Chela’s

Great tacos, friendly staff. I tried the Al Pastor, the chipotle chicken and Barbacoa. All good but loved the Barbacoa taco the best.
Cheap, and delicious.

I was so happy to see this restaurant at Top of the Park! I’ve always wanted to try but their location is so far that I haven’t gotten the chance. Super glad I got a taste today! Ordered two barbacoa tacos and one chicken taco, a chicken tamale and a Mexican corn on the cob, all of it was fantastic! The barbacoa and chicken were super tender, and the corn on the cob was the best thing I have ever eaten. I will definitely visit their restaurant soon.

Fantastic little place! All alone after a long day of parent orientation, I checked Unilocal for something close by and yummy for dinner. So happy I came here. 2 tacos with everything, elote & flan $ 8.80!
Everything had lots of great flavor and you can’t beat the price. Very nice friendly staff. I’ll definitely come back on our next trip to Ann Arbor.

The beans and rice were VERY bland. I don’t think the black beans even had salt in them. The only reason I’m giving two stars is for the quesadilla. I ordered the campechana quesadilla and it tasted very good, mainly because of the chorizo. The tacos were pretty uneventful as well. Service was great and fast though.

I’m SO happy I found this place! It’s a tiny little place that doesn’t stand out much from the road but MAN was their food good! As authentic as it gets for mexican food in Ann Arbor. I’ve been to so many mexican food joints in this town, and NONE have seemed authentic. I got three tacos, and chips and guacamole. Everything was perfect. I’m from Los Angeles so I know what real mexican food tastes like, and this is as close as it gets. Chela’s offers great prices, flavorful food, perfect size portions and fast service.

Just the perfect taco stop! Fresh ingredients, homemade limeaid, crowded but cheery atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon. We had the tacos Barbacoa (shredded beef), chipotle chicken tacos, chipotle chicken tamale, chicken quesadilla and chicken & black bean burrito, which was loaded with guacamole and onions… Sides of really good hot sauce made it complete!

It isn’t a fancy restaurant but definitely a nice place to grab lunch or dinner. Food is very affordable. They even make fresh limeade.
We ordered tacos, quesadilla and mexican sandwich all tasted good. It is your next door fast food sort of thing. They even have a small patio!

I have been lucky enough to have traveled to rural Mexico and have eaten Mexican Street Food, and Chela’s is by far the most authentic tasting real Mexican street food. Tacos, tamales, tortas, and the corn… street corn in Mexico is the best! My family and I are so glad this wonderful restaurant is doing so well and we look forward to many more visits.

Being from Southern California, I have high expectations when it comes to Mexican food but more particularly… TACOS.
I did the Al Pastor, Barbacoa, Campechana (basically a combo of a carne asada & chorizo), carne asada, & chipotle chicken tacos. I had intended to have just 3 tacos for myself and then save 2 for my girlfriend who I was picking up from the airport later that evening, but I ended up inhaling all 5 for myself. Out of the 5 I enjoyed the Barbacoa the most as it was the juiciest and most tender. I wished the carne asada had been chopped up more finely instead of being served as steak strips. Overall, not bad but not the best or most authentic I’ve ever had.
For salsas, the salsa verde a bit watery/​runny for my liking. Also kind of bland and not much spice to it. Salsa roja had a unique creaminess to it which was enjoyable. Definitely felt some heat when I smothered my tacos in it. Their salsa roja would be my go to.
Anyways, this will be the last of my Ann Arbor reviews for now. ‘Til next time, Ann Arbor! You were quite the charming town to visit for the week. Hope to be back again soon!

So excited to try this place after reading all the great reviews but was quickly disappointed after the food came out. I expected authenticity but the al pastor taco plate came with dry rice and black beans that had no flavor. I had the beef torta, pork tamale, and a side of tortilla chips with guacamole. The best thing about our meal was the tortilla chips and guacamole. I liked the environment which was reminiscent of the Mexican restaurants out in LA and the staff were very friendly.

Este es lo mejor restaurante en todo el mundo. Los tamales son auténticos, me encantan los jarritos, y la horchata, Dios mío, la horchata! Recomiendo este restaurante a todos my amigos.

