I would give Lito's Empanadas a 4.5 if I could. Their empanadas are pretty tasty. They don't have too much dough and they are numbered so you can tell which one is which. I've tried a few different flavors and have been pretty happy with all of them.
They have an online ordering system which makes things easier too. Because they're freshly fried, the empanadas can take a while to make (for fast food, ~8 minutes or so). But you can order early and come in a pick them up, which works well! We actually ordered online to eat in the store, and they were very accommodating and nice about it.
They also have everything priced very reasonably. I'm full after eating two empanadas (I'm female and relatively small) and that comes out to about $6. All in all, a good value and a nice change of pace from the nearby Italian restaurants.
was craving for empanadas and came across Lito's that's 15 min away from where i stay..
i ordered the BBQ chicken, beef and rice, champinon chicken, and chori-cheese..
the BBQ chicken has BBQ chicken and potatoes.. i like this one the least.. the BBQ just didn't flow well for my liking
the beef and rice has ground beef, rice, tomato and onion.. this one wasn't bad.. its a good combination of ingredients in there..
the champinon chicken has chicken and cheese with sauteed mushrooms,tomato, and onions... probably my favorite out of the 4 empanadas i ordered.. it was flavorfull..
the chori-cheese has chorizo with potato, cheese, tomato and onion... it was OK.. i didn't taste much chorizo in there.. taste mostly the cheese and potato only...
There aren't nearly as many empanada places in Chicago as I would like.
This place is not bad but theirs are a little small and too oily/greasy in my opinion.
I got take-out from here so I can't say much about their service.
I thought the skin could have been a little crispier and the inside could have used a little more seasoning.
The empanadas are reasonably priced, same as what you'd find at most other places.
I went here with several co-workers for lunch and we could not have picked a better place. We all have different food preferences, and we each left completely satisfied - great taste, very filling, and incredibly reasonable prices. Personally, I had one chicken, one beef, and one vegetable empanada. Although my personal favorite was the beef, the other two were delicious as well. There are also multiple options in each of the categories I mentioned. Even though I was full, I went ahead and ordered a dessert empanada with nutella, chocolate, and bananas which was, not surprisingly, delicious. Given that we were here for lunch, timing was a concern for us, but the wait was very reasonable - just a few minutes. Even though I normally don't like tip jars, I was wishing they had one so that we could leave a tip for the great service!
Review Source:Lito's is a great-tasting and inexpensive place to eat! Perfect for anyone who wantsa good bang for their buck! Their empanadas are pretty big compared to those at other restaurants and they are loaded with fresh ingredients. Â The most expensive food item on the menu is only $2.59!! I eat a LOT of food per sitting and three empanadas do more than enough to fill me up as a meal. Â My favorite of the dinner options is the champinon (mushroom in Spanish) chicken(yes it's champinon not champion not campion). Make sure you get the homemade spicy sauce - it costs only $0.25 for a cup of it and it's the perfect complement to any of the empanadas!! As for the dessert empanadas, I have tried both but still can't decide which one I like more than the other, they both taste great! Definitely give this place a try!
Almost forgot to add this in too:
If you get a few different empanadas, you might think to yourself..."how the heck am I going to know which one is which???" No worries friend, Lito's has each empanada stamped on one of the sides of the rounded edge with a number that corresponds to the numbers on the menu! Â This is perfect if you're ordering a big order with friends or just trying a bunch of things on the menu.
I was really looking forward to visiting this place because if the high reviews. The food isn't as amazing as I thought it would be though. The one good thing was that it wasn't super oily. I tried the spinach and feta as well as the vegetarian one. The one good thing is that they are filling, which is great because these aren't so pricey.
Review Source:I've stopped here a few times and have been thankful to have something a little different for lunch! I've really exhausted many of the lunch options on Taylor so I was happy to see a dedicated empanadas eatery.
The menu is simple enough with just a few offerings available both savory and sweet. But, with such a small menu I'm always surprised at just how dreadfully long the wait is. Regardless, I usually order two filling empanadas to go and bide my time because the food is so cheap and good that it's worth the wait.
