Cafe El Portal

Great and consistent, I come here all the time really don’t know why anyone would give less than 4 stars

So sad that this place closed down. Thank you for my last delicious meal!!! Café El Portal will be missed by many!!!

Stay away from this place on Saturday night. Insanely disorganized & out of half the menu. No room to move. During the week it’s a great place. But they don’t seem to have the FOH infrastructure to handle crowds. It was frantic.

Cucumber water and delicious tacos!

Such a small little place in Nolita that a happened to come by. Absolutely love the food — nachos very authentic and to die for not to mention the margaritas were absolutely amazing! $ 30 for a pitcher and you get about 4 glasses if you’re sharing it with someone else.

Horrible experience will never go, call or order from there… wouldn’t recommend anybody doing so unless you like soggy food, poor presentation, poor taste.
Staff is also very ride and unsanitary.

This is one of the best Mexican restaurants I have ever been to (and I don’t even like Mexican food usually). It’s a really small place at the bottom of a handful of steps. You might not even notice it while walking past but once you go in, you’ll be treated to really friendly customer service and some super delicious food! Try it once and you’ll be sure to want to come again.

Came here with 2 friends on a Thursday night for a couple of drinks. Can’t speak for the food but the drinks were OK (I ordered the pomegranate margarita on the rocks). It’s a pretty cozy/​tight space and good for a small group. The only thing I didn’t really like was that the waitresses seemed cold and disinterested.
BTW, there’s a $ 15 credit card min if you want to come here for only drinks.

ordered on
, Received a call back about 20 minutes later letting me know «the kitchen is closed». I recommend a. speaking to your customer in a better tone of voice, B. Getting organized to make sure that you are not listed on a delivery website the same time your kitchen is closed. No wonder the bad review. Thought i would give this place a second chance. Last time food was bad too but was only place open so i tried again. BIG mistake.

Hate this place.
I placed a repeat delivery order with them, specifically because I was super hungry and the delivery is usually quick. They’re about a 7 minute bike ride and a 15 minute walk away. They randomly cancelled my order 20 minutes before it was supposed to arrive because I am «out of their area» and they «don’t deliver to my neighborhood.» They don’t deliver to their own neighborhood? That makes no sense. I could get takeout and walk there just to prove a point because they are literally right there, but I’m never giving them my money again.
They should have delivered it this time if they «accidentally» indicated they delivered a few blocks from their door and then updated their records to prevent this sudden made up problem in the future.
Do not put your stomach in their hands. They will only disappoint you and you will be hungry.

I work in the area so I decided to try this place out. I order the shrimp tacos without the avocado and a frozen mango margarita which the bartender recommend. Within 15 minutes of eating my food I was sick to my stomach. I was very disappointed in this little restaurant and I will never eat there again

I was recently here last Wednesday because my friend had such glowing remarks for this place. They told me «This place has the most amazing shrimp tacos». I however was very hesitant because I’ve never heard of this place and how could this tiny little place be so amazing? Well, it was. I ordered the shrimp tacos and devoured it. The sauce, the shrimp, everything in this shrimp taco was amazing. I also ordered the sangria which was very tasty! I’m already thinking about my next visit!

I typically have less to say about places I don’t enjoy. Café El Portal is no exception. Each time I have eaten here, I have been very underwhelmed. The most recent time, I was asked if I wanted brown rice or white. Since this is typically an option free of no up charge, I selected brown/​quinoa. It costs a $ 1 extra. OK, fine. But when I was eating the burrito, the rice/​quinoa was clearly not fresh at all and felt like I was biting into pebbles. Eh, you can find better Mexican at Tacombi or La Esquina.

randomly picked this place; had one of those adventurous night’s out trying new places… the margaritas were DELICIOUS… fresh cucumber, fresh jalapeño… no added sugar!!! guacamole was good if not a little too creamy for my taste but the portion size is ridiculous; I heard the owner tell one patron who was doing take out say it was tasty but small and she’s right… kinda tasty but on point with SMALL. Other than the margerita, their homemade sauces are so yummy… I think I ate ½ the jar … and because the sauces were so good I wanted to try a real menu item– they were out of fish tacos so went with the chicken burrito instead and that’s where the disappointment set in; it was bland, from tortilla to all the stuff mixed together, very little guacamole was inside– I read some reviews about it being amazing but than again, it takes a lot to make an amazing burrito, right? I wouldn’t order it again… and prolly wouldn’t come back since I know I could never satisfy my guacamole cravings without spending over 24 bucks… but I’m glad I found it… the margaritas and sauces are the bomb…

