Los Dos - Downers Grove

Hello. Long-time lurker.

I did a search and didn't see anything on this place. It opened a few months ago. I just want to make sure some business gets its way because I absolutely don't want to see it close.

It's a very simple menu of tacos and tortas with some special items. But, as described by the owners, its authentic cuisine heavily influenced from their roots in the Yucatan.

Had the pork belly taco with cabbage, tomato, and poblano creme sauce on one of their homemade corn tortillas. Absolutely great. The pork belly was fried up like a lechon-type dish. I've had the mole chicken tacos as well which I recommend.

The place is renovated but small - maybe 4 tables and 8 counter seats so I've tried to go on slightly off-hours because it does seem to get pretty busy right at lunchtime.

Overall, just wanted to thumbs up to a place I'd like to see make it. I have a tendency of really starting to like a place and it immediately closes so I need to do something to break my streak.

Next time I'll take pictures.

http://losdosrestaurant.com/index.html

Welcome; thanks for the post.

Los Dos
2251 Maple Ave.
Downers Grove, IL 60515

Thank you. I post at another local board regularly so this was a little strange.

I felt like a kid at a new school raising his hand for the first time. I know the answer to the question and the classroom looks the same, but all the kids around me are different.

Wife and I went to check this place out on Saturday and were quite impressed. Very small place with a couple of tables and a bar that seats 4 right by the register. We sat at the bar. There is an open kitchen so we could see the chef making our orders and prepping other items.

The special of the day was Costillas en Salsa Verde - Tender pork ribs simmered in salsa verde served with rice and you choice of homemade flour or corn tortillas. This dish was great and just as described on the menu. Homemade corn tortillas were outstanding.


The chicken torta with black beans was great. Very fresh bread. Great flavors.


Next up was Salbutes - puffed taco shell served with chicken, cabbage, pickled onion and tomato, and the pork taco. These were great.


Finished with the Flan. After reading the reviews on Yelp we decided to try the flan. I have to mention that neither my wife or I care for Flan all that much but this this version is a game changer. Will definitely order this again. The texture was much firmer than any previous flan I have ever had. Almost like a very wet cheesecake.


We spent a lot of time chatting with the chef who was very nice and loved talking food. We will be back again soon!

Humbly-reported gems like this never get old for me; I owe debts of gratitude to so many new and enduring posters alike for sharing the best of their adventures in all neighborhoods. Yelp is still 15 five-star reviews ahead of us on this one, so vámonos.

Los Dos was an easy-to-convince-myself appetizer on a planned trip to Katy's. Tucked back in an off-road strip mall, it is sharp, bright, and quiet, with just a few tables and nice counter seating with an excellent view of the airy professional kitchen. They're serious about everything - equipment, knife skills (micro-diced pristine onion and cilantro), marinades, scratch recados, and tortillas made fresh every day, both flour and corn, both exceptional.

Chef Amor Quijano told me she just cooks what she likes to eat: my favorite thing to hear. Originally from Chetumal, she tried Xni-Pec (Cicero location) a few times and it didn't do it for her; her lighter and more balanced salbutes set the tone for what she's trying to accomplish. One bite into a steak taco, which I laced with their superb charred salsa verde, made me wish I had room for the rib special or flan, or homemade Yucatan-style tamales, too.

I meant my hasta pronto. Can't wait to see how they grow.

Having recently moved to Downers Grove my wife and I were very excited to see the post about Los Dos. We picked up lunch - steak and chicken tacos with a mix of the flour and corn tortillas. These tortillas-especially the corn-are amazing vehicles for the well prepared, delicious steak and chicken. I will have a hard time not ordering at least a couple steak tacos next time we go, though I'd like to try whatever specials they have running. The side of black beans we ordered was also very good. Some nice meaty undertones in the the broth supported the well cooked beans. Going forward, Los Dos is sure to be a weekly stop for us.

FYI

Closed Monday. After not getting lunch at Smoque earlier today because they are closed Monday I probably should have called ahead.

Sorry, foodie. I guess I could have mentioned that.

I'll make it up to you by not starting a thread on how much I like Taco Bell.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater is the best user name ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Made a trip here for lunch today. Pretty busy when I arrived at 11:30. As described above, you can see directly into the kitchen to watch your food being made. Fresh tortilla chips are made to order. A nice bowl of hot and salty chips arrived to me about 5 minutes after sitting down.



I ordered a steak taco and pork taco on hand made corn tortilla and the salbute which comes with chicken.



The salbute was just ok, kind of had a fishy taste to it. Chicken was kind of dry and the pickled onions could have been more acidic.

The tacos on the other hand were real tasty. Thick and chewy tortillas. Well seasoned meat. The charred verde salsa packed a punch. I could eat a bunch of these.




I was impressed with the fresh ingredients and everything being made to order. The special of the day was a shrimp tostada. Looking at their Facebook page it seems they have a pretty diverse selection of specials that sound very interesting. I'll be back for sure.

