Taquerias de Aurora, etc. [Project LTH]

Let's start with a list. I excluded all the places whose names said "Burrito" for purely arbitrary reasons. I also excluded La Quebrada and Las Islas Marias, since they are amply covered elsewhere. And I arbitrarily limited this to Aurora proper, though there clearly are places to the north and south (not so much to the east and west, I think) that need to be surveyed.

Here is a list I culled from the Internet, starting with places whose names clearly suggest they are Taquerias, and then other Mexican places that look like they are probably not Taquerias, but I am not sure.

If anyone has any experience with any of these places, please share it here. At some point I think Flip and I will begin a systematic sampling - purely for the sake of the greater good, of course, no pleasure involved. I expect Flip to focus on Lengua, if I recall correctly, and I will probably order al pastor. But who knows?

New Palenque intrigues me, and I am pretty sure there are more than a few more out there that did not come up yet on my searches, so feel free to add. This is really overdue, so thanks Gary for the inspiration.

Taquerias de Aurora

Taqueria La Cierra
(630) 585-93451
431 E New York St, Aurora, IL 60505

Taqueria Mexico II
(630) 859-9266
50 N Lincoln Ave, Aurora, IL 60505

Taqueria Muniz
(630) 896-8727
518 S Lake St, Aurora, IL 60506

Taqueria Los Comales (this chain has numerous lukewarm mentions on LTH)
944 North Farnsworth
Aurora, IL.60505
Ph: 1-630-820-6988
Fax 1-630-820-7021

TACO MOBILE
(630) 499-8180
1500 E NEW YORK ST
AURORA, IL 60505

TACQUERIA (I like the generic name)
(630) 859-2947
101 1/2 S LA SALLE ST
AURORA, IL 60505

Fruity Taco
1 N Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505

Jalisco Tacos
560 High StAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 801-1261

Jalisco Taco's II
947 W Galena Blvd
Aurora, IL 60506-3751
(630) 906-7238

Carlito's Tacos
614 E New York StAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 236-0622


Not sure

Club Gala
210 East Galena Boulevard, Aurora, IL 60505

El Bajio Restaurant
256 E Indian Trl, Aurora, IL 60505

La Flama De Oro
281 S Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505

Tecalitlan Restaurant
35 South Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505

Tepehuanes
715 High St, Aurora, IL 60505

El Coqui
7 W Downer PlAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 859-8070

El Paso Restaurant
3 S Lincoln AveAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 896-2282

El Rodeo
170 E Indian TrlAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 896-4611

La Cabana Restaurant
835 S River StAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 859-8885

La Roca Restaurant
15 S BroadwayAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 897-3950

Los Rios Restaurant
961 Grove StAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 585-1400

New Palenque
363 N Farnsworth AveAurora, IL
Phone: (630) 898-4144

D,

I don't believe that I have ordered a taco de lenqua since my tasting of a couple years ago (beer might have something to do with this), but have enjoyed many a tacos since. From my experience I have not found any lengua taco superior to my first at my once beloved El Centro on Ogden in Naperville. When they re-opened after the fire a few years ago it seems to me that the food just doesn't have the same umph.

Anyway, I look forward to the aurora taco crawl.

Flip

My only comment at this time, is that

Jalisco Taco's II
947 W Galena Blvd
Aurora, IL 60506-3751
(630) 906-7238


Always seems to have a full lot, no matter what time. I spend alot of time at recitals and such at West Aurora H.S. and this place is rocking at any time from 11am to 4pm (at least the 10 space lot seams to be).

I will try to hit some of these places and report back

dicksond wrote: At some point I think Flip and I will begin a systematic sampling -

Dickson,

Great list, nice start. Looking forward to your, and Flip's, sampling.

Enjoy,
Gary

From my experience I have not found any lengua taco superior to my first at my once beloved El Centro on Ogden in Naperville. When they re-opened after the fire a few years ago it seems to me that the food just doesn't have the same umph.

While the lengua taco might not have the same kick to it, I find that post-fire El Centro seems about a thousand times cleaner, and nicer-staffed as well. We always joked that the grease in back must have spontaneously combusted, but I'm sure the reason is completely hygenic, and legal. Their lunch specials (rice, beans, drink and small entree for 4 bucks, and then just ask for the free soup) are great for a working lunch.

Now all they need to do is work on their bass-ackwards drive-thru. They use baskets on poles since the car is basically reverse of what it normally is--passenger side window closest to the restaurant.

whiskeybent wrote:While the lengua taco might not have the same kick to it, I find that post-fire El Centro seems about a thousand times cleaner, and nicer-staffed as well. We always joked that the grease in back must have spontaneously combusted, but I'm sure the reason is completely hygenic, and legal.

