La Cabańita

I was walking back to the office yesterday and found the La Cabańita truck at the corner of Madison and Canal. I asked for a menu -- it appears rather extensive, but the menu is from their restaurant in Brookfield. There was also a small flyer stating that they were back -- I guess they've been gone, but I don't know why or for how long.

Has anyone tried the food from this truck? If not, would anyone like to try it? I'm hoping to go over there on Monday for lunch.

I had a steak burrito from a truck at Monroe and Canal yesterday--maybe it is the same one you are referring to? Pretty good, not great, but a decent, filling lunch. They also sell Mexican coke in the small glass bottles--and I think I saw some Mexican pepsi in there as well.

My mistake -- the truck is on Monroe and Canal, directly in front of Blackie's. I plan to check it out on Monday if anyone cares to join me.

That's literally across the street from my office, so I suppose I have no excuse not to go. I vote for 11:30 Monday.

Several weeks ago, Jim and I met at La Cabanita briefly to pick out some items for lunch and go back to our respective offices and try them. The first item I tried was a steak burrito, with beans. It came with two kinds of hot sauce, both homemade. The hot sauce is always different, I suppose depending upon who makes it that day. The first time I tried it, I didn't care for it at all. It had a burnt taste and I thought perhaps someone had added a dollop of paint thinner to try and improve the flavor. The burrito itself was tasty and for $5 was a good buy. I have a tendency to order the same thing over and over if I like it, and have had three or four of them over the past few weeks, although recently I have ordered them without the beans. The only thing in the burrito if you order it with just the carne asada is carne asada, and lots of it. I am also becoming fond of the red hot sauce. I got a chicken tamale one day, just to try, and thought it was also good.

Today, in honor of the LTH one year anniversary, Jim and I met for lunch from La Cabanita and ate by the river. I called in a special order yesterday from their menu -- a chile relleno burrito, two tacos al pastor, a torta milanesa and flan. Mike, the owner(?) told me he had two kinds of flan available, cheese and vanilla, so like a good LTHer, I told him we wanted one of each.

We grabbed our lunch off the truck today, but neglected to check if they gave us any utensils or napkins. They didn't. Both of us enjoyed our tacos. I am no expert on al pastor, but I can tell you that the pork was tender and delicious and I would be happy to order them again. We split the milanesa, which Jim dressed with some of the hot sauce. I think he used a combination of the red and the green. I thought the sandwich was good and would order it again. The bread was tasty, although very slightly mushy, but remember, these were prepared probably a couple of hours previously. After devouring the sandwich, both of us wimped out and agreed that the burrito would be too much for today's lunch. Jim took it with him and I hope he will report on it later. I took the vanilla flan and Jim took the queso flan. The vanilla flan was good -- not too sweet, and slightly more dense than I am used to. I would be happy to order it again.

If you go past La Cabanita today, you will see Mike out there with some samples. He is trying to increase his business. Ask him for a menu. I am hoping he will start carrying more than just chicken, beef and steak tacos and burritos and carry more of the items we chose for today's lunch. I don't think anything on the menu is over $5.50, and the food is good. It's a nice alternative to most of the places you will find in the downtown area for a good price. Tell him Suzy said you should stop by and try something, and please let him know what you would like to see on the truck if you plan to be a regular customer.

I'm hoping Jim will post later with his dining experiences with La Cabanita.

Suzy

P.S. No photos. Sorry.

sdritz wrote:I'm hoping Jim will post later with his dining experiences with La Cabanita.

Surprise, surprise -- I couldn't wait until dinner time to try that leftover chile relleno burrito, though I managed to restrain myself to only consuming about half of it so far (they make a hefty burrito at La Cabanita). I, like sdritz, have eaten a number of La Cabanita's more quotidian chicken tacos and steak burritos over the past few weeks, and I've enjoyed them very much. (Tamales not so good, however.) Especially compared to what's been available in my office neighborhood since Burrito Buggy pulled out of its Clinton Street location, La Cabanita's standard fare is better than average Mexican and about the same price or less than the competition at the chains (Burrito Beach, etc.). But the chile relleno burrito took it to another level. This was really delightful, the best part in my mind being the many contrasting textures within (rich pastiness from the beans, chewiness from the rice, and a fluffy/puffy texture, which I presume came from the namesake ingredients, that was almost like a souffle).

The queso flan was a good tasting flan, although I didn't find it particularly "cheesy." In particular, I was secretly hoping for something like the divine, almost cheesecake-like flan served at Dorado (and much praised here). However, that's an unrealistic expectation, and this was very good flan for a fast food truck.


