Mexican for tonight with a PERFECT Margarita

hey guys i'm looking for a quick rec on a good mexican place with stellar margaritas for tonight. i live near Belmont and Ashland and am a huge fan of Agave's mararitas and cuisine but want something a little less pricey within a couple miles of me.

Fernando's
3450 N. Lincoln
Chicago, IL

Good food and tasty margaritas at a reasonable price.

We started a quest for good blended drinks somewhere around Lincoln and Irving Park.

Sadly or luckily we didn't find much in the way of Daiquiris or Margaritas until we walked into Fernandos. Suddenly we had good renditions of both drinks and fantastic fresh chips and salsa to boot.

As it turns we were able to talk with Fernando for a while. He was very gracious and helped pick out some apps and tequilas for our redux on the Margaritas. Interesting side note - Fernando's drink is vodka.

For snacks we split the ribs and had tortilla soup accompanied by lots of homemade salsa and the warm and fresh tortilla chips. Fernando even made me up a special batch of Habenero salsa which was blazing hot and very tasty.

The soup was a real find at 3.95 for a giant bowl. The ribs were popular, though I will bet that was due as much t the number of drinks visted upon as for the actual ribs. I would venture the ribs were simmered for quite a while which produces a nice texture but is not adequate for my tastes which judge almost exclusively on smoky flavor.
The sauce was a different story. While I usually eat my ribs sans sauce the Fernandos version was flavorful, a little spicy, and pretty outstanding causing all of us to take notice.

All of this by the way happened pretty late, after Fernandos closing time we later found out, and the staff could not have been nicer.

Definitely worth a trip if in the area and looking for some drinks and ribs with your mexican food.

Que Rico!

Hmm, that is good advice. Thanks! One thing that I struggle with in Chicago is that none of the dive taquerias seem to have liquor licenses.

there's a place on clark/belmont that supposedly has the best margaritas...
Cesar's - 3166 N. Clark

selanator wrote:there's a place on clark/belmont that supposedly has the best margaritas...
Cesar's - 3166 N. Clark

Yes, I think Cesar's itself makes that claim . . . don't believe it (unless you like overly sweet margaritas).

FrankP wrote:Fernando's
3450 N. Lincoln
Chicago, IL

Good food and tasty margaritas at a reasonable price.

Wow; like Las Piñatas on Wells at half the price. Chicken in mole enchiladas for $7.95 were perfectly serviceable, house pico de gallo and roasted tomatillo salsas strong, new bottles of El Yucateco habanero, fresh fried chips kept coming, friendly service, excessive margarita pitchers (there, not quite Pinatas potency). Not going to blow anyone away, but for Mexamerican with a sabor de Cubs, it was nice to run into Fernando's.

Las Pinatas is a guilty pleasure of mine and could use a bit of LTH love. Because it's walking distance to my fiance's office, we end up there on occasion. Very good salsa de arbol, caldo de pollo (had a cold once, Theresa instisted I needed chix soup which was most excellent) queso fundito and her fave, taco salad w/steak. Wouldn't bother w/the margaritas though and the sign on the window placed by the landlord saying it's for rent doesn't help biz these days. Been there long enough w/a favorable lease that he wants to gauge more rent from them now that it's up. Would be sorry to see them go.