The beef and rice is my go-to selection and is pretty tasty. I've also tried the chorizo and cheese which I found to be bland (is that possible?) It was WAY more mild cheese than chorizo. I think a reverse ratio would be better!
My only suggestion, be sure to pick up a few of their hot sauces! They really enhance the flavor and are definitely worth it.
Amazing! I cannot believe the so-so reviews for this place, people are so uptight I don't know what they expect, nothing in this world is perfect. My husband and I had lunch at Lito's today and were very impressed. Clean, modern environment with quick fresh food that was so TASTY! Piping hot, made to order empanadas, meat and vegetarian options, fresh tropical juices, and we both ate for less than $13. It's not like there is a world of empanada places in Chicago and people should appreciate the diversity of our city and the few and in between unique eateries we get like this one. Kudos to the owner who was taking orders, serving, and cleaning tables at the same time. My bet is this place will be on Taylor St for a long time. Success!
Review Source:I've come here several times for lunch, lately, and have very much enjoyed each visit. Â The restaurant is clean and comfortable, and I've never had to wait more than 5-8 minutes for my food. Â The service has always been polite and helpful, and I've never been disappointed with any of the empanadas I've ordered.
I will say that my favorite have to be the Hawaiian (WITH the sauce that comes on the side... don't leave it off, you won't regret it!) and the Chicken Campiñion.  Definitely make a point to get the hot sauce for the Campiñion.  I've also tried both desert empanadas, and while I do like the chocolate-banana the best, the hot apple cinnamon is definitely worth a try.
Honestly, this is a decent place to grab a reasonably priced lunch (3 empanadas + drink = $10). Â The ingredients are quality, the service is polite and prompt, and it's a generally pleasant dining experience.
Hot damn, what a find! Â I love the Lito's in Lincoln Park and this one lived up to the high standards set by the original. Â I was targeting a casual late dinner on Taylor Street and my search ended when I saw Lito's. Â There's just something about empanadas that make me so happy.
All of my favorites--barbecue chicken, vegetarian, and chicken champiñon--were just as delicious as I am accustomed to from numerous visits to Lito's #1.  I walked in here at ten minutes before closing and my food came out piping hot in about eight minutes.  When I was ready to eat them twenty minutes later, they were, remarkably, still hot.
I don't get down to University Village very often, but I will certainly remember Lito's the next time that I do.
OMG delicious!! Â
starving and I recieved a call from a fellow co-worker who wanted to order lunch and I didn't hesitate to join in. Â My tuperware got shafted for a couple delicous mouthwatering empenadas! I had the spinach and cheese and the veggie. Â Perfect amount for a light but tasty lunch. Â Each bite was super flavorful and the green salsa was a good sweet and spicy kick. Â The veggie was filled with potatos and a fire roasty chipotle sauce which gave it an extra kick and the spinach and cheese was just that, spinach and cheesey goodness. Â I have to say that the flakey crust was surprisingly not greasy or doughy and made for the perfect treat. Â I think my favorite is the spinach/cheese and I wouldn't even think twice before placing another order! Affordable and quick, a great spot on Taylor!
What a fantastic addition to Taylor St.!
Ordered from here for lunch for the work crew, and it was great.
I called in our order and walked to pick it up about 20 minutes later. Â It was ready and waiting!
Between six of us, we were able to try all the Empanadas. Â All of them were fantastic. Â The group favorites were the Champinon Chicken and the Spinach. Â However, I have to say that all of them were delicious, and not too greasy/oily. Â It will be very difficult to choose next time!
The hot sauce is not hot. In fact, I found it rather sweet. But very tasty!
As far as how many to order... I would say 2, 3 if you're really hungry. Â Each one is stuffed full.
Don't forget to get the choco- banana for dessert. AMAZING!!!
The prices are very reasonable.
Service was fast and pleasant.
Love that they have on-line ordering AND delivery!