Footnote: Now that the owners are aware they have some enthusiastic supporters -- and also appear to be following Suzy's advice to do some POS marketing -- I anticipate they will do very well at this location. Today, they had set up a little table to show off some of the product (in a nifty-looking plastic display case) and put up a bright orange sign on the front of the truck. Honestly, before this you could've just walked past the truck without noticing it was parked there.

Footnote 2: The peculiar "paint thinner" flavor Suzy and I both noticed on our first sampling of the red salsa was probably due to overzealous roasting of the peppers; after all, methanol is extracted from wood by heating it, peppers have cellulose in them ... so there may be something more than fanciful in that paint thinner description. Anyway, on any given day you'll find a different intensity of roast (we got "Starbucks" on day one; today was more "Julius Meinl").

I searched for La Cabanita's truck for several days, but it seemed to have disappeared. In frustration, I called the restaurant to see what the problem was. Apparently, they do not have all their permit paperwork in order and have received several tickets for parking illegally. The owner assured me that the truck would be back within two months. I'll have to search elsewhere for my Mexican fix until that time.

Since it's been a while, I called La Cabanita to see if they had progressed any further with their permits for the downtown truck. Apparently, they have given up and the truck is history.

I was very sorry to hear this, since the food was cheap, plentiful and delicious.

I go to La Cabańita every once in a while, since its right near me on Ogden, just eat of La Grange Rd. in Brookfiled. If you ever get a chance you should come down and try it out. I think (not 100% sure which day) on Tuesday they have 99c tacos, and 2.99 burritos on Monday.

Hot La Cabanita in Brookfield today instead of going to Las Asadas. Dammit...

High hopes because of hand made corn tortillas, al pastor, and elote on the menu were tempered by a below average lunch.

Ordered a junior carne asada burrito with avocado, an al pastor taco on one of the handmade corn tortillas, elote, and chips and salsa

I am not a burrito guy, but for some reason wanted one today, average(alot like la pasadita west side... ) carne asada was the best protein of the meal and thats not saying much.
Al Pastor taco... meat was kind of an indistunguishable mush with alot of a red sauce. Served with cilantro and onion it was not very good, the tortilla was pretty good.
Elote was almost inedible, I believe I have reached my monthly allowance for salt just from that half ear I could eat. Lathered in mayo, and cheap cheese, way to salty.
The chips were ok, and the salsa was ok.
The red and green sauce on the table packed little heat, or flavor.

Service was friendly, and the decor is nice.

Just one of those things when trying new places, sometimes you get burned, I wish I would have gone the extra few blocks east and hit Las Asadas.

La Cabanita
9438 W. Ogden
Brookfield, IL.

I went there a few months ago armed with a restaurant.com cert. They stated that they no longer accepted them, but we saw the specials board and figured we'd try it out anyway. (restaurant.com promptly refunded us for the certificate - no hassle)

La Cabanita in Brookfield on Ogden was standard basic tacqueria food. Nothing special in any way at all. The pollo en mole special was the standout. It was seemingly a doctored up version of a standard prefab mole with extra heat chile added. Everything else seemed to be the standard Chicago area tacqueria fare slopped out with no pride. Nothing was horribly bad, but most was just standard dime a dozen tacqueria fare. Totally indistinguishable from hundreds of other joints around the area. We had tacos and tostadas of chicken, carne asada, al pastor, and the pollo en mole special. Maybe they do guisados, or other meats well, but the stuff we had kinda just seemed blah. Could have gotten it anywhere. For steak, imo, they don't even belong in the same sentence as Las Asadas (or any other flame grilled steak taco joint.)

I'd only go back if I heard from someone about something they do well.

There's a few other Mexican joints in the immediate area I have not gotten around to. Hard to do it with Las Asadas right there. I can tell you this though - according to the person manning the counter at the place called "The Taco Stop," they do not accept credit cards for payment on the days of their Monday Taco Special. It's like every other week, they offer any taco on their menu for 69 cents. It doesn't matter what you order on that day. You cannot pay for your order with a credit card. We ordered for takeout one day. One of each of their taco varieties, two enchilada dinners, and a few other tacqueria staples ( a sope and a tostada or some such.) On arrival for pickup, the gentleman said that he could not accept credit card for payment since they were just too busy. He directed us to the cash station across the street. We told him honestly that we had no intention of getting charged the service charge to get money from the cash station, and added that he could have swiped the card in the machine in the time it took to have the conversation. While I have no real issue with the way they care to conduct their business, I do not believe I should have to lose money for their policy. I could have happily brought cash if their menu or signage stated they do not accept credit cards on those nights.

