La Rosita, tacos in NW burbs

Marooned in Crystal Lake for a week with a business assignment, I decided to venture out in search of interesting lunch fare. Thanks to Da Beef for posting that this place finished in the top three in a Tribune ranking of area taquerias. Located in the middle of downtown CL, near the Metra.

Housed in a corner of a carniceria, La Rosita's grill features the standard tacos and tortas menu of a taqueria. I decided to go with three standard tacos to get a feel for the overal quality. Add-ons can be found in a stand-alone cooler by the register. "Con todo" gets you fresh cilantro, diced onions and tomatoes, and sour cream on your tacos.

My top taco was the al pastor. Perfectly seasoned with good grilled flavor, the meat was stellar. Tacos are wrapped in two soft corn tortillas that are very fresh.

Lengua (tongue) was also good. Cubes of meat with a moderately spicy marinade, this also had noticeably fresh ingredients.

The only disappointment was the asada. Well seasoned meat, but a bit too much gristle and lacking the punch of good beef flavor one finds at Pasadita.

For the adventurous diner, there were two kinds of brains on yesterday's taco menu -- pig and cow. I also remember chicharron and pollo as choices. No fish, sadly.

Edit: See budrichard's post below for other locations.

La Rosita
131 N. Main St., Crystal Lake
Tel: (815) 477-3636

I work right down the street from LaRosita and I head in there occasionally.

Personally, my favorites are the Carne Asada Torta and the Al Pastor Torta. great bread and well dressed.


If you are looking for another taqueria in the area, there is one on IL-176 east of IL31 next to Keif's Reef in Island Lake. The place is a small restaurant with about eight tables and is quite excellent.

If you do not have a car and you are stuck in the downtown area, the choices are limited. The Olympic Cafe is fair and pretty expensive for what you get. Georgio's Pizzaria is very reliable and makes a good personal pizza for lunch.

Duke O Brien's is another favorite and they make a pretty decent selection of salads and sandwiches.

Finn McCool's has a small but well executed menu but is only open after 4 pm.



Georgios Chicago Pizza
(815) 459-8888
75 E Woodstock St
Crystal Lake, IL 60014

Duke O'Brien's
110 N. Main St.
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
815-356-9980

Finn Mccools
www.finnmccoolschicago.com
72 N Williams St
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
(815) 356-1155

I do love a good La Rosita taco, but Las Cumbres, which is on Grant St. in downtown Crystal Lake is more consistently good. I think when La Rosita is on its game, their Pastor is better than any taco I've ever had. However, I've been there enough to know they are not always on their game.
Las Cumbres ALWAYS has fresh meat, and the steak never has any gristle. The rest of their menu is great too, and they have outstanding fish tacos and the Mariscos Diablo is really good. Their address is 93 Grant St. I have 2 suggestions for you if you get a burrito, first get the sour cream on the side and second get it to go so the cheese has a chance to melt while you drive home or go back to work.

La Rosita is a chain of carnicerias http://www.carniceriaslarosita.com/static/index.html .
While eating at Kim's Korean in Mount Prospect we noticed a sizeable crowd both in and take out at La Rosita next door. I said next time we are in the area, we need to try this place. Well Saturday we did and we had lingua tacos. As good as any i have ever had and the amount of filling was almost double what I have had at other taco places. It's a bare bones lunch counter/carry out atmosphere but the food is good and the prices reasonable.-Dick

budrichard wrote: Well Saturday we did and we had lingua tacos. As good as any i have ever had and the amount of filling was almost double what I have had at other taco places. It's a bare bones lunch counter/carry out atmosphere but the food is good and the prices reasonable.-Dick

Thanks for the tip budrichard and I'll stop by soon. Do they have an al pastor spit? In spite of the many taquerias in this general area the only one I've found with one is Taqueria Arandas, 1721 E. Oakton, Des Plaines, Illinois.

Their Pastor is not to be missed, its the one place me and wife still crave since we moved out of Crystal lake...

I went to the Lake Zurich location (it's not listed on their website for some reason, but it's on Rand Road, just north of Rt. 22 in the same strip mall as [url]http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1161&hilit=siri+thai]Siri Thai[/url]) and it was great. I got three steak tacos, rice and beans and a container of their fresh pico de gallo. I got just cilantro and onions on the tacos and they were very flavorful, not too gristley as someone else reported. Their verde sauce was very good, definitely a good compliment to the tacos.

I live right down the street from the Wheeling location and work down the street from the Lake Zurich location, so I think I've found my new favorite taco place!

I will try the pastor next time, too! I just like to start with steak because if they can't get that right, there's not much point in exploring more.

I like the tacos at La Rosita in Mt Prospect. The salsa has a really good kick and there's a nice balance between the meat and the onions/cilantro. The carnitas and the chicharrones are particularly good. The 'charrones are nice and soft with good spice. They upgraded the taco stand a bit in the past year, moving the cash register to the side and they raised the prices by adding sales tax. Not a complaint, just a remark. Great stuff.

1805 W Algonquin Rd
Mount Prospect, IL

La Rosita menu for Carpentersville, Crystal Lake, Harvard and McHenry.