A part of me almost doesn’t want to leave a glowing review of this place because it is a bit of a hidden gem tucked away in Nolita and I don’t want it to get too overcrowded (!) but in all honesty, this is one of the best burrito fixes in Manhattan and I’ve been coming here for 5+ years.
I am originally from the SF Bay area and searched high and low for that «mission style» burrito in New York. Café El Portal is one of the closest to SF quality I have been able to find so far.
I always get either the Shrimp or Chicken burrito and I have never left disappointed. This place is not only excellent, but it’s also very consistent. I have also had the Frijoles con Totopos app, which is basically refried black beans with crumbled queso fresco, super delicious but you will feel stuffed if you get it before one of their sizeable burritos.
The Margs are also great — I recommend the jalapeño (not too spicy) or the cucumber (goes down super easy).
My only critique for this place is their chips! They are usually overly salted and taste a bit stale sometimes. Buen Provecho!

Came here one Wednesday night to meet a friend and my husband for happy hour. I sat at the bar since we would be a party of three, and since that was the number of seats available the bar. I started with a tamarind margarita, which was amazing. My friend had the cucumber margarita and my husband had a pineapple mezcal cocktail with spicy rim which we all loved. I was particularly pleased with the drinks. I love that they were not overwhelmingly sweet or heavy. We all had atleast three cocktails.
The food was really good. I had a quesadilla de huitlacoche, my husband had a chorizo dish I can’t remember, and my friend had a chicken quesadilla. The quesadillas were made with blue corn, which was a great option for gluten sensitive stomachs.
Over all the quality, price and fare for this restaurant are on point. I do wish however the bar had more space between the bar stool for our feet. Other than that, I have no problem. I will be definitely coming back to this place.

It’s winter. It’s freezing. Hanging in my apartment amidst my beachfront daydream, I decided to brave the bitter-​cold and go for a walk towards Soho for lunch (a 10 minute walk). Well, 5 minutes into the walk I changed my mind and dove head first into this cozy Mexican joint in the neighborhood of Nolita bordering Soho. Never heard of the joint, didn’t bother to Unilocal it. But I’ll be honest, the idea of some salsa in my mouth warmed me right up.
The red salsa and the chips were served upon arrival. After contemplating drinking the sauce straight up merely to control my shivering, I decided to use the homemade chips. Yeah. HELL yeah. I’m glad I did. Deliciously salty with a hint of lime and lemon zest. I then thought to myself — I’m all in.
Ordered the Elote and the Al Pastor Tacos, sat back, and smiled to myself. Why? Because I was HAPPY.
After stuffing my face and gathering enough energy to physically get my fat ass up and out of the chair, I made my way to the kitchen. I proceeded to explain to the chef that her food is bordering on perfection. Needless to say, she was happy.
I’ll be heading here from now on for my Mexican cuisine cravings. You should too. But not too many of you. Please don’t make me wait out in the cold for a seat. Please don’t.
More reviews:

Worst place to have food in NYC. The waitress was so arrogant, had to cut short our meal and buzz out. Can’t beleive they hire such people. She is a hispanic looking lady with some asian features, should be fired immediately or the place will keep on losing customers. The margarita was more ice than tequila .
Avoid this place if possible, walk few streets up to habana café and have some great drinks. food and service.

I love this place. I found out about it through Gilt City two years ago and was blown away. If I didn’t know about this place, I would have just walked right passed it since the enterance is down some stairs into a small restaurant.
The place is so cute, well decorated and the food is amazing. I have never had anything bad from here and the staff is super friendly and the service is quick. Since it is such a small place, I can see it getting packed really quickly during brunch hours, but everytime I went, I had space and no one was bascially sitting on top of me. I definately recommend this place for a nice lunch. The food is authentic and so flavorful. I will most certaintly be back for more.
PS — the white sangria is AMAZING!

My friend suggested the place as she had been there before. As soon as I got there and saw the specials on the board, I knew we had to have Pozole and Chiles en Nogada (to be honest I didn’t even looked at the menu).
Being from Mexico City, I have a good sense of Mexican cuisine. Both the Pozole and Chiles en Nogada had a very authentic and home made taste.
I learned that the lady who prepared the food is from Guerrero, Mexico and her daughter was our waitress. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet her mother since it was the usual late dinner, but I will have to come back earlier to meet and greed the hands that prepare such amazing meals.
Also note that Chiles en Nogada are only seasonal and is a real treat to have them so well done outside of Mexico (my friend never had them before and said that it was one of the most amazing meals she has ever had).