We had a really great meal at Zacatacos on Pershing / Harlem that night.

seebee wrote: For steak, imo, they don't even belong in the same sentence as Las Asadas (or any other flame grilled steak taco joint.)

I agree unless you are saying I shoud have gone to Las Asadas instead...


a visit like todays really makes me hate going outside the box and trying "new to me" places

jimswside wrote:a visit like todays really makes me hate going outside the box and trying "new to me" places

Sounds like you'll be needing some Asadas "therapy" soon.
I know you've said before that even Las asadas is pushing your lunch boundaries, but if you have another 5-10 minutes anytime, head east to Harlem ave just north of Pershing (it really is a very quick hop, skip& jump) to Zacatacos. They do flame grilled steak as well, (hopefully the one guy who oversalts the meats isn't working that day.) As I've said before, their salsa trumps Asadas' salsa, and they even have an arbol, and a fresh chopped pico de gallo along with a nice, usually scorching salsa verde. In my experiences, in this area, Zacatacos runs at a better rate of being stellar than Asadas. Asadas in des plaines, and on Western in the city run at a higher greatness rate than the Harlem ave Zacatacos tho.

It's hard, I know, and most likely, you'll be disappointed, but every once in a while, try a new joint. Ya just never know.

seebee wrote:

jimswside wrote:a visit like todays really makes me hate going outside the box and trying "new to me" places

Sounds like you'll be needing some Asadas "therapy" soon.
I know you've said before that even Las asadas is pushing your lunch boundaries, but if you have another 5-10 minutes anytime, head east to Harlem ave just north of Pershing (it really is a very quick hop, skip& jump) to Zacatacos. They do flame grilled steak as well, (hopefully the one guy who oversalts the meats isn't working that day.) As I've said before, their salsa trumps Asadas' salsa, and they even have an arbol, and a fresh chopped pico de gallo along with a nice, usually scorching salsa verde. In my experiences, in this area, Zacatacos runs at a better rate of being stellar than Asadas. Asadas in des plaines, and on Western in the city run at a higher greatness rate than the Harlem ave Zacatacos tho.

It's hard, I know, and most likely, you'll be disappointed, but every once in a while, try a new joint. Ya just never know.

thanks for the tip,

I have seen and heard about Zacatacos, and I think I need to pay them a visit.

I am in the La Grange area and stop La Cabanita on occasion. Like said above, it is standard fare. Nothing to knock you socks off. But my kid likes it fine.
In the winter after his basketball games down the road we stop in. I have enjoyed the pozole and chicken soups there with the hand made tortillas.

We tried Las Asadas on Ogden but were a little disappointed. Kind of expected more with the good reviews here. We will have to try it again.

Had a steak torata at Zacatacos 5, in the loop (on Wabash) yesterday at lunch. Pretty good with the red salsa. However I noted that the steak is in a warming tray which I tend not to like. It was flavorful though.

Which leads me to recommend trying Taco Taco in countryside for quick taco lunch. It is my kids favorite! We went there after baseball (lost) last night. I Had two tortas in one day! I am not going to pretend that it is the best thing ever, but they cook your meat to order. The chicken and steak a grilled upon order and is not sitting in a warming tray. I have them in my cell phone and just call after the game. It is done when we get there within five minutes. Only a small table to eat at the place so we get most items to go. I guess, I like it because they cook the food in front of you and it is my son's favorite in the area.

So just wanted to mention to the guys in the area to give it try. It appears that jimswide and seebee are nearby. We do like it better than La Cabanita, but at Cabanita you can sit and eat.
Taco Taco
5538 S La Grange Rd
(between 55th St & 56th St)
Countryside, IL 60525

(708) 482-3100

lhbeetle wrote:...they cook your meat to order. The chicken and steak a grilled upon order and is not sitting in a warming tray.
Taco Taco
5538 S La Grange Rd
(between 55th St & 56th St)
Countryside, IL 60525

(708) 482-3100

Flame or flat iron?

Flat iron.
Clean flavors, no complex mixtures. At Zacatacos I noticed garlic with the steak. It was good, Taco Taco just meat on the flat iron.
The couple guys running the place, cooking and running the cash register, have been there since we started going (4+ years). Younger guys making a living I assume.
Give it try. Tell what you think. No offense will be taken. Like I mentioned, kids love it so we will be going there until they don't.
It was the first place that actually ate the lettuce and tomatoes on their tacos
They get the chicken tacos each time.
I get the steak Torta or burrito.
Mostly standard fare but I like that they cook it to order!
The french Fries are suprisingly good. Chips Ok. On Yelp mixed reviews but on Yelp Chiptole in La Grange got good reviews. I hate Chiptole. Barely edible to me.