Tacos El Norte

We always love Tacos el Norte! The food is consistently good, and the service is always the best! The most authentic Mexican food around and has become a family tradition for us, and we visit at least once a week.

Are you kiddin me? Great food in a strip mall!! Fantastic! Food’s good and prepared quickly. The Margaritas have a «kick» too! Keep up the good work to all the staff. Thanks!

Great place for Mexican style food. Very busy in the evening on the weekends but they have enough tables to seat at least 100 people.
Food is great: big menu, big portions, always tastes fresh and delicious. Very moderately priced.
Definitely a place to check out.

If you want Local hole in the wall Mexican this is where you go. ½ the price of El Jardin and better food! Keep up the good work!

BY FAR MY FAVORITE MEXICAN RESTAURANT. I’ve been coming here for almost 15 years and it has always been my favorite place. Never a complaint. The staff is friendly and accommodating. The food is amazing. I like to get the combination platter. The guacamole is the best I’ve ever had. Highly recommend this place!

So this review may sound very weird. My family lived 2 miles away from this place for over 10 years and we never ate here until 2 years before we moved from Chicago to Denver. While Denver is a much better place to live than Chicago I really miss cheap and easy eats like this place. Tacos el Norte is just plain awesome. The food is fresh, cheap and so tasty! I really miss my $ 2 bean and Rajas (grilled poblano) tacos. It was spicy and so flavorful. Their enchiladas, nachos and burritos are so good. We left too much emotional baggage behind in chicago so we will probably not return, not even for a visit. But if time heals wounds and we did come for a visit back to Barrington/​Lake Zurich you can bet that tacos el Norte would be a part of that visit.
But anyone that lives within 15 miles of this place should try it, at least twice. Since the first time no one orders the right food anyways. Thanks and God Bless.

Good fast food and good value, just hope that wasn’t Mr. Ed i saw run by! The Chorizo quesadilla is bloody amazing and they are always good for takeaway if you need it fast…

The previous reviews didn’t lie. The food is awesome. Large portions, great food, fast and friendly service. The chicken a la Coca Cola is excellent with the right amount of spicy.

I prefer the Palatine location, but I may be biased since I have gone to the Palatine location more often and only once here. The menus seem a little different and the Horchata here seems smaller than in Palatine. I like the Chile Relleno better in Palatine.
But they still have good food here, with free chips and salsa for dining in, and the restaurant is wheelchair accessible.
It’s in a hard to find location. We came here with friends, but we would have had a hard time finding it if we didn’t. It’s in the same strip mall as Wendy’s, but it is in a tucked away corner. It is right by the Total Fitness Studio. They have parking with wheelchair accessible spots in front.

My husband and I love this place. The staff are very friendly. We just moved into town and are lucky to have stumbled upon this place! Very authentic and tasty!

Having just come back from the Palatine location (which was very much inferior to this location, in nearly every way), the Lake Zurich location does Mexican food right.
The service, ambience, and food were all executed well enough to make this dive restaurant one to remember and return to.
The Torpedo Burrito is amazing and highly recommended. Steak, cheese, onions, a fried egg (make sure that the yolk is runny) wrapped in a browned and crisp flour tortilla — amazing.
The combination plate was also excellent.
The restaurant was fairly busy when we were there yet service was fast. I will say that the waitress did provide us with one of the most unhelpful recommendations I’ve ever heard in my life. My friend asked what was good there and what she would recommend and she proceeded to basically tell us what was on the menu instead of recommend dishes to us. We laughed it off though, and it’s not going to detract from the 5 star rating I’m giving this place since they really blew me away with their food.
If the owners of this chain modeled all of their other restaurants (specifically the Palatine location) after this one and ensured that the service, ambience, and food quality were all of higher quality as this one is then I think they’d make quite a name for themselves in the area.

Great food at a great price. No, it’s not a high end Mexican restaurant but their food is solid, the price is right and the service is consistent. Sure, you can go to a more «authentic» looking Mexican restaurant and pay 30−40% more but it doesn’t make the food taste better. If you want a quick, great tasting meal… go to Tacos el Norte.

Yet another «mexican» eatery that has fooled the gringo into believing it’s authentic. Here’s a breakdown:
Salsa: very watery
Tamales: Ordered 3, all the tamales pulled apart as we opened the husks. The masa was clumpy and sticking to the husks. These were either under cooked or left over from the previous day.
Enchiladas: Ordered chorizo with mole sauce, the chorizo was burned, not well done… burned. The mole was bland and disappointing.
Overall, the best thing on the plate were the beans, which probably came from a can. I have only one lingering question: How can a mexican restaurant screw up mexican food? Oh… I weep for «los gringos ignorantes».
Adiós, muchachos…

THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD. EVER. PERIOD.
The décor and furnishings could use a makeover although they are slightly better in their expanded dining room on the right side. The service is usually super fast. Everything my family has ever eaten is delicious. Some of our favorites: enchiladas, grilled garlic shrimp, ribeye torta, veggie fajita burrito. They offer free salsa and chips when you dine in. The salsa is fresh and delicious but make sure to get the guacamole too. It’s so good!

