Uncle Julio's North Ave — Restaurant in Chicago

I have been a huge fan for over 20 yrs when I use to go there twice a month for many years. I haven't been there since before the pandemic and decided to finally go after the city fully reopened, and enjoy a delicious and relaxing night out for dinner with my husband. We made reservations and arrived at least 5 minutes ahead. Once we checked in we were told by the hostess that it would take a few minutes to get our table ready. We moved into a area by the high top tables in the bar area as there was a family of 6 waiting right there as well for their table. Nearly 15 minutes went by and still no table although there were at least 9 open in the main dining area. During our wait a party of 7-8 young men came in and were also told to wait for their table to be ready AT this point the very small waiting area is getting crowded and wait staff needed to walk between all of us with their trays to get & serve their tables. I was disappointed that they was no direction of asking diners to move even if needed, outside until their tables are ready. An additional 5 diners were coming in to be seated & at this point it's just becoming comical with the amount of people standing there waiting in a space that was maybe 20' x 20' (VERY SMALL) & should only hold maybe up to 6-8 people. I was happy to be able to go out and trust that the very fresh post-Covid safety precautions weren't considered. This is exactly how the virus will spike again regardless if vaccinated or not, being in a big crowd with no masks required! After finally being seating we were going to be seated next to a nice family that has 2 toddler which I wouldn't typically mind being a mother however, both kids were screaming obnoxiously and throwing food around with very minimal supervision of their parents enjoying alcoholic beverages. (I get it but geez, control your kids!) So we finally are seated ready to order our famous Fajitas & btw make sure to bring a phone to be able to view the menu via "Scan code". Ok n.p! Ordered and we just got our drinks from the bar and 3 minutes later our food came out. I was really surprised that it was ready that quick and realized that the skillet wasn't sizzling as it's suppose to with the fajita veggies, steak and chicken. Huh..... before I made that realization the waiter didn't ask if we needed anything else and walked away. He greeted us and took our order, served it and brought the check and I did tip him 20% because this poor management was not his fault. We proceeded to eat our much anticipated dinner date night. The food was re-heated not fresh at all!!!! We both ate 1 Fajita each and finished our drinks and asked for the check. I have never ever had this experience there before it was always a 5 stars overall. We're not the complaining type of couple so we didn't complain about the entire horrible overall experience but I did quickly mention to the Manager that the over crowding wait are was not ok! Needless to say I will never go back there again and spend another dime let alone over $80 for a 20+ min wait for a table with people on top of each other and re-heated food with screaming children from the table next to us...

What's not to love about this place? :) The only thing is once you tack on the tip it seems clearly expensive!!! :'( I feel like I was eating at Red Lobster!!!:'( If it was just a little bit more cheaper I would probably eat there more often!!!:):):) That is the only reason why I downgraded my review to 4 stars. For 3 people to eat there for $150 was excessive. Howeverrrrrrr, to be fair to them, we did order a side lobster tail and the Chocolate Lover's Pinyada.:):):):):) Having said that, My grade for EVERYTHING ELSE....An A++++++++++!!!!!!!!!! And honestly that rating is still not enough!!!!!!!!!! It is also necessary to say that the food portions I tell you are generous, and ALL the left-overs that you take home with you taste, belive it or not, EXACTLY THE SAME the 3rd or the 4th day as they did the night you ate at the restaurant!!! There is also one distinction that I would like to make about Uncle Julio's compared to other Mexican restaurants. I would crucially describe Uncle Julio's more of a Mexican-Fiesta-kind-of-restaurant rather than just being a traditional Mexican restaurant!!!:):):) It is a family-style restaurant; sit-down menu; you can make reservations here and they're still flexible; great customer service on the telephone; beautiful hostesses; outstanding servers; excellent waiters; unusually-great food selections; take-out;valet service and the best part is....drum roll please... I would be comfortable in bringing ANYONE here, especially the Senior and Disabled populations, although it can get noisey in there at their busiest times. But...that's the fun of it! And I want to clarify, noisey only by the sheer number of people in there, not in an obnoxious kind-of-way. They EARN their...

Honestly overpriced for what they do offer in both food service and customer service, and it was disappointing because I was really excited to try a new Mexican place. Off the bat, you can't use their parking lot which is RIGHT in front of the restaurant unless you pay them to valet. Valet when the restaurant isn't down the block or around the corner but directly in front? We ended up parking on the street for free and walking all the way back. That alone should've been a sign.

The waitress Nayely simply did not have the patience to explain their "specials" to us, which was not that much of a difference than getting regular priced. Either way we went with it. Decided on a margarita special that comprised of two margaritas for 1, so I wanted sweet and my cousin wanted the spicy one and we made this clear. Needless to say, the waitress brought 2 shakers which would be 2 drinks each and was planning on charging us twice. We explained this was a mistake and she acted like she couldn't measure the drinks accordingly and still give us each the 1 margarita we wanted. She tried to disregard us and then just asked us which do you want instead of proportioning ths drinks so we could each get the ONE sweet/spicy we wanted. We had her take back the spicy since she claimed she didnt know what we were talking about. From then on, she had a nasty disposition towards us. Didn't want to explain the menu, standoffish, etc. Their menu has a lot going on without much which was also another letdown. Don't even let me get started on the chocolate pinata being a waste. It was just OK. I have dined at cheaper Mexican restaurants with warmer and friendlier servers. It's sad as much as I wanted to try this place it was a...