Matt's BBQ Tacos

Portland's Most Decorated Cheap Taqueria Has Limited Hours — Plan Around Them

Matt's BBQ Tacos earns a Pearl Recommended designation for 2025 and has appeared on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats in North America list three consecutive years, climbing from the Recommended tier in 2023 to #147 in 2024 and #104 in 2025. If you've been once and liked it, this trajectory is the clearest signal to go back and go deeper. The Saturday and Sunday morning openings at 8 am are the sessions that most first-timers miss — weekend breakfast service at 2216 SE 50th Ave is the format to prioritize on your next visit.

Matt Vicedomini and Dustin Reum run a taqueria built around a specific premise: smoked meats and taco formats occupying the same plate. The BBQ-taco crossover is a niche with real precedent in Texas and Southern California, see Ditroit in Los Angeles for comparison, but Portland has few spots operating at this level of recognition in the category. The OAD Cheap Eats ranking puts Matt's BBQ Tacos in a peer group that includes some of the most consistent informal dining in North America, a meaningful credential for a format that can easily trend toward novelty over execution.

The hours reward regulars who plan. Monday through Thursday, service runs 11 am to 8:30 pm. Friday stretches to 9 pm. Saturday opens at 8 am and closes at 9 pm, the widest window of the week. Sunday runs 8 am to 8:30 pm. If you're visiting Portland mid-week and want to fit this in alongside dinner at Kann or Langbaan, the 11 am opening gives you a solid lunch anchor without competing against evening reservation pressure at those venues.

Booking is easy. This is a walk-in taqueria operation, no reservation system, no booking difficulty. The practical constraint here is timing within the day: the venue closes at 8:30 pm on most nights, which means it won't function as a late-night option after a show or long dinner elsewhere. Build it into lunch or an early dinner slot and the logistics are frictionless.

For a regular returning visitor, the weekend morning window at 8 am is the detail worth acting on. Most casual visitors arrive at lunch or early dinner. The Saturday slot in particular gives you the widest service window of the week and less competition for whatever comes off the smoker early. Portland's informal dining scene rewards this kind of timing intelligence, the same logic applies at Berlu and Nostrana, where off-peak timing consistently changes the quality of the experience.

On the price tier: no price range data is confirmed in our records. The OAD Cheap Eats classification reliably signals sub-$20 per person in this format and region, making this one of Portland's stronger value propositions if you're calibrating a trip that also includes higher-spend meals at places like Langbaan or Kann. Use Matt's BBQ Tacos as the lunch anchor and reserve your dinner budget for Portland's more booking-intensive rooms.

For broader Portland planning, see our full Portland restaurants guide, our Portland hotels guide, our Portland bars guide, our Portland wineries guide, and our Portland experiences guide.

Ratings & Recognition

• Pearl Recommended Restaurant (2025)
• Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats in North America, #104 (2025)
• Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats in North America, #147 (2024)
• Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats in North America, Recommended (2023)

Booking & Practical Details

Walk-in only. No reservation required. Booking difficulty: easy. Hours vary by day, Saturday offers the longest window (8 am–9 pm). Address: 2216 SE 50th Ave, Portland, OR 97214. Phone and website not confirmed in our records.

Quick reference: Walk-in taqueria, SE Portland, open daily from 11 am (8 am weekends), closes 8:30–9 pm depending on day.