Portland's Mexican food scene spans longstanding taquerias and mercados as well as newer quesabirria carts, mariscos pop-ups, and artful tasting menus, broadening regional representation. Federal immigration enforcement and promises of mass deportations have increased pressures on Mexican American immigrants in 2025. Organizations working with Mexican American immigrants include the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization and Pueblo Unido. Los 7 Hermanos specializes in birria de chivo, slow-cooking goat in a rich, buttery, chickpea-loaded consommé served with corn tortillas and recommended with a michelada. Astral, operated by chefs John Boisse and Lauren Breneman in a minimalist space shared with Duality Brewing, offers ever-changing, produce-driven Mexican dishes and an exceptional pastry program.
Portland's rich, varied, and vibrant Mexican food scene deserves more attention than it gets. Quality taquerias and mercados have long simmered guisados and pressed tortillas across the city, but in recent years, the scene has blossomed even more. Quesabirria carts, mariscos pop-ups, and artful tasting menus have landed around town, expanding the range and regional representation in Mexican dining. Yet as the food scene has grown, so has the federal government's aggression toward the people behind it.
If you're going to specialize in one dish, you'd better do it right-and Los 7 Hermanos delivers. This modest, brick-walled shop makes its birria de chivo the way it's been done for generations, slow-cooking goat meat in a rich, buttery, chickpea-loaded consommé with plenty of corn tortillas. Deeply tender and aromatic, pair it with a michelada for the ultimate hangover cure.
Sharing an ultra-minimalist space with Duality Brewing, Astral, from chefs John Boisse and Lauren Breneman, is an excitingly ever-changing approach to Mexican cooking, supported by gorgeous seasonal produce and an exceptional pastry program. One week, they'll take sugar-sweet snap peas and give them the esquites treatment; the next, they'll wrap beef in fig leaves for barbacoa tacos. On a whim, they'll run something that would be silly if it weren't ridiculously tasty,
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