El Jalapeño Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Glencoe

Everything was DELICIOUS.

At first, I wasn’t sure about the salsa. It wasn’t love at first bite but by the third chip I was HOOKED. Actual cilantro flavor (my pet peeve when it’s missing!) and good balance, just the right amount of spicy for me. Not at all watery.

We got street tacos and guacamole azteca with house-made hot sauce. The tacos came with a yummy fried jalapeño and onion: see photo cause that onion was gorgeous!

The guacamole azteca: Lemme tell y’all something. I LOVE AVOCADOS. I got this for the avocados but WOAH was the red onion delicious! It reminded me of pickled onions almost, but it’s just salt and garlic if I heard correctly… there’s gotta be some secret there cause they were delicious. we ate like it was going out of style and I used it as extra for the tacos (bc I split them all, see below)

Hot sauce: I may have been tearing up a little. Good flavor, plenty of heat, no regrets.

The street tacos: I’d rank the shrimp ones first, though they have less meat (duh, it’s shrimp), then grilled chicken, carne asada, and carnitas last. The carnitas had meat flavor but I have had some I liked better, although those were probably not even halfway authentic. These tonight were really really juicy, tho. The shrimp, chicken, and carne asada were seasoned BEAUTIFULLY for me and I am hard-to-please about steak in Mexican food. Fresh red onion and tons of cilantro, with chunks of perfectly ripe avocado to top it off. They come with two tortillas for structural integrity, I guess, but I actually split them all and ate eight mini tacos instead 😳 and these very nice people didn’t even comment on it 🤣

The people? Lovely. There were two servers and they got a little busy as I came at the beginning of their dinner rush. Having been a server myself, everyone seemed to leave satisfied from what I saw. They did a very good job at balancing everything they had going on and still made time to hear me rave about their food. You should be a little embarrassed for me and also a little impressed bc we finished it all 😅

We will definitely be back to check out the other menu items. I’ve never had birria but I guess it’s time to hop on the trend train and see where it takes me. Also, there was a sign about esquites and I ADORE street corn, but I forgot all about them when I saw that beautiful guac. Soon I’ll return to stalk those kernels.

Plus, they’re open on Monday and I tend to wanna grab food on Mondays and get frustrated bc most people are closed due to slow traffic.

I wish no slow traffic on El Jalapeño. Go try them out or try them again and bring your tastebuds with you. They’ll...

Perfect. The perfect blend of authentic and "Tex Mex". We ordered the Street corn, and it was the best we ever had including in multiple places in Mexico. The cheese dip was delicious and not watery like in most places these days. We ordered a couple of combos with things like chicken burritos, beef enchiladas, chili relenos, and they were PERFECT. My wife just spoon fed me a spoonful of JUST the refried beans, and it was DELICIOUS. They are doing things very different here while also keeping the menu easy to maneuver. Service was also perfect. He was very friendly, very careful not to get the order wrong, and also extremely knowledgeable about the menu and food.

Like I said. It was one of those rare "Perfect" experiences tonight. It was our first time in and can already tell that we will be eating here often...

Salsa...too much cilantro 🤮 Steak quesadilla...steak was very tough and chewy/stringy! Not good quality and makes me question what I ate 🤮 Wife also got like a rice bowl and thought the same. Grandson ordered cheese pizza and fries. They brought him pepperoni and he wouldn't eat 1 bite. Freezer burnt, crust half cooked on bottom but edge was hard? Like how??? AND how can you mess up fries??? Fries had no salt and also tasted freezer burnt and a weird taste like half cooked although they wasn't soft. Can't even explain it. Was looking at planning 2 group get togethers over next few weeks with 15 people, but we will look for another place to go. OH and if you chose to go, make sure you are ready for some bad karaoke! 👎 Now, if they are still open in a year, I may try it again, but they have some kinks...