Flaco's Tacos — Restaurant in Chicago

I kind of expected more from Flaco's Tacos. It had decent reviews on Yelp, and I was within walking distance, so I figured why not get some Mexican cuisine? After all, I am from California, so I love me some taqueria. Flaco's Tacos is a nice little Mexican joint right in South Loop. Once you enter this restaurant, you are welcomed with a clean spot with plenty of seating for all. When I was there, there were probably only about 2-3 occupied tables, so you don't need to worry about seating, especially at night. Here at Flaco's, you can get the standard Mexican fixings: burritos, tacos, sandwiches, tamales, and of course you can opt for their own version of the burrito bowl (taco salad).

Order up at the counter, and in a matter of minutes, your food is brought to your table. As far as prices go, this place is pretty standard in comparison to a taqueria or Chiptole. The difference is that this place isn't quite authentic, which is also quite disappointing. With the pictures that I saw, I thought that this place would have amazingly tasty food, but in the end, it was just a little mediocre and bland. I decided to order the arrachera (grilled skirt steak) burrito, while my colleague opted for the taco salad. The burrito showed up to my table looking pretty good. It was a hefty portion, which is always nice, so I was pretty stoked to dive right in. Unfortunately the hype didn't live up to my expectations. The steak just tasted kind of on the blander side, and there wasn't Mexican rice inside! Flaco's burrito was loaded with: Chihuahua cheese, fresh cilantro, onion & sour cream on flour tortillas. Without the extra carb inside, it just tasted a little empty inside. With the taco salad, there was a whole lot of salad in there, but not much else. Even when compared to Chipotle's burrito bowl, which is the furthest you can get from authentic, is 10x better than Flaco's taco salad. It just looked like 85% lettuce, and sprinkled with some meat and salsa on top. For $7, I would probably stray away from this one unless you really, really want to eat light.

Flaco's Tacos isn't a horrible place to eat. The prices are reasonable, and the food is clean, but there just feels like there is a missing element in all of their dishes. From a pretty bare taco salad, to a semi-filling burrito, Flaco's is okay, but not great. Probably not the spot to hit if you want that authentic...

-5 stars. Go to Flaco's if you want an unprofessional, angry employee arguing with you. I went to this place, looked at the menu, saw that there were several vegetarian offerings, marked by a green asterisk with a footnote explaining that, so I decided to tell this person taking my order behind the counter that I wanted a poblano taco combo and one additional chicken taco, separate from the combo. She told me that she had an order for a vegetarian combo and a separate chicken taco. I told her that it wasn't a "vegetarian combo" (there is no such thing on the menu), I told her that it was a poblano combo, the way it is exactly in the menu, while I pointed that out to her. She came back at me arguing that the poblano combo WAS a vegetarian combo, ignoring the fact that, while that may be true, that doesn't tell me whether she got my order right or wrong because there are several vegetarian taco options, so a "vegetarian combo" could be any of those. At this point, I asked her why she was arguing with me, and she replied (has NOBODY ever trained any of these employees on customer service??????? An employee is never supposed to argue with a customer, especially when the employee is wrong and just acting rightful and argumentative) that all she was doing was telling me that I had ordered a "vegetarian combo" (which I didn't, I ordered clearly a poblano combo, one of several vegetarian options for the tacos they have on the menu). I also asked if she wanted my money and my business, but since she had this belligerent attitude all over her, I decided to give up and left. NEVER order and eat food from a place where you've had any problems with the restaurant staff before that food gets to you, we all know what they can do to your food. So I just walked out and left, I'm never coming back and I'm going to let everyone I know know that this is a terrible place with unprofessional, immature, emotional,...

Still tasteless, and now complete with horrible customer service and wait times.

Customer Service and Wait Times:

My friend and I stopped in to grab a few tacos to go. It took approximately twenty-five (25) minutes for my friend to receive three (3) tacos, and me to receive two (2) tacos. That’s right folks, twenty-five (25) minutes. When I inquired about the delay, I was told it would be a while because there were other orders in front of me. When I pointed out that the gentlemen before us had already received their food about 15-20 minutes prior, I was told there were online orders that they had to accommodate. Never have I ever felt like my business didn’t matter until this exchange. It’s unfortunate, it’s unprofessional, and clearly this restaurant values the online orders over those that frequent the restaurant.

Taste:

This is one of a few taco shops in the city where you need salsa - without it, it’s just a blob of blandness. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 4 years and stopped coming after 1.5-2 years. Although the location is super convenient, I couldn’t allow myself to continue to eat bland tacos. I regret not following my own advice. The taste hasn’t gotten any better since the last time I ate here.

Bottom Line:

SAVE YOUR MONEY and the STRESS, and go somewhere else. The wait isn’t worth it and neither are the...