L Patron

I knew this place was special as soon as I took my first bite of everything I over ordered. I actually took a bite of the raja taco and started giggling it was so delicious. Carmelized onion and charred poblano peppers wrapped in a corn tortilla, it absolutely didn't need anything else on it. I knew everything was going to be a little bit more than good when the guacamole came out with pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. Carne asada tacos, marinated, feshly grilled , perfectly balanced onions and cilantro. But, my star of the show was the fish tacos. Baja style. Slaw on top was acidic and spicy, with perfectly fried fish. I ate two! Which is absurd because I also had a bite or two of the gringa, which was stuffed full of al pastor that was seasoned with just the right amount of pineapple. Also had a little bite of a cheese quesadilla that was anything but ordinary, because the salsas these guys are putting out are stellar. Pickled veg was also thrown in there again the seasoning perfectly balanced. I had a little cucumber water they gave me to taste, good if you like this kind of thing. I'm not a good judge of it, as I don't like sweet drinks. Wish they served ice cold beer, it would have put it over the top.
The best/worse thing about this place is that it is a little hard to get too because of traffic, and because if this place was in my neighborhood, I'd be as big as a house.
This place was jam packed at 2:00 today. I have a feeling this place is going to have a line out the door very soon. There are only about 16 seats in the place.
L Patron
2815 W. Diversey, Logan Square
(773) 252-6335

http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2012/ ... square.php

nicinchic wrote:Wish they served ice cold beer, it would have put it over the top.

Maybe you can BYO...?

Made it over there yesterday and was quite pleased.

The huge positive it has going for it are the vegetarian options, since my wife is vegetarian. It can be very difficult to find something other than cheese enchiladas and a sad veggie burrito consisting of beans, lettuce, tomato and cheese. L'Patron has the rajas filling as well as a daily veggie "special" filling for the tacos, tortas and burritos. Yesterday the veggie special was beet and zucchini, and my wife was totally into it.

I went with the pastor burrito and have to say the meat had GREAT flavor, sweet/spicy/smoky/charred with bits of pineapple mixed in. The burrito could have used a bit more "oomph" as it was very light on beans and then just had the meat and romaine lettuce. Next time I'll go for pastor tacos, which would probably been a better bet.

Got a steak and a chicken taco for my daughter and both looked excellent. The steak especially which was freshly grilled and still had a touch of pink in it. The bite I had was well seasoned and tender.

Another plus for house made pickled jalapenos, carrot, onion and cauliflower. ANd their chips rocked too.

Will def be back quite a bit!

Jamie

Yep, this place is a winner. Had 3 tacos: the rajas, the pastor, and the fish taco. All were excellent - even though I don't usually care for the sweeter/pineapple-y kind of pastor, this was really flavorful, and nicely done. The rajas might be the best taco of its ilk I've ever had; it blows the doors off most chile relleno tacos I've had of late, which some nice heat to boot. Fish taco - also superb. I generally don't like paying extra for chips, but with chips this good, it was $1.80 well spent - they came out perfectly crispy, and nice and piping hot. Guacamole was an excellent rendition, also with some nice heat to it. House made salsas were solid, although I would have preferred them in cups, as they're a little on the watery side. Only small gripe is that it took a little long to get my food, but other than that I was very happy with my meal, and I imagine I'll be here often. Also: they're going to be open until 4am on weekends!!! I imagine they'll be jam packed after the 2am bars get out...

Ronna and I visited L'Patron over the weekend. This place strikes me as somewhat of a hybrid of your standard neighborhood taqueria and its gussied-up cousins a la Big Star or Antique Taco. Although there were some hits and misses, L'Patron is ambitious and I look forward to seeing them continue to dial in their recipes and execution.

Jar of Jalapeno Escabeche - Very lightly pickled, crunchy, spicy, delicious.


Rajas - As reported above, this taco is excellent. One of the best of its type that I've had.


Pastor - Nice char, but low on spice with way too much pineapple sweetness for me. This is likely just a personal preference, and I appreciated the effort.


Pollo Adobado - Dry dry dry. What appeared to be pre-cooked, reheated, all white meat chicken made the worst taco of the afternoon by a long way.


Lengua - I really liked the silky texture of the shredded tongue in this taco, but found it to be underseasoned and perhaps also undertopped. Give me some more salt and cilantro and we might have a winner.


Pescado - This beer-battered tilapia taco was Ronna's favorite of the bunch. Though fish was well-fried, and well-topped with a flavorful roasted serrano aioli and a tart, crunchy slaw.


