I live really close to it, so go pretty often. Â However, I always get takeout; I'm not sure about the dine-in experience. Â Their tortas are really, really good. Â Sometimes the meat can be a little fatty, but that's kind of what you expect from a really low-cost Mexican joint. Â If you live nearby and you don't want to walk to Clark Street because it's cold, then it's definitely worth a try.
Review Source:We ordered dinner at 5:30 pm on 2/7/13.....we still have not gotten our food for delivery and it is know 7:00 pm! Are you kidding me!!! We called 10 times to complain  that we never got our food and yet every time we call they either tell us its on its way or that he was here? He never showed up? Also each time we call she seems to not know our address or our phone number even though we let it with her every time we called her? Horrible customer service! To all....don't ever order from this place for delivery! They just lost a very good customer!
.......Ended up getting food after 2 hours of waiting.....the food wasn't cold...but was not very warm....the girl who answered the phone got our address wrong per the delivery guy and the address on the bag? This is the second review where she is mentioned...wish I knew her name...stopping in tomorrow to talk to manager...also one of the dinners had an avocado pit in it?
.....My feelings still stand with the above statement:(
I ordered dinner on a Monday night. The male respondent messed up my order horribly because he couldn't understand English. We called calmly to try to get a partial credit to our credit card and the man didn't want to help. He got an attitude fast and complained to my boyfriend that he should have ordered because he spoke Spanish.
This restaurant might be good if you know Spanish. Otherwise, there is a good chance they will get your order wrong. The woman who took my order couldn't even spell Ashland. She spelled it Ashlane (after I correctly spelled it out to her). That is ridiculous when the street is only three blocks away.
Long story short, instead of giving us the partial credit, he demanded all the food back and voided out the account. I worked at a Mexican restaurant for over 3 years, and someone who spoke English FLUENTLY always answered the phone so this issue wouldn't happen. I would try to order from there again, if they handled the situation better but they didn't. Big disappointment!!! :(
Having just moved from El Paso, I assure you that this is as good, if not better than you'll get at the border. Pretty much everything we've gotten here has been delicious, and a great value. The tortas and burritos are huge, and they seem to know how to deliver on the comfort element of their Mexican dishes. Definitely the best dining value in the immediate Morse Red Line stop area.
Review Source:I've eaten here twice so far, and both times I've been pretty satisfied. The dishes are pretty balanced in terms of ingredients. They're nicely prepared, and they're not greasy messes. The chorizo is good too.
My only complaint is some dishes are a bit pricey, but that's what happens when you're too lazy to walk a ways up to Clark St, aka the outdoor taqueria mall.
While I haven't been to the actual restaurant and can't really comment on the appearance or seating of this place at all, I've ordered delivery through grubhub from here a few times and they're great when you're craving cheap Mexican food that's of decent quality.
Usually I order 3-4 of their chicken tacos with a bottle of Mexican Coke or a cup of horchata (both of which are great drink options from this place) and it's quite filling- the chicken tastes like it's of pretty good quality and whether you choose to get tomatos/lettuce or onions/cilantro as your topping, they don't add an excessive amount like other Mexican places. Both the red and green salsas they include are delicious and add a lot of flavor to the tacos. I've also tried their carne asada steak tacos when a friend ordered them, though I'm certainly not as much of a fan- the meat was tough and really didn't seem to have the flavor or quality that the chicken tacos did.
I've also ordered their chips and guacamole- the chips are nothing special, but the guac is pretty good and they give you a LOT of it (as they should, considering the $7.00 price tag.)
Stay away from the chocolate milkshake (and, by extension, likely all of the milkshakes)- a friend ordered one and stated that it tasted like syrupy chocolate milk.
Again, great if you're craving cheap, decent-quality Mexican food.
This is a good joint for anyone who wants some cheap eats or is a vegetarian (I'm guilty on both charges). Â Their veggie menu has everything from burritos to fajitas to even a falafel sandwich. Â I tried the fajita with seitan (tofu) and was pretty pleased. Not a whole lot on there, but you do get green peppers, rice, beans, steamed bok choy - weird, I know, and plenty of seitan. Â The corn tortillas were deliciosas tambien! Â Our service was decent, but the main plus of this place is they hook you up with chips, salsa picante and salsa verde before the meal. Â Oh, and did I mention their lunch specials are mad cheap?