Hanging out with my foodie coworkers brought me to Lito's one sunny afternoon. I was hesitant to try this place even though I secretly love empanadas due to my fear of pocket foods. I know that I can cut into an empanada quite easily, but even when I do I find it difficult to figure out what each ingredient is within the blend. I guess I've been burned enough times to make me leery. Alas, Lito's proved to be quite a decent lunch.
The prices are pretty nice especially considering the amount of food you get. My coworkers each got 1 beef empanada, 1 chicken empanada, and 1 choco-banana empanada. They were each STUFFED halfway through the 3rd one. I only got the spinach empanada and a berry smoothie and I was pleasantly full. Obviously we should've all just gotten 2 each and called it a day. At any rate, everything tasted great.
The staff was nice and friendly, the place was nice and clean, and everyone dining inside seemed to leave with a smile on their face.
Winning!
Rude, rude, rude!
First off, the hours were wrong for this location on the website. We arrived in plenty of time before closing according to the website. Â They were supposedly closed. There were 3 other groups outside knocking on the door and completely confused. The staff stared at us and treated us like panhandlers. Â There were people seated inside, there were no hours on the door at this time I think its because they had just opened. So imagine the confusion.
After 5 to 7 minutes a girl comes to the door, she doesn't speak she opens the door and stares. Everyone was like;
"helloooo can we can come in?
She was like "oh we're closed".
We all repeated the same thing in unison "your hours on the website says you're open until (whatever the time was can't remember)".....
"Oh really? Ohhh ok does it say that? Really? Ohhhh no, we're already closed."
My group walks away, the other groups stand there to give ole girl a piece of their mind and chew her out about how the website should be accurate etc...The owner (rude) then comes and tells us we can all come in.  Of course my greedy ass does an about face. There was an unsavory character who was a patron, he was not happy about the owner having a change of heart, he stared us down  and rolled his beady eyes for the entire 30 minutes*.
Our empanadas were cooked fresh to order which is great, but with Florida being a second home to us we were just not familiar with a half hour wait for empanadas, but then again there was only one person making them to our dismay. You can see the kitchen which is a good thing, though I do suspect that if the cook had not been eating while cooking, the orders might have been correct and come out quicker....
The owner never apologized for the confusion nor was he very personable. I should also note that 2 people came in after, they called ahead, remember previously they were closed supposedly. Both these parties orders were wrong when they picked up. They were over charged and had been given the wrong items. The staff has the worst customer service period! The people taking the orders clearly don't want to be there and are unnecessarily mean.
The Champion Chicken was very good, they were out of Chorizo/cheese, the sauces really do even more justice. To me, the empanadas are worth the wait and garner 5 stars however, the staff has to change their attitudes and their attitudes towards customer service. To behave this way in the presence of the owner does speak volumes to what kind of establishment this truly is. I just don't understand how business owners justify mistreatment of paying customers, i will go where my dollar is valued, don't have time for folks to be treating me as if they're doing me a favor.
So today I went to Lito's empanadas at their new location off of Taylor St. in Little Italy. Upon entrance it looks like you think it should. (Think Chipotle before it became widespread, and I'm pretty sure they stole Chipotle's font for their menu). So we enter and place an order very quickly, cashier seemed nice and it was all going pretty good. I ordered the Chicken Champignon, the Chorizo/Cheese, and finally the Hawaiian. So all three empanadas come out fairly quickly after a couple of minute wait. However they were scalding hot. I am no stranger to empanadas and know that they should be hot... but there's a limit. These were legitimately dangerous.
The Chicken Champignon- A good sounding recipe, and it had the potential to be very good... if it was made properly. Every empanada connoisseur knows that if you are going to fry an empanada you need to make sure that the pocket is made properly otherwise oil will seep in. Mine was not made properly so I ended up with a pocket of grease which destroyed any of the flavor inside, which as I said I'm sure would have been good. Also, I should note that I often wear white shirts to work. So the whole time I was trying to eat this unsavory meal I was instilled with terror that I would either a) be scalded beyond recognition by the blistering oil; or even worse b) It would get on my shirt and I would have to finish off the work day in disgrace.
