Mr Taco

People on Unilocal can be crazy… it is (was?) a taqueria. 1000 times improvement over the restaurant it replaced (Adesso).
Prices on par and it’s the right combination of taqueria to restaurant. BYOB.
Their chairs are fun.

I came here on a whim and wasn’t ready to be amazed. There were only about two other people in, but I’m going to blame that on the fact that Broadway was closed down to set up for a street festival. I saw they had a sign stating that Grub Hub had acknowledged their steak tacos and, as I was pretty hungry, decided to give it a try.
Best. Decision. Ever. The tortillas were fantastic, the meat was succulent, and the staff was friendly. All in all, it was a great experience.

I guess I came here at the right time as how other Unilocalers had mediocre service. I was probably one of the four people that was there and got my food (dine-​in) with about average time.
The enchilada dinner was what I had. It was one of those moments when I didn’t care what I ate, as long as it was food. But it was pretty good, not amazing but not crappy. A good place to fill an empty stomach, but I’d rather go to Taco & Burrito Palace on Halsted.

Went back for a second try. I ordered a steak burrito dinner to go. It was good. I like how they toasted the outside of the burrito and did not cover it in cheese or sauce. You can eat it with your hands.
The flavor was good. The beans and rice were just right. Portion size was generous. I couldn’t finish it all.
I’m only deducting 1 star for the price. I suspect (but haven’t confirmed) that I could get the same meal for 1 – 2 dollars cheaper.

Everybody eating here looks sad. Like they made a mistake

Despite the multiple warnings from my friends, drunken hunger coupled with proximity led me to give Mr. Taco a try. HANDS DOWN WORST Mexican food I have ever come across. Ever.
They somehow screwed up the easiest things– bland, icky chips, terrible salsa, and nachos that make me gag when I think back to them. I feel like basic Mexican dishes are difficult to completely screw up, but this food was pretty close to inedible.

Dear Mr. Taco:
Adesso existed in your location for years without spewing their trash onto the street. Why can’t you?
Every person passing your restaurant has to meander through the one, two, three, FOUR dumpsters AND a grease bin you have disgustingly placed on the public sidewalk. And how nice of you, to arrange them into a neat little corridor lining both sides of the path.
I’m sure it’s great for dogs and children to have them in close range to play with. And there’s nothing that I like more than getting side-​swiped by your container of rotting hog fat while stepping out of someone’s way. And I don’t even need to mention the aesthetics of having a neighborhood walkway replaced by your waste.
Please move the dumpsters and grease bin. According to Alderman Tunney’s office, you have special permission from the Department of Streets and Sanitation to keep them there all winter because if kept in the alley they will freeze to immobility. Yet they were not on the sidewalk before you opened shop. Figure it out. By taking advantage of the city bureaucracy’s decision, you are also taking advantage of your potential local clientele. Probably not a good move for business.
Chicago was built more recently than many US cities, and so boasts the most alleyways: 1,900 miles. The design promotes public health by keeping garbage out of the way. If you want trash in your streets, go set up shop in New York. And take your bins with you.

Well I’ve eaten there twice and I wasn’t completely repulsed, so that’s a star in itself.
Keep in mind, I kept my order on the safe side. Chicken tacos, done. Were they the best tacos I’ve had? Heck no! Were they he worst tacos I’ve had? Heck no… and I could tell you a story about the worst tacos I’ve had, but this is neither the time nor place. They were a wee bit bland, but a little salsa made them doable. And there was cilantro on there. I’m totally Team Cilantro.
The times I’ve gone in there were weekdays, not too late, but after the sun is down. Neither time was it crowded and both times, my food was given to me quickly. The guy behind the counter was pretty friendly to me as well.
Here’s my gripe. This was the former site of Adesso, a restaurant I never went to but passed daily. From the outside, Adesso looked to be a fairly attractive space. Now, reinvented as Mr. Taco, it’s kinda… not. I get it, it’s a budget friendly Mexican restaurant, and that’s fine. I don’t expect it to look upscale and decadent. But I do expect it to look like it hasn’t already been there as is for the past 15 years and could use a little work. I don’t know… rubbed me the wrong way.

I totally agree with Lindsey’s review — I have never had a bad experience here and have always found the food to be fresh, non-​greasy and reasonably priced. Nothing at all to complain about.
Friendly employees and comfortable seats too.
I can’t see how they can do better.

