El Portal Coffee Roasters

Sure wish they’d update their hours. Unilocal said it was open on Sunday, but after driving out of my way to check this place out realized it was closed.

Such nice people at El Portal. My partner and I visited on a rainy day and we felt welcomed and warm. He got some kind of coffee, which was apparently good, and we shared a couple of pastries. Next time I want to try an empanada!

Nice little Mexican coffee shop on Madison… great coffee and tasty authentic pastries and tamales! Worth checking out.

Lovely place, full of flavor. Perfect for studying or working, free WI-​FI, delicious coffee and Mexican drinks and pastries. This place has a warm cozy home-​like feeling, very inviting and relaxing. A little gem!

Yummy direct-​sourced Mexican coffee roasted on-​site.

This place is right around the corner from my apartment, and I’m so glad. El Portal is a charming little Mexican coffee shop with a big heart. The owners (at least, the only two people I’ve ever seen working here) are genuinely nice and seem to love what they do. Coming here is a little bit like having coffee in someone’s living room; this place is tiny, but well decorated and very inviting.
The coffee has been great every time I’ve had it, and the pineapple empanada I had was super authentic and delicious. It’s usually pretty empty when I’ve been in, but it shouldn’t be, and I’d really like to help this place get the business it deserves. Definitely come give this place a try (or twelve)!

Here’s what you do CD: Get really, really drunk. Like, so drunk that the next day all you can remember is telling someone you hadn’t imbibed enough and them making a face at you that says «are you crazy?» Then, wake up the next morning still half-​drunk with the beginnings of a hangover – wavering on your still-​drunk feet as you walk around hurts your hangover brain. Once you’re in this state, go to El Portal and order a delicious coffee and a tamale. Begin the healing process.

AVOID! This place is less than a block from my place and after 2 visits I will never be back. The owner acts like he wants the place to fail and is so grumpy I had to laugh in the end. The tamales come in from a place in White Center and while very affordable taste like cardboard and the coffee is straight up terrible. And before you get on my case, I am a barista at a bakery. I take pride in being a good customer because I know how trying it can be. I know good coffee (and this is VERY far from it) and I have been working in bakeries for 5 years now. Like I said AVOID.

Mexican Mocha — good mexican cacao and pretty good coffee. A decent amount of spice from cinnamon/​pepper gives the mocha a kick. The caffeine content isn’t too strong though for espresso, but its an overall good drink.
Bavarian Empanada — huge, but kind of dry. They use a ton of dough, to a point where it tastes either dry or too doughy. The Bavarian custard is actually pretty good, but there was too much of the pastry. They put a lot of custard in it but the pastry dough offset it a bit (corrected to Bavarian).

Great coffee and delicious tamales! I came in just for the tamales since it’s hard to find a good one in Seattle. The café is nice and comfy.

Good vibe and atmosphere, especially for a rainy morning. Smooth Latin mood music is currently playing. I’ve just finished a Mexican mocha, rather like a regular mocha with just a little bit of extra spice on the front end. I had wanted a chai, but they looked in the fridge and told me they were out. That, combined with a testy wifi and the poor selection of pastries, is what cost them a star in my book.
But the mocha was top notch, and the pastry I did get (a pumpkin empanada) was delicious. Glad I stopped by this unassuming coffee shop!

What a warm and inviting neighborhood coffee hole. With a plain tan-​esque stucco color and a neat, simple sign to greet you outside, stepping in is a pleasant treat. You have the TV for games, the coffee machinery in back, really interesting touches here-​and-​there and a friendly vibe. The chai is Oregon so you may want to pass that. I’ve found that I usually enjoy Oregon chai with chilled milk. I go for a soy tall Mexican Mocha to-​go — yumMmMm!
This is truly a great find for me and would very much be addicting if I lived anywhere nearby.

Amazing, perfectly roasted coffee — roasted fresh in the store. Great service.
Support this wonderful small business or it will close and you will never have known some of the best coffee in Seattle.