The Chorizo/Cheese- As a fan of all things chorizo I was not going to pass this up. This one luckily was made properly and as a result I was able to eat it without worrying about the impending doom of my shirt and career. However, it was surprisingly flavorless and the Cheese far outweighed the Chorizo.
The Hawaiian- When I first bit into this I thought they had given me my friend's cinnamon apple empanada by mistake. The pineapples overpowered the other ingredients. Similar to the Chorizo/Cheese this empanada lacked balance.
Empanadas are great and it would be great to see more places that sold them around. However, for 10 dollars I got three empanadas and a soft drink which to me is not a good value when one of the empanadas was inedible and the other two were forgettable. Not to mention they only give you three napkins when you clearly need more... All in all I understand that this is a new location so they have some kink's to work out, and when they do I'll give it another shake.
The empanadas are just ok, hot, fast, cheap. Â Overall, less than tasty, but passable for a quick bite if you are starving. Â I wanted the chorizo cheese one to taste more spicy and vinegary like chorizo should taste. Â And I couldn't taste the chipotle in the vegatarian one. Â I think everything needs a heavier had in seasoning, because the dough surrounding the stuffing cuts down on the taste.
So overall, I wont go back for the regular empanadas. Â But, a big but, the choco banana one was so yummy and tasty! Â I would go back for that.
Um, it was just okay for me. I had a chori-cheese (chorizo, potato & mozarella) a champinon(chicken, mozarella, mushrooms, tomato, & onion) and a veggie(green pepper, cilantro, onion, potato, tomato & chipotle peppers). they weren't bad but i don't if they should get 3 stars. I also had a maracuya juice which was okay. I did enjoy the homemade hot sauce. The prices are very reasonable.
Review Source:soooo sooooo. I wanted to Love this place. In fact, even "like" would have been good even. But, considering I've had a lotta others' empanadas, it fell short in terms of size, taste (needed salt and some spices), better quality meet, and a friendly interior. A lot of people seemed to pick up and go. Couldn't smell the food when you walked in. It had a funny smell actually. Not sure if its other location has a better ambiance. But truthfully it didn't make me want to even try it out when I first walked in. There's not a lot of a selection. The Champion with chicken with mozarella and mushroom was pretty good and a popular one I was told. I could see why compared to the beef I had. Maybe I'll try the dessert ones next time if there is one. Overall "meh".
Review Source:Not the best empanadas in the world, but not the worst.
There's 11 empanadas you can choose from and with the order comes this homemade sauce that tastes like a mixture between mayo, cayennne pepper and a few other spices. Â Some of the empanadas are a little bit on the dry side (the chicken empandas especially) so the sauce definitely helps. Â The homemade hot sauce is a must--has a great onion flavor and some bite to boot. Â The empanadas themselves are flavorful, but a lot of them missed the mark by being too dry or not having enough filling--it seems big, but as soon as you bite into them, there's a giant air pocket.
The perks of this place are that they differentiate between the different empanadas by having the empanada number pressed onto the edges so you're able to tell. Â Also, free drink refills!
A tad bit pricey to be a full blown meal, but a good snack if you need a bite to go.
The taste is awesome and the service is great. Â A little bit of a wait but nothing bad, and it was lunch time.
Only complain is it seems to leave you somewhere in the middle of just enough food or too much, depending on if you get 2 or 3. Â But for 2 empanadas, I only spent $5.50 with tax and probably ate as much as I should have, but could have ate more.
the beef and rice is really good, with the sauce, and the chiro chicken is my favorite.
Glad to have this place on Taylor St, nice addition.
I was looking forward to Lito's opening for a while. Although not bad at all, I am not sure if I was super impressed. Granted the empanadas are not bad at all, but they were just okay. I am sure this could be due to it being the first week they opened on Taylor street and they are still feeling their way, but I thought the empanadas were simply okay.
