By Aly Ferris
North Portland's Lombard Street has one of the best selections of dive bars, fast food franchises and cheap stores in the entire Rose City.
Where else can you find a Waffle Hut, Dancing Bare and Jesusito 2 second-hand clothing store within a six-block radius of one another?
However, when searching for cheap eats on Lombard - or anywhere for that matter - you're often taking a gamble. Many of these places, while cheap and delicious at first bite, are often hit-or-miss a few hours later.
A burrito from an unnamed Lombard burrito monarch will often leave the stomach quite unsettled for one to six hours after consumption.
Sandwiched between a used bookstore and an organic market in downtown St. Johns, the Santa Cruz Panaderia Taqueria at 8630 N. Lombard St. easily offers the most bang for your buck, without any of those nasty I-paid-less-than-a-fiver-for-this-and-now-I'm-really-paying-for-this side effects.
A chicken burrito will set you back a mere $3.50 and is just barely smaller than a $6 Chipotle monster. The difference? While Chipotle tends to fill their burritos with rice and beans, the Panaderia Taqueria burritos are stuffed with chicken, cilantro, cheese, plus the perfect amount of rice and beans.
While some large burritos run the risk of uneven distribution (remember the first few all-rice bites of your Tuesday Chicken Wrap?) every bite of your Panaderia Taqueria burrito is evenly perfect.
The finished burrito is even grilled briefly before being delivered to your table, where both red and green sauces await your judgment and necessity.
There are a few booths, but most of the seating is found at long cafeteria-style tables so you'll probably be sitting with a few people you've never met.
The Panaderia Taqueria is actually a Tienda Mexicana, a grocery store specializing in Mexican food.
The restaurant is located in the back room, but it's easy to get distracted by the piñatas, birthday cakes and other baked goods that are exhibited in the front of the store.
They are also a panaderia (bakery) and the entire store smells of sticky buns, donuts and cupcakes. It's nearly impossible to enter without buying something, and odds are whatever it is will taste good.
On any given Sunday, the restaurant, which features deli style seating, a full-wall mural and Coca Cola in a glass bottle, is filled with Hispanic families - generally a good sign of the authenticity of a Mexican food restaurant.
The only menu in the entire restaurant is written in Spanish and hangs on the wall behind the cash register. It has more pictures than words - helpful if Spanish is not your native tongue.
Located down the street from Anna Bananna's and across from Starbucks, the Taqueria Panaderia is a perfect study break when studying off campus in St. Johns. It's also easy to get to, just take the 44 bus from UP into St. Johns.
So support your local economy. Forego Taco Bell in favor of the Santa Cruz Panaderia Taqueria.
