Creative squash ragout and lemon pepper mashed potatoes.
We had a
coupon, and I know the coupon states a mandatory 18% tip will be added to the pre discounted bill. I am okay with that, and would have paid more, but then I noticed they added 20% instead of 18%.
So now I feel cheated and won’t go back. Your loss.

This place is underrated!
First off, the food is delicious and fresh — I had the albacore tuna with winter squash and lemon potato gratin.
Service was good and atmosphere is nice, a little dark though. I know its romantic to some people but I don’t like feeling like I’m eating a cave.
The cocktails were okay — we order a coconut chocolate one and the chili salt on the rim gave it a funny taste. I ordered the habanero infused mango-​cilantro drink and it was so spicy it burned all our throats and no one could finish it. I say stick with the fruity cocktails!
I’m looking forward to going back to Trebol and trying the other dishes on their menu.

This is a nice American «Mexican» restaurant. I had the (Enchilada Con Camote, Espinaca, Cebollas, Queso Fresco Y Un Huevo Frito) and it is veeery delicious. It’s not a regular enchilada that you can get from other Mexican restaurants. The house made enchilada sauce is very different, the corn shell adds more flavor into it, the yam inside was great, umm it’s hard to explain so you have to try it!
We also had the (SERRANO INFUSED TEQUILA, MANGO PUREE & CILANTRO) margarita, man, it was spicy! Not spicy per se, but it kinda burnt my throat … I didn’t really enjoy it but it’s very interesting and worth trying.

I was disappointed overall. I had some fundamental issues with the food. First, the good:
Opened with the Manilla Clam appetizer. This was well conceived and executed. Great Seranno chile flavor and nice heat. Well balanced.
Now for the bad. I had the red mole enchiladas. When my plate arrived I was sure that my order was incorrect. I saw some dry, burned tortilla looking items buried under lettuce. I’m all for fusion and a new take on food, but this just wasn’t good. The essence and origin of enchiladas is: sauce, not lettuce. These enchiladas were more like dry tacos than anything else. The dish was also described as containing «aged cheese». I didn’t see any cheese unless that’s what was burned into the rock hard tortilla’s.
Next, my partner had the «pork medallions». For those who may not know, a meat medallion typically comes from the small end of the tenderloin. It’s extremely lean and tender. The «medallion» (singular, not plural as the description implied) appeared to be a top loin pork chop. Certainly not a medallion. It was huge, thick and not tender. The dish itself was just very salty and monolithic. I was asking myself where the «Traditional Oaxacan Cuisine» was.
Finally, we waited 30 minutes for a Flan to finish our evening. It had obviously been sitting around outside of the chiller for that entire time as the plate was warm and sweaty with condensation and the whip had fallen and was decomposing. The Flan itself was delicious. The tequila and floral notes really made it nice. But 30 minutes for a pre-​prepared, chilled desert was a bit much.
The service was good on a whole but seemed understaffed. Our server seemed to be handling 10 – 12 stations at least. He was doing an exceptional job given the amount of tables, but when a server has more than 5 or six tables at a time it’s bound to impact the quality.
I’d be reluctant to recommend this dinner experience.

Quiet night for dinner at Trebol. I utilized the takeout option via LivingSocial (I had a credit that made my order even cheaper!)
While I was only inside for pickup the décor and set up was pretty neat. Lighting was dim and music was playing. While it is a Mexican restaurant, it is definitely not what you would think. No Mexican music (at least while I was there). Had I dropped in with a blindfold on I would have guessed that it was a standard, trendy bar/​restaurant in the Pearl (could be a good or bad thing, depending on your tastes I guess).
I ordered «Torta Hamburguesa, Con Mayonesa De Jalapenos, Escabeche y Verduras». The total was $ 9.00. I added bacon for a buck more, because, well it’s bacon.
First and foremost, the food. The Torta Hamburger was unexpected. It was a hamburger. Maybe it’s my fault for assuming it would be more Mexican-​inspired with «Torta» in the name. More likely, my Spanish is lacking. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, because it was. It was fresh and the bun was good as well. The bacon turned out to be two tiny strips (not worth a buck).
Service was limited due to it being to go, but was friendly. There was one little issue I had. I was given my to go box and left. I was not given a bag, so that left me without napkins or utensils. In retrospect I should have asked, but I was in a hurry. As I opened the box on my drive home, I saw that the side was a salad, but was unable to eat due to no fork. The burger was a tad messy (fine with me), but I had no napkins. This was extremely inconvenient an something that would have been nice. I do take some responsibility for not thinking about it in advance, but I hope that this would be thought about by staff, if that makes sense.
Overall, it was a decent meal. Had I had to pay full price I would have been more disheartened. However, I would probably return in the future and try again. I think I could easily bump it up a star.

