Best tacos al pastor between Albany Park and Lincoln Square

My favorite al pastor in the neighborhood has recently been removed from the menu. I am seriously shaken by this and need to find places nearby that serve good tacos al pastor. Read: juicy, flavorful, fresh, and authentic. Anyone have any suggestions? I have had my fair share of dry, dull pastor and am hoping for someone who knows where I can find some up here (Albany Park/Lincoln Square area) that are made with love and care as it happens to be my favorite meal. Thanks for your input!

Little east of Lincoln Square proper, but Uptown Taqueria is highly regarded specifically for tacos al pastor. Fresh off the spit, etc.

Uptown Taqueria
1708 West Lawrence Avenue
(773) 275-0703

JellyShakeups wrote:My favorite al pastor in the neighborhood has recently been removed from the menu. I am seriously shaken by this and need to find places nearby that serve good tacos al pastor. Read: juicy, flavorful, fresh, and authentic. Anyone have any suggestions? I have had my fair share of dry, dull pastor and am hoping for someone who knows where I can find some up here (Albany Park/Lincoln Square area) that are made with love and care as it happens to be my favorite meal. Thanks for your input!

El Gallo Bravo No. 6 on Lawrence in Albany Park has pretty good al pastor. Plus it's 24/7 and has ample off-street parking (at least during off-peak hours). There are several El Gallo Bravos throughout the north and northwest sides, including one 4 blocks away on Montrose. I've been to the one on Montrose another on in Uptown. No. 6 beats them both by a long shot, at least for al pastor. Their salsas are great too. The rest of their menu is just standard beans-and-rice tacqueria stuff; nothing too special.

There's a place on Montrose, somewhere near Kedzie or Sacramento I think? It's on the north side of the street and it has a conspicuous illustration of a pastor spit on the front window. That seems promising.

Avoid El Primo on Montrose next to the Advance Auto Parts store. Yuk.

Ell Gallo Bravo No. 6
3714 W. Lawrence
(773) 267-4368

I'm in lincoln Square as well, and my taco consumption has gone dramatically down since moving from e. ukranian village a few years ago. I do appreciate the interest in finding good tacos (especially al pastor) around here. Unfortunately I don't have any place to add, but I'd be willing to try out a few places and report back! I have not done enough exploring on my own to say it's a lost cause, but the taco pickin's are a bit slim up here. My only recommended tacos (though not al pastor) in lincoln square have been the asada tacos from asadero on montrose.

I know this thread is specific to al pastor, but I did just remember that there is this thread which speaks in depth about this area. Some of these places may be worth looking into/revisiting.

laikom wrote:My only recommended tacos (though not al pastor) in lincoln square have been the asada tacos from asadero on montrose.

Their al pastor has always been, imo, surprisingly decent, but yes, when going to Asadero, the carne asada is the star of the show. It shines VERY brightly though.

Drover wrote:

JellyShakeups wrote:My favorite al pastor in the neighborhood has recently been removed from the menu. I am seriously shaken by this and need to find places nearby that serve good tacos al pastor. Read: juicy, flavorful, fresh, and authentic. Anyone have any suggestions? I have had my fair share of dry, dull pastor and am hoping for someone who knows where I can find some up here (Albany Park/Lincoln Square area) that are made with love and care as it happens to be my favorite meal. Thanks for your input!

There's a place on Montrose, somewhere near Kedzie or Sacramento I think? It's on the north side of the street and it has a conspicuous illustration of a pastor spit on the front window. That seems promising.

I was pretty far off -- it's on the northwest corner of Montrose and Drake. It's called Coyoacan or something like that. I can't find any information on this place.

Thanks to all your suggestions! I can't wait to get crackin'. The threads on here specific to al pastor in Albany Park are outdated by many years. Restaurants can change completely in that kind of time. I will post on here after I try all the suggestions. You guys rock.

BTW - I'm new to the site and trying to figure things out. I just noticed that yes that thread on Mexican places in Albany Park actually has some newer posts. I will look more into that. I am all about the al pastor though! The place that had the tacos al pastor I really liked was Los Nopales. I haven't had a lot of al pastor up here. I've heard from multiple sources that Garcia's in Lincoln Square has great al pastor but when I had it it was one of the worst I'd had anywhere. I'm also a big fan of El Cid 2 in Logan Square but since I am CTA bound I can't just travel there in a pinch when I'm craving al pastor.

Anyway again you guys rock for your input!

Welcome to LTH. You mention an older thread. There are actually many old threads and some newer ones. As you probably discovered, there's a lot of taquerias on Lawrence and on Montrose. One of my favorite threads is Taquerias: Lawrence & Montrose Aves [Project LTH]. There's a lot of nuggets in there and it would be great to keep this thread up to date.

