salvador mollys

mothra says.....hot and tasty cuisine.i had heard
of salvador molly's and driven by this restaurant once prior. 
i thought that this was a strictly central american restaurant.  not knowing, for a number of weeks, it just
was not on my list of go to restaurants. however, i perused  zomato.com  and “sm’s” website and discovered something
entirely different.  k and i were in the
mood for a sandwich recently and dropped in for the first time. 

ian greeted us at the door and we seated ourselves
at the far end of the bar.  after two of oregon’s
finest, k ordered a kona long board and me a never ending iced tea.  yum! 
in short time, k’s two kahlua pork white corn tacos filled with peppers,
onions, cilantro, cotija cheese, and crema arrived…. served with yellow rice,
creamy black beans and pico de guyo.    my cubano sandwich served with garlic curly
fries arrived and looked delicious. 
first of all, my sandwich was hot out of the kitchen.  i motioned ian over and complimented the restaurant
(and the chef) on serving hot food.  it
is rather rare nowadays to get hot food ….. can you believe it?  in addition, this sandwich had ham, roast
pork loin, swiss cheese, pickle and mustard on a roll.  then, pressed just right so that all of the
cheese melted nicely.  ten minutes later,
my sandwich was still hot.  amazing.  the curly fries were seasoned nicely and not ian’s
fault, but just a little too much garlic. i moved it aside and continued dining
on the fries. 

i had a bite of k’s pork tacos and again, hot
food.  what’s up with that! nice.  the pork was piled nicely onto a white corn
tortilla and had all of the right ingredients in this flavorful taco dish.  i like yellow rice but normally pass on black
beans.  k scooped some onto my plate and
said to try them:  actually, creamy with
a nice flavor.

ian checked on us and must have filled my iced tea
glass at least four times on a rather warm portland afternoon.

this was an unexpected treat here at salvador
molly’s.  yes, a new favorite for the
mothra family.  great service, good beer
and drink menu, terrific food  menu
(yucatan jerk, bhan mei, satay chicken, fish tacos, chicken & mango just to
name a few), good prices, and hot food right out of the kitchen.    with 20% tip, $33.00 out the door.  mothra says……3.85 of 5.0

so if you want a slightly overpriced menu that really highlights the diversity of portland’s population or try your hand at consuming edible fireballs, check outsalvadormolly’s!

what happened tosalvadormolly's?. the food has taken a big dive in the last year, what happened???? about eight of us would go there all the time, now no one wants to go because of the change. their wonderful mashed potato balls are now mushy and cold, just nasty! almost none of their food is worth ordering, how sad!!! we miss what it once was!

overall we had a very pleasant experience while atsalvadormolly’s in portland, and definitely would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. if you have your own experiences or a review ofsalvadormolly’s please feel free to drop a note in the comments.

may be back.. we had a groupon to use forsalvadormollys, and tried to go last weekend...wow huge wait, so we left to return on a less busier night...i don't thinksalvadormollys has a less busier night!
for starts we had the memphis blue smothered fries...i have it on good authority that these fries along with a cold beer cure the common hangover. we ate about half and could have easily eaten them all they were so good, but we have a starving college student at home... the bf had the baja saba fish taco's and said the fish was good tender crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. i had the chicken tamale and it was o.k. the cornmeal of the tamale was dry and so was the chicken on the inside, but we both agree that the black beans were fantastic. we may go back someday.

a must visit. i cannot say enough about our visit tosalvadormolly's. we had heard about this unique restaurant on man vs. food. a few days later we picked up a deal on livingsocial.com. we finally got to give them a try last week. my wife and two daughters, ages 8 and 11, dined with me. we were promptly greeted and seated by a very friendly staff member. our server soon followed and answered some questions we had about the menu.

i ordered the pele's volcano and a single great balls of fire. the great balls of fire are habanero cheese fritters served with a habanero sauce. these suckers are hot!!! the challenge is to eat five of these with all the sauce to have your picture put up on the wall of flame.there is no way i could eat five! i thought it was pretty good and might try it again. it is very hot. the pele's volcano comes as a large portion of their huricane garlic fries topped with some of the best pulled pork i have every had which itself was served on garlic bread..