The fire was started by the roofers.

I agree that it is much cleaner, but they have not returned to the popularity that they once controlled in the area. Incidentally, the Lisle location of Los Burritos Tapatios stepped up to the plate and has greatly increased their quality and service.

Flip

Only experience with a few of these places inspite of working in downtown campus of WCC for five years. Teccalitian on the corner of Broadway and Dowver is a great downtown, neighborhood kind of a place that serves breakfast through dinner. I have always liked their al pastor tacos but what was a favorite for staff for breakfast is pappas e chorizo. I have never been to La Roca but was given the impression from hispanic co workers that this was more of a night club. I think you'll be sorely disappointed in La Cabana, it's very gringo downed famil spot frequented by the NICOR workers who are nearby. I always thought it very bland and dull.

Willkat98 wrote:My only comment at this time, is that

Jalisco Taco's II
947 W Galena Blvd
Aurora, IL 60506-3751
(630) 906-7238


Always seems to have a full lot, no matter what time. I spend alot of time at recitals and such at West Aurora H.S. and this place is rocking at any time from 11am to 4pm (at least the 10 space lot seams to be).

After a soccer game at the hs last week I stopped in. Yes, it was rocking, good music, good traffic, families in for dinner.

The verdict: awful. Ordered 3 tacos, cesina, asada and al pastor. The asada was mostly tasteless, fatty and barely edible. The cesina was slightly better, in that it had less fat, but had pretty much the same flavor profile as the asada, which is not a good thing. The pastor was decent, not great.

The tortillas were either old or not sufficiently warmed, but they definitely were a bit stiffer than I would have liked. The place may deserve another visit or two given how busy it is - there must be something they do well (I did not try to see what others were ordering) but it won't be me.

Not a good start, but I will not give up.

I still go to El Centro fairly regularly, but I admit that it is not entirely about the food. They make some respectable, but not great food. But I like their cheap lunches ($3.99) including soup. The beans are pretty good, too. But it is a not great place.

I need to check out Burritos Tapatio, it seems.

dicksond wrote:
I need to check out Burritos Tapatio, it seems.

D,

I drove past around 9:00 last night and they were closed. I'll have to research this.

Flip

Not Aurora, but I did sample tacos at my old fave, ByBys - great. Pastor, Tinga (really excellent) and babrbacoa de chivo. So many other good things at ByBys, but the tacos are a fine option. More on ByBys here, too: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=531#531

Also went to Burritos Tapatio and tried Lomo, Cecina and Chile Relleno tacos. Okay, not great, but good enough that I will go back and try the place again for lunch and add to the report since it is very near my office. I was a bit disappointed by the very limited meat options.

Byby's
142 W, Washington
West Chicago, IL 60185
Phone: 630/562-1710

El Burrito Tapatio is on the south side of Ogden, a block or so east of Naperville Road in Lisle. Can't find address at the moment.

The Mullet, Flip and I completed our taqueria crawl in Aurora as promised.

The main lesson we learned is that it is not necessarily always true that one gets lousy tacos in Aurora, but it sure seems to be the norm. Particularly bad were the number of places we tried near downtown Aurora. Maybe it was not quite as bad as it seemed at the time - but we started with 4 places that began as mediocre and went down. I will list the awful places at the end of this. Let's start with the best.

There also is a shiny new fast food building around 900 E New York or so with a sign saying La Quebrada Express. Intriguing.

The best taco stand was Taqueria Los Cabritos, which is a tiny bit north of downtown on route 25, around Mitchell Road - the address is 733 Aurora Ave Google says, but it is a bit off the street in a parking lot. The Cabritos taco was quite good, richly goaty. The Pastor taco was great. The Cesina was fine. Worth a visit.

Up the road a little farther in the Plaza del Sol at 991A North Aurora is a place (soon to be) called El Pollo Giro. On Saturdays and Sundays if you are lucky the owner will be out front with a trailer and a giant grill, grilling chicken over lump charcoal. With your chicken you also get some grilled bulb onions and habaneros, and a tomatoey homemade salsa. Crisp, moist, strong charcoal flavor, right off the grill. Perfect with the sides, and it made me pine for the streets of Oaxaca.

He says he is going to open a restaurant in the storefront behind the van in about 6 weeks, and that could be true. I would not hold my breath. But I would go whenever I can to encourage the success of this little taste of the best in Mexican street food in Aurora.

