Las Palmas Chicago

Though it's been around and there are a few mentions on the forum, I knew almost nothing about Las Palmas before having dinner there tonight. The back patio was a beautiful space to spend this rare 73 and sunny Chicago evening. My thoughts about the food run on an unusually wide spectrum from fantastic to downright awful. Someone in the kitchen really knows how to build flavor, but apparently cares little about ingredient quality. We had:

Crepas con huitlacoche and flor de calabaza with poblano crema:

These were stellar. Light, balanced crema and very generously filled fresh masa crepes. One had huitlacoche and the other had squash blossoms. The huitlacoche filling was especially generous, with lots of earthy black fungus...

Huitlacoche filling, ugly but tasty:



DIY Fish Tacos:

The fish was a grouper filet (over)cooked in banana leaf. It was dry and less-than-fresh tasting. The crunch came from a very nice radish/ onion/ red wine vinegar combo, and the buttery rice on the side was fluffy and well prepared. The poor fish really couldn't be saved, however, and the truly awful tortillas made matters worse.

Corn Tortillas for the Tacos:

These were truly horrendous: stale enough for me to estimate at least 3 days of aging, and the grill marks did nothing to improve that. Why oh why - in Chicago where it is incredibly easy to get mass quantities of fresh, factory made tortillas for next to nothing - would a restaurant choose to cut corners here? There's no good answer.


Shrimp enchiladas:

No, those are not green apples or chayotes atop the enchiladas. Those are slices of an avocado that needs lots more ripening time. Awful. On the other hand, the green sauce was a wonderfully herbaceous, complex and delicious puree.

Shrimp inside the enchilada:

It was nice to have such a generous amount of very large shrimp, but once again this tasted like fish past its prime.


The patio is terrific, the service is good, and the margaritas are fresh. It's possible those reasons will bring me back to Las Palmas someday, but I find the apparent disregard for ingredient quality very off-putting, so it may be awhile.


Las Palmas Chicago
1835 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60622-1311
(773) 289-4991

Yep. That pretty much sums up Las Palmas for me. Some things are done well, and others (sometimes within the same dish), leave you wondering, "what were they thinking?"