What part of Mexico is Chicago in?

In my circle, I am known as something of an adventurous eater.  It's not true, but that's my rep.  Usually, on some lonely lunch time when no friends will go with me, I'll go to some hole in the wall or some place that I heard about that I've wanted to try.  If it's good, then I tell my friends and family and we go back.  

My dad told me once that if you want to kill a prairie dog town, you would put poisoned corn in front of the burrow for them to bring in, eat and all be poisoned . But the prairie dogs would send just one prairie dog out (they would send out the least popular prairie dog, I assume) to test it.  If that prairie dog lived, then the other prairie dogs would join in. I am that prairie dog in my social/family circle.  

Usually my first experience with a restaurant is a solitary one.  Today, however, was different.  We were to go out with friends, and I spent much of the day trying to figure out where we would go.  I assumed we would go out for dinner.  But, they cancelled and we were without plans.  I opened up Yelp and looked for restaurants near me.  I saw a 4.5 star place called "Chicago Style Tacos."  

I have had a lot of things in the style of Chicago.  I have enjoyed Second City Television, Chicago style hot dogs, Chicago style pizza, Chicago beef sandwiches, Italian sausages with Chicago style gravy, I've seen Chicago style politics (you know, corruption), the list goes on and on.  I went to Chicago a few years back and in my search for something new to eat, I found reference to Mexican food in Chicago and was intrigued, but did not have time to track any down. Now, here is a Chicago style taco shop here in North Las Vegas, this is their 

website.

Surprisingly, the whole family was down for the adventure.  We drove out there and in a small strip mall, right next to an asian/pacific grocery store was our goal.  This is a very small venue.  About six tables, some that seat only 2-3 people.  I'll be frank, it's a little dingy.  

On Yelp, I read that their barbecue beef was actually a braised beef cheek.  I had a hard time communicating my desire for beef cheeks to the cashier - english was her second language.  At this point, I wasn't sure if the fact that there were spanish speaking people making my food made my Chicago style tacos more or less authentic.  My concerns about authenticity were unfounded though, the guy at the grill wore a Chicago Bulls hat.

My wife got a carnitas taco and a fish taco.  

My daughter wanted a carnitas burrito, but they ran out and she had a ground beef burrito.

My son had a pastor (pork) burrito.

I had a pastor taco, a chorizo taco and a barbecoa taco with beans and rice. 

I had read that the service was a bit slow (it is a three person operation).  Whoever wrote that was correct.  I ordered chips and salsa to tide us over.  Even that took about 10 minutes or more before we got it.  

So, how did it all turn out?  Spoiler alert - it turned out very, very well.

First, the chips and salsa.

 

Now, that was a $2.00 order of chips and salsa.  The chips were unsalted (not a big deal) and not overly plentiful.  They did taste good and had a good texture/crunch.  The salsa was a tomatillo salsa.  It was tangy with a little zip. It was pretty thick and it was just tasty.  They give you this bowl of salsa if you get chips and salsa, but at the table, the same salsa was in little squeeze bottles.  If this wasn't hot enough for you, there was this:

 

This stuff brought some heat.  It didn't make me sweat, but it made my kid switch back to the green salsa after just a few chips.  Tasty stuff.

How about the burritos?  It took a while.  I think it was about 20 minutes or more.  It was too long.  I was watching the grill and after a while, I saw a couple of burritos on the grill.  In my heart, I knew they were ours, but we could not have them yet.  Well, part of the delay was they construct the burrito and then the grill it for a while.  Here is the final product:

 

This was my daughter's ground beef burrito.  She thought it was great, though she got full after a half.  She was excited have it for lunch later.

 

Here is my son's al pastor burrito.  They serve them hot.  Really hot.  After all the waiting, they had to wait longer while their burritos cooled down.  The burrito was very full.  Had lots of meat and for no extra charge comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado and sour cream.  Both of my kids LOVED their burritos.  You will notice that they are cut in half.  My son ate the first half and forgot he had another half to eat.  He was really sad when his burrito was over, but was next elated to discover he had another half he could eat.  Even though this was at least the fourth meal he had eaten that day, he ate the whole thing.

 

Here is my taco platter.  Frankly, I don't know what makes these Chicago style.  Some Yelp reviewers noted that the corn tortillas are somewhat fried, which seems to make them a little more hardy.  None of mine broke at an inappropriate time.  

What about the flavor?  Holy crap, the flavors.  The chorizo wasn't too spicy, but was zesty and there was not one bit of gristle (perhaps their chorizo isn't "lips and buttholes" as its reputation implies).  The pastor was amazing.  You can ask for pineapple to go with it (it is offered with the burrito as well) which gave the taco such great balance.  The meat was very richly flavored.  As with the chorizo, there was no gristle or nasty bits.  It tasted like high quality meat.  Finally, the barbacoa.  It was tender and was the juiciest.  It had great flavor and it certainly reinforced my previous experiences with eating the cheeks of animals.  

I now believe that the cheeks of an animal (mammals, at least) are some of the best bits of meat  you can eat.  I went to a yakitori place in California once that had pork cheeks on skewers as an option.  They were not only delicious, but they had more pork flavor than any other cut of pork I had ever had.  The beef cheek tacos at Chicago Style Tacos were not as intense in a beef flavor sense, but they did have a great, rich flavor.  

My wife got a fish taco and a carnitas taco.  The fish taco was grilled until it was almost crisp and my wife loved it.  There was no sauce, it tasted fresh and light.  This blows my mind, because our favorite fish tacos in the past have been fried with a heavy sauce.  These were somehow better by just highlighting the fish.  She loved the carnitas taco as well.  Similarly, it did not have any supporting cast other than cilantro and onion.  In the end, she said it was better than Tacos el Gordo.  

Well, that was nearly sacriligious, but I understand where she is coming from.  Tacos el gordo feature, at least with their adobo pork, a strong starring meat with a wonderful, multifaceted flavor.  Now Tacos el Gordo have some saucy things that offer support to the pork, but they don't overpower it.   Chicago Style Tacos relies almost solely on the meat, and it's a winning strategy.  

If you ask me which is better, Chicago Style Tacos or Tacos el Gordo, I would have to think about it.  They have similar options (Tacos, burritos, nachos and fries all featuring your choice of meat),  they have great flavors.  Chicago Style Tacos is clearly slower.  In the end, I lean ever so slightly towards Tacos el Gordo for what its sauces bring to the tacos.  However, there is something noble and brave about tacos that feature a meat that can simply stand on its own.  

Kudos to Chicago Style Tacos.  I recommend you go, order, wait as long as it takes and enjoy some amazing tacos, burritos or their Windy City Fries (like carne asada fries).  You'll love it.  If you don't, you're wrong.