La Bamba

Having recently finished a weekend of eating out a lot, generally in celebration of my 7th wedding anniversary but also because I like eating out, I figured this week would involve lots of not-eating-out. So what a pleasant surprise when my friend Dave asked if my wife and I would like to go out todinner tonight.

The decision of where to eat was left to me, and I opted for Mexican food.

A couple of years ago, I mentioned in an old post on the Portland Metroblog that Portland has a serious dearth of good Mexican food. Recently, one of my favorite places, Romo’s, shut down, and I was left in a bit of a learch until my wife heard about La Bamba. Located on SE 49th and Powell, the restaurant appears to be family-owned.

In my two visits, I’ve found two truths. The place is not busy. And the food is some of the best Mexican I’ve ever had.

Last night, I opted for the Burrito Cancun. A combination of shrimp, crab, and chicken stuffed into a flour tortilla, it was absolutely delicious. The beans that came with it were typically delicious black beans. The rice was good, not too dry and well-flavored, which I find to be the exception as opposed to the rule in the world of Mexican rices.



There’s a wide selection of drinks available, though I always lean towards beer with Mexican food. The restaurant has all the usual suspects in bottles (including Corona and Sol, which are the beers I lean towards in these contexts) as well as a variety of local micros and other beers (Dave had a Mirror Pond on tap).



La Bamba has a very diverse menu. See these examples...




I’ve found that although there are all of the usual things that one could jump to in order to have what they’re used to (chimichangas, fish tacos, etc.), I’ve also found that the menu has a lot of exciting stuff that I’ve never seen before, and as such I find La Bamba to be an exciting, and inexpensive, place to challenge my palate and discover something new. I hope to see you there.