My favorite taquerias in the area are:

San Matias
3005 W. Lawrence Ave
(773) 467-7533

Taqueria El Asadero (which has been mentioned a few times upthread)
2213 W Montrose Ave
(773) 583-5563

Los Mogotes de Michoacan (I don't know if I've specifically had the tacos al pastor here)
4959 N. Kedzie Avenue
Chicago 60625
773/463-5612

Drover wrote:

Drover wrote:

JellyShakeups wrote:My favorite al pastor in the neighborhood has recently been removed from the menu. I am seriously shaken by this and need to find places nearby that serve good tacos al pastor. Read: juicy, flavorful, fresh, and authentic. Anyone have any suggestions? I have had my fair share of dry, dull pastor and am hoping for someone who knows where I can find some up here (Albany Park/Lincoln Square area) that are made with love and care as it happens to be my favorite meal. Thanks for your input!

There's a place on Montrose, somewhere near Kedzie or Sacramento I think? It's on the north side of the street and it has a conspicuous illustration of a pastor spit on the front window. That seems promising.

I was pretty far off -- it's on the northwest corner of Montrose and Drake. It's called Coyoacan or something like that. I can't find any information on this place.

OK, so I drove by this place in the daylight today. It's the "El Gallo Bravo" I noted upthread that doesn't hold a candle to the one on the 3700 block of W. Lawrence. Only it turns out it's not one of the El Gallo Bravos, it's just called El Gallo. It's kind of confusing since they occupy two storefronts with a neon sign on one storefront announcing it as "El Gallo" and a banner on the other calling it Coyoacan Mexican Grill. Maybe the "Coyoacan" is supposed to be descriptive rather than identifying.

But at any rate, the picture on the window of a guy carving from an al pastor spit is an overpromise. There's a spit in the kitchen but last time I ate here, there was nothing on it even at lunch time. The al pastor they served me was mediocre and clearly scooped out of a container of pre-prepared al pastor. Maybe they have fresh al pastor during the dinner rush or something.

In any case, stick to the El Gallo Bravo I mentioned upthread. They always have al pastor on the spit even at 3 in the morning, complete with pineapple mounted on top which they slice to dribble down onto the meat and from which they cut slivers to serve in your tacos (or burrito if you prefer).

I'm not sure how many would be in the location you're looking (most likely few to none) but Time Out Chicago just had an Al Pastor Throwdown in the most recent issue that you may want to check out.

fropones wrote:I'm not sure how many would be in the location you're looking (most likely few to none) but Time Out Chicago just had an Al Pastor Throwdown in the most recent issue that you may want to check out.

I did receive that and was pretty stoked about it as I am learning my love of al pastor is shared by many. I read the article word for word but nothing was within even a mile of where I live. I plan on checking out a lot of the places they mention, but I want something close to me (I live near Leland and Sacramento) so that when the craving strikes (which is amounting to about every 4 days) I am only a short walk away. Anything off the Brown Line between Western and Kimball is what I'm looking for.

Thanks again for all your input. El Gallo Bravo sounds pretty legit - might try it tonight.

JellyShakeups wrote:(I live near Leland and Sacramento)

San Matias, which I mentioned above, is about a block from you, at Lawrence and Sacramento. I used to live in that neighborhood also. It's a great food location, especially for Mexican and Middle Eastern, but others as well.

My top two area al pastor places in that 'hood-- by far -- are Taqueria Santa Rita at 2752 W. Lawrence and Taqueria San Juanito at 4714 N. Kedzie. The al pastor might be slightly better at Santa Rita, but San Juanito has a brilliant green salsa and also on Sunday, if you dine in, there is a woman making fresha masa tortillas.

San Juanito is a nicer place inside, Santa Rita has a shared parking lot with other strip-mall businesses.

I checked out Santa Rita last night and it just wasn't good. Nearly all of their Yelp reviews raved about their al pastor, which got me excited, but for me the meat was too chewy, the fat was not drained at all (which made the tortillas completely soggy), and the sweet flavor of the pineapple wasn't there because, well, there were no pineapples in it! It is roasted on a spit but instead of a pineapple at the top of the spit, it was a white onion.

The beans were so bad I spit out the first bite (they literally had the flavor of the aftertaste of vomit - I am SO sorry for that graphic description but it was the only thing I could compare it to). The guy who cooked and assembled my tacos had an old band-aid on his index finger, which definitely touched my food. Clearly, it wasn't enough to make me run as I still ate my food. I will try out the other places mentioned on here as soon as I can. The search continues!

I tried al pastor at San Matias last night and it was pretty delicious. The rice and beans were a home run as well. The place is really clean and is right at the end of my block (major plus points for convenience), cheap, and they give you sliced radish and cucumber with your meal. I think I'm hooked. Also...this place isn't even on Yelp!