Portland’s Best Restaurants and Bars, Spring 2025 | Eater Portland
"At this Pearl District tasting menu restaurant, the team delivers the nuance of Mexican cuisine in an imaginative way, while acknowledging and interrogating the impact of colonialism. Menus change frequently; in a past meal, chef Jose “Lalo” Camarena served steak aguachile with insight into its Japanese influence. On the palate, it murmured of tartare and tataki, mustard notes blending with mirin, tobiko providing a pop of brine among the tomato water. With a crack, diners smacked open a mushroom cloud of masa crisp to reveal “what the Spaniards brought and tried to destroy,” including amaranth, a religiously and culturally significant crop, burned by colonizers. Alongside the dishes, beverage director Miguel Marquez gives the wines selected the same level of context, provided with each tasting pour." - Katherine Chew Hamilton
