Maria’s

This little restaurant at 3226 N Lombard is easy to miss, but worth a stop. I’d noticed it before one night driving home from the St. Johns area, but it was closed and eventually slipped my mind until we stumbled upon it this afternoon looking for a lunch spot. Always looking for a new place for tacos and burritos, there was no hesitation about changing from our previous destination. And our spontaneity was well-served. I ordered the chile verde burrito ($5) and a water, travis got a vegie burrito ($4.xx) and chicken taco (not sure). Chile verde is one of my gauges for a good Mexican restaurant because it has a huge range of flavors, spices, consistencies, and qualities, and is generally good. Maria’s chile verde was quite tasty, with a satisfying tomatillo sweetness that most verdes in Portland lack. In fact, for this one I’m going to separate the burrito from itself because while the burrito itself was decent, the chile verde inside of it was quite good. The burrito lacked a bit on size, and just felt unspectacular to me, probably because this is in the face of a pretty good salsa (they had a picante too, which was heated up with habanero) and one of Portland’s best chile verdes. I think next time I go for the chile verde there it’ll be in the dinner plate. Travis reported satisfaction with both of his entrees as well. Overall, my instinct after visit #1 is to give Maria’s a thumb’s up, so check it out.