Xico

Good food. Great Cocktails. Romantic atmosphere

I love going to the courtyard and enjoy my meal. Delicious food and wonderful dining setting!

I don't even know where to begin with this place. I rarely give a 5 star. I believe it should be something saved for those really special places. The chips and salsa/guac combo was just as a starter was mind-blowing. I don't even really know how to explain how special each side was in its flavours and ingredients. Just try it! Then we had their signature margarita and some tea, both splendid. For dinner itself, we tried a meat-centric option as well as a fall squash based platter. Both were A-MAZING! Flavours full of depth and complexity as well as unique combinations of ingredients outside of the traditional. Everything about this place, from the great patio to the charming interior and bar even to the bathrooms was thoughtful and delightful. Highly recommend visiting the East end of Division for this little gem. The window seats are amazing on a rainy day with some warm and creative foods to keep your soul bright.

Someone said there was in fact good Mexican food in Portland, and boy were they right! Stopped in for dinner on our anniversary. Reservations were not necessary on this Tuesday night. We were seated immediately. Tried a couple of drinks with Mezcal. Not going to say that Mezcal is my favorite type of alcohol, but the drinks we ordered were very well prepared and tasted fantastic. Had the Xico Nachos and the cauliflower dish as appetizers. Loved both! The nachos aren't on a big plate and frankly are nothing like traditional pub nachos. Much improved! Had a little kick to them as well. The cauliflower dish (of which I forget the exact name) was not as spicy but had a lot of flavor. Hard for me to explain the flavors here, but I really liked it! For main course we had tamales and the roasted pork special. There were three tamales in this entree, each of a different flavor. Fantastic! The Mazza (which is made in house) really made the dish. The pork was also really good. Had to have been roasted overnight. It was so soft and flavorful...I wanted more! Sopapillias for desert. Really rounded off this wonderful meal. The apples and Gelato went very well with the lightly sugared doughy delight. Great again! The service rounded off this entire visit as fantastic! They were right on point, knowing the menu and able to give proper recommendations, being attentive enough to keep out water glasses full but not be annoying. Great! Every employee I spoke with at this establishment had a great attitude and seemed to actually want to be. Be there. Thanks for a great visit! We'll be back

Came here with my friends just because we couldn’t get in to other restaurant. Ok, food. Four of us shared 2 appetizers and 3 entrees. Optus was a bit small portion so each of us only got one bite. Chicken was my fav among all, very tender and juicy. Its sauce and flavor were balanced and unite, love it. Their drinks are cool too. I got a spicy margarita which was refreshing and had a bit kick in it. Was going to order the other spicier one but waiter was nice enough to recommend this one. Guess too many people complained about it? I noticed the reviews are kinda mixed here, but overall our experience was good. Waiter was nice and not pushy. Love my drinks! Would come back again. ：）

Came here with a large group and had a great time. Amazing food, solid cocktails. We were here with a group of 15 and everyone found something they liked. Looking forward to coming back again soon!

The restaurant features a variety of Mexican-inspired flavors from different regions of the country. We enjoyed some delicately flavored appetizers, followed by a chicken and mole dish and a Yucatan sour-orange braised pork. The pickled chili peppers and onions were particularly bright and flavorful.

just had takeout here. WOW! delicious and vegetarian. we went inside to pick up our takeout and the vibe is so cool and the servers were friendly. we had the sweet potato flautas, the cauliflower fried and sauced situation, and some plantains. really fun and different food with options you won’t see anywhere else.

Xico is not only a fantastic place for dinner with your partner, family, or friends - it's also a beautiful location for your next catered event. We were absolutely blown away by Elizabeth and the staff at Xico for our wedding rehearsal dinner. The entire space was gorgeously laid out for our friends and loved ones to gather around the bar, high tops for chips and guac, and then of course the long tables in the patio area looked impeccable. Our guests were SUPER impressed. Not to mention the food is 10/10 excellent. Elizabeth was extremely helpful and kind when we needed to change the date a few times due to Covid-19. I highly recommend working with Xico for your next event, or just for a casual dinner! We now have Xico to celebrate our anniversary at for years to come!

I went to Xico with two dear friends on Friday night. We ordered many dishes to share, and of course a few margaritas. The food and service were excellent, and sitting outside on Xico’s lush outdoor garden patio was just a dream- lots of plants, twinkle lights, and if you ask a server-they just might point out an amazing lil’ hummingbird nest that is hidden in a light fixture. Have you ever seen a hummingbird nest in person before? It’s magical! Thank you Xico for a great ladies night out (the first in a year and a half!). We will be back!

It's always excellent food, drinks and the best service in town. They also make their own tortilla chips and have a killer hibiscus iced tea they make on site! I have been told that their guacamole is almost as good as the one I've made my whole life. I actually like theirs a little better!

We just love the flavors of the Xico meals. It's so tasty without needing to be too spicy. The wait staff is helpful and prompt, the ambiance is fun. A great Portland restaurant spot for an evening out. Highly recommended.

