Don Manuel - Batavia-long

This place had great promises, the owners also own Taco Grande in Batavia which is a very successful, long running Mexican place that is now into the 3rd generation of the Martinez family. Don Manuel is in a new building, built by the family and is quite formal inside, white tablecloths, chandeliers and elegant table settings. The family had stated that they wanted to have a more upscale, gourent Mexican cooking. We tried this place not long after opening last summer and found the food to be nothing special, the menu was very limited and had much fewer offerings than Taco Grande and was twice as expensive. We did not expect Rick Bayless level but we expected more than something just average. There was a lot of talk on the street that this place was just too expensive so when I saw their ad in the paper recently that they now had lunch specials "starting at 5.95", we thought we'd give it a try once again. They do now bring chips and salsa to the table, a good thing because Taco Grande's salsa is some of the best I have ever had. After studying the menu for quite a long time, it was pretty quickly determined that there was no lunch special and the only thing on the menu close to 5.95 was a few appetizers and a plain salad. We decided we would continue on anyway. I ordered the taco platter with steak and guacamole (guac was $ extra) and SO had spinach enchiladas. The plating was nicer than the first time, what you'd expect for and nicer place, but my 2 tacos ($9) were soft flour, were piled high with lettuce and tomatoes with minute portions of steak. Guac was served on the side as was some black beans. A very light rice was also on the plate. SO's enchiladas ($13) filled the plate, had a good amount of spinach and was covered with a very light cheese and creama mixute. It was very good while my tacos were very bland. The server was a kid who was trying too hard and kept mixing things up between us and the only other table in the whole place. I have liked Taco Grande for many years, the family has always been very nice with attentive service, they have a great menu with a wide variety of good Mexican offereing but in Don Manuel, they seem to have lost their way in part because it's not closely overseen by the family like Taco Grande is. I think their greatest draw is going to be that they are across from the Randall 16 movies and that they have a bar, for food, I wouldn't go out of your way but I will go back to Taco Grande, $25 for lunch at Don Manuel is not worth it.

Don Mauel
1890 Mill Street
Batavia, Il
630-879-7979

Taco Grande
6 North River Street
Batavia, Il
630-406-8415

I had a spinach enchilada at El Sombrero in Mt Prospect,served on a combo plate.I vomited into my bathtub when we came home.Spinach doesn't belong in enchiladas.

I noticed that their ad in the newspaper today had a small subtitle under daily lunch specials, Sunday through Thursday, we went on Saturday. To their credit, the spinach enchiladas were excellant with an excellant blend of a light white cheese and creama. The tacos were an abomination of way too much lettuce and tomato, hardly gourmet Mexican as they advertise.

LikestoEatout wrote:I noticed that their ad in the newspaper today had a small subtitle under daily lunch specials, Sunday through Thursday, we went on Saturday. To their credit, the spinach enchiladas were excellant with an excellant blend of a light white cheese and creama. The tacos were an abomination of way too much lettuce and tomato, hardly gourmet Mexican as they advertise.

Definitely sounds like a concept-in-progress. My guess is that it will be followed by a brief closing and "re-concepting."

Haute-Mexican places have not done so well in the burbs. The only one that has lasted for any time at all is that place by the train in Elmhurst, Las Bellas Artes. Anyone been there lately? I really need to go back, as it has been such a very long time since I last went.

But it does not even sound like Don Manuel had a clear concept to start with, and now it is just nuevo-suburban Mex with white table cloths, cuisine ala Front Street Cantina in N'ville and Wheaton(?), or maybe Chevy's. Hey, if they can get it right there clearly is a market for this, just count me out.

I'm fairly sure Las Bellas Artes is closed.

gleam wrote:I'm fairly sure Las Bellas Artes is closed.

Ed, upon further googling, I see you are right. I thought it was closed, but my first search showed so many references I decided it must still be open. Now that I have looked at many of these references, I see that most are old, and some even say it is closed.

Okay, the western suburbs are not really ready to support fine Mex. Case closed. Good thing we have Amanacer...

Don Manuel has now closed. A new restaurant is going in by one of the owners of Seven Dwarfs, no further details are provided. Taco Grande continues to be operated by the Martinez family.

Here's information printed in the Daily Herald about the former Don Manuel. This should be available until 9/1 (7 day storage on line).

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/dupagestory.asp?id=220572&cc=d&tc=&t=

Personally, I dislike Seven Dwarfs. Hopefully the new restaraunt will be better. I'm sure it won't measure up to Don Manuel.

Thanks for the link to the Daily Herald story, the Kane County Chronicle offered much less information. I really wanted Don Manuel to work, over the last few months they started making the wonderful array of tacos that they have at Taco Grande. Over the last few weeks they added a lunch buffet which besides the normal Mexican stuff, had chilaquiles and chile rellanos. It was sad because the several times we tried the buffet, we were the only people there. I've never been to Seven Dwarfs, it will be interesting and I'm glad to see another place that will be open for breakfast.

Just for an update. Don Manuel closed in August 2006. The people who own the Seven Dwarfs operated it as Batavia Family Restaurant and had a full service menu ala typical Greek run estaurant. It only stayed open about 3 months. Earlier this year, The Martinez family who own El Taco Grande in downtown Batavia, reopened the restaurant under the El Taco Grande name and one of the Martinez brothers runs the place. I'd like to say it's good because I've been a long time patron of the downtown location but we've tried twice and really do not like it. They have an extensive list of taco ingedients but everything is lost under a pile of yellow cheese and lettuce. Last trip I had al pastor and the meat was burnt to a crisp and greasy as well being little of it. The enchiladas are passable and my partner likes their vegetarian sopas but I've just been turned off by the price, the quality and indifference.