Great food. Loved chicken n beef taco.
Pork tamales was not that good though compared to what I have had before at other places.
Overall great food n great service.

I always love finding hole in the wall restaurants. Chela’s is cheap, homemade, and incredibly delicious. One of the best authentic Mexican restaurants in Ann Arbor. Highly suggest.

Chela’s is good! Get your tacos here. I also love the cantaloupe juice they had at one time.

One of my favorite places in Ann Arbor, and the best of the three major Mexican restaurants on the outskirts of town. Not sure why I rave so much about an otherwise humble place — I think it’s a mix of authentic Mexican food, a diverse and easy to understand menu, fair prices, friendly service.
I usually mix and match a few tacos and a tamal. You can get other sides such as elotes, or skip a la carte and just order a torta if you like. Everything on the menu is tasty, and the red and green salsas are always a perfect complement.
One big tip: get a pineapple or strawberry tamal as a dessert item, they’re really tasty.

The best «Ann Arbor» Mexican food in Ann Arbor. You know, it’s good, authentic, but not too authentic. It’s cultural, but very safe. The service is designed to accommodate the ‘1^st time having real Mexican food customer.‘
That said, the nice thing is that the flavors are good and the food is very clean tasting. For instance, they don’t have random chunks of fat in the asada or pastor, and the chorizo is comparably lean. This makes the taste less real, but I must admit it’s a very pleasant eating experience. (The fat is the flavor, but I don’t love those, random, fat only bites)
They also have amazing lime… drink, but if you have a sweet tooth it’s awesome!
Super nice staff, nice clean food, this place is definitely worth the couple extra bucks you pay to be in Ann Arbor.

Great food and service. Love the tamales and horchata. They also serve breakfast!
If you happen to be looking for the best tamales in town, look no further.

Chela’s hands down has the best authentic Mexican food in Ann Arbor, and for a California girl in the mid-​west, it is sometimes the only cure for homesickness. The owner, Adrian, is very friendly to his customers and takes great pride in the food he serves. He tries to make everything as healthy as he can with high quality ingredients, and all excess fat and filler ingredients left out.
I highly suggest the daily special with two barbacoa tacos; only $ 7.50 for rice, black beans, a drink, and two tacos with cilantro and onions. They have sour cream and spicy and mild sauce on the side, but it is worth it to buy chips and guac. The flan and rice pudding equally as good.
If you want good Mexican food in Ann Arbor, Chela’s is the place to go, as both their food and atmosphere are unparalleled.

This might be my worst experience at a well-​reviewed restaurant.
My GF and I got chicken quesadillas as well as chicken, carnitas, and fish tacos. The quesadillas were fine. Plenty of quesa. The chicken tacos turned out to be fish (whoops, messed up our order), and the fish tacos were kind of dry, flavorless. The carnitas tacos tasted more like beef. It was so dry that I actually stopped eating halfway because I thought I might choke. Everything was served with carrots for some reason.
The food is very cheap, so 2 stars for cheapness. The service is fine and the ambiance has all the charm of a Mcdonald’s play pen.

I wanted to try Chela’s as my last dinner before I moved out of state. I got their «lunch special» which is 50 cents or so more if you get it outside lunch hours. But it’s still a whole meal for less than $ 8, which is ideal. The combo includes two of your choice of tacos or tamales, rice, beans, and a drink. I chose their al pastor and campechana (mixture of chorizo and carne asada) tacos, and I got the jamaica drink (hibiscus tea). The tea is not caffeinated and was very sweet. I do like myself some refried beans, but I also enjoyed how Chela’s beans seemed very pure, simply black beans without meat scraps or other flavorings typically stewed with beans. Definitely give Chela’s a try if you are craving authentic tacos in Ann Arbor!

Aww such a warm, friendly mom-​n-​pop shop! They were so accommodating to my friend’s service dog, and the owner even brought out some rice and meat in a bowl for the dog! To be honest, I wanted some of that, too! But he gobbled it up and didn’t save me any.
The tacos are really good, the homemade hot sauce should be bottled and sold, and the homemade tea is also da bomb :)
There’s an outdoor patio too, woohoo!