Gringo - The "Gringo" is a quesadilla-like creation with carne asada and cheese between two housemade tortillas. The steak was tender, cooked only to medium, and actually quite good (if a bit undersalted). Neither of us ate the too-thick, bland, undercooked masa shell though. I'd order the carne asada again, but I'm steering clear of the Gringo (as well as its pastor-filled sibling, the "Gringa").


Both house salsas, red and green, need work. They taste homemade, and are clearly made with good, fresh ingredients, but are wimpy, watery, and bland. They need heat, acid, and salt in a bad way.

The lightly-sweetened, refreshing, and completely-new-to-me cucumber water, on the other hand, was excellent.

Service (especially for a simple counter-service joint like this) was extraordinarily nice. I like what these folks are trying to do, and with a little fine tuning (and salt!) L'Patron could be great.

--Rich

I stopped in for a post-dinner taco. I selected the Lomo with onions ($2). It was lacking seasoning, but when I added salt the flavor woke up. The caramelized onions were a nice addition.

Popped in late last night for a few tacos and I think L'Patron has improved quite a bit over the last month.

This visit, we kept it simple with a couple of asada tacos and a couple fish tacos. The asada tacos were nicely seasoned and super tender. L'Patron seems to be using a better cut of beef for their carne asada than your average taqueria. With just a little more char, these would be perfect.

The table salsas, especially the green, were also much improved from our first visit, with better balance and more flavor and heat.

Fish tacos were the star of our meal. These were already good the last time we visited, but they were great last night. The roasted serrano aioli packed some real heat and the pickley, finely-shredded slaw was a nice foil for the mayo and fried fish.

One again, the staff couldn't be any nicer. I'm glad we gave this place another shot. It's turning into an excellent late-night option.

--Rich

I feel compelled to come here and give L'Patron a public gold star after the nice lady at the counter mentioned that they got a bad review in the Sun-Times (I had congratulated her on the nice write-up in the Reader this week). I read the Sun-Times review and it's unnecessarily mean, complaining about the decor, using terms like "gross" referring to the elotes and "rat's nest" referring to the shredded cabbage on the fish taco...which is delicious, by the way. I'm not big on reading food critics, but I'm really left scratching my head on this one.

I've been impressed with everything I've eaten at L'Patron. The taco al pastor and the fish tacos are my favorite thus far. Their burritos are HUGE and inexpensive and delicious. The ingredients are fresh and made to order. The tortilla chips are made fresh and served warm. Everyone else I know considers it a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

Lunch here today was really solid. Zesty guacamole (garnished with pomegranate seeds) and fried-to-order tortilla chips were both very tasty. We tried 5 different types of tacos and enjoyed them all but my favorites were the fish, chorizo and al pastor. The fish was light, crispy and piping hot. It was topped with some terrific, full-flavored cabbage, which I believe was actually pickled. It was a great foil for the the fish itself. Chorizo was tasty and had been griddled to perfection, with a nice mix of crispy and soft crumbles. I'm not normally an al pastor fan but I liked this version a lot because it wasn't too sweet, and the meat had some great caramelization. It was also nice and moist. In fact, all the proteins on all the tacos we tried were perfectly cooked. Lengua was entirely respectable -- tender and unctuous -- but it didn't really stand out from other well-made versions. My least favorite, which was still good, was the asada, which was a little bland (compared to all the others) and a bit too chewy for my taste. I liked both salsas but preferred the green, which had a good flavor and a fair amount of heat. Yeah, texture-wise it was a little watery but I thought the flavor and heat trumped that minor issue. Great stuff. I'll definitely be back.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:The fish was light, crispy and piping hot. It was topped with some terrific, full-flavored cabbage, which I believe was actually pickled.

My experience Friday lunch was more in tune with Nagrant's in the Sun Times than Ronnie's. Fish taco was sporting an old school fish-fro of finely shredded cabbage, not pickled and did not resemble the fish taco pictured up-thread. Fish taco was fine but the mound of cabbage fluff did detract. Lengua also more in tune with Nagrant, stringy, bland and, while I seem to be piling on, escabeche barely qualified as pickled.

They seem to be experimenting with presentation, that or they ran out of pickled cabbage. Place is spotless, service is very friendly and efficient, I liked the chips/guac, which I had on my first visit. I will probably return at some point as its convenient to the highway with parking right outside.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm not normally an al pastor fan but I liked this version a lot because it wasn't too sweet, and the meat had some great caramelization. It was also nice and moist.

Did they have a trompo (the vertical spit) or was it similar to how chaparrita does al pastor (w/o a trompo)?

fropones wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm not normally an al pastor fan but I liked this version a lot because it wasn't too sweet, and the meat had some great caramelization. It was also nice and moist.

Did they have a trompo (the vertical spit) or was it similar to how chaparrita does al pastor (w/o a trompo)?

