Ah, end-of-semester in Forest Grove: The temperatures rise, the sun emerges from hiding, and a…read morecertain class of local customer vents its spleen about reasonable levels of service that they've taken as personal slights and affronts to their character.
Corona, unfortunately, is a magnet for this type of individual. A counter-service taqueria that prides itself on a robust menu (including a college-town eating contest involving a burrito roughly the size of an anaconda), party cocktails (snake-green margarita with energy drink, anyone?), and a festive atmosphere of live music, theme parties, comedy, and karaoke.
It's a place that's typically a beloved college-town staple, but has its rating knocked down a few pegs around this time of year by disgruntled customers looking to settle scores. Armed with petty resentments stemming from an occasion when the restaurant confiscated their fake ID, cut off alcohol service to them and their pre-gamed and over served friends, or booted them out of the place for being their worst selves, these folks will navigate a platform's rules to insist that--suddenly and swiftly--the quality of its food/drinks/service has gone into the toilet.
Well, despite what the end-of-semester tide of vitriol indicates, Corona is every bit what it once was... even if that fairly low bar was near-campus party restaurant. The food is neither the best nor worst in this corner of Washington County (amid strong competition), the drinks tend toward goofy hummingbird feed but are still as inexpensive and potent as campus adjacency would suggest, and the service holds up remarkably well for a staff that's regularly dealing with clientele that's still approaching the world in its service-industry training wheels.
A rural college town can be a difficult setting for any restaurant. You're asked to cater to more cosmopolitan diets that the surrounding area typically addresses and, at the same time, are asked to please a clientele that chooses its entrees based on photographs of food included with the menu. If there's a middle ground, it seldom shows up in reviews.
But Corona has weathered far worse than seasonal agitation--it was nearly destroyed by an arsonist in 2023--and continues to provide a more consistent menu and community space than the end-of-semester screeds suggest. It's difficult to please everyone in this kind of college town, but Tacqueria Corona has become exactly the resilient staple Forest Grove and Pacific students (and faculty) deserve.
