Taqueria La Chilanguita — Restaurant in Baldwin Park

Taqueria La Chilanguita

Found this gem of a place tucked between a gas station and a beauty salon. Swung by on a Tuesday but they were closed, forgot that I read it in one of the reviews and tips. Not to be discouraged I came back to check out what's up with the near perfect rating. Got there before noon and I saw but one parking space available so I quickly eased into it. Walked inside and noted that out of the ten tables, 6 were occupied, one had a booster seat on top of the table, another was quickly taken by the man who walked in front of me so l had to take what's available. I sat on one end of two tables put together to form a long one I guess in case of bigger groups, not a lone diner like myself. The hostess didn't say anything though. It was a few minutes after, that I got a menu and decided on machaca con huevos. When the lady came to take my order I told her I wanted the machaca and pointed at the picture of a plate with what I presumed was shredded beef, two sunny side up eggs, rice and beans. She told me that was carne asada plate and the machaca con huevos is made with scrambled eggs, onions, tomatoes, and shredded beef. In the end I went for the carne asada plate. It didn't take long before my plate was delivered to me and I salivated at the aromas that assailed my nostrils. The beans, although a little on the runny side, was creamy, the rice was fluffy, both were so flavorful they were a meal by themselves. The carne asada was really good. Way back when, I was invited to my friend's house and her mom cooked carne asada and homemade tortillas. This carne asada and house made tortillas (3 of them that came in a warmer) almost brought me to tears, as they reminded me of my friend and her mom, both of whom I haven't seen in ages. I was trying to pace myself and look composed as I tried not to shovel the food as fast as I wanted to, being the only non-Hispanic customer wanted to look cute. Really good food makes me lose my mind sometimes. Lol. I had coffee with my big breakfast. Strong and hot coffee that came in a good sized mug, not those dainty little cups, and a cute little tin cup of creamer. It was a perfect accompaniment to my heavy meal.

As I made my way to the cashier to pay, I noticed a glass case with a variety of pan dulce (sweet bread). Got a dozen to go and I got a vanilla and chocolate conchas for free. Wow what a deal. Fast and friendly service, no wonder they have a near perfect score. It may be due to the not so great parking area, but I wouldn't dock a star for that. This place has got my two thumbs up. I'll be back for the machaca con huevos. Update: I took my son and mom with me this time. Mom had huarache with chicken, son had the chilaquiles con huevos y carne (al pastor) and I finally had the machaca con huevos, with hand made corn tortillas. All the food was excellent. Son had the flan for dessert. My cafe de olla tasted heavenly. I didn’t need sugar. The faint cinnamon flavor was...

Ordered a kids plate for my disabled little sister who doesn’t eat much, specifically asked for a kids plate and pointed at the kids menu to the waitress and she came back with a regular size order. I kindly reminded her I ordered from the kids menu and she said my sister is not a kid so she’s not allowed to get anything from that menu. If that was the case, she should’ve told me that while I was ordering! If she did, I would’ve been understanding and ordered something else. She didn’t apologize for the mistake, just asked me if I wanted the plate or not. I told her no since the miscommunication was their mistake not mine. I made sure I was very clear when ordering because the same issue happened in the past and I was told that I didn’t specify that I wanted the kids plate (I did) so to avoid any issues I just paid for the food that time anyway. I ended up sharing my plate with my sister. Also my daughter ordered the eggs and sausage and the sausage was very hard like plastic, she didn’t eat it. Today, we came back and we were not given menus until we asked and a couple that came in after us was given their food when our order had not been taken nor were we asked if we wanted drinks yet. We waited a bit longer and asked a younger waitress if our order will be taken soon, she didn’t seem concerned at all and just said “yeah they’re coming” but she never let the other waitress know we were still waiting. We finally decided to leave when a party of 6-7 came in and was immediately being helped by our waitress and getting their order taken. Waitress did not really care that we were leaving, no attempts to make things right or apologize. We still thanked them and went on our way. It seems that staff here thinks they are always in the right and that’s no way to run a business in my opinion. I’ve been coming here every weekend to take my mom and sister out to eat and it’s so disappointing that this place doesn’t really care about providing good customer service. Will not be coming back. Also I gave the atmosphere one star because it’s very hot in there and no AC only ceiling fans during...

Update on 10/31/20

Wow. The food tasted even better today than I remember. Not sure why. Seems like the owner is doing all the cooking again due to smaller staff (probably due to Covid), but everything was on point. Menudo, which I usually don’t love here but was craving, was delish. Had much more flavor than before. The owner even asked me how I wanted it (with or without pata, with or without maiz, etc) which I don’t recall the wait staff ever asking so she has to be the difference. Anyway, sorry if she had to let people go but the attention to detail was amazing. I also had a taco de buche which was amazing and my GF had the Chilaquiles with milanesa which was on point as well. I hope this place stays around and fully staffed again, but also hope she keeps her standards in place. Don’t get me wrong, food was always amazing, but was on another level when she is doing the order taking and cooking.

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Great little hole in the wall with great food and service. Everything I have tried here has been great and the service second to none. The owner is always here and make sure everything is perfect. On this trip I tried the wet carnitas burrito with green sauce which was very tasty. A little too much rice for me, but I think they were trying to make us happy in a way since my GF (who is a regular) always orders her dishes with double rice as she did this time with her chicken enchiladas. Next time I will make...