ELG Quesadillas Doña Lolis, Monday, Nov. 10 at 12:30pm

Dona Lolis was one of the first restaurants I tried at the suggestion of this forum, back in the day before I had cute pet/screen names for my family (and Sparky was only five!) I've enjoyed it several times, and while food can be variable - but when it's on, the masa preparations are really outstanding. Tortillas, sopes, and gorditas are all made by hand while you wait; nothing comes out of a plastic bag here.

Dona Lolis was also a stop on one of the North Clark-A-Thons, where the huitlacoche quesadillas recieved mixed reviews (but there's a photo of one of the handsome tortillas containing it.) Afterward, if you like, the Paletaria La Monarca is just a few doors down, as is Dulcelandia (in case you don't have enough candy around the house now that Halloween is over)

I look forward to exercising my Spanglish muscles and seeing you all there!

Quesadillas Doña Lolis
6924 N. Clark St., Chicago
Tel: (773) 761-5677

I'll look forward to a huitlacoche fix.

Sounds good. The restaurant, that is. Not the huitlacoche - I just don't get it...

ChgoMike wrote:Not the huitlacoche - I just don't get it...

... just think of it as smut.

Isn't that the problem with the new media these days?

I plan to be there....

I plan on being there, althought a little bit late. I believe I get out of class at 12 that monday but it might not be until 1230.

See you then

Heather

Thus far, we have

nr706
ChgoMike
tarte tatin
Heather22

A nice, small group. See you there!

I may try to make it as well but I won't know my work schedule until monday morning. Hopefully it's O.K. if I play it by ear.
Becca

Please come if you can! The restaurant itself actually has a fairly large seating area (in comparison to many like it) and I've never seen more than one or two booths taken up. I'm going to call on Monday morning just to warn them, but if you can make it at the last minute, that's fine...

We weren't sure until this evening that we could make it, but we will gladly join you. Robert and Catherine

I will call them and warn that a crowd of about eight will be headed there at 12:30...done!

Another great time, great group ... and luckily, Heather may be writing a review, since my notes from this afternoon aren't very good. Overall, though, I found the food at Doña Lolis to be very good, fresh (except for the canned huitlacoche, but that's to be expected) and tasty.

I'll welcome corrections if I've mis-identified anything.

We started with a special - cordonas.


Then went on to two types of quesadillas, the house specialty:


Quesadilla con huitlacoche (left) and quesadilla con flor de calabaza:


An interesting combination was the tlacoyo (left) and huarache


Gorditas (I believe) al pastor


Sopes con Nopales were masa-licious.


I'd been to La Cazuela (next door) many times, but never had the chance to try Doña Lolis before. I'll be back.

Gleam is a genius.

Thanks, Nr706! I stuffed myself beyond belief. I think we got them on a good day: the masa preparations were fresh and not very greasy as I remember (the one day we had a miss they missed on both counts) It was interesting to try so many different preparations, though most of the offerings we tried seemed quite similar by the time I tried them all - not that that's a bad thing.

I particularly liked the cordonas, sort of a steamed masa dumpling, not quite a tamale as it wasn't filled, topped with a nice hunk of pork in some mole-type sauce. The blandness of the dumpling was cut quite nicely by the rich sauce.

Lovely to see you all again, and I look forwards to next month's lunch!

I missed this because I didn't realize ELG stood for Evanston Lunch Group! (I've been scanning the Events board periodically looking for anything from the Evanston Lunch Group, didn't see anything, and thought, "Hmm, that's odd, it's sure been a long time since the last Evanston Lunch Group.") Live and learn!

In fact, I still wouldn't have known if not for a passing reference in the "Openings and Closings" thread, which tipped me off that there must been something going on today.

As it happens, I couldn't have made this one anyway, so it was a good one for me to learn the new abbreviation on.

Oops! Good to know - with a long restaurant name, it's hard to get the whole phrase in there along with the date. I do try to update the Evanston Lunch Group reference thread before we actually go - though, admittedly, I forgot to this time - so if you're wondering if you missed it, in theory that's a good place to check. Since Heather22 posted December's already, it's on there.

No worries, as the kids say. (Or used to.)