Fast service, awesome Guacamole. The tamales Rocked! I wish my town had a Mexican restaurant this good.

Tacos El Norte has gotten too comfortable making medeorce Mexican, but it continuously misses the mark in every category.
I’ve been there three times in the 18mo and each time I left thinking «I wish I went to Paul’s Burrito» in downtown Barrington. Take it from me, Paul’s won’t disappoint… The breakfast burrito, fish and chix tacos are top notch.

Stopped in on my last day in the area on the recommendation of a local resident who raved about the place. I was not disappointed ! This place reminded me of some of the out of the way locals only Mexican restaurants I found in L.A. Great food and great service. I would stay away from the house margarita made with what tasted like roses lime juice, no Bueno!
Skirt steak was amazing and the Chile Rellano was pretty darn good! Less than 20 $ total and out the door!

my dad always said if you get the trinity of value, taste and portion, you’ve got a winner. with that, El norte is a winner in my book.
Deceivingly large space as its located in the very corner of an obscure strip mall. its almpst like an exclusive underground club. all the other businesses were closed as I parked my car. this place must be popular i figured as i entered at 5:30pm –as all the spots were filled in the parking lot.
free chips and salsa yum. good sauces. i decided to challenge the burrito grande with al pastor. lets just say the pastor told me to tap as he was not to be conquered. we also had a sope with al the pastor again. (that in itself was enough food for one of us). all delicious.
oh, and by the time we left, all the tables were occupied. if i’m in the area again, I’ll go for the winner.

Tacos El Norte is a hidden gem tucked away in a strip mall. When my friend first brought me here, I didn’t really have high expectations, but boy was I wrong! Ever since then, this is a regular in our work lunch rotation.
When you first walk in, you see the guys working the grill and immediately smell all the awesome meat they’re grilling up. There’s booths in the front and then a bigger seating area in the back. It’s kind of a sit down restaurant where there’s a waitress but at the end you can just bring your check up to the cashier and tell him your table number.
While waiting for your food, they bring out some pretty good chips and two kinds of salsa. There’s definitely a little heat on the red salsa. As for the food, I’ve tried a good chunk of the menu offered here. Usually when I go to Chipotle or Qdoba, I’m never satisfied with the amount of meat they put in my burrito. That’s definitely not a problem at el norte. They definitely don’t skimp on the filling. The burritos are packed with plenty of meat and cheese, almost bordering on too much meat (I never thought I’d ever say that in my life!). The chicken a la coca cola is one of my favorite fillings. It’s super flavorful and has a really good spicy kick to it. Another favorite item of mine is the torpedo burrito, which has steak, onions, cheese, and a fried egg stuffed in a burrito.
They offer different variations of their burritos. Suizo means the burrito comes covered with melted cheese and some red sauce. El papi is basically a super sized burrito. The first time I was here, we thought el papi would be no problem for a group of young hungry guys. We were all defeated waving our white flags at the end of the meal. It was pretty much the size of my forearm and like I said earlier, it was jam packed with meat and cheese. It can easily be two meals worth of food.
Overall, el norte has quality food for a meal that’s under $ 10.

Good food at a good price. You really don’t have to go to a fancy-​looking restaurant to enjoy tasty Mexican cuisine as this place really delivers on flavor, portion size, value, and satisfaction. Service is quick and friendly as well.
Tried the ribeye tacos, garlic shrimp, milanesa plate (with grilled onions), and burrito with ground beef on my visit. The ribeye tacos had tender cooked steak with tasty grilled onions that were matched with a touch of cilantro in addition to the usual taco ingredients. The garlic shrimp was nice and large with a tasty grilled flavor and served with creamy avocado. The milanesa was very flavorful and tender with enough meat for two meals. The burrito was large and flavorful (even without sauces). The crispy chips and fresh salsa that came with the meal helped make this a very enjoyable experience.
Everything about the visit was very satisfying, I will definitely come back when I’m in the area.

QUE RICO… la comida es sabrosa!
Wow really good mexican food for this area… the tortas are delicious and they arent stingy with ingrediants… thank you! tacos are amazing.
Well priced for the amount of food you get.
This is a way better choice than the counterpart down the road. Sergios fresh mexican grill. Also located in lake zurich.
It was so good, it was hard to eat slowly and chew properly. Delicous!
BIEN HECHO amigos
sigue el buen trabajo!