La Unica Food Mart — Restaurant in Lake View Township

VIBE: Ok, so this little hidden gem is attached to a Spanish market.. a mini mercado if you will. The store itself isn't anything to write home about but the restaurant is bright, open and inviting. Big menus that describe the different types of cuisines offered there, with music playing and a see through kitchen which is always cool to observe.

FOOD: Ummmmm.. soooooooo amazingly flavorful! We got the stewed oxtail which came with a soft cuban tamale, the squid rice, chicken fricasse and fried yuca. It was all so yummy! And they had a great creamy green sauce/salsa in a bottle.

STAFF: The people were so nice and welcoming. The manager came out to translate/answer questions we had about certain menu items, and gave us that "I'll take care of you" vibe like we were VIPs.

PARKING/MISC: This is off of a pretty busy corner of Devon, a few blocks east of Clark. We didn't find parking directly on Devon but we were able to secure a spot on a nearby residential street about a block away.

We strolled over to the market after our meal, and had a chance to browse what was available. We ended up buying some teqeunos [Venezuelan cheese sticks] and some other items.

Only gripe I had was that there was a piece of "used" tissue in the trash of the bathroom which is definitely not what you want to see before you eat. Idk why it wasn't flushed, but to the owner/management, please consider purchasing a trash can with a lid.

Other than that, we had a fantastic meal...

If I could give zero Stars I would. Went in there yesterday at about 1:00 p.m. to have lunch with my daughter and a friend. My friend ordered a jibarito, my daughter had steak tacos, and I had a steak sandwich... I ordered a side of tostones with my sandwich and my daughter had an order of rice and beans with her tacos. The plantain on my friends hibarito and Michael stone is were burnt to the point where they were the consistency of wood and were unseasoned. My daughter's steak tacos were bland and her beans were unseasoned and tasted disgusting. Not to mention the entire dining room smell like raw sewage. I grew up in the area and spent the better part of my early childhood eating from this establishment. I'm going to take an educated guess and say that it's not the same owners. I'm so disappointed and how much the quality of food has declined.... La Unica was a childhood staple for me.... Now they're just serving plates of disappointment. I'm reading all of these positive reviews and wondering if I went on the wrong day?!?! Because my experience was god awful. I didn't know whether or not to eat the tostones or use them to...

Mediocre at best. Had a friend recommend a couple of things here, so we tried it. I'm glad it is far north, so we won't visit again. Initially, the visit started off good. Then it just kind of went downhill. The food was so-so. The service, so-so. Then the cherry on top...paying our bill. So when we ordered, we asked what type of rice came with our food, and the nice lady at the counter said yellow rice. When our order came, it was arroz con gris. We asked the waiter about the yellow rice, and he was a bit hesitant about getting us a small order of yellow rice. The food was nothing to write home about, especially the rice, so when we went up to pay, they wanted to charge us for the yellow rice. We told him that the lady said it came with yellow rice, but he was insistent that it came with the other rice. He then proceeded to say "we don't have the menu memorized ". WHAT!!! REALLY!!! It's your restaurant. The fact that you say that blows my mind. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars was because of the nice lady behind the counter....