Soft tacos with carnitas and barbacoa at Mesa Grande Taqueria. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“Well, you have to give them points for truth in advertising,” my Spanish-speaking guest said to me as we entered Mesa Grande Taqueria. “This ‘mesa’ is really ‘grande,'” she said, pointing to the bar-height communal table that forms the center of the loft-like dining room. I laughed, then noticed the counter staff at this new fast-casual restaurant nodding their heads in agreement. “Yep. That’s the famous ‘Big Table.’ Very popular with kids,” one remarked as he filled a paper bag with house-fried tortilla chips and a plastic cup with chunky, onion-accented guacamole ($5.95).

“When I was making plans, I was inspired by a lot of places: Mexico, of course, but also Southern California and the little mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants in Chicago, where I used to live,” explained co-owner and Falmouth resident Collin Henderson. “But not only those. I used a European design to make room for four bathrooms with individual stalls and a shared sink. And I want us to be a real neighborhood gathering place, so I was inspired by beer halls in Chicago, with these really long benches and shared seating. So that’s the idea behind our big communal table.”

It works well as an anchor for the space. So does a Mexican tile mural by local artist Liz Hobbs, which mimics the shapes and iconography of the loteria and traditional Mexican ceramic tiles.

Mexican tile mural by artist Liz Hobbs at Mesa Grande Taqueria Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

The wall color probably needs rethinking, though. From neon orange in the vestibule to venomous green in (part of) the dining room to a grape-colored beam running parallel to the conveyor-belt service bar, Mesa Grande’s color scheme is a bit too extreme in its pyrotechnic, Hi-C Ecto Cooler vibrancy.

That’s not a fatal flaw. There’s a place for pumped-up cheeriness, especially when the weather is foggy and uncomfortable, as it was on my last visit. Moreover, Mesa Grande’s postmodern design is reflected in the format of its menu, a mix-and-match system in which diners choose a dish type (e.g., burrito, nachos, salad) and select the proteins, vegetables and condiments that go into it.

Does this sound familiar? Maybe you’ve eaten at a local poke joint, a VC-owned hoagie purveyor, or the original Mesa Grande Taqueria in the Finger Lakes region of central New York. Or maybe you’re wondering what the Tex-Mex elephant in the room is all about.

“We deal with that a lot … every day. People say, ‘It’s like Chipotle, right?’ when they see you walk down the line to pick out what you want,” Henderson said. “But that’s where the similarities end. All of our ingredients are fresh. We make everything from the dried beans that we soak ourselves to all of the proteins that we marinate and cook here. We don’t use a central, outside kitchen. And one of the most exciting things about being in Maine is that we get to work with local producers. All of that is reflected in our menu. It’s all made from scratch.”

And it’s not just about the ingredients. Mesa Grande encourages diners to stay significantly longer than its fast-food cousin. Come for a burrito ($13.49), of course, but stay for an alcoholic beverage or a piece of wobbly, bittersweet chocolate flan ($5.50). It’s a delicate, custard-like dessert that Henderson and his back-of-house team prepare with care — another thing in short supply at the big chain. With Mesa Grande so far ahead of its more famous competitor, perhaps the comparisons should go the other way.

Case in point: Soft Tacos ($13.99). For protein sources (up to three to choose from), I chose carnitas (beef) and barbacoa (pork), both dry rubbed and injected with the same spice blend of cumin, chili powder, garlic and paprika before the ingredients go apart. The carnitas go into an applewood-fired smoker for 13 hours, while the barbacoa retires to a smoker loaded with hickory wood for a nap.

I asked the staff at the counter what salsa they would recommend for each taco filling. They didn’t hesitate. “Carnitas loves the smoky chipotle sauce,” one told me, ladle in hand, portioning cilantro-flecked rice ($3.60) onto my plate. “But barbacoa, that’s a fan of (salsa) verde.” Great advice, especially the recommendation of the green tomatillo-onion salsa, which brings out the depth and intensity of flavor from the hickory smoke.