FOOD POISONING? Oh, gawd… NOT AGAIN.
Another bout of food poisoning (Salad House was the other place in the hood) from a Mexican food restaurant I honestly liked up until a couple weeks ago. I would’ve given them four stars, had it not been for the bad cheese in the Alhambre dinner and a side of:
* nausea
* vomiting
* mild fever
* general queasiness
Oh, and my favorite part was losing two days of freelance work because I could BARELY WALK.
Sure, the restaurant is cute and all, and the service is friendly and quick, but here’s another place I’m putting on the blacklist for a few months. I’ll miss you Mr. Taco, but not as much as I’ll miss two days of feeling miserable.

I see there are a lot of critical reviews of Mr. Taco and I can see that many of your points are valid. But the people that run this place are really friendly, the food is a solid «B» which is more than I could say about Adesso and it’s open ’til the wee hours. For me, that’s enough to get excited about in this corner of the neighborhood that doesn’t have a lot of late night food options.
If you live in the neighborhood and you’ve ever been hungry at midnight on a snowy night in January, you’ll understand what I mean. It might not be «Mexico One Plate at a Time» but you might still think it’s worth every one of the four stars I’m giving it some night after a little too much fun.

So I changed my mind. The service is bad.
And they seem to keep getting my order wrong.
Too bad I liked this place for a while.
Not so much now.

I can’t agree with Jeff K.‘s review more. Mr. Taco may be okay for drunk food, but definitely not authentic at all. Not impressed, though the service was friendly and horchata was pretty good. I order the al pastor taco dinner… rice was very bland, no little veggies, and the al pastor tasted almost store-​bought, if that makes any sense at all.
Would go back for horchata though, maybe a (different) taco if I got desperate. I’d much rather venture to Carmela’s in Uptown, though…

Horrible service! My sister and I came in on a Sunday night and it was pretty slow. We placed our order and waited over 50 minutes to get a gordita and a taco! Mind you, I complained multiple times before then that it was talking way too long for 2 items.
So, 20 minutes are up and we receive our order, or so we thought. — They gave our order to the wrong people and we received some order that no one claimed to have ordered! Upon looking for our ticket, the cashier couldn’t seem to find it. So then we had to wait an additional 30 minutes to receive the CORRECT order!
There was no attempt on behalf of the management to compensate for our wasted time and inconvenience. It is completely unacceptable for people to be waiting 50 minutes for a small order when the joint is slow. BTW, I was pissed, because after all that waiting, the food sucked! I’m sorry, but it did. Never again will I step foot in that establishment as long as it is a Mr. Taco.
I recommend going there only if you are drunk and don’t care what the food tastes like and don’t have a sense of time or are homeless/​starving and someone gave you a gift certificate to the place.

My Mexican cravings have been out of control lately and oh-​so-​fine Mr. Taco took care of my need this past Saturday. It was mid-​afternoon and I wasn’t super hungry, so I was looking for a quick hold-​me-​over before a night out with friends. My first impressions were great — clean interior, bright and bold color scheme — a few traces of the old restaurant but overall a huge facelift. The large menu above the counter had pictures of their food, which was nice because I hate asking for clarification on what things are and it also lets me know what comes on the food (a.k.a. when they try to sneak things like sour cream and onions in your food). The staff was friendly and attentive and we even learned about the restaurant history, the recipes, etc. from the owner, who made small talk with us.
We ordered 4 tacos (at $ 2.05 a piece), nachos with two salsas on the house, and one fountain beverage, and the bill was just under $ 11. Steal! The chicken in my first taco was juicy and delicious and I spiced it up a little more with some red salsa (which, by the way, added the perfect amount of kick!). My chorizo taco was even better and I was happy to see that it wasn’t overly ground, but rather came in the form of little chunks of meat. I get annoyed when the meat is ground up too small and it falls out everywhere. 2 were perfect for a quick afternoon snack, but I think 3 – 4 would be sufficient for a whole meal.
My three additional highlights for Mr. Taco:
–While their tacos do come with onion on them, there are NO ADDED ONIONS OR PEPPERS IN THE MEATS!!! Nothing makes me want to heave more than finding diced up little onions or poblano peppers in my food when I take a bite. No matter what anyone says, yes, you can taste them, and yes, your breath will smell bad, and yes, you will get terrible heartburn.
–The wicker chairs with the padded cushions were probably the most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat on in a restaurant. I perched myself up against the window and had a great view for people-​watching on Broadway. The only thing that would have made the scene more perfect is a juicy margarita! Had I known it was BYOB I would have brought the booze party with me!
–Oh, and it turns out Mr. Taco delivers until 4AM, too, just in case you’re in need of a Mexican food booty call! We’ve all been there.
I am pretty surprised by the low reviews for this place and I hope people give it a first, second, and third try and eat here. Count me in as a future patron!

