Mexican Republic Kitchen & Cantina — Restaurant in Proviso Township

My parents were from Mexico, I was born here, Mom never Americanized her cooking. This restaurant has the possibility of being great Mexican restaurant, you just need to make a few changes. Make fresh tasting number one on your list. I really wanted to like this restaurant but was sadly disappointed. We were just there. Our waitress was very polite, we really liked her. The women who served us our food needs to realize, without the customers, no job, so making faces when your asked by a customer for more of the roasted salsa is not welcoming. We were going to sit out side but decided to go in, the inside smelled stale, we turned around & sat in the corner outside. PLEASE OPEN YOUR WINDOWS & DOORS & AIR OUT YOUR RESTUARANT! Carnitas were very good (one of the reasons it got a star) a bit salty but a little lime made it yummy & adding the roasted red salsa served with the chips made the taco sing. Hint, hint stop boiling the tomatillos in the green salsa until they are are gray, it kills the flavor of the tomatillos, slightly roast them, make sure they stay bright green so that the salsa tastes fresh instead of stale & muddled. Premium Margarita was disappointing, if I am paying more money for one, don't use generic versions of the alcohol & use fresh lime juice that isn't mixed with chemicals....it tasted like it was straight out of the bottle sitting on a shelf for years. I have tasted both the reposado & Grand Marnier in the past & the ones used in my drink were a bad generic chemically version. Please get rid of those hipster jelly jars you serve them in, serve them in Margarita glasses, tequila is supposed to breathe & Margaritas are the choice of a summer beverage.....this margarita did not remind me of summer, it reminded me of a stale closet full of moth balls. The barbacoa taco was yummy, a little greasy but it is usual for barbacoa & flavorful just like the carnitas (2nd star). The jalapenos filled with flavorless chorizo & cheese was a waste of money, one bite & I didn't want it any more. A regular chile relleno made with a roasted poblano pepper filled with cheese would have been much better with a bit of red sauce....money-wise cheaper for the restaurant owner. Taco carne asada...yeah, no thanks & never again! Boiled meat then thrown on the grill enough time to make grill marks is NOT GOOD!! One bite & I asked the waitress to...

If I can give it 0 stars I would!!! Worst experience ever at a restaurant! Went in there because we heard very good reviews, but unfortunately that was not our experience. Please don't support this business! Went in there around 5:00pm yesterday to celebrate early Mother's Day since we figured Sunday would be busy everywhere and received the worst customer service I've ever experienced anywhere else. Instead of being greeted, we were asked rudely if we had reservations which we said no and didn't understand given that they only had like 3 customers at the time and the entire restaurant was empty. I came in there with my family of 6 including a child and requested if we can sit in their patio section and the waitress rudely said "No". We were confused as to why we couldn't sit outside when their website clearly says patio section is for first come first serve and the restaurant at the time was pretty empty. When we asked why all they said was we we can't sit you guys all together. We then said it's okay we can sit in two separate tables that's not an issue and her response was we can't do split checks!!! Our response was we didn't ask for split checks we're okay with paying under the same bill. She kept saying No and said we can sit you all the way in the back of restaurant which we refused because clearly our first impression of this restaurant was horrible and we didn't feel comfortable supporting a business who was not kind to us or offered any other alternatives or wasn't kind enough to apologize to us. After walking out of their restaurant, a customer of theirs that was sitting in the patio section asked us why we were leaving and we told him why and he was shocked and offered us an alternative restaurant in the same block with great customer service, margaritas and delicious food! Please go support Chirrion Mexican Grill in the same street. To our surprise after finishing our dinner at the other restaurant we had to walk past Mexican Republic Kitchen to our parked car and what do you expect they had a group of 6 sitting in their patio section with the tables put together after we were told they weren't allowed to do so by the manager of this restaurant. Please don't support businesses that aren't kind and have rude waitresses and have poor...

If I could give them negative stars I would! We've been wanting to try this place and finally had the time. We arrived at 2:30pm. I am very specific about the time because we were being mindful as we had an appointment later. There were 2 tables seated outside when we arrived and no one seated inside. We sat inside. We ordered a pitcher of sangria ($35 for juice) that took forever to get. Mean while several couples/groups started to arrived. We commented that we came at a good time so service shouldn't take forever. When she brought the sangria she took our order. We ordered tacos and enchiladas. Nothing too complicated. We noticed at about 3:05 that EVERYONE else was receiving food but us. We inquired. The male server acted as if he had no clue what was going on. So we just asked for the check for our drinks. No one ever even came by to see why. Our server never came back to our table and didn't even attempt to make eye contact or inquire about why we were leaving. A new server who had just walked in asked if we were ok. But at that point we had already paid. No one cared to even attempt to apologize or explain. Disappointed is an understatement!!! Can't even rate the food because after 30-40 (add the time it took for us to pay the check) we were not able to receive it. I could speculate on the reasons why. But what's the point. The place wasn't even busy. Especially when we first got there. Maybe that should have...