New Orleans meets Spain in Portland

Tapalaya is a new Portland restaurant offering small plate versions of traditional Cajun/Creole dishes. As you can see from the name they have combined tapas and jambalaya; unfortunately we didn't get to try the jambalaya special as our waiter forgot to tell us the specials. In fact, lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. The waiter was terrible. He was always close by, but unfortunately he was talking to his friends at the table next to us and ignored us. I could dismiss this as one bad waiter, but the folks who dropped off the food were a little rude too, I felt like they were delivering food to prisoners.


The good news is that the food and drinks were pretty good and because of the portion sizes, you can try a lot of stuff. The first thing we got was the gumbo, which was the best dish on the menu. It had a nice rich base and lots of seafood, very tasty. The Tapalaya Jambalaya with chicken, shrimp and andouille. was good but not overly flavorful. The Crabby Mac, mac and cheese with lump blue crab was OK, kind of like crab au gratin, but it could have been cheesier in my opinion. The Buttermilk Fried Chicken with bourbon pecan syrup was disappointing. I was hoping for a breast, but it was an overcooked leg, that did not have a lot of flavor. If we come back, and that is in doubt at this point, I would like to try the Crawfish Fritters with Cajun aioli and the BBQ shrimp. They also had a good looking Muffaletta as well as several other Po’Boys.


The drinks were a mixed bad. The hurricane I had was delicious, but the sazerac was watery and disappointing. They do have a few New Orleans beers, but only in bottles, none on tap. Overall I would say Tapalaya was a disappointment, I had high hopes and they were not fulfilled.

Open Mon-Thu,Sat 4:30pm-9:30pm; Fri 4:30pm-10:30pm; Sun 4:30pm-9pm

Tapalaya
28 NE 28th Ave
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 232-6652