El Charro

This is my number one choice for tacos when the hour grows late and my desire for a fine craft beer is overwhelmed by a desire for a less-fine taco. El Charro has the benefit of being open 24 hours (for you 4AM Owl stragglers), being very cheap, and having genuinely good food (on the late night scale, I mean: I assume you're not coming here for your anniversary dinner).

Although it is usually busy I have never had a problem getting a seat, and the service has been fast and friendly in my experience. And despite its general divey-ness, it is clean and there is no blaring music or TV to assault you when you walk in.

My go-to tacos are the lengua and chorizo, which are tasty and heaped with toppings, but if it's a winter weekend and they're offering pozole, I would definitely go for that. For $6.00 you get a filling stew with plenty of tasty roast meat, definitely just the thing to make that cold walk home a little more pleasant.

Before moving to Chicago I had a pretty good working knowledge of Mexican food. I moved here right in the height of the Bayless years. You may like him or not but what I respect about him is his love of street food. So along those lines, my shout to el Charro is my love of their refried beans. I am a refried bean snob. (a little embarrassing but yes I am).  I would have not thought much about the place but I live so close and it's always reliable, always open. My husband and I found ourselves starving late on a weeknight with everyplace else closed and so el Charro was the only option. Two words- refried beans. I was telling the waitress how good I thought the beans were and she explained that she too can't make them at home as good as they do and that she takes batches home to her family. I consider that a pretty good recommendation.
Also, you order guac and they give you a ****ton. How could that ever be bad.
El Charro is not gourmet and for that matter I can't even speak to anything else on the menu other than the beans and guac but what I can say is they are my peeps, my go to place for anytime basic, simple Mexican goodness. And they are nice people.

Came here with a friend after a late night in Logan. I'm a stickler when it comes to Mexican food because when your inlaws are Mexican, there really is no comparison to home cooked meals. So I like their food, but I don't love it. Get it?

What I do love about the place was we didn't have to wait for a table, it's open late, and the crowd makes for great entertainment! (Hipster crowd, nothing against them -the night we went they all decide to sing and dance in the restaurant, which was pretty great!)