United Center

I have fallen in a rut, albeit a tasty one, of stopping at Sultan's Market if I'm coming from the north; Pompeii if I'm coming from the south.

I usually come up Ashland from I55 if I'm coming from the south. There must be some good taquerias close to that route that you can get in and out of quickly. My son is partial to steak and cabeza; I prefer lengua and barbacoa.

Suggestions.

MLS,

How quick is quickly?

Nuevo Leon is not your typical in-and-out taqueria, it's a sit-down restaurant, but it's pretty darn fast, and tasty. It's just east of Ashland on 18th street.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=15223

Love,
John

Nuevo Leon
1515 W 18th St
Chicago, IL 60608
(312) 421-1517

I too was going to recommend Nuevo Leon.

Best tacos on Ashland however are probably La Pasadita at Ashland & Division - out of the way, but good.

We love Cafe Bombon at 16 S Ashland. Great soups, salads, tortas, etc from the folks who run Bombon bakery in Pilsen and the recently departed Cafe Bombon in the Loop.

One caveat: I don't know how late they stay open, so you may want to check. I can't find hours on their website.

http://www.bomboncafe.com/

The file for Bom Bon's site is evidently currently infected with a virus - I wouldn't open it right now if I were you. Just FYI.

sundevilpeg wrote:The file for Bom Bon's site is evidnetly currently infected with a virus - I wouldn't open it right now if I were you. Just FYI.

It does indeed seem to be, although the site hosting the virus/trojan/whatever is currently not serving it up properly.

Someone should give them a call and let them know.

Nuevo Leon and Bom Bon seems fancier than what we need but if we can be in and out in a half hour-that would be great. Perfect locations if we can find easy parking-can we? FYI-Bom Bon is open til 7 so that works, but doesn't serve tacos. Nonetheless we will give both a try.

La Pasadita(s) actually is a very good suggestion when we come from the north. Does it matter which one you go to?

La P: I now prefer the east side of the street (smaller). The food just seems to be better.

Consider also La Cebollita at 18th and Ashland, which has a full roster of tacos and is on the way.

There's also, instead of La Pasadita, Carniceria Leon (or whatever it's called now) at Ashland and Blackhawk (about 3 blocks north of La P). Great asada, great pastor, lengua for you, and definitely not fancy.

I tried both La Cibolitta and Nuevo Leon, like both, think either will work fine (in and out in less than 30 minutes) if parking is not too bad.

Bombon is too close to the UC-if you can't park it's too late to find another place.

I had a question about Nuevo Leon. I really liked the atmosphere and the menu. Plus I always like places where cops eat and there were several each time I stopped. But I ordered the taco plate, two lengua, one barbocoa, corn tortillas when asked. I expected soft tacos with cilantro and onions; instead got hard shell tacos, maybe dipped or fried with a little oil, fully dressed with lettuce and tomatos and cilantro/onion. I can't remember the last time I had a hard taco, but it's decades, not years. They weren't bad, I just had not asked for them that way;is that the normal preparation? Did I order badly?

Not normal, maybe they were doing some racial profiling? Assuming you aren't Latino. It's possible.

Try the tacos de sabinas next time.. or pretty much anything on their awesome flour tortillas. It's a norteno restaurant, and the northern dishes are the best.