I took one for the team...El Norte Burrito place

Hoo Boy, I had some regretful food last night
We live near El Norte and Uptown burrito places (on Broadway near Bryn Mawr). I've sort of peered in and wondered if they were any good & decided to try Norte last night without checking in about anyone's previous tries. Actually, we went inside Uptown first, but it was empty and kind of dirty looking. So we went across the street. It was much cleaner - so much cleaner that it smelled strongly of Mr.Clean. At this point we didn't want to drive to a burrito place so we stepped up to the all-but-empty-except-for one-customer counter. We placed simple orders: one chicken and one beef burrito, with guacamole. Total was 9.50, and probably weighed a good pound. We took it home, and had some bites, and then traded. Sig.Other said, "which one is chicken?" That's how bland it was, except for the salt - a complete salt bomb. Maybe it was MSG, but it wasn't even tasty enough to be MSG. The lettuce inside was not crisp, the guac was scant, the tomatoes weren't ripe. Hot sauces provided on the side just made it....hot. Beans were very pasty, coating the meat in a gravy-like way. Blech.
I'm sorry to diss a little independent place, but this was just bad. Oh well. Now I know.

messycook wrote:so much cleaner that it smelled strongly of Mr.Clean

I have found this unattractive problem fairly often in small, storefront Mexican restaurants. While I'm glad that the restaurant is being cleaned, I'd rather not have the overpowering smell of cleaning solutions hanging like a dark cloud above me.

One of the worst examples was when we visited Ixcapuzalco. For a restaurant with their aspirations, and prices, I don't want to smell chemicals while dining.

There are several El Nortes. I'm not sure how they're all related, or if they are. The one I've been to, in Niles, had a carryout menu that also listed locations in Waukegan and Mundelein, but not the sites I've passed on State Street and Ridge Avenue. I think there's one in Highwood, too.

The Niles one served me some perfectly nice tacos: carnitas, al pastor and chorizo. (They have a wider variety, including lengua, tongue; sesos, brains; and tipitas, tripe; but I wasn't in the mood.) Very good jamaica tea, as well. Besides tacos and burritos, etc., they offer complete dinners such as carne asada and chiles rellenos.

The place is pretty institutional-looking inside and the service, by teen-age girls, was only adequate -- though it is table service rather than the counter service I expected. However, the tacos were just fine.

Tacos el Norte
9626 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles
847/635-5282