Thanks for the tip. I will definitely give this a try. What are rough prices for things like tacos, tortas and salbutes? I just want to prepare my wallet for the hit it's going to take.

cheers

$2.25 for steak taco, $2.00 for pork, chicken or peppers & cheese tacos
$2.99 for salbute
$6.50 for tortas

Thanks for the quick reply, wimperoo.

I went to Los Dos on Saturday for an early lunch. The space is small, but inviting, with a Wisconsin football game playing on the TV. I appreciated the fact that the menu was focused, as that is usually an indication that what you get will be of high quality. Your order for freshly fried tortilla chips drops as soon as you let staff know you'll be dining in.



I decided to go for one salbute (Chicken) and two steak tacos.



Like wimperoo, I felt the salbute was a little fishy. I'm guessing that they are using canola oil for the fryer, but I don't know that for certain. Even so, the salbute had a nice texture, and I enjoyed the condiments on it. The salsa verde was my favorite of the two provided, and I think my enthusiastic use dropped the level in the squeeze bottle a couple of inches. I enjoyed the steak tacos even more than the salbute, and would certainly recommend them to others.

I've attached a picture of the blackboard menu to give current prices as of this weekend. I'll definitely be back. This is not your typical fast food taqueria. I recommend it.


bonmot

bonmot wrote:I went to Los Dos on Saturday for an early lunch. The space is small, but inviting, with a Wisconsin football game playing on the TV. I appreciated the fact that the menu was focused, as that is usually an indication that what you get will be of high quality. Your order for freshly fried tortilla chips drops as soon as you let staff know you'll be dining in.

We must have been there around the same time - or at least during the Wisconsin game. My husband and I had the chicken and pork tortas. The bread was very fresh and the proteins were well-seasoned and tender. Would go back.

s4shon wrote:We must have been there around the same time - or at least during the Wisconsin game. My husband and I had the chicken and pork tortas. The bread was very fresh and the proteins were well-seasoned and tender. Would go back.

I think we must have been there pretty close to the same time - the Wisconsin game was on when I was there too. I was seated at the counter trying not to be to obvious while taking food pix:-)

If you get a chance to get there on a day with the pork belly tacos, I highly recommend it.

The chicken mole special is very good also. I want to get there for the tamales.

FYI, from their web site...

Los Dos wrote:Due to a family emergency we will be closed for the next few days, starting Saturday, October 13th.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

I was considering stoping in, glad I took a look.

Stopped in at Los Dos last night for takeout now that they are back open after being on a two week vacation around the holidays.

Aside from steak tacos that were better than I remembered (perfectly cooked steak finely diced onions and a nice amount of cilantro) we ordered the daily special - chicken thighs in salsa verde with potatoes. This dish was really great - tender chicken thigh pieces in a piquant salsa verde. The salsa could have used a bit more heat, but otherwise it had a nice depth of flavor; I could have eaten quite a few spoonfuls of it on its own! I was impressed that the dish seemed to be more of a light saute than a stew - nothing was mushy. The whole thing had an almost Mediterranean feel to it, with hints of lemon and oregano perhaps.

This is our forth time visiting Los Dos and the steak tacos and specials have always been great. Their lentil soup with longaniza sausage is a favorite of mine, showing strong similarities in flavor to Spanish lentil stew I have eaten in the past.

Glad that Los Dos is back and as good as ever - and - how could I forget - the homemade corn and flour tortillas raise everything an even higher level.

I stopped in tonight to get some dinner, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were extremely busy. I managed to get a seat at the counter and there was a steady stream of customers ordering, both quick-service style and carry out.

I ordered two of the special very spicy shrimp tacos and some black beans. The tacos were great, I'm generally not a big tortilla person but their corn tortillas were excellent. The shrimp was extremely spicy, and the owner warned me before she put the order in. She was not joking!

The menu is interesting because they don't have any kind of "exotic" tacos/tortas, but then they also don't have either ground beef or al pastor. Steak, chicken, and rajas con queso dominate, plus whatever the special happens to be that day.

I'm happy that they are busy, as when I've gone in the past it's been at odd times like 2pm Saturday.

I love this place. I've been twice for lunch, most recently this past Saturday. The first time I went, I had one of their bowls -- which was a very clean, solid bowl of rice, choice of protein, beans, and some other fixin's thrown in. It was very good. However, my lunch this past weekend was really great. We enjoyed very flavorful steak tacos, as well as the puffed chicken taco shown upthread in a photo. I would order either of these tacos again in a heartbeat. The kids had cheese quesadillas and rice, so they were happy. But the highlight of the meal was the vanilla flan. I wholeheartedly agree with poster Vike86 upthread who says it's a "game changer." I, too, was never that into flan --neither the taste nor the texture. But Los Dos's vanilla flan is fantastic. The flan also comes in chocolate, Kahlua, and rompope flavors, and we plan to try all of them at some point. (I noticed a post for nearby Mojo's East Coast Eats...Haven't been there, but I'm thinking there's a one-two punch in there somewhere, and it must include this flan.) This is a great little place, and the chef/owner takes great pride in her food. Can't wait to return.