I did not see a trompo but I appreciated that there was very little pineapple and what little there was had been cooked in a way that de-emphasized its sweetness.

=R=

My experience Friday lunch was more in tune with Nagrant's in the Sun Times than Ronnie's.

Ditto on that, I agree with Gary. I just had lunch here, and maybe my expectations were a little high - having one of the best taco lunches in recent memory last week at Antique Taco, but everything I tried was mediocre. The fish tacos were on the lower end of mediocre, bad breading, over-cooked, couldn't taste the fish, too much cabbage - and spicier than they should be - all I could taste was overcooked breading and heat. Asada was pleasant - meat was tender, not chewy like many asadas, rich in flavor - no heat. Definitely the better of the two. I also had the guacamole, which I loved until the heat hit. The pomegranate seeds are a really nice touch, the sweet juice exploding mid-bite, balancing out the rich flavor of the avocado. However, after you taste the lime and the cilantro.....this INTENSE heat hits that just lingers too long. Guacamole shouldn't be this spicy. I love spicy food: whether its black, white, american, indian or japanese...but this was too spicy, and made the guacamole hard to enjoy. I didn't see any red pepper flakes or jalapeños in the guac - why so spicy? No one else has mentioned it, so maybe mine was made wrong...not sure, but I didn't like it.

This isn't near where I work or live, so I likely won't return - but they are still new, and others have liked it...so, give it a try. It was clean, the people were nice, the parking was easy, and it was SUPER cheap ($2/taco) - but didn't leave a lasting impression on my taste buds.

rubbbqco wrote:I also had the guacamole, which I loved until the heat hit. The pomegranate seeds are a really nice touch, the sweet juice exploding mid-bite, balancing out the rich flavor of the avocado. However, after you taste the lime and the cilantro.....this INTENSE heat hits that just lingers too long. Guacamole shouldn't be this spicy. I love spicy food: whether its black, white, american, indian or japanese...but this was too spicy, and made the guacamole hard to enjoy. I didn't see any red pepper flakes or jalapeños in the guac - why so spicy? No one else has mentioned it, so maybe mine was made wrong...not sure, but I didn't like it.

I've seen many guacamole recipes over the years that call for some type of chile, and that's how I normally make it, too -- with either some crushed arbol or cayenne. That said, our serving on Saturday had only a touch of heat, which I thought was perfect. It was a faint back note and not overwhelming at all. I was also surprised by how much I liked those pomegranate seeds. They really worked.

=R=

I've seen many guacamole recipes over the years that call for some type of chile, and that's how I normally make it, too -- with either some crushed arbol or cayenne. That said, our serving on Saturday had only a touch of heat, which I thought was perfect. It was a faint back note and not overwhelming at all. I was also surprised by how much I liked those pomegranate seeds. They really worked.

Maybe mine was made wrong - the place is new, and no one else mentioned the heat. I make my guacamole with a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes, which I tend to like on a lot of food (pizza, pasta, mexican) - I like a soft, end-of-the-bite heat; the heat in this guac I had today was way too strong.

I, too, was surprised at the pomegranates...very untraditional, I wasn't sure about it when I saw them - but I loved what they added. I would like to try the guacamole again without all the heat, or maybe I'll just add pomegranates to the next batch I make.

99-cent tacos as L'Patron taqueria prepares to open second location

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/re ... story.html

Dave148 wrote:

99-cent tacos as L'Patron taqueria prepares to open second location

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/re ... story.html

Looks like it'll be their only location per this post and this shot, posted by Drover on the other thread . . .


The new location isn't too far afield but man it sure was nice having it right off the Kennedy.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:The new location isn't too far afield but man it sure was nice having it right off the Kennedy.

=R=

The old location wasn't too far afield but man it sure is nice having the new location two blocks from my home. =^)

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:The new location isn't too far afield but man it sure was nice having it right off the Kennedy.

=R=

The old location wasn't too far afield but man it sure is nice having the new location two blocks from my home. =^)

The new location is approximately 1 mile farther from my place than the old location (so, not a worthwhile walk). But looking at the larger picture, while I like L Patron, it's never seemed liked destination food, so it'll be interesting to see how they do in the new, farther-from-the-expressway location. When I was traveling between the suburbs and downtown, it was always a super convenient place to stop (especially on the way to the UC). Now, not so much.

=R=

The owner of the hugely popular taco and burrito joint L’Patron appears to be opening a carnitas restaurant down the street. Cesar David Gonzalez, co-owner of L’Patron, applied for a business license Friday to open a restaurant called Gabriela’s Carnitas at 3721 W. Fullerton Ave.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/01/08 ... an-square/