There are times when yelp can really irritate me, and today was one of them. Â I was working in the area and craving some tacos and asked yelp to guide me. Â 34 reviews and an average of 4.5 stars!! Â Holy crap, this place must be phenomenal!! Â I have to go!! Â
How I was disappointed! Â The fresh salsas weren't anything I couldn't get from a jar. Â Mild and bland. Â Got the taco dinner with 2 asada and 1 pollo (chicken for you gringos). Â Again, bland...even when smothered in their salsa. Â Everything seemed to be fresh, which is good, but the Mexican flavors that I love were missing. Â I think they've toned it down for the local gringo crowd which is apparently what works for the area, due to the high marks. I live out in aurora where I can find an authentic taqueria on almost every corner where spicy means spicy, and flavor doesn't mean they used salt. Â If you like your Mexican food fresh and bland, then yes, 5 stars. Â If you want authentic, not so much.
I have been here a few times and probably going to go here again tonight.
The food is good and it seems fresh. It is clean and the staff is friendly.
The fish tacos are great, so is the al pastor tacos. I am glad I tried it out and will continue to go there. The GF and I like to go on wed for $5 margaritas.
Food so good! Â Sopes are amazing. Â Lengua tacos great. Â Horchata best I've had. Â Service was quick and attentive. Â We were there at 130pm on Sunday - there were probably five tables filled out of twenty. Â Best Mexican in the 'burbs.
Seriously the sopes - individually delivered and topped - beats any $7 dollar sopes starter in fancy city Mexican places.
Best Mexican restaurant in chicagoland area. I've worked in broadview area for about 8 years and nothing else in area comes close. Fresh, high quality ingredients and great dishes make a recipe for delicious food every time. Work across street in a high stress job and eating here for lunch is fantastic break from my daily grind.
Service is solid and owner, Massimo is a stand up guy. Might get a little crowded during lunch hour but take out is just as good.
Trust me in an area full of mediocre grease pits La Penca is a Mexican shining star!
Ehh...I've had better. Â The price point was certainly good, but I think I had too high of expectations based on the other reviews. Â The tacos were okay, as was the quac. Â The sope was better than the taco. Â But the best thing they served was the salsa...which shouldn't be the best thing. Â And the chips were terrible. Â But the servers were nice and the price okay, so I could return if in the area. Â But given a choice, I'd head further east (Cicero or Pilsen)
Review Source:First of all, the food here was really good and everyone in my group would gladly come back again if the place was relatively empty. Secondly, our server did a great job of humbly keeping our salsa and drinks filled during our wait. Â Lastly, this place was very clean...including the pour top of the hot sauce bottle!
That said, since I studied french in high school instead of spanish, I can only assume that La Penca means "have patience". Â Our party of three needed a lot of it as this restaurant had to deal with a group order from seven Teamsters. Â I guess the staff of two in the kitchen rarely get big orders during the heart of lunch hour, but at least we had chips, salsa and some drinks to keep us busy. Â I felt really bad for the poor guy that ordered some take-out tacos and then sat around for 15 minutes waiting for them.
Hands down the best Mexican food I've ever had! The shrimp cocktail is delicious, as was the fried cheesecake. Literally everything I tried was fantastic. You should eat here, and then keep eating here. It's a family owned restaurant and you can tell right away, the atmosphere is so friendly and welcoming, you'll feel like part of the family.
Review Source:We live practically around the corner from this great Mexican joint. Aside from having great food at great prices, we've become friendly with the owner and manager. They are always so friendly and ask after which ever one of us does not go to pick up the food. When we dine in, it's always a pleasure. I love a good burrito and La Penca never disappoints. We also follow the weight watchers plan and they accommodate every request without batting an eye. It seems restaurants have trouble staying open in this location, so if you love it as much as we do, continue to support them, please! I would hate to see them go out of business simply because of the location. Buen provecho!
Review Source:Delish! We stopped here for a quick dinner pre-O'Hare and were pleasantly surprised at how fresh, quick and tasty everything was. We all agreed the guacamole and fish tacos were the stars of our meal!
All very reasonably priced, with a good selection of beers, wines and cocktails. The waitress and the rest of the staff were super friendly and efficient, and the joint was neat and clean.