my wife ordered the el jefe's burrito. as buddy the elf would say: "it is ginormous!" my wife stated is was very good and the yucatan chicken filling was also very good.

my oldest daughter had the molly o's. she said they were very good.

my youngest ordered the kid's quesadilla. when it arrived she was disappointed to see that it came with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. one one of the several occasions are server stopped by to ask how every thing tasted he noticed she was not eating her food. he asked if there was anything wrong. he promptly had the kitchen make a new one without the parmesan cheese. this really impressed me and really shows that he went above and beyond what is expected. he noticed her and saw that there may be a problem. great service. i just wish i could remember his name.

service: outstanding
food: excellent
overall: excellent service, food and atmosphere. will definitely be going back!

simply delicious!. i don't visit portland terribly often, but every time i do i find myself cravingsalvadormolly's. my first trip was a couple of years ago, following the "great balls of fire" challenge being aired on man vs. food. a friend and i decided to partake, but didn't want to do so on an empty stomach. he ordered a peanut-crusted chicken dish (absolutely delicious, but no longer on the menu :( ) and i got the jambalaya. (no complaints here either). we downed a few pints of courage juice (they even have a couple molly-exclusive beers!) and ordered up some fritters along with a pitcher of pbr.
service was incredibly helpful and quite prompt, especially considering how busy they were. we got the fritters, which, despite being so mind-blowingly hot, smelled really good! we both were able to finish the challenge, we got a pic taken (they were even kind enough to take a second photo that i could bring home), paid our tab, grabbed a couple lemonheads from the fish bowl, and left with happy, full bellies and burning tongues.
the most visit was july 1, 2011. my aforementioned buddy and some other friends were more than happy to meet me there. we split the aji duck wings, cheesy poofs and the caribbean bollitos for appetizers. all pretty darn good. i got the djibouti injera platter. next to the peanut crusted chicken this might be one of my favorite things on the menu! thanks for a great dining experience! we'll definitely be back.

decided to hit upsalvadormolly's for the first time for lunch today with the family. the menu was full of so many different ethnic food choices it was hard to choose from. our two kids, 5 and 9, choose the simple cheesy noodles and dino nuggets. my wife had the tamale which she really liked and i had the burrito with the pulled chicken and it was good.

i also order 2 great balls of fire. it sounded good and since i like spicy food i decided to give it a go. it was a learning experience. these things are seriously hot and spicy and i like hot and spicy but the level of burn was extreme. i would say to stay well away from this unless you have a cast iron stomach and can take the burning pain "it feels so good" result of eating one of these things. i ate one and decided that the 2nd one was to be left alone as i didn't want to break down in tears. funny thing was there were two guys at a table next to us and they each had one. the one guy ate his without flinching and the second finished up and had to run to the bathroom. i saw him sitting outside on a bench recovering while his friend and family were still eating inside. be careful with the great balls of fire!

so my brother suggestedsalvadormolly's for dinner because he heard good things about it. we didn't realize that this was a spot that man vs food went too. apparently you can do the great balls of fire challenge if you like, but we didn't partake. howeve

good global cuisine..... i foundsalvadormolly's about 1,000 sqft too small, but that is probably just because i am a fatkid. aside from the cramped quarters, the food is actually quite good. i have been there a few times and was happy with all my ordered entrees. i would recommend staying away from the firey fritters. i enjoy spicy food and ate two of the fritters without much ado, but later that night my stomach put in some serious objections. i have never felt more uncomfortable after a meal. it was the most serious indigestion of my life. i would go back, but won't test my iron stomach again since it seems to be made of aluminum.

changed owners. we used to go here all the time up until a year (or so?) ago. it changed owners (rumored that old owners sold to concentrate on their catering business) and the entire vibe is different. they changed the menu, decor, staff, raised prices, and no more peanuts!

new owner was walking around talking on his cell phone in the middle of the restaurant. there were flies everywhere (it was the middle of winter). we tried it twice after the switch and haven't been back since, so in all fairness they may have made improvements in the meantime- but it isn't the same ol'salvadormolly's...