Another trailer, Senor Taco which apparently has two locations - 637 W New York, and 256 Indian Trail, was acceptable. The tortillas could have spent a little more time on the grill, and the pastor was pretty limp and mild. This was served with a good chile "slaw" of sliced peppers, onions, and other vegies.

Taqueria Mexico II is open all night, so it could be useful. The tacos were servicable, with the pastor (seems like we were doing pastor comparisons) being better than the steamed cabeza. See previous post for address.

El Meson de Maria at 7 W Downers, and La Chiquita which is in the Supermercado #5 at Forest & Rte 25 had unforgivable flaws. La Chiquita was better with a decent barbacoa, but the carnitas taco was pretty much a pile of mushy pig skin and a little fat. After an inspection, we left it. And the meats at Maria were mostly blah, with the chuleta having an off flavor.

Brian & Tony were a pleasure to visit with, as always. Based on this experience, we think that West Chicago has a higher quality of cuisine, and our next outing, if there is one, will probably be there. The strangest thing is that most of these places were fairly busy with a mainly Mexican clientele - I really do not get it. Still, with Islas Marias, La Quebrada, Los Cabritos, and El Pollo Giro all within a couple of miles of each other, it is not a bad locale for good Mexican.

Yeah, what he said...

David is spot on in his assesment but wanted to add a few notes.

Taqueria Mexico II while kind of just in the ok category, might have some more potential for al pastor. The huge spit of nicely carmelized spinning pork with the full pineapple hat on top did not look like the same meat served on our taco. Maybe you have to request a fresh slicing of meat to get the good stuff, but on the other hand it shouldn't be that difficult. Maybe we got gringoed?

I wanted to like El Maison de Maria as the menu had some more interesting items like birria, pambazos, tlacoyos etc and the huge trays of frijoles for catering looked really good but if the quality if meat they serve is consistent with what we had, why bother? Bummer.

El Pollo Giro en estilo Sinaloawas some fine chicken. Crisp, crunchy, seasoned skin and juicy meat. It was nice to see the grill man poke in an instant read thermometer so he could pull the bird off at the right minute. The semi pickled red onions with the afterthought salad were a nice touch as well.

I'll be a repeat customer at Los Cabritos when the next hankering for goat arrives. The meat had a rich fatty flavor and I'm sure would be nice on a platter with some rice, beans, tortillas and guacamole. While a bit high on the grease content, the al pastor had great flavor, though couln't tell if the had a full on spit or not. What do I care, it was good. They actually had a few vegetarian options as well if that's your thing...an egg, pepper and cheese taco and some others I can't remember.

It was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon with good company and while downtown Aurora has some interesting buildings, architecture wise, there is little to no action there and the streets were empty like a ghost town. Eh.

Some updates -

I have returned to Cabritos once because the chicken guy had run out, and it was just as good. Definitely a keeper.

I did make it back to pick up some chicken at the El Pollo Giro stand this weekend, and am pleased to report the chicken was even better with its peppery rub, grilled over lump charcoal (the bags look suspiciously like Berger's in fact), and he was quite busy. So while I waited my turn, I was able to watch him pull off the split chickens, chop them up, inspect the thigh and drum bone, more often than not return the dark meat to the grill. Then he returned later to pick up some thighs and drum bones to fill out the chicken order. This detail speaks to why his grilled chicken is the best I have had around here in quite some time - the white and dark meat are actually cooked for different amounts of time so the breast is not overcooked, as normally happens. Simple but time consuming, and it makes a big difference if one must eat white meat.

Combine that with the grilled jalapenos and onions, and fresh salsa on the side and this is a great treat.

The bad news is that the city visited him last weekend, and he is closing his roadside stand next week. I did not exactly understand it all, but it has to do with permits. Not all bad, since he promises to have the storefront up and running by October. I will be watching.

La Quebrada Express on New York Street is now open so I will return there soon and report on what I find.

I made a visit to Taqueria Muniz over the weekend. Pastor fresh off the trompo was great. Tons of charred crispy bits and juicy interior bites. Tacos are on the smaller side, but representative to the cost, $1.50. Chips seemed freshly fried as they were warm with a delicious sheen of oil. The salsa they brought with the chips was tasty. Appeared to be charred tomato, jalapeno/serrano, onion and cilantro. Not very spicy, but the heat began to build as I ate more. Standard green and red salsa in squirt bottles for the tacos.

The rest of the menu was fairly standard. It says they have birria on the weekends, but when I ordered a birria taco they said they didn't have any today.

Friendly and attentive service. I'll definitely be back for more pastor and to try other menu items.

Taqueria Muniz
(630) 896-8727
518 S Lake St, Aurora, IL 60506