Taqueria El Milagro — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I want to start this review by saying I have worked in the service industry for over 10 + years and come from a family where both my father and mother have had family members who have owned and run restaurants and grocery stores in the Pilsen and little village area. I visited the Milagro blue Island location on Sunday, September 7 with my mother who is 65 years old and my sister. My mother has had to undergo surgery and has a difficulty walking. This has also caused my sister and I to see her less because my mother is not as mobile after breaking a femur . That morning my sister and I went to church in the area and after we decided to visit my mom who has been a pilsen native for her entire life. My mother was very excited to visit the Milagro tortilla restaurant as we all were looking for the nostalgic homemade cooked meal feel. When we arrived. The security guard began to shove us in a direction and pushed us towards the front line without allowing us a chance to even look at the food, make a decision by looking at the menu, my sister, my mother and I were already body to body against strangers and each other as a security guard who is an African-American male, began pushing us closer and closer to the front of the line without any rhyme or reason. Mind you the the cashier was not even ready for us to be giving our order .. when the cashier who I later learned was the manager, Karla apparently ..finally waved me over to place the order. I began telling her our order for the three of us. This woman asked me to repeat myself three times in a restaurant that was not loud. Finally, I firmly and loudly I told the woman our order for the fourth time in a stern tone . where she then asked me why I had an attitude with her .. immediately my sister came to my defense and responded well ma'am my sister has just told you the order four times and you still cannot hear her and your security guard has rushed us to this line has been very rude to us And has already made our experience uncomfortable. We just would like to pay and We would like to have three waters and we would like to be sent on our merry way .. I entered the restaurant with the intention to make an Instagram or TikTok reel because I have a large social media presence on various platforms where my videos reach 25k views on average and wanted to support our Latino culture by making a video.

like I said, I was in need of the old ambience that I remember from years ago, the food Was not what we imagined it to be ..my Carne Asada tacos were dry and tough, and the mole hardly came with any sauce .we left with a knot in our stomach, a little embarrassed while also just wondering what just happened and why did this unnecessarily get escalated and heated when truly our intention was to just enjoy a Mexican home-cooked meal that we later wish we hadn't even entered the establishment.

I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THIS...

I'm going to be 100% honest , I don't sugar coat things, honestly, I grew up in the neighborhood ate their food many times, but honestly, looks like some of these employees or even maybe all of them dont seem to even care. Not 1 time, not 2 times, like 5 or 6 times when I would order the chicken plate or even the meat plate, they would put the food in the Styrofoam containers, the chicken and meat would burn and melt the Styrofoam. These employees dont really care if your food melts the Styrofoam and you end up eating it honestly. That's really messed up because the Styrofoam that melted onto the food can make you really sick with the time. Sometimes, the chicken and meat had a bad flavor and smelled like if the meat was like sour or old. It tasted bad. Also, sometimes the beans had a really bad smell like If the beans were expired or old, but they smell very strong and bad. I wonder if these people are giving us old expired beans and old meats?? Also, these cooks don't even know how to season the food properly. Many times, they put like a ton of salt for a carne plate or even a chicken plate. Even the beans had so much salt. A couple of times when the chicken or meat was overseasoned by salt that i tried to rinse off the salt. Other times, i just ate a little bit and threw out the rest of the salty chicken and meat. If your cooks don't know how to properly season the food without overseasoning it, then its time to replace those cooks with other cooks that would do their job right and not put tons of salt on the food. Many times, I also would only get like 2 very thin pieces of chicken breast and even on the meat plate. Also when you order a chicken or meat burrito they rip you off and put less meat like only 1 piece of chicken or meat in those burritos and like tons of lettuce to make it look like they put a good amount of meat in there but its mostly lettuce, tomatoes, rice and beans, sour cream that has the most. They charge a good amount of money for these plates and rip people off and don't put enough meat in there. You people are charging a good amount of money for a plate of chicken and meat. The customers are willing to pay the money you guys are charging, but you people end up ripping people off. Be honest with your customers because they are the ones bringing you guys money. If not, you guys are going to keep...

I have been a patron of El Milagro since at least 1995. Well before I ever lived in the Chicagoland area. I was in high school and used to visit my sisters in-laws in the city where they lived in the little village area on 26th. We used to go and get tacos from el Milagro, my favorites were the carne asada. anytime I would visit Chicago since I would always come back and get tacos and tamales from Milagro. Since moving to Chicago in 2002 whenever I wanted an actual good taco, I would travel there. When I first had my own apartment here I lived in the northern suburbs and would drive well over an hour for a taco from here. Now living in the north western suburbs I still drive an hour to get good tacos from Milagro. Having been a customer for such a long time and having tried so many tacos from everywhere in the universe or what it seems like everywhere in the universe, I still go back to Milagro as they are my favorite hands-down!!! Not only the tacos but the tamales are bomb!!! They seriously feel like home. My favorite as mentioned are the carne asada plate or tacos, they have tasty champurrado, their tamales.... so delicious. My personal favorites are the rajas con queso and the sweet fresa tamales for breakfast. No one makes dulce tamales like Milagro... but if you want the sweet ones, you better come in early otherwise you will miss out. Also, their prices are amazing. Last night my husband and I just wanted a light snack and got a plate for $7.50, you can’t beat it!!! Two people had a snack of basically two tacos each for a lot less than you would pay for happy meals at McDonald’s, and who the heck would want those when you could...