My friends and I went to Mr. Taco last night and it was truly one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had.
Firstly, the service was slow. Not just a little slow, *extremely* slow. We waited for our food for over half an hour, and one person (unrelated to us) went up and yelled at the cashier because he had been waiting nearly an hour for a set of tacos. But not only was getting the food slow; the person taking our order seemed incapable of using a cash register, and eventually had to call over someone else to show him how to do it. Mr. Taco was being built there for weeks, they didn’t have time to train people on the machines?
Speaking of being built there for weeks… I don’t mind eating in simple surroundings, but Mr. Taco’s setup seems actively engineered to offend. The tables are far too close together, making it difficult to get up and sit down, and are placed haphazardly around the restaurant, so you can’t get around seated parties. The chairs are too deep for the tables, and you can’t pull them in because the tables have these extremely wide bases that you knock your knees into. So you have to sit on the edge of your seat to eat, which is pretty uncomfortable. But not nearly as uncomfortable as the same small looping track of La Cucaracha they played constantly for the entire duration of us staying there (and as far as I know all night long).
Also, I’m not deducting any stars for this (not that there are any left to deduct), but I don’t think I’ve seen worse hung paintings in my entire life. They’re crooked and uneven and ugh. This is a big gay neighborhood, get an interior decorator!
When we finally received our food, we discovered that apparently they were out of lettuce and tomatoes, since there was none on any of our tacos. (They neglected to tell us this.) I had chorizo, my friend had chicken, steak, and pork, and a third friend had asada and barbacoa. They all tasted literally exactly the same — that is to say, bland and dry — except the pork, which seemed to be undercooked so tasted worse. My friend couldn’t finish the food it was so bland and dry and unpalatable. Sure, it was cheap… but so is Taco & Burrito Palace, less than two blocks away, and it’s distinctly better. Or just go to El Mariachi, literally a block away. They’re not fast food, but their Mexican food is so much better than Mr. Taco’s that it’s almost insulting comparing them.
So, in conclusion, if Mr. Taco wants to stay in the neighborhood, they really need to clean up their act. There’s literally nothing good about this place right now… I hope it can turn things around for its sake, because if not I don’t think it’s going to be here very much longer.

I have been anxiously awaiting the opening of Mr. Taco ever since I saw the signs after Adesso closed. Well, the food is pretty much what you would expect from a place called Mr. Taco. It is alright Mexican food, just not anything special. My boyfriend and I tried several different tacos to sample the many meat options. We tried the asada, pastor, barbacoa, cochinta pibil, and pollo. They were okay but none really stood out to me — lacked flavor and dimension. Also, I hate that they put lettuce and tomatoes on the tacos. Yuck. We also ordered a side of their guacamole. Like the tacos, it was very bland. I didn’t think the small side of guacamole was worth the price of $ 4.25 (not including chips which cost extra). The tacos were reasonable, costing $ 2.05 each. We got 35% due to it being the grand opening. The service was slow and they messed up our order, but I guess you can credit that to it be opening week.
I have a hard time eating at sub-​par Mexican joints when there are so many more amazing ones out there like Azteca de Oro. Azteca de Oro is gourmet style Mexican for the same price as this. Their cochinita pibil is perfect and accompanied with amazing, flavorful habanero sauce. Mr. Taco’s cochinta pibil was seriously lacking flavor and spice. Being a hardcore cochinita pibil enthusiast, I wasn’t at all impressed. The meat lacked the flavor that comes from being deeply marinated in a plethora of Mexican spices and citrus. Authentic Mexican cuisine is all about freshness, flavor, and the perfect blend of spice, so to see a place claiming to be authentic yet lacking in those departments makes my head want to explode.

