El Taco Real — Restaurant in North Township

I came here to eat at one of my grandma's favorite Mexican restaurants She recently passed and I begged my family to come here. 12 of us in tow, we called the restaurant to alert of our arrival. We arrived 10 min to 8 pm. They close at 9.

There is a table set up in the front but the woman tells us to go stand in the bar so they can set up a table for us. We waited 15 min to be walked back to this same table that was sitting there when we arrived. But there were now 3 baskets of chips.

Let me start off and state that 8 of us sat while waiting for the remaining to arrive. So we sat, ate some chips, ordered queso fresco and guac. The rest soon arrives and my brother says he wants more of the queso fresco.. I ask the server if there is a cost for the queso fresco and she says yes $2 per bowl and as she starts to walk off she casually mentions there is a cost when you ask for chips. So, I ask well how many baskets do we get before it's considered an ask? She says well your regulars so it's not a big deal (my grandparents come here a lot) update: my grandparents have been bringing me since I was a child. I said well more have arrived now and there haven't been more chips delivered and I want to make sure I understand how it works.

The food was just okay this night. Nothing horrible but if it was my first time here I wouldn't return type of okay.

Now comes the bill and hidden in the middle are charges for chips.. so I waited until she returned to ask her if that was a mistake as she said that there wasn't going to be. She said it's on the menu.. I began to ask well how many baskets do you get for 12 people? She says well two per table. I said well there are 12 of us stuffed at 2 tables so how many chips for 12 people? We only received 3 baskets, which removes her 2 per table explanation. She said well the that end ordered more chips.. that end? Yeah, a 6 and 11 year old. So you took orders for a charge item from minors? Okay. My cousin pointed out they took a half basket away and returned with it.

My final question was how many baskets did we receive? She says she doesn't know but charged us for the last two.

I said to her if she doesn't know then why charge? If she's steadfast on charging I would be deducting from my tip as this is based on principle. As she starts working on another table I said to my family when I was a server and bartender, I would never not inform my customers of upsell items as it's a sneaky way to increase the bill, as a means of increasing the tip. Also I wouldn't argue with a table about something I'm not sure of either. Apparently she heard and ran back to the table to ask if I wanted the chips removed. I said nicely no no.. you feel like the chips are important so I'm going to pay for them. Let's not offer to remove them now.

She comes back after the last bill has been cleared and says she felt like we received good service, the restaurant closed at 9 and they all sat there waiting on us without telling us to leave. (There were other customers in the back). She said that we received good service and shes sorry if we were so bothered by a small charge of chips.

That was the final straw, we all said we wouldnt be back. We had to ask multiple times for pitchers of water and our soda. I never got 1 refill on my tea. We also came before 8..not really a late entrance.

Sucky way to end my visit to Chicago for my grandma.

By the way her name is Raquel.. for those that can't pronounce that, you can call...

I was on a mission to indulge in a good taco, so I assumed this could be the place that provided me with it.

My significant other and I were seated almost immediately. The ambiance was dated, yet gentle. We were given Chips, Dip, and Pico de Gallo. That was all complimentary and it was all tasty. It seemed as if everything started off correctly. Unfortunately, since we wanted more than the first round of those items, we had to pay. The Extra Chips we got were 1.50, the Extra Dip was 1.50, and the Extra Pico de Gallo was 2.00. They were all good, but definitely not worth the extra money!

I was given a complimentary water with a lemon slice, which tasted decent. I ordered a diet soda and one of the Margaritas for 8.00. The diet soda was good and so were the complimentary refills. I was surprised that I didn’t have to pay extra with how greedy this place was. The margarita was pretty solid. It was a nice sipper throughout my time there.

We ended up ordering a Soft Taco Suizo with Beef for 3.25, a Soft Taco Suizo with Chicken for 3.25, and Fajitas REAL for 28.00. For the Fajitas, they were advertised as Strips or Belts of skirt steak and/or chicken (100% chicken breast marinated in our own jalapeño marinade), seared and sauteed to perfection with sweet onions and bell peppers. Served on a sizzling platter with a generous salad, Spanish rice, frijoles, sour cream & tortillas. A huge meal recommended for two! We chose to have skirt steak and chicken with corn and flour tortillas. The Beef Taco was really good. The Chicken Taco was okay. The Fajitas came with a lot of ingredients piled high, but they were just simply alright. I was intending on them having a lot more flavor than they did. I was bored rather fast. Everything else the Fajitas came with were also alright. The quality didn’t match the price of 28.00 at all! The hot sauce they provided us with wasn’t good. Luckily, it didn’t cost extra.

The service started off by being okay, but it quickly declined. Our server had a nasty attitude. She didn’t come off as professional, nor was she good at her job. I felt alarmed each time she came to our table, as it seemed she wanted to argue with each thing we had asked for.

Overall, this place was cool to try, but I definitely would never want to go back.

Date of...

I dined in here with my girlfriend and after we walked in, it gave me a warming feel, almost a warning, that they were about to serve us some authentic cuisine. I sure was right.

They brought us Chips and Salsa, along with a Pico De Gallo-Type bowl as well. The Chips were great. The Salsa was a warm, red salsa and it felt soothing to eat. The Pico De Gallo-Type bowl looked as if it was going to have a hidden heat to it, but it didn’t. All it had was pure, killer flavor!

The Lime Margarita on the rocks had a burst of sweet lime mix with tequila that we had ordered. I highly recommend starting off with one or two…or six.

I ordered the Taco Dinner with steak tacos on corn tortillas and served with rice. They doubled the corn tortillas on each taco and stuffed them to the max! The tortillas were great quality to withhold the capacity of ingredients they stacked in them. If they weren’t, trust me, they would probably crumble in your hands before the first bite. The steak was of top quality to me and tasted fresh off the grill. I’ve been to steakhouses that served lower quality steak than what I had in my tacos. Do yourself a favor and get the Taco Dinner. They have Taco in there name for a reason…

The service was very fast and very efficient. The refills on the Chips and Salsa and Diet soda were kept up with. It’s not everyday you have service revolving around the customer.

Overall, I believe that no one in the region has better Tacos than them. I haven’t tried every single place of course, but it seems pretty dang hard to beat them. I’ll be back very soon and I encourage this spot to be your next...