Robo Taco

I love Robo Taco! I was hesitant to try it at first because I’d only heard of the place as a late night cheap taco craving. And because I had already given up on any good Mexican options in inner Portland. But sure enough, a night of nearby karaōke inspired me to try the tacos. They were fantastic! I’ve been back for lunch several times and it’s always spot on.
FOOD/​DRINK
I’ve had the lengua, pastor, carne asada, and oysters. The meats are all delicious and the taste is legit and are sustainably and locally sourced. I love that lengua is an option! I don’t find their tortillas particularly interesting but they don’t taste hard out of a bag either. And their margarita is bomb. The price is right no matter what you choose. Plenty of vegetarian options too.
AMBIANCE
This is a super casual place. You order up front, get your own utensils, condiments, and bus your own table. It tends on the grundgy side. There are a few sidewalk tables that are fantastic on a sunny day.
Thank you for being awesome and open late! Robo Taco, stay just the way you are.

GOOD vegetarian tacos. Don’t expect a smile from any of the staff, but you can expect to enjoy the food. Bottled beer and sodas available, and you have to bus your own table. This is a great little spot and it can get busy. One of my go-​tos if in craving tacos.

I frequent this place a lot for work, I deliver food for a living. I have had nothing but bad experiences here. The service is some of the worst in the city.
Cons:
–long line
–short staffed
–messy/​filthy kitchen and sauce area
–only so so food
–moody waitstaff
–usually won’t answer phone
Pros:
–open late
–cool programming while you wait (you will wait for a long while)

Love the breakfast burrito and their vegetarian options can’t be beat. No other place allows me to eat delicious food and watch old Jacques Cousteau videos. A Portland must!

Quick, good, open late. A solid choice if you are in the neighborhood.
Usually a go to when deciding which side of the river we’d like to finish our night on.

So good. So good. So good.
And this is coming from a girl who prefers an Old El Paso Stand ‘n’ Stuff taco over a restaurant-​quality taco ANY DAY.
I ordered from Robo Taco hesitantly because, honestly, I really prefer hard shell tacos and I know there is nothing «authentic» or «taco» about them. It’s the crunch, guys. I really need some crunch.
Anyway, this place came highly recommended and I’m never not in a taco mood so I decided to give it a go through Postmates. I ordered the three taco plate with spicy veggie sausage and a side of chips and guacamole. All of it was really, truly incredible! The taco was really tasty and had a nice combination of textures. I didn’t for a second wish I had a crunchy shell, and that’s saying a lot, let me tell you. The guacamole tasted really nice and didn’t give me the impression that they squeezed it from a large, refrigerated bag that arrived via semi-​truck three days earlier. The chip bag was completely doused in grease, as it should be, but the chips themselves were perfect. «Perfect» is truly the word that keeps coming to mind.
Robo Taco is the shit. Robo on over there and order as many as your stomach can hold. Worth it.

I’ve rarely walked into an eatery and thought to myself, «Hmmm. This place needs more robots».
Robo Taco has become my «go-​to» hole in the wall Mexican place in this neighborhood. Everything I’ve had was very tasty and fresh. Lots of GF options.
If this is any indication of what food will be like when the machines take over, bring on the robots!

Robo Taco is errrr’thang i have wanted in a taco! fish tacos, veggie tacos, and whatever basic taco and burrito you could want!
the eats:] the fish tacos are my favorite order here, then comes their chilie relleno taco, and as far as bean and cheese burritos goes, this has got to be my favorite place in all of portland for just that; a bean and cheese burrito. the burritos are the size of my wall phone and punch way above their weight in flavor
the set up:] the insides of robo taco are pretty small, a few window bar stools, and a few long tables for a big group, we tend to get our food to go as it still tastes pretty good at home. be warned if this isn’t the spot to get an excellent dinning experience, but it is a spot to get late night taco’s and breakfast burritos. Robo taco is the joint i head to when i need my taco and burrito desires filled.

I discovered Robo Taco the way so many Portlanders do: after a night of drinking at inner SE bars. It’s a great late-​night spot, whether you want a snack or a meal. I’ve gone back many times over the past couple of years. My favorite items at this point are the asada burrito (with guacamole added), oyster tacos and mushroom tacos.
I ordered asada and chicken tacos once and they were dry as well as pretty bland. Unfortunately that experience took place pre-​drinking, and so the lack of flavor stood out more than it might have otherwise.
But for late-​night/​drinkin tacos, this place is great.

