El Mexico Restaurant y Taqueria - Des Plaines

For those that like Mexican food but do not care for the more upscale fare of Lalo's (where Maria's used to be) in Des Plaines, I'd offer up El Mexico Restaurant as a good alternative. This has been a place I wanted to go to for some time and just this weekend we ordered some dishes for a party we were hosting.

We ordered some dishes of Pozole and chicken in mole sauce. Both of them were quite good. In particular, I thought the mole sauce was among the best I've had, with a nice smokey flavor and interesting - almost grainy - texture that coated the chicken quite well. The mole sauce we ordered was their "red" mole, which was not too spicy. They also offer green mole, which has some more kick to it.

The side dishes - your basic rice and beans - were also very good. I'm not sure how they prepare their rice but I was very pleased with the flavor of it. Their salsas are also very good, nice an fresh, and they have a spicy salsa that is very spicy and flavorful.

All in all, we were extremely pleased with the food here. On top of that, the service was quite friendly and helpful. We placed this order at the last minute on Christmas Eve morning and they had everything ready by early afternoon.

El Mexico Restaurant
694 Lee Street
Des Plaines, IL

I've been remiss in not mentioning Mexico Restaurant sooner.

I've had two items at Mexico Restaurant that I think are terrific.

Lengua Gordita - thick slabs of oh so tender legua (most places I've had lengua it is chopped), served on a homemade gordita with your choice of salsas (rojo or verde)

Al Pastor Tacos - I've never seen Al Pastor served in the manner they do at Mexico Restaurant. The tacos (3) come wrapped individually in foil in a triangle shape. Personally I prefer the salsa verde with these & the salsa is applied by the restaurant.

This place is well worth a stop if in the area