Taqueria Las Cumbres

For what it is--casual 5-star home style Mexican, carry out or dine in if you prefer.  Skip the strip mall chain restaurants for the real deal.  Chicken burrito and steak tacos!

The Chicago Tribune gave Las Cumbres a really favorable review last week, I was thrilled to see.

Obviously, as M S. said below, he/she is missing it. If you're looking for an overall "experience", at a Mexican Restaurant that's not a chain? This is probably not it. I don't think calling it a dive is fair. It's extremely clean, and yes, it's small. It's a family run restaurant. And no, nothing "posh" LOL.  

We have been eating here on a regular basis for easily 5 years. The service has always been fine. They don't fall all over you, but they take care of you. We have never once not had our chips and salsa refilled, ever. And yes, they try to save money with canned pop.

The chips and salsa are wonderful, the steak taco's are my favorite taco in the entire area.The peppery taste is just wonderful!  My husband loves the al pastor and the poblano taco. The shrimp soup is devine, as is everything we've ever tried there.

I did a little test one time with a steak taco from a grocery store/taqueria in Crystal Lake that I used to frequent and Las Cumbres. I purchased both, and ate them together. I haven't been back to the grocery/taqueria in 5 years.

So, if you're looking for a posh interior, cozy atmosphere and freebies, you're probably better off at the On the Border chain. If you're looking for fresh ingredients, made to order, and not Americanized Mexican food? Give Taqueria Las Cumbres a try, it is fabulous!!!

So maybe I'm missing something, but my family and I didn't think this place was all that.  I know it's gotten a lot of good reviews and it was even recommended to us by a co-worker, but hmm, we just found it to be so so.

To me, eating out is about the overall experience, not just the food. It's also about the service, environment, location, etc.

As said here many times, this restaurant is definitely a dive.  There are maybe ten tables in the whole place and it feels like a tight fit.  There is nothing about the decor that is posh or warm and happy.  So please don't go thinking this will be a cozy atmosphere.

As for the service that's been so highly rated, we didn't experience that.  Perhaps we came on an off night, but the waitress we had didn't  crack a smile once.  We had to ask her for things more than once and she never checked on us to see if everything was okay.

The sodas come in cans and there are no free refills.  Also, according to our waitress, you don't get free refills of chips and salsa.  We were with four adult sized people and the basket of chips, (which I found to be just okay and on the greasy side)
is relatively small, and we finished them quickly.

The food is not bad but not exceptional either.  I've had better and I've had worse.  I imagine if you order take out from here, you'd like it well enough.

Having said all of this, they definitely had customers and were busy.  The prices are quite good, too, but again, for us, it's about the overall experience, not just the food. So therefore, I am only giving it 2 stars.