NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 10:11:35 PST Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu chi.eats:6872 After reading and enjoying a lot of your reviews, I'd like to put in a word about my favorite "undiscovered" place - Taqueria y Restaurant Mexico in downtown Des Plaines. This place was in the shopping mall until they tore it down, and is now across the street, at 694 Lee. There's on-street parking and a free garage a block away. It's also a block from the train station. The restaurant is Formica tables and place mats. In the new location they take credit cards and serve beer and wine. Language mix is about 60-40 Spanish-English - the staff is comfortable in either. It strikes me as real easy going. A place to take the family - our family just calls it "the Mexican restaurant" when we are deciding where to go out for a meal. My favorite thing is to go there for a breakfast of heuvos rancheros - eggs over easy with ranchera sauce - and coffee. The huevos are the best I've had any place (I'd be happy for other suggestions!), and the coffee is pretty good, too. Two types of really good salsa accompany all the meals. If I'm alone, I pick up a copy of Exito!, the Trib supplement, and read a bit about what's of interest to the Spanish speaking community in Chicago. I took my son there for breakfast today and he ordered the huevos with a bottle of Mexican Pepsi which arrived in an elegant 500 ml bottle. For other meals my daughter is partial to their tamales, which are the kind usually made by "someone who makes tamales", not like the production line version. The menu lists a bunch of combination plates, with the caution "Please no Substitutions", which is surprising, because there is a page of single items, and we usually put together a plate of whatever we want ... I enjoy the tacos al pastor and the gorditas (the only item on the menu described in Spanish), my wife the enchiladas suizas. They also serve a nice caldo de pollo, a big bowl of chicken soup with three of four condiments on the side. This seems to be a hit with a variety of customers of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic background. Breakfast runs about $5, lunch / dinner $6-$7, depending. Open 9 am to 9:30 pm M-F, 8 am to 9:30 pm S-S. The place has my recommendation.
Chicago, IL