Garcia's Restaurant

Hard to believe all the reviews are for the same place, as they can be so drastically different!  

Anywho, here's my opinion....since that's what this site is about.

We decided to come in here on a recommendation of some friends of ours.  We were meeting (different) friends of ours and decided to give Garcia's a go.  When we stopped in they told us it would be ~45 minute wait, so we wandered over to the bar.

I'm generally not a huge fan of margaritas, I don't dislike them, but they usually aren't my first choice.  I decided to go against my "usual" and took up the bartender on his offer of a margarita.  I asked him to make me his favorite.   He returned with a fabulous banana strawberry margarita.  I couldn't have been more pleased!

In much less than 45 minutes our table was ready.  We ordered, and I swore the food came out minutes later.  We couldn't even believe that it was actually our food. This got me super excited.  I joked that "they don't even pretend that it takes an hour to make your food here."  (You know, some places like to add to the "experience" by making the food take longer.  So you think it was all actually made right then and there down to chopping the onions).

Anywho, my husband obviously didn't hear my excitement for the fast food delivery, and he said that he didn't appreciate how quick it comes out.  He said that he enjoys that intentional-food-delay.

I ordered the cheese enchiladas.  In general they are nothing fancy. These were pretty standard for cheese enchiladas.  But since I think cheese enchiladas are fantastic. I thought these were fantastic.  (I won't deny the fact that I generally like anything that combines excessive cheese and carbohydrates).

My husband ordered some vegetarian combo type thing and said he wasn't impressed.  I didn't taste his food, so I can't say one way or the other.

I was tempted to give this place 5 stars, but since I got something pretty basic, and my husband wasn't completely impressed, I'll give it 4 for now. Maybe I'll bump it up after we visit again.

I almost forgot to mention how freaking cheap this was.  We could NOT believe our bill for 4 people when they brought to us.  We checked it over more than once expecting that something was missing, but it wasn't  Good food, cheap food, what else is there to want!

I ate at Garcia's for the last time tonight. The food came quickly enough, but it was typically unimpressive. This place prides itself on vegetarian options, but the ones they have are woefully bland. I hated my food tonight, but would have been glad to have it wrapped up so I could take it home and use it in another dish later but our waitress never appeared again after delivering our food. Never. I saw her when I finally walked for the door. This is the first time in my adult life I've tipped less than 22%. I'll not sit around for thirty minutes again waiting for a waitress to come learn that I found my dinner awful. I can't stress this enough: If you are in Lincoln Square there are many much better restaurants to visit.

I went for the first time with my girlfriend and her friend, who was celebrating a birthday. We downed pitchers of (tasty) margaritas and the ladies ordered a smattering of tacos, which were reportedly delicious. The pico was kept flowing, chips (excellent, fresh) were replenished constantly, and our wonderful waitress checked up on us constantly, probably trying to figure out if she should administer a BAC test. I had lengua tacos the other day so I didn't want lengua, but I did want something.. meaty. I also had a long day and was sort of grumpy, so I didn't want to read their extensive menu. My eyes settled on "CHICAGO'S GREATEST BURRITO." Sure. Whatever.

Its a carne asada burrito suizo and its the size of a fucking 15 lb baby. I think it was 9$ or something. I ate the whole thing, its 10:45am and I'm at work and I still feel so full I want to die (not in a bad "that was gross" way but a satisfied "fuck, yes, I am so fat I am going to die and then if I reincarnate, I will order another one in whatever language I may be able to communicate in").

I'm rarely up here but it is really good.

The burrito is far from the best in chicago, but it was very good warranting an excellent review. It just had lettuce, tomato, sour cream and about 14 lbs of carne asada with a cheese blanket rivaling the thickest wool blanket your grandmother ever made.