Portland Happy Hour: Cha Taqueria & Bar

Posted by Kelly

What: Cha Taqueria & Bar
Where: 305 NW 21st (at Everett), Portland
When: 4-6pm Mon-Thurs, 3-6pm Fri-Sun, and 10pm-12am Late Night Fri & Sat
Honey's Heart: Sangria

I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't been to Cha Taqueria and Bar happy hour until about a month ago even though it's in my neighborhood. When I told Laura I hadn't been her reaction was, "what kind of happy hour goer are you?" You may think (at least I did) that since I have this blog I'm pretty excellent at happy hour attendance, but I guess I could step it up...

We went during the couple days when there was actually sun and we were able to sit outside at one of their long community tables. We each ordered Sangria Roja ($5.50) and snacked on complimentary chips with beans and guacamole.

Eager to hear about Laura's Europe trip we decided to focus quickly on the menu and order. Since Laura and Sofi had been here before I asked for suggestions, but they basically like it all. Sofi and I shared the Nachos ($5) and Ceviche de La Casa ($6). Ceviche is always refreshing on a sunny day, the only thing I didn't like about this one was the green olives in it. I LOVE green olives, but I seemed to avoid them in favor of the fish, cucumbers, and avocado.

Laura went with the Santo Burrito ($5) with Pastor Pork. Sof and I managed to steal a few bites, delish! 

Here is the entire happy hour menu including enchiladas, taquitos, picaditas, tacos and more!

Portland Restaurant: Santa Fe Taqueria

Posted by Kelly

What: Santa Fe Taqueria 

Where: 831 NW 23rd Ave, Portland

When: Didn't make it to HH, but it happens Mon-Fri 4-7pm, 10-12pm

Honeys Heart: Ceviche ($5)

Recently I started a new job with PUNCH Event Marketing in Portland. I love my boss and my new responsibilities but I am still on a serious budget, therefore I am loving Groupon! I have already blogged about how I love groupons, but if you haven't already checked it out...do!

A couple months ago I bought one offering $10 for $25 worth of food at Santa Fe (a steal right?!) I finally remembered to ask Adam to print it and we tried it out. Living just off of NW 21st it is pretty crazy that we haven't made it here already, but now with our groupon we had extra motivation. 

After about 10 minutes of staring at their unique menu written on the wall we made some decisions and ordered at the front. We shared the Ceviche appetizer and a side of guacamole ($2.75). This combination of shrimp, tomato, avocado, onion, cilantro, and lime juice was really good and probably my favorite thing we ordered.

For my main meal I chose the Fajita Dinner ($9.50). A sizzling plate of peppers, onions, and chicken, paired with some sour cream, guac, lettuce, beans, and rice is never a disappointment! Served with your choice of black, pinto, or refried beans, and an option of corn or flour tortillas these fajitas are pretty great.

Adam chose the Brazilian Wrap ($8.50) filled with rice, beans, spicy Brazilian meat, chipotle sauce and topped with a fruit salsa. The oranges balanced well with the spice of the meat and it was definitely filling!

Finally, feeling happy that we were saving, we both got margaritas. I ordered the house marg and Adam went for a cadillac. The margaritas were good and finished our order out at $36. This means we paid $21 for $36 worth of food. Not too shabs! I am definitely looking forward to my next groupon experience!

Vancouver (WA) Happy Hour: Chevy's

Posted by Kelly

What: Chevy's
Where: 4315 NE Thurston Way, Vancouver, WA
When: Mon-Fri 3-7pm
Honeys Heart: It's fast!

Living in Portland for the last 5 years has made me, well, a bit of a restaurant snob. Yeah, it's true. In Portland there are endless restaurant options, all equally as delicious as the last and usually priced more reasonably than chain restaurants. My favorite examples of this are Pause, where a half pound, organic, fresh ground beef burger and fries is like $8.95, try finding something that delicious at Red Robin. Or check out Justa Pasta in NW for some great homemade pasta dishes, Olive Garden has nothing on them.

Okay, enough chain restaurant bashing. They're not THAT bad. They actually have some benefits:


1.) They are predictable: You know exactly what you're going to get every time. They don't really change based on geographic area. It's like going to Starbucks in a foreign country. You know that you're going to get a coffee that tastes the same as it does in your home town.


2.) They have big dining areas: There will likely be open seating, if not in the restaurant then in the bar. Meaning you can get in, get served, and get out.

...okay so they have at least 2 benefits. Whatever. Point: my new job is taking me to new exciting places like Vancouver, WA. Well, maybe that's not very exciting, but we do have to go there for meetings about the Discovery Walk Festival happening at the end of April. Expecting traffic from Portland to Vancouver to be dreadful (the usual) we left with plenty of time to spare. Rocking the car pool lane we arrived in Vancouver 50 minutes before our meeting was planned to start. Time for HH? Yes.

We walked into Chevy's which was busy, but there was room at the bar. We sat down, each ordered a $3 blended original margarita (can't be bad!) and briefly reviewed the 50% off appetizer menu.

Five minutes later we ordered the nachos and chicken flautas. Fifteen minutes later we had our food. Twenty minutes later we were full. Five minutes later we had paid our bill and five minutes after that we were promptly arriving at our meeting.

The nachos were unique in that each chip was individually covered in beans, meat and cheese. In this case every chip is the best chip!

The chicken flautas claim to be "crispy," but I didn't find them incredibly crispy. They were filled with chicken and served with a unique dipping sauce (aka not salsa). Tasty. I feel like Mexican food (much like pizza), is generally satisfying and hard to completely ruin, so we left quite satisfied.

Overall not bad, no Por Que No?, but it's not trying to be. After we ordered we noticed people heading over to a "do-it-yourself" taco bar...this looked even quicker and probably no more expensive. I'm pretty sure we'll be back at Chevy's before our next meeting trying out the taco bar and enjoying a post long day, pre-meeting marg!