El Forastero — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

Do not order Doordash delivery! Scroll further down for more on that. I almost always dine in. I mostly have the Chilaquiles verdes, Cecina, and coffee, but they are exceptionally good. I would say the Chilaquiles verdes are at least in the top 3 of all Chicago (especially if you like them crispy, not drowned in cheese, and not overly spicy/hot) Their beans are excellent, and they always taste very fresh. Rice is pretty good, too. Their caldo de res is wonderful. The meat is cooked to be very tender. The soup is well seasoned, and the vegetables look and taste very fresh ( they're not tired-looking like in some places). Great service, very clean restrooms. They take credit cards now. My grandson has the crispy potato tacos here and loves them. The kids' chicken tenders are an enormous serving size. On the weekends, their Pozole and Menudo are excellent. Their Menudo is cut small and very tender. Their pozole has tender meat and a beautiful full, rich flavor. Their Agua de Tamarindo is very, very, very good.

All of that being said I do not recommend any of their food via DoorDash. This last time I ordered Doordash they left it dangling from the outside banister. The coffee was spilled all over in the bag and all into my chilaquiles. The Chilaquiles where supposed to be green but they were a Greenish brown color... I didn't realize until I tried them... it tasted horrible. I only had less then 1/4 of my coffee left in the cup so that tells you how much the Chilaquiles soaked up. Btw even with pictures Doordash refused to refund the full amount. They wanted to give me $8 out of the $22 I was charged. Btw I did specifically choose to have the order handed to me in person and that was disregarded. So so...

New Years Day means new opportunities, and I took a chance on El Forastero. My review was based on take-out. The hostess is very friendly and gets top marks for customer service. The taco dinner and a coke cost around $17 which is pricey in this poor hero's opinion but the quality of food is really good. If you stay to dine-in, the dining room looks small but does have a decent amount of tables and booths and the kitchen is right next to you meaning the aroma of delicious food...

Decided to try El Forastero and I have to say, we were very impressed. We have ordered a few items from the menu to see if the quality of different items were the same. I have yet to be disappointed. Reason for my 3 star review under atmosphere is the establishment is clean and nice but it seems that their air conditioning is not able to keep up or needs better circulation. Hence we always...