We got fancy veg bowls, a cauliflower appetizer, and s couple of Margaritas. Ask that plus a 20% tip was $87. So...a little spendy, but... damn, for like two days we were like "that was some delicious food!" Definitely worth it, even if it's not a place you'd eat like all the time. For special occasions, though, you can't go wrong. Super nice staff, and s gorgeous interior. Next time we will try to get a seat in the patio, which was full when we went, but it's a magical looking outdoor area. Go there and try it!

Wow, so good! Really loved the ceviche and fish tacos, the vegan tamales were very good, but not on the same level. We liked the black bean tamale better than the quest. Friendly servers and an all around good vibe.

Xico was a transcendent Mexican-influenced dining experience. Everything was wonderful. It is so nice to find a Mexican restaurant that is not just all overly complicated tacos and burritos. Of note, the warm beets and red mole were amazing. The chocolate mole was quite heavy on the chocolate and more like a chocolate sauce than a mole. Otherwise everything was exceptional.

I'm always so surprised at the outstanding service and food here. I'm surprised because this place should be as "famous" as other restaurants on the street. I've been dozens of times and not once had a bad experience. The cocktails are well balanced, the menu is always authentic, fresh and interesting. The service is friendly and professional. I know they don't need my five stars, but I just had to share.

Xico hosted our wedding reception and we highly recommend it as an event venue. On top of the delicious food and cocktails, the restaurant and patio are vibrant, spacious, and relaxing. Every team member we interacted with was phenomenal and the whole day went so smoothly. Our guests could not stop raving about the food and the atmosphere. Thank you for the perfect wedding day! Xico’s seasonal menu keeps us coming back again and again to dine with them. What a gem!

Tasty fresh food. Very nice ceviche. Service is slow and disorganized. Very less light. Many were using their cell phone flashlight to read the menu.

Good food but not as nice as I was expecting and it seemed like half the staff was walking around aimlessly (maybe training?) and the other half was super busy.

Good food really nice people. Will go back for sure. The food was pretty awesome this place has a good vibe.

We were looking for lunch in the neighborhood and discovered Xico. Beautiful decor and good food. Nice patio outside in the back too!

Pretty decent place for margs and meats. A little pricey for what you are getting, but overall enjoyable.

New restaurants have been popping up along SE Division left and right, but this is the one you want to put at the top of your list. The food is amazing. The service is wonderful. Everything is fresh and made from scratch. My favorite dish is the flank steak, but honestly everything here is astounding.

Teetered between 3 and 4 stars here. Ultimately it was an enjoyable meal and a really nice outdoor seating area in the back. Got the chicken mole and it was great. My biggest issue was that when I go to a Mexican restaurant, even more upscale ones, I still want to feel like I can order Mexican food staples. This was more like a take on Mexican food. For example, the mole was much more like a French-type dish, there were no tacos/burritos (even fancy ones), and if there was tequila I couldn't find it - just mezcal. Overall a good meal though, just probably wouldn't go back.

Great food and drinks but the prices were a bit high for what we ordered. Pozole, carne asada, enchiladas, 6 drinks, and 1 app was $175 without tip (they also add a 20% service charge). I don’t think the prices were ridiculous for what we got, but they definitely leaned high compared to similar dining experiences I’ve had recently.

I ordered the veggie bowl to go. It tasted fine but it was different than what I expected based on what was listed on the to-go menu (my bowl had roasted beets instead of squash and the bowl I received didn’t have any cotija, which of course I was looking forward to). Kind of a bummer. Plus they forgot to include the side of guacamole I had added so I had to go back and ask for that. All in all, an “eh” experience. It wouldn’t be on the top of my list to return to.

Local restaurant serving Mexican dishes. A nice outdoor patio in the back. I had the plantain as a starter and the tamales for the main, both of which were flavourful and very good. They grind their own corn and make their own tortillas. Our server was knowledgeable, helping me find the vegetarian options. Highly recommended.

Xico has amazing atmosphere, but I wish the food were better. I've been there twice now and everything is *almost* excellent. They have a nice menu, attractive presentation, and everything feels high quality, but each time nothing (other than the horchata) really tasted *great,* especially for the price. This is unfortunate because the patio is amazing. I love the ambiance, the heating is the best setup I've seen in Portland, and the music was awesome. (We had the chicken mole and the tamales, and I believe last time a few months ago we had the carnitas).

From an ambience, service and experiential standpoint, Xico is very nice. You won't go wrong. Interesting and varied cocktail options, unique salsas and flavors generally. Very attentive and kind staff. The food is certainly good, but for the price, it's not knock-your-socks-off exceptional. Flavors just need to be brightened up a bit.

Good service, unique tasting food, and nice atmosphere on the patio make this a good place to try. Excellent spicy original cocktails too. Why not 5 stars? Because they charge for chips and salsa. Not even one gratis basket. Sorry, but that's pretty and ridiculous, and I'd put it right up there with a Chinese restaurant charging for tea.

This is my fav upscale Mexican restaurant in Portland! They have a wonderful tequila and cocktail menu in addition to real hand made corn tortillas and chips... The food is excellent and the service good too. Water refills are not however on their radar, this is coming from someone who drinks a gallon + a day though. Left thirsty twice now... Great atmosphere and unique Portland style...