Do note: the address that shows up in the Yelp app is a little off -- it's pretty much directly across the street from Sawa's,
We love this place! Â It has a warm, family atmosphere and the food is always very good and very reasonably priced. I recommend the fish tacos with mango habanero salsa. Â The margaritas are tasty and also fairly priced.
As if all that weren't enough, my five year old daughter loves to bring her "purse" to restaurants. She left it at La Penca last time we were here, but we had no idea where it went. Sure enough, we came back in three weeks and the owner brought us the purse almost immediately! Â
Casual atmosphere and fun for families with kids or just adults.
I love this place! Â We eat here (mainly carryout) roughly once every other week, and I have never been disappointed. Â Their pork tacos are amazing, horchata is delicious (and homemade), service is fast, friendly, and personal. Â And the prices are really affordable. Â
Also, try the fried quesadilla. Â It's really awesome.
Great mexican food! Â Fresh ingredients, delicious salsa and my husband loves the pozole. Â
We have two small children so we need 'family friendly' restaurants and they are so nice to us there. Â We've only had good experiences with the waitstaff.
I like that there are almost always one or two couples and one or two other families dining whenever we go there. Â Personally, I don't like empty restaurants!
The atmosphere is not fancy but it's comfortable. Â Clean bathrooms. Â
Oh, and it's great that they have liquor license. Â Sometimes I need to have a beer or cocktail after a week with the kids.
Friendly people, simple, clean decor, great prices, nice music, Mexican Coca-Cola! Â If only the food were good. Â Below average food, including stale chips and off-tasting salsas. Â Beef burrito was huge!! but topped with processed cheese that was salty, and I was able to just peel off in whole slices. The burrito was soggy outside, and the insides were not properly cooked-- the insides included gray hamburgery stuff with no browning and no seasoning except for random salty bits, and it was cold, plus cold beans, grated but cold white Mexican cheese, and heated, watery lettuce shreds. Â It was $10 for my meal, which included a generous tip, but I left feeling full only because the small soft drink was good sized, not because I filled up on chips and salsa or my burrito (and no, I didn't ask to pack up the leftovers). Â I hope they were just having an off day, because if not, I mean, really, Yelpers, what were you thinking?
Review Source:Might be more like a 3 1/2 but the affordability factor helps. Â Read good reviews and decided to stop in for lunch. Â Had chili relenos and a margarita. Â Chips and salsa was pretty good as was the margarita (cheap). Â The chilis relenos was good but not great. Â Beans were kind of ho-hum but the rice and "salad" were excellent. Â I'll be back to try something more basic like some tacos to see how those are.
Review Source:After driving by and reading some reviews about this place..I knew I had to check it out. I always feel like I had to judge how authentic a Mexican restaurant is (hahah)
We stuck with the tacos and I ordered a gordita for tomorrow's lunch. I couldn't help myself!
The salsa was delicious..of course there wasn't any left by the time our food came.
Steak tacos were good..they actually were a decent size (lately tacos have been shrinking).
I really liked their chile relleno tacos and tacos de rajas (a bit spicy but soo good).
I can't wait to have my gordita de rajas for lunch!
I was also pleased with the service...food came out promptly and the waiter was very attentive.
We have both eaten at La Penca and had their catering; both are excellent. Â
The chorizo is very good, it's a little spicier then most places. Â The food is not greasy which is a huge plus for mexican which can be very greasy, even the quesadillas weren't greasy. Â The only reason they lost a star for me was they do not have Sangria, they have other wine, beer and margaritas though.
Good food and responsibly priced can't beat that.
Note: listed address on yelp is wrong. Â Actually, the address is correct, but it's not on the corner of Cermak and 9th. Â It's actually about 7-8 blocks west of there near the Old Warsaw restaurant. Â
This is some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. Â I had an excellent gordita with poblano peppers and cheese, which was excellent. Â I also had one of the best steak tacos I've ever had. Â I was extremely full when I finished and my meal was less than $5. Â The tortillas were fresh, the meat was delicious and well spiced, and the salsas were great. Â Go here! Â The food was good.
