Taqueria Los Charros — Restaurant in Lincoln Park

First off, I'm not one to visit places on my own, but I took a chance with this place, and boy was it a great decision!

I walked into this clean, vibrant, newer Mexican taqueria, and sat by myself at the bar. I was immediately greeted by, who I would be introduced to later as "Lo", the bartender, and offered three different salsas/chips.

First impression was very positive. All three salsas were amazing, and then I tasted the margarita I ordered... FANTASTIC. It was pre-made, so I immediately had reservations, but soon realized it was on point. There's no artificial "lime popsicle" flavor, and they seemed very light in taste, which was refreshing. I thought perhaps they were very watered down, but man was I wrong. I can drink three margaritas anywhere and feel nothing, but three of these jumbos put a fuzzy smile on my face.

For my meal, I asked about the quesabirrias, and Lo immediately pointed to the front of the menu saying "that's our specialty", so, when in Rome...

The flavor profile of this dish: Imagine very, very tender pot roast, with no fat, slow cooked for hours, made into a quesadilla, then served with its own drippings as dipping sauce. Amazing.

Now let's talk "Lo". After very polite, tentative service from this young man, I felt my experience here was very positive. He never let a salsa, or margarita go empty, without asking if I'd like more. Upon getting my bill, I thanked my bartender who told then told me his name, and seemed genuinely happy that I had a good experience.

All in all, my reservations about dining alone were shattered with the professional hospitality, and quality food of this establishment. Being in food service for several years as a sous chef certainly trained my pallet, and let me tell you; the flavors were there.

Do yourself a favor and head up to Taqueria Los Charros. Go and see Lo, and tell him...

Wanted to give this place a try and finally made it there. We went around 3:30, figuring it would not be busy. Upon walking in, we noticed that the environment was nice. There are big windows bringing in lots of natural light and nice-looking decorations. At that time, there were only 2 other tables seated and 1 server and 1 bar tender. Had to wait a few minutes, but the server was nice and apologized for the wait as he brought over chips and 3 little salsas. If you are like me and have that nasty taste from cilantro, don't anticipate trying the normal or green salsa and the 3rd "hot" salsa didn't have too much heat but seemed oily vs salsa. I ordered the Mexican sandwich with the shredded chicken, and my wife ordered the chicken fajitas. The sandwich looked amazing, but it ended at that. There was minimal amount of shredded chicken on there, and what was there lacked in flavor. The rice seemed to be the main ingredient in this dish, and it also lacked flavor. The dish as a whole was lacking flavor and disappointing. The fajitas looked good, but the chicken looked charred, which could be a good thing but not in this case. The chicken was overcooked and dried out. It had potential as it actually had some flavor on the chicken, but that was ruined by over cooking. While we were there, there ended up being a total of 8 tables and 1 person sitting at the bar. The server appeared to be doing his best, but at that ratio, the service is lacking no matter how good the server is. In the end, we can say we tried it but...

Don’t get me wrong the food is great but after my carry out service today I will never go back. My fiancé ordered a carry out on the phone which the hostess read the order back and confirmed everything, when he got there to pick it up the order was incorrect and instead of offering to fix it they tried to blame my fiancé for making an incorrect order and tried to charge us for a separate dinner. Then, instead of remaking my dinner they offered to just “fix it” and add the missing ingredients into my quesadilla all to get home and see that they again made a mistake and gave me rice and beans when we were charged for double rice and asked for double rice. They also didn’t give us the separate side of rice we ordered and said we never ordered it since it wasn’t on the receipt. So I called to talk to the manager who was very unprofessional and rude and kept asking me the same question over and over again “so what’s wrong with your order?” and eventually ended up hanging up the phone because he asked the same question AGAIN to my fiancé who tried to re-explain the situation. There was no way he didn’t understand the issue, he didn’t care and he was being immature. I understand they were busy and I’m never one to call and complain but this service was terrible and whoever took the carry out needs to do better at their job. Sad when management doesn’t care about customer...