El Taco Veloz

For most of the years I've been in Chicago, my standby Mexican restaurant has been El Taco Veloz on Chicago Ave near Wood. When I moved into the city 12 years ago, I really didn't know much about Mexican food beyond what was featured on the Taco Bell menu. Today... I still probably don't know that much about Mexican food, but I do have a greater appreciation of the depth and breadth of both Mexican cuisine in general and Mexican food in Chicago in particular. My introduction was Taco Veloz. When I moved into the city, Veloz was a central and cheap gathering place for friends in the neighborhood. We would go there for standard stuff like tacos and burritos. Maybe if we were feeling adventurous, a torta or a gordita. Over time, I began to experiment a bit with the menu. I learned that most Mexicans wouldn't be caught dead eating a taco with lettuce and tomato on it. I discovered cecina, pozole, menudo, carne en su jugo. They were all delicious.

As friends and I began to leave the neighborhood, I stopped going to Veloz as much. It was part the loss of convenience and part a decision to branch out and try other Mexican restaurants in Chicago. There are many good ones as LTH has shown me over the years. So many in fact, that I began to think that memories of the greatness of Veloz was primarily nostalgia. Kind of like bars from college that seemed so amazing when you're 21, but when you go back to visit after seeing a bit of the world, you realize it was more the newness of experience, the time, and the people and less the intrinsic qualities if the place.

A few years ago, I was inspired go back to Veloz by a classic LTH post about carne en su jugo which gave Veloz's version fairly high marks. I've been going back every few weeks ever since. It turns out my fond memories of good food at Veloz weren't simple nostalgia. The food there is actually pretty good. They have things they specialize in. I am a big fan of their soups. Their carne en su jugo, pozole, and birria are all very good. I feel like they devote a lot of care to creating very rich broths, which is critical to any good soup, and their $5 pozole and menudo weekend specials are a some of the better values in town. I also enjoy their cecina which has excellent flavor and a nice chew which I think is key for a good cecina. I also like the ladies that work there. I feel like they must live upstairs or something because it seems like it is always the same group working no matter what time of day. But they are friendly and quick with chips or a cold beer. My primary criticism of Veloz would be their tortillas. They are obviously mass produced and microwaved before served. Otherwise, this place is pretty good.

So since there is no thread dedicated to Veloz, I thought I would start one. Perhaps not the best taqueria in Chicago, but a very good one and probably my favorite.

El Taco Veloz
1745 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

I've mentioned before that their tortas de milanesa are also quite good, and they used to have a fantastic non-sketchy guitarist who did Juan Miguel and Gipsy Kings on weekends. I've found the CESJ respectable but not hitting all of the notes all of the time.

Veloz is pretty solid. I do dig the milanesa tortas and the cecina. I also really love the gratis escabeche, in particular the garlic bulbs- could eat that all day. However, I had a bowl of their CESJ earlier this week and generally did not find it to be a sum of its parts. It appeals on a base level of broth + tons of meat + garnish, but I can't say that the dish really sings as a chorus. Truthfully, besides from my home kitchen, theirs is the only version I have sampled. The bowl I recently had was overloaded in grey chewy "steak", so much so that its flavor dominated what was left of a seemingly well executed broth. Love the bacon and the beans, but I guess I just don't need a burrito's worth of cheap taqueria beef emptied into my soup. I'm just saying... Maybe I should get out and sample some of the other primo spots discussed on the CESJ thread, but on my last voyage Veloz was not delivering for me.

I had a similar experience with their carne en su jugo. Everything (except the chewy "steak") seemed on point, but the dish didn't come together.

That said, the bowl was a bargain for the six dollars or whatever I paid for it and really hit the spot on a cold rainy day in November. Ditto on the escabeche - leaving it out like that for me to eat by the forkful is dangerous and will probably lead to my gastric downfall.

Veloz seemed like the better of the few options near home for an after-10 dinner last night. The CESJ, I thought, was really "on."





I especially appreciated the balance of meatiness. Thinking back to the last CESJ I had at De la Torre a few weeks ago, the only thing I'd probably change with that bowl was that I'd--please forgive the blasphemy--have less bacon. I didn't even add any extra bacon from the plate of supplemental garnishes, but my DLT CESJ, in retrospect, verged on being bacon soup--a fine concoction but not my CESJ ideal. Though there were nice bits of bacon in my CESJ last night; pig did not compete with cow. I was also very happy with Veloz's broth yesterday, though I made the mistake of not tasting it before I crumbled into it all of the chiles de arbol that they gave us.

My biggest issues with last night's CESJ experience was the lack of grilled onions and the tortillas. I've had a run of tortilla luck since the summer--beautiful, handmade, to the thickness I prefer. The corn tortillas yesterday were abominable--small in diameter, too thin, stuck to each other, not much taste of corn.

We also had the cecina plate, which I'd never had before.



The appeal of this preparation of meat--stringy, oily (at least last night)--eludes me. I forget how close Veloz is to home; their CESJ may make my regular rotation this winter.

Just had the birria at Taco Veloz. I'm not an expert on birria, but I thought this tasted pretty good. Rich, flavorful broth with big hunks of goat meat. As always, the major flaw at Veloz is their tortillas. Otherwise, I was pleased.

Taco Veloz yesterday: sketchy music, good food, right on. The broth of the CESJ was delicious, and accompanying limes, avocados, and radishes were fresh and flavorful. The notable element was that I'd say a full 1/3 of the "bottom" layer was crispy bacon (along with beans and beef); I've never seen this high of a ratio (just realized h to the s noted the same above), or had bacon that was still really crunchy. It didn't seem quite right, but tasted good. The professional and crowd karaoke musicians were commemorating both bloody mariachi deaths in Mexico and Chicago's 174th birthday with equal enthusiasm.

Taco Veloz has long been one of my favorite taquerias in Chicago, as well as one of my late-night standbys. Several of you above have noted their excellent carne en su jugo, and their al pastor (the yardstick by which I measure all taquerias) always hits the spot as well. Many a late night of mine have concluded in me devouring a 2am burrito generously topped in their housemade pickled cauliflower and jalapenos with latin pop karaoke providing the atmosphere.

Fun fact: Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight fame (and formerly of Chicago), used to write a blog called The Burrito Bracket, which was basically a March Madness-style contest to find the best burrito in the Bucktown/Wicker Park/West Town area. It's a pity he never finished his work, but it was he who provided my introduction to ETV.

-Gavin