Mussels: Zapoteca

On Saturday night the wife and I ventured out to Zapoteca, occupying the space once held by Portland Pie and more recently by Siano's Pizzeria. When someone says Mexican food to me I automatically think casual, cheap and fast. Zapoteca is none of these things. Was it good? Umm, there were some good things about it but I wouldn't necessarily say I enjoyed the meal all that much. If the wife makes me wear a shirt with a collar and drop $75 I expect a lot more than we got a Zapoteca.

Appetizer - Salsa and Chips $7.00 - 3 types of salsa, one based on sweet onions and tomato chunks, a tomatillo based green one and finally a conventional pureed red tomato salsa. The last 2 were served hot which I found to be a little odd and I thought muddled the flavors some. All you could really tell was that it was hot and then spicy. The chips were out of a bag and stale. Also why the fuck am I paying $7 for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant? Oh that's right because I'm an idiot and enjoy letting restaurants mark me up 700%. We actually ended up going through 2 servings of chips because there was such a long wait for the main courses. The 2nd set of chips were fresher and free so that's something.

Main Course - Mole Poblano Chicken Enchiladas $16 - I'm a sucker for a good mole. It satisfies some long ignored taste buds at the back of my tongue and when I see it on a menu it's hard for me to pass. Zapoteca's came on top of 3 flour tortilla chicken enchiladas with a side of refried beans. The mole itself was very nice, hitting some complex chocolate notes and finishing spicy. The refried beans had a great texture and added some much needed saltiness to counteract the sweetness of the mole. The chicken inside the enchilada's was a little dry but still serviceable. I appreciated the complete lack of cheese inside the enchiladas as it allowed the mole to stand out. Overall not the best one I've ever had but still good.

Main Course - Carnitas $21 or $22 - The wife's course came with refried beans, some sort of pickled pink veg, a couple slices of avacado and 3 flour tortillas. At the outset I would like to say, I love salty food. Whenever I crave something it's salt, never sweets. It's hard to out-salt me. That being said the salt on the pork in this dish was so aggressive it actually hurt. As I sit here typing this I am running my tongue over the canker sores that opened up inside my mouth. Every bite felt like I was eating an entire bag of Ruffles potato chips. The wife tried valiantly but could only eat half of it leaving me to choke down the rest. At $20+ there was no way I was leaving any protein on the plate no matter how unappetizing it may have been.

Dessert - Banana Bread Pudding $7.00 - Dessert became necessary after the carnitas, as both of our palettes needed a little relief from the relentless salt beatings they took. Fortunately it turned into the highlight of the meal and probably the only thing we had that was priced appropriately. The bread was soft and just sweet enough with a layer of banana pudding. A shot of tequila poured over the top was aggressive but added some interest and enhanced the aromatic elements of the dish.

Zapoteca was OK but did not offer anything markedly better than a $10 dish you can get at any other number of Mexican restaurants in the greater Portland area. Also it may just have been me and this may be nitpicky but I felt like the tables were 1-2" too low and I had to hunch over my plate to eat. With the competition for the food dollar in Portland so brutal it's hard to imagine that we'll be headed back any time soon.