Totopos - Cemitas and More in Naperville

I've been on the lookout for a decent Mexican taqueria in Naperville for the last 6 months. Lot generic, gut buster burrito type places that really only hit the spot when you have a few drinks. I saw that there was a new listing on Yelp with one good review for Totopos. Located on Aurora Ave, just west of Ogden on the south side of the street. Totopos is a small shop in a strip mall with 3 tables for eating in and a couple of tables outside. A couple of friendly woman were taking orders and cooking the food. Menu consists of Cemitas, Taco Arabes and the standard taqueria fare (tacos, burritos, tortas, sopes, quesadillas). I asked about the pastor being cooked on a trompo, but they said no. I'd guess the taco arabes are not either.

A small temporary sign is kind of difficult to see from the street.


Cemitas Milanesa



The cemita was better than anything I've had out here, but not quite to the level of Cemitas Puebla. Bread and cheese were close to spot on. The chipotles weren't in a mash form, but rather just some reconstituted pieces. Milanesa was freshly fried and crispy. Lettuce and tomato are added, but not at all needed. Certainly the best of the bunch for the Naperville area, and worth more frequent visits. I'll be back to check out the tacos arabe and other items.

Totopos
2048 Aurora Ave
Ste 120
Naperville, IL 60540
(630) 637-0418

Ordered a Milanese Cemita and Al Pastor Sopes.

The owners brought out chips and salsa's while I waited for my food. Salsa's are nothing short of great! Wish they fried their own chips. That being said they were ok. The Cemita was one of the better ones I have had. The traditional bread they use was the best I have ever had on a Cemita. The Sopes were good as well. The Sopes came with rice and beans which were excellent.

Great attention to detail. Very clean business.

This place was just like being with family. Wish I could keep this place all to myself, but I hope they take off soon so we don't lose them to the great restaurant grave yard.

This is both amazing and a complete bummer. Amazing because I live in the Napes and cemitas are my absolute favorite kind of torta. And a bummer because I have recently changed jobs from Warrenville to the Loop, and now I have spend the rest of the day NOT having a cemita. Haha. At least the Loop has a million boring sandwich chains to choose from.

Have you been to Tenochtitlan in North Aurora, and if so how is the cemita compared to theirs?

mike

While I like both of them, I prefer the Cemita at Totopos to the one at Tecalitan Restaurant in North Aurora.

Totopos impressed me considerably. One can tell they're just launching, but it's in the right direction, with a talkative pride and lots of scratch cooking. Cemitas are not the primary focus as at C. Puebla, but they're clearly what the staff like to eat and discuss. I'd say the sesame-coated topknot buns were even a notch better than those on North Ave., if the overall composition was less satisfying by the slimmest of margins. I may have missed the chewy caramelized pork, though my fresh pounded chicken cutlet (the default milanesa here; beef is the other option) was corn-rich and tasty. House-made chipotles as mentioned are whole-cured rather than blended into a sauce, sharply spicy and sweet. Cheese and avocado were lovely; I saw no signs of papalo, and I'll ask next time to hold the lettuce, tomato, and what think was a small amount of crema, which worked onsite but hastened the disintegration of the great rolls offsite - one of the great joys of Cemitas Puebla is how they keep for picnics or the next day. My wife thought her cemita de queso with extra avocado was just as enjoyable from Totopos, though.

Really special were the sauces, especially the peanut salsa (shown), which brought the heat along with great flavor. The owner is from Tlaxcala and was very kind, knowledgeable, and opinionated; she makes many of the masa-based elements for other dishes fresh as time allows, and I am looking forward to returning for other items.

I made another visit to Totopos last week, where I sampled a few of their tacos. The Monday & Wednesday $1 taco deal applies to any taco, including Taco Arabes. So I ordered a couple of Arabes, an al pastor and a chorizo. The arabes come with ground pork, griddled onions, cheese and chipotle sauce on a thicker flour tortilla. Not sure if the cheese was just because I was a gringo and they thought I wanted it or if it comes standard. It's not a listed ingredient on the menu. The flavor is decent, but the ground pork just can't stand up to meat off a trompo. Pastor and chorizo are not worth ordering. Cemitas remain the item to order at this point.

Stopped in again for lunch yesterday, the chips & salsas and cemitas were as good as it had been in previous visits.

I got to try the peanut salsa that Santander posted about above, and agree with what he said. Very good. I still enjoy the creamy green salsa a bit more though. Ordered a cemitas milenesa without the lettuce and tomato. As I was eating, one of the owners came out to chat with me about the food. She asked if I liked it better without the lettuce and tomato. I said I did, they just seem like unnecessary filler to me.n She went on to tell me how they are from Tlaxcala so they make the cemitas slightly different than the ones from Puebla. They think it's too dry without the lettuce and tomato that they mix with a little bit of oil to add a bit of moisture to it. I asked her about putting papalo on them. She said they had some last week, but it's been very hard to find so far. They found one bunch at a store in Aurora, but it was too expensive. She did tell me that she found a lady that was growing it, and could buy her crop of it later this month if it comes in. So hopefully in July they will have it for the cemitas.

I'm really enjoying this place, and hope that people start to find it. One of the owners said that business has been just ok. There hasn't been more than one or two other people in the 3 times I've been. I would think that the lunch business would be better with a lot of the workers from the car dealerships near by. Probably just need to get the word out better. It doesn't appear they have a website, but they do have a Facebook page that they aren't really updating often. In addition to the $1 tacos on Mondays & Wednesdays, they have a punch card for a free cemitas after 5 visits.