La Victoria Barra + Cocina Mexicana - Chicago — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

First of all, I am glad I visited during restaurant week because if I had gone at any other time, I would have been angry at the money I wasted here. I visited on a Saturday night around 8pm. Parking is terrible around this area at this time. Please carpool, take a ride share, bike, or do public transportation. Let's get right into it:

The staff was polite and attentive at all times. I requested Oaxaca Hibiscus for my drink and the waiter let me know it would be a wait. I agreed to the wait since it was the only cocktail that caught my interest. He kept on updating me on it. Empty plates were quickly removed and water was frequently topped off. Impressive service, considering the place was bustling.

The cocktail was too sweet for me and it didn't taste like hibiscus. It was a beautiful drink to look at. As I mentioned before, I did the Restaurant Week menu.

For my appetizer, I ordered the taquitos dorados, thinking they will be regular sized tortillas. They were not. They looked like empanadas. I believe the filling was barbacoa and it was okay. The barbacoa wasn't juicy, and I understand that because of the fried tacos, but it wasn't flavorful either. It was just a level off from being good. The salsas it came with were good. I didn't take a picture of the taquitos dorados.

I picked Skirt Steak for my main and I asked for it well done. This did take a while to come out but the restaurant was packed at this point. It looked amazing and I've included a picture. I found out it was medium rare when I sliced into it. I could have sent it back but it took a while the first time and I predicted that by the time it came back well done, my party finished eating. So I just ate it. The steak portion or the veggies could have been bigger.

One of my friends got a taco dinner and she mentioned the rice and beans are not homemade/made in house. They are straight from the bag and can. For the price this place is charging, we expect fresh sides.

Dessert is one of the reasons why this place doesn't have one star. I forgot the name of what I got, I think it's the chocolate tart. I would have said the chocolate was too sweet but combined with the raspberry ice cream, it is just right. I might be convinced to come back just for dessert. Two of my friends ordered Tres Leches and that was the wrong move for them. As the server was placing the plates down, I noticed it looked more like a plain dry vanilla cake and my friends confirmed that the Tres Leche was not moist.

The atmosphere was the typical Instagram aesthetic. The music was pounding like it was a club and I could barely hear the conversations with my party. That's why it only gets two stars.

I love how this restaurant celebrates birthdays! There were multiple birthdays while I was there and that was fun to see. The bathrooms were well lit, which I liked, but they could use more cleaning.

Overall, service was great, the place looks nice, dessert was good, bathrooms are well lit, but the food was mid. I'm usually full after appetizers and the main entree when I go out but after 3 courses here, I was still hungry enough to eat a snack when I got home. For the same food quality, we could have gone to Taco Bell (which I absolutely loathe) and not only would we have saved $$$ in this economy, we would have been able to talk to one...

This review is only getting 2 stars because of the server Rodrigo he was amazing!!! If you go please tip he is really a joy! Let’s start with arriving there our party was 20 minutes late I do understand so we were told that we would have to wait to be seated after being there for 2 hours they finally tried to seat us in the back by the kitchen with the rest of the blacks! Literally if you were black you were at the bar or in the back! Me having worked in hospitality I immediately rejected this! Also the only reason why we didn’t leave to find another spot was because we all Uber there from out south and that in itself would be a hassle.. not only that but this was a birthday celebration.. while waiting for our table we were at the bar there was a white female bartender and a white male bartender .. we waited 20 minutes to get a drink because the female bartender was doing something on the register and the male bartender was focused on two males at the end of the bar, and possibly making drinks for the tables. I am not sure because the white male bartender ignored us the whole night l.. we waited so long we talked to another patron who was eating at the bar and she had stated she was waiting for her food for a whole 20 minutes and constantly being ignored she was an Asian female… before we eventually got our table about an 1 hour and 45 minutes of waiting at the bar my sister ordered two non alcoholic beverages. My sister and her father do not drink actually she picked this place because of its non alcoholic menu my sisters father had just had surgery 2 weeks prior to coming here and was advised not to drink. The female bartender asked the bartender to make a non alcoholic watermelon margarita. I specifically watched him pour alcohol into the drink I told my sister she asked him if he had pour alcohol into the drink and if this was an alcoholic beverage. He said idk 🤷🏾‍♀️ and literally shrugged. Worst bartending service I have ever seen. The food is not great the only thing on the menu worth talking about is the tlayuda (basically a big tostada) I will not lie this place is for no offense American folks who have never tasted real Mexican food. The birra tacos were unseasoned lol literally no taste disgusting .. I can get over the fact that it wasn’t crispy but it had no seasoning like at all.. I should’ve known when they had salt and pepper on the table … and the tacos we also not seasoned the enchilada that my brother ordered was not quite appetizing. He said the sauce tasted like ragu.. I hope they weren’t using spaghetti sauce on an enchilada. The drinks seemed water down although you would think since they use mezcal which is stronger than tequila the drinks would be strong.. the flight was also not great a lot of the shots like smokehouse tasted like pepto .. please black people beware of going anywhere that will treat you less than! This place is up north and catered to people that they think will spend money.. which btw we left a great tip even tho the service was trash never go here I have a few places to recommend that the service is great and so is the food it’s out south !! Will never...

This was my 2nd attempt trying this restaurant.. The 1st time failed b/c their hours only were listed as 11p closing. When we arrived at about 10:20p, after calling 2 or 3x and confirming hrs we were told they were closed. I was approached by a guy who gave me quite the attitude when trying to show him the hours that they listed online. A manger reached out & invited me to come back again to give them another try.

We came on Taco Tuesday. They did not offer all the taco variations that were listed on the menu. They actually kept rotating the same tacos for the most part (all pork). The part that really annoyed me waa that we were the 2nd table that they had to pass when coming out from the kitchen. EVERY time they came out they bypassed us, served everyone else & then offered us what waa left on the tray. I started to notice b/c every time they basically ahd scraps & the tacos were no longer hot. When I called it out the server that had stopped to serve us said "oh you're not my table". Well why did u stop to ask if we needed anything??? I understand rotating who gets served 1st every couple rounds but again this was everytime. And if that was the case go in reverse order. Don't bypass us then come back & offer scraps at the end. When I asked why they hadn't bought out all the menu options they said b/c it was late in the night. We got there around 8 & tacos end at 10p. By 9/9:30 we hadn't seen at least 4 of the taco options, and many only rotated 1x.

Didn't care for the marg flight that came with the special either.

A customer threw up on the floor next to us after taking a shot. No one came to clean up the mess. He continued to sit for at least 30mins. When he did leave & they came to clean up. No special cleaning & disinfection was done to the area. The mopped it up like normal & went aboit their days. Makes me believe that same mop was later used to mop up other areas.

The music is way too loud & very overstimulating. You cant hear your party not the server.

The setup is overly congested. The servers nor the guest can walk through comfortably. And 9/10 you have to get up to move through ppl.

It has potential but I can tell by the attitudes of their staff they won't make changes.

I won't be attending...