Hmmmn… I’m wondering about how I really feel about this place. So, get this… you listening? Ok, get this… all over their establishment, they pretty much hammer it into your head that they are selling you 100% authentic Mexican cuisine. As they say, «No Bull!» This… has prompted a desire in me to examine what makes food authentic. Take a walk with me. Put on comfortable shoes, we have a ways to go.
When used in a context to cuisine, Miriam-​Webster defines ‘authentic’ as: «made or done the same way as an original.» So that would lead me to believe if they are claiming their food is 100% authentic Mexican, somewhere in Mexico, they make food the exact same way, no? Now, ‘somewhere’ can be anybody’s mama’s kitchen in Mexico… so long as that kitchen and that mama is IN Mexico. And I’m thinking that’s where Mr. Taco is basing the claims of their 100% Mexican authenticity; someone’s mama’s kitchen in Mexico.
Maybe I’m wrong — or maybe the Mexicans I knew in Los Angeles that had crossed the border for the first time not too long before I met them — but where in Mexico do they put tomatoes and lettuce on tacos? In what city is that the custom? I say, where they do that at? In Southern Cali, those are considered bastardized tacos by Mexicans. You can get your tacos that way at some places, but the ones that keep it real will look at you crazy if you ask for it and tell you your taco will come with cilantro & onions. With a stone seriousface.
So, my point is… I can’t have too much faith in a place that claims 100% authenticity with such braggadocio, but their tacos are automatically offered with lettuce and tomato. Then, given the watery nature of the horchata (more like rice water than rice milk), I really need them to sit down and quit fibbing. I don’t believe you.
Now, the food isn’t bad. It’s fine for some quick laid back bites to eat, and the people are very very nice. I’d go back for the sopes, but I’d stick to their pastor only. If they have anything that stood out to me, it was their salsas. Can’t tell if they are in-​house or not, but they were great. The location is great for people watching and in the vicinity of some good dessert choices.
If you don’t care much about your Mexican fare, you’ll be fine here. But if you’re like me, a person that knows and/​or prefers a more authentic style, don’t let the signs fool you.

As we all know, when a restaurant first opens things can be a bit hectic and future tweaks will be made. Reason for stating this is because the service is verrry verrry slow (as I said, they will soon catch on and get with it).
Their menu ranges from Tacos to Hurachas to straight out of the bag nacho chips (or at least they tasted this way).
My boyfriend and I eat A LOT, when we go out to restaurants people always stare as though we are 500 pounds overweight because we order so much food. So today was no different, I had a Pork «Al Pastor» (type of marinade, sooo good) Gordita and a chicken Huracha that was the size of my dinner table. My boyfriend had chicken tacos and a pork tostada.
The chicken tacos were delicious, they had obviously been marinaded in a delicious sauce and the were juicy and just perfectly seasoned. My Gordita was AWESOME… For those of you who don’t know what a Gordita is, think tortilla sandwich. The tortillas are connected together and they are a bit thicker and toastier than just a plain corn tortilla. The Gordita comes stuffed with lettuce, beans, sour cream, cheese, cilantro, onions, and your choice of meet, really good.
The Huracha had chikcen, lettuce, cream cheese, beans, sprinkled with cheese. It was decent but the beans overpowered the rest of the food.
They have delicious rice cinnamon milk (more commonly known in Latin America as «Horchata») it was absolutely delicious. Sweet, cold rice milk with a hint of cinnamon.
I would definitely check this place out, it’s definitely going to be interesting seeing the changes they make.

RED ENCHILADA SAUCE. Do it now! Mr. Taco disguises his enchiladas as a bit dry, a bit on the unsauced side. And then you take a bite and POW! Saucy chicken goodness! Such a wonderful surprise to find enveloped inside that corn tortilla. The chicken is moist, fresh and pulled into meaty chunks; just dripping in red goodness. The rice… eh. It’s your standard Mexican restaurant rice with little flavor. However if I had been a smart girl and politely said yes to the offering of free mild, medium or hot salsa, I could have spiced up that bland rice. I can forgive though, the chicken made up for the discrepancy.
Friendly service, clean interior and it couldn’t look more different from it’s former, Adesso, down to which door patrons enter. Casual, laid-​back tables and enclosing chairs and bold colors replace the stark and minimalist décor of what this restaurant once was.
Right now, all orders are 35% off their already very budget-​friendly menu. And curbside service to boot!