Great find. Coffee is very good (though I’m pretty easy to please); they roast their own which is an added benefit.
The owner, Ignacio is a warm and inviting host. I added a star just due to his welcome. Both times I visited, regulars streamed in… a good sign. Pumpkin empanadas and Day of the Dead bread are some of the special baked goods Ignacio has lined up.
I loved sipping my coffee while seated next to a mural ala Diego Rivera. Do yourself a favor and order the Mexican mocha. Best of its kind north of Beacon Hill’s The Station.

Yay for independent businesses! This little hole in the wall coffee shop was just down the street from where I planted myself in Seattle. Woke up early since I hadn’t adjusted to the Pacific time zone, woke up the hubs, and we took a stroll directly to this place.
It really is tiny, but very well decorated. There is definitely pride in ownership. Grabbed a caramel macchiato and a café del dia (my Spanish accent marks aren’t registering) to go… both were good.
There wasn’t any roasting going on when we arrived, but based on the machinery off to the side, you can tell this place means business.

Great coffee delivered with a true and genuine smile! You can tell that the staff takes pride in what they are doing, which I really appreciated. They even helped me through my first transaction paying with LevelUp!
Loved the nod to Mexico with the music, décor and food/​beverage offerings! I was hungry for an afternoon snack, so in addition to my latte, I grabbed a crème filled empanada. Sooo amazingly good and fresh. My bill came out to around $ 5…what a bargain for a great locale to catch up on some work (they even have free Wi-​Fi!).

I’m gonna keep the 5 star train going because this place deserves it and its what this neighborhood needs.
Great staff, super friendly and willing to talk to you about their coffee, even lets my practice my Spanish with them sometimes!
Great coffee, roasted right there in the shop, awesome.
Stop by and support them, this location has been in non stop turnover but I really hope this one sticks.

Déjà vu! I’ve been to this particular café location through 3 different incarnations now, but I must admit that El Portal’s probably my favourite thus far! I love that the owner is actually roasting the coffee on-​site, and that he’s offering something a little more unique — mexican coffee beans & mexican pastries (some of my FAVOURITE pastries ever!).
I had a delicious, complex and richly flavoured iced americano (affectionally called a «mexicano» on the menu, cute), a strawberry pastry (delicious, a little reminiscent of a «grown up» poptart-​meets-​flaky-​croissant dusted with cane sugar), and also bought half a pound of their medium dark whole bean roast, all for about $ 10! The owner really cares about what he’s doing and he was kind enough not to turn his nose up at me, even though I was sweating buckets after a long outdoor workout/​run.
I know I’ll fold this café into my regular rotation, and I sincerely hope that El Portal sticks around for the long haul!

This place has it all: superb coffee, amazing Mexican pastries, friendly and happy staff and excellent WiFi connectivity. I have already sampled several selections from the menu and have been impressed by each one (the Mexican Chocolate and Caramel macchiato are simply divine).
The selections offered here are a unique and refreshing addition to the coffee repertoire of the Capitol Hill/​CD scene. The aromatic and spicy beverages served up bring a kind of flavor that is hard to come by and will leave a lasting impression.
The shop is kind of small, but there is still a good amount of seating inside with enough room to breathe and get some work done. There are a couple of seats outside for those rare sunny Seattle days as well. Overall, my time spent here is comfortable and a nice respite from the outside world.
It’s worth a trip down Madison to experience a coffee shop that is doing something different in a very good way. Do yourself a favor and open your palette to the world of Mexican coffee at El Portal.

I just picked up a coffee from this shop. I was excited to see a new café open on this side of town. The cashier recommended a latte and I followed her recommendation. The latte was great. The store owner started conversation about their new café and I appreciated his friendliness. Their specialty is Mexican coffee. It is nice to see that they are true to their roots.
I’m glad I found a decent coffee shop down the street from my apartment. I can’t wait to come back.