I've driven by this place many many times and thought it looked promising: small, local, and independently owned but with attention to aesthetics of sign and resto interior. Stopped in for first time and had the chicken tortilla soup only available on weekends. My god, this was very tasty and would give Rick Bayless a bit of a run for his money, and only for $5.50 a bowl and in an unassuming strip mall in Broadview! The free chips and salsa were good, especially the red salsa, spicy, flavorful, and fresh. The presentation is nice, brightly-colored plates kinda like Fiesta ware. The chicken tortilla soup has a complex chicken broth with chiles, chunks of chicken, avocado, cheese, sour cream, and a very generous portion of fried narrow tortilla strips, and the fried strips compliment a mouthful of soup perfectly. And an artistically presented long purple dried chile on the side. Perfect for cold winter nights. Pozole and menudo on weekends. My companion's chicken fajitas was just okay, but he was trying to eat healthy and didn't get the test of a resto, carne asada, which should be tastier. The interior is modest and casual yet artistically presented with Diego Rivera paintings on the walls. The server and folks in the kitchen were very nice and friendly. More non-typical items on the menu include guisado. I'm looking forward to going to this place more often to get my Mexican food fix not so far from home.
Review Source:I think we've eaten here three times, at least once in the restaurant and once we picked up (and yes I know that's only two, I don't know what happened to the third visit).
Anyway, it's a tasty little place with reasonable prices, good service and good food. Between the two of us we've tried several items on their menu and only found one item we didn't care for - but I think it was our tastes more so than their cooking, so I won't name names. Â Casual, convienent. I dig it.
I found this restaurant on Yelp because I am visiting from out of state (my granddaughter is in the NICU at Loyola). Â We wanted to venture away from the hospital for some Mexican food and this place satisfied our craving. Â The portions are large, the salsas (both red and green) are both flavorful and spicy. Â My enchiladas rojas were very flavorful. Â The waitress accomodated us by bringing us three bowls of salsa which was nice (one to go with the chips and one bowl each for us).
Our initial silverware was dirty, but other than that it was a good experience.
Wow! Â Well worth the 20+ minute ride to eat here. Â Not your run of the mill offerings normally seen in suburban Mexican restaurants.
The menu is varied . . . and very well-priced. Â 2 tacos each with distinctive, fresh flavors (I had the Al Pastor and the Chicarron) under $4. Â The Asada with fresh cilantro was fantastic.
The daily special ( chopped skirt steak, ham and bacon with melted cheese) was to die for. Â All dishes come with a house variety of rice that is cooked with a little carrot and corn - orange, sweet, different and delicious.
If you have room for desert, you must try the chocolate cup cakes. Â Made by the owners wife. Â You won't want to share.
Don't let the strip mall location turn you away. Â Turn in and get turned on to some great Mexican food.
So a friend of ours told us this place was pretty legit. I must admit, when we pulled up, I was a little skeptical. How good can a tiny strip-mall mexican joint be?
Um, SO good. Especially when you factor in low prices, speedy service, and very friendly servers.
I was not a HUGE fan of the guacamole - it seemed like there might have been mayo in there or something. But it was still pretty good. I wasn't super hungry, but just had to try a taco. So I had a steak taco on a flour tortilla, with cheese, sour cream, and avocado. They don't skimp on the avocado, which is fantastic. The meat was wonderfully seasoned, cheese perfectly melted - it was basically my perfect taco. I had to stop myself from ordering a second one! My dining companion had steak tacos, and steak quesadillas. We both left happy, and full! I've been telling everyone all about it, and can't wait to go back when I'm actually hungry and try a few more things on the menu. Hidden little gem, for sure!
This place was great! This is one of the only places we order Mexican from at work now.
I just kind of figured having to deal with rude people on the phone was the price of getting Mexican food for lunch around where I work. Â This place finally put that rumor to rest. Â For some reason every place I order from the people are not exactly polite when I order. Â But this place was great... and they actually had reason to be rude, but were still nice! Â As I was putting in our order over the phone people in the office were yelling across the room and changing their orders last minute. Â Not only was the lady patient but she was also polite. Â
The food was good and they don't skimp on the Guac like some places do. Â Everyone else in the office seemed to like it as much as I did, so we will definitely be going back!
My only suggestion would be to maybe have some lunch specials??
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