The grilled chicken asado quesadilla at Mesa Grande Taqueria. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

The staff at the counter at Mesa Grande really know the menu. Another advised me to order the grilled chicken asado, as a no-brainer filling for the quesadilla ($12.99). This was also excellent advice. I tried my hand at pairing it with salsas, liking the linear heat of the red salsa better than the milder pico de gallo.

To be honest, I also had a bit of trouble with the sheer abundance of cheese. Not because I didn’t like the half-cheddar, half-jack mix, but because it constantly got in the way of the grilled chicken. How on earth could it be so juicy? Chicken is usually the most difficult protein option on any fast-casual menu.

“Thighs. It’s all thighs,” Henderson told me. “When the pandemic hit in 2020, we couldn’t get chicken breasts at the first Mesa Grande, so we tried chicken thighs marinated in adobo and grilled. It took a while and we learned how many times we could turn them without losing the juices. We never looked back.”

The burrito bowl with vegetarian sazonada at Mesa Grande Taqueria. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

There’s still some work to be done to bring the vegetarian sazonada option up to the same level. Right now, the baked heiwa tofu cubes are tossed in dry spices and then sautéed with three of the salsas (verde, corn and roja). Yet even with all that spice, the sazonada offers more texture than flavor when scooped into a burrito bowl ($12.99). As a vegan option, it’s fine, but after trying the other proteins on offer, I know Mesa Grande can do better.

The homemade frozen margarita ($8) also needs tweaking. Mine was watered down and not very sweet or tart—like boozy Gatorade slush. I suspect the same recipe is used for the frozen and the far superior on-the-rocks version (also $8). That’s a mistake, because frozen drinks generally need stronger flavors to offset the clouding effects of extreme cold. Stick with the on-the-rocks margarita or a pineapple Jarritos lemonade ($3.25), at least for now.

But don’t write off the frozen margarita forever. Henderson’s commitment to quality and constant improvement is undeniable; I bet he’ll be reading this article with some of his most trusted taste testers, ready to fine-tune the ratio of tequila to lime juice and agave syrup. I also envision dozens and dozens of small cups, each containing a slightly different margarita mix. Finally, he has the perfect “big table” for just such a recalibration.

Taqueria Mexicana Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

EVALUATION: ***1/2

WHERE: 140 Fore St., Suite A, Portland, 207-536-0649 mesagrandetaqueria.com

PORTION: 11am – 8pm, Monday to Saturday

PRICE RANGE: Appetizers and sides: $3.75-$9.25, tacos and main dishes: $12.99-$13.99

NOISE LEVEL: Wood storage area

VEGETARIAN: Many dishes

RESERVATIONS: NO

BEAR: Beer and Margaritas

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

Conclusion: It should be noted that while Mesa Grande Taqueria is the second restaurant in the line—a nearly exact copy of the Finger Lakes original—it is in no way affiliated with the burrito industrial complex. If you’re a fan of the Big Burrito, you’ll certainly recognize many of the items on the menu at this uber-vibrant converted warehouse in Portland’s rapidly evolving East End waterfront. But Mesa Grande is no copy. This 50-or-so inexpensive Mexican spot invites diners to linger, enticing them with margaritas (stick with the ice cream variety), desserts like chocolatey flan, and a range of savory dishes that are unexpectedly both freshly made and high quality. Barbacoa, carnitas, and grilled chicken are all prepared with skill. Ask the well-trained staff for recommendations, and they’ll help you out, recommending smoky pulled pork and beef in the soft tacos and grilled chicken in the quesadilla. When the weather is nice, there are a few dozen outdoor seats where you can dip crispy, house-fried tortilla chips into chunky, oniony guacamole. The moderately priced outdoor dining always deserves a special mention.

Ratings are based on this scale and take into account food, atmosphere, service, value for money and type of restaurant (a casual bistro is judged as a casual bistro, an expensive fine dining restaurant as such):

* Poor
** Just
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Unusual

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once. If the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second visit. The reviewer attempts to dine anonymously and never accepts free food or drinks.

Andrew Ross has written about food and dining in New York and the UK. He and his work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio and in the New York Times. He was recently awarded seven Maine Press Association Critics’ Awards.

Contact him at: [email protected]
Twitter: @AndrewRossME

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