I visited Trebol last week for the first time after purchasing an Amazon Local coupon ($ 20 for $ 40). While I will say the food was OK, I think it’s pretty overpriced. $ 15 for a vegetarian enchilada and $ 16 for a chicken mole enchilada. I’m sure they use quality, local, fresh ingredients … but it’s still an enchilada and this is Portland, lots of places use fresh, local ingredients and don’t charge a fortune. Portion sizes were pretty small on the entrees and appetizers.
The reason for the 2 stars? The server asked AS WE SAT DOWN if we were using a «discount» on our meal. And then charged us $ 4 for salsa — which I had assumed came with the guacamole appetizer we ordered. I have feeling, had we not used a «discount», the verde sauce and salsa would have been included. And if they AREN’T included, all the more reason I probably won’t go back.
Either way, if you are going to charge fine dining prices for your food, then show some class. Don’t ask your customers if they are using a coupon before they’ve had a chance to look at the menu. And don’t nickel and dime them when you find out they are.
Bottom line, I might go back if the entrees were $ 4-​$ 5 cheaper. But at the same time, there are plenty of quality, gourmet Mexican places in Portland that I don’t see myself going out of my way to give Trebol a 2^nd chance.

Trebol has fresh, seasonal offerings, great seafood specials, and tasty drinks. Don’t get me wrong, Trebol is clearly not cheap, especially for the size of some of the portions, BUT, there are reasonably priced offerings to be had here. I highly recommend the HAPPY HOUR! We really like going for the happy hour specials, since I’m usually broke from eating too much. Specifically, the salads and the taco sampler are solid choices, and the cocktails are outstanding! The bar had an amazing selection of tequila, as well.
All in all, we’ve had consistently good food and drinks here, along with excellent, knowledgable service, and the décor is sweet. When the sun’s out in the summer, the patio is a lovely spot to hang with your friends during happy hour, and sip on some delicious spicy cocktails.
Additionally, this is a great date restaurant that takes reservations, but ladies, make sure you sit facing the bar, or your date might end up mesmerized by the television, which plays El Santo Mexican Wrestling movies on loop.

We recently stopped in here for my birthday dinner. It was the first time in years we had been in and did not know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. The margaritas were great and served in pint glasses (always appreciated). I had the blood orange margarita and my husband had one with Serrano chilis, while his was spicy, it was still drinkable.
We had the guacamole appetizer, it came topped with cilantro and garlic chips and was served with homemade masa chips. Very good.
For dinner I had the tacos with boar, it was so much food I had trouble finishing. It came with a slaw that had an awesome pickled chard in it and a side of beans that were seasoned well. The boar was the highlight, however. Cooked perfectly with just the right amount of spice. My only complaint is that the menu said it came with fresh cheese and my dish had none.
My husband had the chefs take on an enchilada, it was a stacked dish with layers of cheese, masa tortillas, meat, and veggies (including that really good pickled chard). But he highlight of the dish was the sauce and his only complaint was that he could not take a jar of it home with him!

Another great Mexican restaurant in Portland. Everything was freshly prepared with care and the seafood was cooked perfectly. Came here with a friend and we both had a wonderful time. We sampled the following:
Clams appetizier: Very tasty light broth and pears perfectly complements the fresh clams.
Shrimp and black beans appetizer: Shrimp cooked perfectly not over or undercooked. Love the flavored beans great to dip with bread. My favorite of the four dishes we ordered.
Seafood stew: Great stew, love the fish, clams and the veggies it came with. Very tasty.
Roasted beets chalupa: Love that the chalupa was very crispy and homemade. The beets gave it good flavor. I would order this again.
Service was wonderful and love the chill atmosphere. Great place for drinks and fresh, well prepared Mexican food.