Drinks were good and I loved the atmosphere - but for the price the service and food was pretty darn lackluster. Go get more/better food at a mom and pop shop or food cart and you'll probably pay 1/4th of what you do here. It became an ongoing joke for awhile to measure how expensive things are by how many chips and salsa it costs - because hot dang $26 and you have to pay for a refill of chips (which you'll need since it's hardly a sharable amount). All in all not offensive, just so much better for less money all over Portland.

While I thought the food was good, I felt that the price was high for what I received. I sat at the bar with my friend and we both commented on the ambience being cool and mixed old with new styles to make it feel less like a traditional Mexican restaurant. The plantains were amazing but again, expensive. My mojito was alright but the bartender was very impersonal and kind of seemed pretentious.

Food was uneven and unspectacular, especially for the prices. The carne asada was fine, not excellent. The roasted chicken was not good, which was a shame because the mole was delicious. The salsas + guac were truly amazing starters, too bad the rest of the meal didn’t live up to the expectation.

I’ve been eating at Xico since it opened, and my experiences have always been stellar. Until last night. My girlfriend and I stopped in, and since it had been a while since I had been there, I was excited by the menu. We started with a bowl of chips along with guacamole, pipian, and two salsas. The chips were fine but the guac was laughably under seasoned and the salsas and pipian were…fine. Fine, but boring. The avocado and feta salad was overcomposed with too much distracting red lettuces, and maybe had five pieces of avocado. I’ve always loved Xico’s salads, but this one was underwhelming, and for their price points they need to be really good. My fish taco plate was pretty dull—cod wasn’t cooked/fried well, the tortillas (which have always been a strength at Xico) were flavorless and had the texture of three day old tortillas you bought at Fred Meyer. Probably the worst hand made tortillas I’ve had. My girlfriend’s shrimp soup was ok but the gap between the description on the menu and what we actually got was pretty extreme. Our cocktails were pretty dull and didn’t have the interesting flavors and combinations the menu promised. This experience made me sad. Xico was always about fresh and lively and inventive flavors, and I didn’t see any of that. No nuance, nothing appealing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t *bad.* It just wasn’t good, and for $125 for two with 20% fee included, it needs to be great.

we went here 10/22. We had been there before and had some good food, especially a chorizo salad taco on fresh seemingly hand made tortillas. That's not on the menu anymore... This time my partner had chicken mole and raved about it, she gave me a taste and it was really good. My dinner, the carnitas sampler came out on a cold plate at lukewarm temperature with cold corn tortillas on the side, they came straight out of the fridge and were commercial ones, not the handmade tortilleria type we had before. It wasn't really crowded when we were there and it took over a half hour to get our plates, so it should have been hot, I'd say....we may try it again, sometime, but gotta say, this was a dissappoint.

Beautiful space. Great service for our large group. Food was unique. Shrimp Sope was delicious- hot sauce was HOTT! Beet and chocolate mole had a bitterness or some flavor that was unexpected. Not sure if that was purposeful. Maybe in the summer I will come for back patio space which looks lovely.

Nice atmosphere. Great bar. Food, very good. Prices are high. What I didn’t like was having a 20% tip automatically added to the bill. Fortunately, the server informed me as I was about to add a ‘second’ tip. Btw good for her. I would have raised holy hell if she hadn’t. Tipping is completely out of control in this town. We need to stop calling it a ‘tip’ because now a days it often just gets taken regardless of the service. From now on, let’s just call it paying the servers wage. It’s not a tip. Our service was good and I would have left a good tip but in this case I was too busy paying her wage. Anyway, this is a good special occasion place or to take a date. Get the chocolate drink for desert. Best part of the meal.

First time here and a not so great experience. The food was tasty, but felt the price point was high for the quality and amount of food provided. Service was mediocre at best. We arrived around 5:40 to a mostly empty dining room, and were told that because we did not have a reservation, the earliest we could be seated would be 7:30 for a party of 2. We totally understood as it was Friday evening. We said we would look at other options possibly, and I checked Resy after walking outside and was surprised to see there were multiple reservations available for 6:30 and beyond, so we booked for 6:30. We arrived around 6:25 and were seated. We placed our drink, appetizer, and entree order all at once. It took about 25 minutes for the Queso Flameado to come out - it was tasty and the tortillas were warm. Then we waited another 45 minutes for our entrees of the beef birria quesadilla and fish tacos to come out. The flavors were good, but the portions for the birria quesadilla was shocking considering it was $25 + an additional 20% service fee. I understand it's upscale, but I felt the portion did not match the price point. The water cups were quite small (maybe 6oz) and I had an empty water cup the entire meal. The server was floating around and came to take finished plates, but did not refill the water cup. I get it was a busy Friday evening, but overall we felt like our table was neglected.

I left most of the food on my plate. The smoked pork was so salty you couldn't tell that it was smoked. The beans were even saltier. The sauce that accompanied the pork actually tasted like mildew. Over $100 and I walked away hungry. The service was fine, though. This was one of my favorite places, but its really taken a turn. Adding salt just so you will order more drinks is really a deal-breaker. I somehow forgot to mention the 14 inch long hair that was in my wife's meal!