Please don't misconstrued my intention of the review. I totally did like them, just not sure if I would make a meal out of these Empanadas. They are nice and flavorful and surprisingly I was floored with the nutella and banana (warm) dessert empanada. Really was a good combo of flavor for sure. Now all I needed was a glass of milk and I would of had a fabulous ol' time. Not to mention that the liquados are awesome here! I was amazed that they were so flavorful. The place is beautiful and although can accommodate a large number of people (well maybe 20), its more of a take it to go kind of place.
I hope that they make it in the busy "Little Italy" area, and if they do, I am sure they will be a staple of something different. Try them out and you be the judge, for the idea it is awesome. And flavor is really not bad at all. I guess you have to be really be in the mood for an empanada, but if you, this is the place.
Finally the hubby and i try the neighborhood place we waited all fall and winter for it :). Â We got there and there was only 1 couple in the place not bad since it was just 5 o'clock the girl at the counter was really nice. Hubby order the spinach and cheese, chicken bbq, chicken and mushroom i think and choco-banana. I had the veggie and its spicy but good the chicken bbq mehh nothing exciting there but the chicken and mushroom that was a hit sooooo good :) we both love it the apple Cinnamon it was good too but the hubby cant wait to go back for his choco banana fix :)
Review Source:What's going on back there? Â
I LOVE the Lincoln Park location, and I've always been satisfied with whatever I've had from there. Â But, I just waited 10+ minutes for four empanadas. Â There were only two other people in there, and I was the ONLY ONE waiting on my order. Â
Added bonus: Â One of my empanadas is wrong. Â They're all delicious, and I'll probably be back, but one of them is not what I ordered.
Pro-tips: (1) Call ahead. Â (2) Order sauce. Â It doesn't come with, and it's excellent. Â (3) Eat there so you can give it back if you have the wrong one.
Checked Lito's out today for a late lunch. It was thoroughly solid. The vegeratian empanada is filled with tender potatoes, loads of vegetables, and is almost sufficiently spicy on its own. The chori-cheese has a satisfying mixture of the aforementioned ingredients; it would have been very easy to make an empanada out of chorizo and cheese that bloats you to death, but this has just enough of the fillings to satisfy you without making you feel like you need a wheelbarrow to exit the establishment. The restaurant is clean, modern, and attractive, and all the items are cheap (most expensive empanada is $2.59).
All in all, this is a solid addition to the mixed bag of establishments on Taylor. I'll be back frequently for indulgent snacking!
Despite getting hungrier because I couldn't find parking, it was very nice to finally walk in to the NEW location and be greeted by the nicest staff! Â The quality of the empanadas was as good as their northside location! Â The empanadas are made of an enjoyable variety of flavors....my favs are: Chorizo & Cheese, BBQ Chicken, Chicken & Mushroom, Beef & Rice (oh hell, they're ALL great!) Â Their menu is also ideal for delivery (starting soon) to all the cloistered office professionals and students nearby. Â It's going to be a great summer with Lito's in the neighborhood!! Â They're open 7 days a week...stop by, even for their awesome dessert empanadas (Nutella/banana or Apple Cinnamon)... yumz!
Review Source:If you're familiar with Lito's in Lincoln Park and you've always wished they would open another place with more room and additional seating (I know I have), your (MY) wish has been granted! Â Lito's is now open in University Village!! Â Same great flavors: Beef, Beef and Rice, Champinon Chicken (chicken, Cheese & mushrooms), BBQ Chicken, Chori-Cheese (Chorizo & Cheese), Hawaiian (Ham, mozzarella and pineapple), Spinach (spinach, cheese and onion), vegetarian (green pepper, cilantro, onion, potato, tomato and chipotle pepper), choco-banana (banana, nutella) and Apple Cinnamon. Â Their empanadas are made with VERY generous portions of their fillings, and the dough is never heavy, so it makes for a great experience.
This location, unlike the Lincoln Park location, serves fountain drinks and other beverages. Â I am very happy to have Lito's on Taylor street. Â A welcome addition to the neighborhood and will definitely be my choice for lunch on many occasions!
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