I’m a huge fan of the classic bean and cheese burrito — and Robo Taco is one of my favorite spots to grab one. I also recently tried the mushroom burrito and it was delicious too. It’s a great spot for late night food if you are down in the SE Belmont/​Morrison area. Only giving it four stars because of how insanely crowded and full of very drunk people it can tend to get on weekends. Also, I thought it used to be open past 2am, but it seems to be only open until midnight these days. Was excited to go for a B&C burrito a few nights ago and showed up to a closed Robo Taco :(

I really should have tried the tacos. Instead, I tried the enchiladas. I asked ahead of time if the sauce was spicy and the girl said no. Well, I wait 30 minutes for my to-​go order, finally get it back to my desk and it was so spicy I had to throw it out.
Next time I’ll try the tacos, but for now with the terrible wait and too-​spicy food, it’s a 2 star review.

Long wait for food. For is a bit burnt. Seasoning is good. Lacking spices. Okay but not great!

Lovely cute décor and easy to find. Everything else was very meh. They were pretty much out of everything except for carne asada. So we got a carne asada taco plate. They were out of horchata and agua frescas too. When it came out, the meat and tortillas were cold, like it was sitting out for awhile. The carne asada didn’t have much flavor. Maybe it was an off night, I don’t know, but Portland has better tacos elsewhere. The only saving grace is that this place is open late and very close to one of the social dance venues in town.

This is a 3 star for me and a 4 star for my wife. I felt that the tacos were just ok, though they certainly load them up with lots of meat so you definitely get your monies worth. My wife thought they were really tasty and she’d return. Biggest drawback was the wait — took at least 20 minutes for our food and it wasn’t very busy.

I’ve had this place bookmarked for a while and were in the area. My friends and I were bar hoping and walked passed this place when I recommended that we check it out. The place is pretty small, but we were able to snag a table for 6. I wasn’t too hungry at the time, but really wanted to try a couple tacos. I ended up getting a barbacoa and an asada taco. Both tacos were flavorful and the perfect size since I wasn’t super hungry. My friends also though the place was good. Next time we’re in the area, I’m sure we’ll stop by again.

The oyster tacos are certified bangers. Just come on inside, order the taco plate with two or three oyster tacos (extra $ 1.50 if you choose oyster tacos), pay and get a number and find a seat. They will bring the food out to you. I devoured my entire plate in a matter of minutes and while I was 100% stuffed, I could’ve gone for a couple more oyster tacos. The taco plate comes with avocado, rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, and tacos. All my favorite ingredients.
The last time I was here I don’t remember much so I’m glad I came back sober and at a decent time. They’re open until midnight and are located very close to Dig A Pony and Loyal Legion so I wouldn’t mind ending nights at those bars a little early just so I can make it in time to get here and grub. The place is kinda small but they have a couple seats at the bar/​kitchen and also outside. People are in and out anyway so shouldn’t be too hard to find a table.

We loved the faux pork tacos so much that we were inspired to make them for ourselves at home. Although the girl behind the register was nice both times we went, this place doesnt really offer a good dining experience. It smells funny inside the restaurant and the tables are usually pretty dirty.
After stumbling across some other options in the area, I’m okay with taking a pass on robo taco until they clean up their game.
9÷21÷15 response to RoboToco message:
Hi Jason, We last visited your establishment on August 21, 2015

Three words: Fried. Oyster. Tacos.
Between the really fresh, really tasty guacamole & a combo of oyster and fish tacos, Robo Taco is well worth the trip to southeast if you’re not already in the area.
By far my favorite lunch spot.

Tasty meat! We got lengua and al pastor tacos. They have several salsas to choose from. The meat was tasty, they fry up the lengua so you get some crispy edges and the al pastor was flavorful. The tortillas were unheated and therefore less pliable. The burritos looked like the suffer from the same issue. It’s a happy place to end the night for weekend drunks.
The place is small and hipster divey. I would imagine this place to be hard to maneuver around with the big late night crowd. There are a couple larger tables that can seat 4 – 6. Most of the other tables seat 2 – 3. There’s one bathroom stall and as one can imagine, it gets used frequently. — Expect to hold your beer in for sometime!
Meat’s good, they come with typical onions and cilantro and the salsa compliments well. I just can’t get over the unheated tortillas — gross. However I probably wouldn’t care if I was in drunk mode.

All robots are programmed with a purpose. Robo Taco was programmed to make humans sad. That’s the only explanation I can think of for twice now being served such subpar offerings. Well done Robo Taco, you did your job well. You ruined my taco lunch.
Twice I’ve been to this restaurant, and twice I’ve felt that what their tacos lacked in flavor, they made up in gristle. Not a good trade for the consumer. I’ve done pollo, carnitas and al pastor, and all have had bits that needed to be spit out into a napkin. Not the end of the world if it’s occasional, but twice in a row is a bad sign. Also some of the meat tastes overcooked and charred. No bueno.
Finally, the place is just dirty. The bathrooms are gross, and the whole place feels pretty damn dingy. They could really stand to close for a day and clean up, or heck even remodel a bit! It just feels worn down and tired.
I love robots. I love tacos. I never thought I could be so unimpressed with a combination of the two.