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 dinner guest said to me as we stepped into Mesa Grande Taqueria. “That ‘mesa’ is certainly ‘grande!’” she said, pointing to the communal table that anchors the loft-like dining room. I laughed, then realized that the counter staff at this new, fast-casual restaurant were nodding their heads in agreement with my friend. “Yep. That’s the famous ‘Big Table.’ Very popular with kids,” one remarked while filling a paper bag with house-fried tortilla chips and a plastic cup of chunky, onion-forward guacamole ($5.95).

“When I was putting together plans, I was influenced by lots of places: Mexico, obviously, plus Southern California, and the Mom-and-Pop Mexican restaurants in Chicago where I used to live,” co-owner and Falmouth resident Collin Henderson explained. “But not just those. I used a European design to give us room for four bathrooms featuring individual stall rooms and a shared sink. And I want us to be a real neighborhood gathering place, so I took inspiration from beer halls in Chicago, with those really long benches and shared seating. So that’s the idea behind our large, communal table.”

As an anchor for the space, it works nicely. So does a Mexican tile mural painted by local artist Liz Hobbs that emulates shapes and iconography from Loteria and traditional Mexican ceramic tilework.

Artist Liz Hobbs’ Mexican tile mural at Mesa Grande Taqueria Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Wall paint, however, probably needs a rethink. From neon orange in the vestibule, to acid green in (part of) the dining room, to a grape-hued beam that runs parallel to the assembly-line service bar, Mesa Grande’s color scheme is a bit too extreme in its pyrotechnic, Hi-C Ecto Cooler vibrance.

This is not a fatal flaw. There’s a place for supercharged perkiness, especially when the weather is foggy and miserable, as it was on my recent visit. Moreover, Mesa Grande’s postmodern design sensibilities echo the format of its food menu, a mix-and-match system where diners select a dish type (e.g. burrito, nachos, salad) and pick the proteins, vegetables and condiments that go into it.

Sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve eaten at a local poké joint, a VC-owned hoagie purveyor, or at the original Mesa Grande Taqueria in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York. Or perhaps you’re wondering about the Tex-Mex elephant in the room.

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

It’s not just about ingredients, either. Mesa Grande encourages diners to stick around considerably longer than their fast-food cousin does. Come for a burrito ($13.49), sure, but stay for an alcoholic beverage or a slice of jiggly, bittersweet chocolate flan ($5.50). It’s a delicate, custardy dessert that Henderson and his back-of-house team execute with care – another thing in short supply at the big-name chain. With Mesa Grande so far ahead of its better-known corporate rival, perhaps comparisons ought to go in the other direction.

Case in point: soft tacos ($13.99). As my proteins (choose up to three), I opted for the carnitas (pork) and barbacoa (beef), both dry-rubbed and injected with the same cumin, chile powder, garlic and paprika spice blend before things diverge, and carnitas go into an applewood-fired smoker for 13 hours, while the barbacoa retreats for a nap in a smoker loaded up with hickory wood.

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

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

Mesa Grande’s counter staff really do know their menu. Another guided me to order the grilled chicken asado, as a “no brainer” filling for the quesadilla ($12.99). Once again, it was excellent guidance. I tried my own hand at pairing salsas with it, preferring the linearity of heat in the red salsa to the milder pico de gallo.

Frankly, I also struggled a bit with the sheer overstuffed volume of cheese. Not because I disliked the half-cheddar, half-jack blend, but because it kept getting in the way of the grilled chicken. How in the world was it so juicy? Chicken is usually the toughest protein option on any fast-casual menu.

“Thighs. It’s all thighs,” Henderson told me. “When the pandemic hit in 2020, we could not get chicken breast at the first Mesa Grande, so we tried chicken thighs, marinated in adobo in conjunction with grilling. It took us a little while and we learned how many times we can flip them without compromising juice. We’ve never looked back.”

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

There remains work to be done on getting the vegetarian sazonada option to the same level of execution. Right now, the baked Heiwa tofu cubes get tossed in dry spices, then sautéed with three of the salsas (verde, corn and roja). Yet somehow, even with all that seasoning, the sazonada provides more texture than flavor when it’s scooped into a burrito bowl ($12.99). As a vegan option, it’s decent, but after tasting the other proteins on offer, I know Mesa Grande can do better.

The house-made frozen margarita ($8) also needs tweaking. Mine was dilute and not very sweet or tart — like boozy Gatorade slush. My hunch is that the same recipe is used in the frozen and the far superior on-the-rocks version (also $8). That’s a mistake, because generally, frozen drinks require stronger flavors to counteract the dulling effects of extreme cold. For now at least, stick to the on-the-rocks margarita or a pineapple Jarritos soda ($3.25).

But don’t write off the frozen margarita permanently. Henderson’s commitment to quality and constant improvement is unquestionable; I’d wager he’ll be reading this article with a few of his most trusted taste-testers, ready to fine-tune ratios of tequila to lime juice and agave syrup. I also imagine dozens and dozens of little cups, each containing a slightly different margarita formulation. After all, he’s got the perfect “big table” for just such a recalibration.

Mesa Grande Taqueria. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

RATING: ***1/2

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

SERVING: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday

PRICE RANGE: Appetizers & sides: $3.75-$9.25, Tacos & entrees: $12.99-$13.99

NOISE LEVEL: Lumber yard

VEGETARIAN: Many dishes

RESERVATIONS: No

BAR: Beer and margaritas

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

BOTTOM LINE: Let the record reflect that, while Mesa Grande Taqueria is indeed the second restaurant in its lineage — an almost exact replica of the Finger Lakes original — it is in no way associated with the burrito-industrial complex. To be sure, if you’re a fan of Big Burrito, you’ll recognize many dishes on the menu at this ultra-vibrant converted warehouse space in Portland’s rapidly developing East End waterfront. But Mesa Grande is no knockoff. This 50-ish seat, affordable Mexican spot encourages diners to linger, enticing them with margaritas (stick to the rocks version), desserts like fudgy chocolate flan, and a range of savory dishes that are, unexpectedly, both scratch-made and high-quality. Barbacoa, carnitas and grilled chicken are all prepared with skill. Ask the well-trained staff for suggestions, and they’ll guide you, recommending smoky pulled pork and beef in the soft tacos, and the grilled chicken in the quesadilla. In nice weather, there are a few dozen outdoor seats where you can sit, crunch house-fried tortilla chips dunked into chunky, oniony guacamole. Moderately priced al fresco dining always deserves a special mention.

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service, value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):

* Poor
** Fair
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer makes every attempt to dine anonymously and never accepts free food or drink.

Andrew Ross has written about food and dining in New York and the United Kingdom. He and his work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio and in The New York Times. He is the recipient of seven recent Critic’s Awards from the Maine Press Association.

Contact him at: andrewross.maine@gmail.com
Twitter: @AndrewRossME