Federales Tacos & Tequila - Fulton Market, Chicago — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

The atmosphere is lively and upbeat. The open format ceiling is great for ambient lighting and all of that shenanigans...if you're into that sort of thing...looking at you wannabe interior decorators. I came in between 4pm and 5pm on a Saturday. The service was a bit bitchy and sassy but that is to be expected.

I cannot blame the manager, bartenders and servers for any sassy attitude...they have to deal with obnoxious young twenty-something Gen Zers all day and all night long. So I get it and took no offense.

The food on the other hand was top notch. I ordered a three taco combo platter. If you notice the color dots indicate a different kind of taco.

The green dot is the steak taco. It is delicious I would recommend this taco. However - it needs a little bit more spice and the tortilla is uninspiring. At one point I used the salsa from the chips and salsa to add to the taco. The salsa was not spicey so I elected for the red sauce... it improved the spice.

Please no offense but the tortilla is something that I can buy and make at home. If I may add a small critique...maybe add a little butter to the flat iron and grill the tortilla a little bit. But the chucks of steak were great portions, and the marinade flavor was excellent.

The Yellow dot is the pork and pineapple taco. Same critique with regards to the tortilla; however the flavor with the pork taco is superb and the marinade is delicious. It's difficult to decide which taco is the best of the three ....steak or the Pork and Pineapple....??? still not sure. I'll need to go back on an off weekend day.

The purple dot is the carnitas taco. Carnitas has never been my personal favorite; however, the pieces of carnitas that were in this taco were great. The outside of the meat was grilled with a little crust finish that was delicious. Carnitas is just not my favorite glass of bourbon, if you know what I mean. Maybe if I go back and just get the Carnitas tacos on a different night/day, it will be different.

All in all. Great place. Fun atmosphere. Service can give a smile every once and a while... but again I get it... the clientele you're dealing with is obnoxious. Maybe I'll come back on a weekday. :) Less crowded...less Gen Z shenanigans!

I will continue my quest for the best taco in west loop. Federales is making a good argument for the title...however...onto...

We were a group of 7 celebrating my birthday. Music was trash whatever we made the best of it regardless just having fun & dancing nobody was incoherent or tumbling around being rude to others.

We ordered 14 shots (2 for each) & a float for 7 of us & cupcakes to sing happy birthday to me & some nachos. Im sitting down when security comes up to me make ‘small talk’, before proceeding to say “i am over served”.

I am confused as everyone else in the group. As I was literally eating nachos minding my business quietly.. Not dancing or tumbling around, but sitting at the bar eating nachos, as the group just ordered everything to sing happy bday to me. Not even 2 minutes later “you’re over served” after seeing us buy all these things lol.

I get it as I work in the same industry, so I asked the gentleman “well no disrespect cause I understand this is your job, but what did I genuinely do that gave the impression of being over served?” Security had a blank expression, cause obviously what did I do ? eat nachos i guess lol.

Honestly though if you are black & brown becareful around this bar, Obviously our “fun” or “dancing” is too much for the other patrons I guess.

This is the first & last time I’ll come here lol, One cause the music was trash its 2023 why are we listening to corny music from the early 00s. Then I was “over served” so I told them I will leave the bar & but my friends are staying there to kill everything else we purchased lol we are not dumb after spending lots of $$ here.

Unfortunately, though if you are black or brown, please avoid this place otherwise hopefully you don’t experience what we did. Take everything I said into consideration, fair warning issued to all who wish to come here &...

My complaint is about management. I asked for a manager after questioning a few drinks on our bill. Mind you, we spent over $900. I politely asked her if she could remove them or at least give us 10% off our bill in which I would generously be tipping 20% and not holding this mistake against the server. She said the charges were all valid. I simply responded that’s untrue and she has no way of proving that. Especially since 4 other people not part of our group mingled their way into our section in which I had to point out to our waitress they were not part of the group. The manager stood by her statement and said she was confident in her waitress (and I respect that, she was a good waitress) but then I proceeded to ask if she could still do us the favor of taking $ off our bill since neither of us could actually prove if the charges in question were valid or not. I told her it would equate to buying (half) our group a round of drinks as a thank you to spending what we did. Instead I got attitude from her...She almost seemed appalled that she was asked to consider putting a round of drinks on the house. Her attitude exuded cockiness and knowing she had our money already, could care less to entertain the idea of giving a penny of it back in any form. Wish I got her name because “manager woman”, you need to learn respect for your customers. You will not last long in the Service industry with what you pulled. Your attitude was ugly, as was the smug look on your face while giving it. What happened to customer service...