Been here twice on two separate trips to Portland — once to visit a friend, and another time for said friend’s bachelorette party. I have to say, Trebol is a pretty cool little joint.
First of all, the bartender Tony is super-​friendly and welcoming. He’s also very knowledgeable about his trade; if you say something like «I like [insert flavor of choice here],» he’ll whip up a drink with your preferred flavor in two shakes. And the drink will be delicious.
As for the food, everything I’ve tried here was very good. They have a shockingly flavorful, tasty burger, and the Mexican offerings we sampled (enchiladas, tacos, etc.) we all solid, though not mind-​blowing (in a face-​off, I’d take El Pelon Taqueria in Boston hands-​down).
The atmosphere and décor are welcoming and kind of quirky — in other words, very Portland-​y — and includes bright artwork and many Mexican wrestler masks, complete with 1907s Mexican wrestling movies playing on a loop on the TV.
Definitely worth stopping in if you’re in the mood for some Mexican fare and a nifty atmosphere.

I stopped in here the other night with a small group on friends for Happy Hour. We were pretty much the only people in here, which I found really weird, but on the upside that meant there was no wait.
The chef was actually the one to seat us at the table and go over the drink menu with us when we had questions. The highlight of the evening was actually how nice and funny he was. The meal progressively went downhill from there, though.
I opted for some kind of horrific coconut margarita that I couldn’t stomach half of before I gave up. I’ll chock that up to my own bad decision though. The Happy Hour enchiladas were ok, but nothing special to be honest. They kind of tasted like they came out of a Costco freezer, were warmed up and doused in a generic enchilada sauce. Not bad, just nothing I couldn’t nuke at home myself. My friends tacos were way better than my enchiladas so I was sort of lusting after her dish after trying my own.
I’m not a huge dessert fan to begin with, but once in a while it sounds good so we all ordered a few desserts to split. The daily dessert was a chocolate mousse that was probably the best part of the whole meal, but the bread pudding didn’t stack up in the same way which is unfortunate. It tasted like a gluten free, sugar free, taste free cake. No bueno.
Service was great but I probably won’t be racing back in here again until I see some awesome reviews citing some major changes to the overall quality of the place.

i went with a true Texan before the Old 97’s show on the living social coupon. I had been wanting to try it as its close to the Wonder Ballroom pre-​shows and a couple of friends who were foodies kept hitting it before shows. First of all, a reservation is a must.
As for the space, lovely dark tables spaced and a nice bar with yes 70 different kinds of tequila. The small plates are good and I got the taco trio and loved the wild boar most of all. It came with plenty of gauc to top it too.
The service was so-​so. Spotty at best, our waitress never came to ask if we wanted more drinks and took my fork mid-​meal so I slurped up my yummy tacos. But the food was delish and I will be back for sure. Wouldn’t mind trying happy hour.

Nothing remarkable. The small plates were good. The entrée was not. It sounded intriguing… draper farms chicken enchilada with forest mushrooms and crème fraîche. It was so disappointing. Two of us could not finish it. We looked at it, poked it and discussed it, but couldn’t eat it. The texture was gelatinous. The flavor was bland. I’ve never had an enchilada go bad.
The service is very slow and leisurely. Give yourself a good two hours. We had no where to be and took it in stride.
The atmosphere was dark and cozy. They have great long tables to accommodate a large group and an impressive list of tequilas. Those are all excellent attributes… now if the food could man up a little… they might have something.

To be completely honest, the food here is expensive on it’s own and nothing from the menu GRABS my attention. But it’s fresh, it’s fusion, and it’s tasty.
HOWEVER! Tuesday is the best day to go here. The Taco Tuesday deal with Tequila and a Tall boy for $ 10 is unbeatable. The tequila shot is smooth and good quality, the tacos are a bit small, and how can you hate PBR in Portland?
I’ve been here a couple times, and I hope to continue coming on Tuesdays to enjoy this deal. Don’t know if I’d ever go on another day.
The wait staff has been very friendly and helpful — no complaints here.

Over the weekend I received an e-​mail detailing this fabulous new happy hour menu that would be debuting here this week. I had sampled there food at Taste of Portland and was very impressed. Having a soft spot for both Mexican food and happy hour the pull was just to strong to resist.
I show up around 9:15 to find a closed Trebol… but they close at 10 says the door and the website. The staff inside hanging out at the bar did not acknowledge me whatsoever standing at the locked door in the rain.
Wow — Fail.