Review Source:Tried the pastor for the first time last night and it's not the best pastor I've ever had, but definitely good. Â Overall, this place is a good place to try if you're in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't go out of my way. I guess I'm a little grumpy about having to spend $4.50 for a large horchata. Wha?!
Review Source:On the menu it lists tacos for 2.25-2.50 which is misleading bc they refuse to give you just one taco- oddly, an order includes 2, so the price on the menu is never a price you would be able to pay, it would always be double. Â you would never be able to get 1 for 2.50, it would always be 2 for 5. Â they should just say that on the menu, but instead they trick you and you have twice as much food as you want and spend twice as much as you expected. Â I felt like they tricked me. Â
i will say, the prices seem to be partially based on the cashier's mood. Â maybe there are people he is friends with that get the menu price and a normal amount of tacos...?
unfriendly service.
they do not bring you water.
not environmentally friendly. everything is in styrofoam containers. Â
the food itself is ok. Â not the best, not the worst. but it always ends up being twice as expensive as it should be because of the misleading menu.
As a native Texan, and a relatively new Chicagoan, I've had some Mexican food here that's been anywhere from passable to great. Â Los Portales, unfortunately, rated far below the least impressive I've had. Â I was in the mood for a Tex-Mex style combination plate, so I went with the Combination 2, which includes an enchilada, taco and quesadilla. Â The taco, on corn tortilla, was the only thing that resembled its namesake. Â The grilled chicken was a bit tough but otherwise flavorful. Â The lettuce on top wasn't exactly fresh, but it was acceptable.
The enchilada and quesadilla were unspeakably bad. Â The enchilada was pretty much a thin burrito slathered in mysterious orange sauce after the fact. Â The steak (I asked for a cheese enchilada) was tough and stringy. Â The "quesadilla" was just the enchilada without the sauce.
How this place has ever received a good review is beyond me. Â Either the quality varies wildly or the reviewers in question have suspect taste. Â This appears to have been made by a novice cook with little experience with Mexican food of any variety. Â I hate to rag on a restaurant in my neighborhood, but having just moved to Rogers Park, I was really looking forward to having a Mexican restaurant around the corner. Â This was extremely disappointing and gave me almost immediate intestinal distress to boot. Â I can only hope they improve.
Can only review the food, as I ordered delivery, but I was quite pleased. Chorizo quesadilla was delicious and far less of a disgusting grease trap than I'd ever expect of such a thing. I got the tacos al pastor and an order of guacamole - both good! The guacamole is a bit spicy, but still very good. I especially liked that they put an avacado pit in the order to help keep it from oxidizing.
I'll definitely order from here again!
Increhible, increhible, increhible. Â Hands down, one of the best Authentic Mexican dishes in Chicago. Â Quality plus quantity. Â Camarones a las diabla. Â Whole red snapper plate. Â Rice soup. Â Quesadillas and many more. Â You can't go wrong with the dishes here. Â Home cooking at its best, except at Los Portales!
Review Source:First of all, let me just say what a culinary WASTELAND this area of Roger's Park is. Good grief.
Anyway, I'm performing in a show around the corner at the No Exit Cafe and I've found myself becoming a regular at Los Portales. I keep coming back because it's close, quick, and cheap. By no means do I come back because the food is great. It's not. The hostess is really friendly and the service is quick (at least for take-out orders). I've only tried their various tacos so far and they're just ok, mostly bland. However their green salsa is really good so I just dump a whole lot of it on top.
Not sure what some negative reviewers were expecting from this place. I can't imagine what made anyone have high expectations. It passed my test of being convenient, fast, cheap, and not giving me food poisoning.
They're 2 or 3 stars, hard to call. The food is good & the salsas are fabulous. However the service is spotty & I've been over-charged EVERY time I've eaten here. We always order the same thing, and week before last it cost almost $50, this weekend when we ate there it cost $26... the only difference was the previous time we ordered an extra side of rice and beans. It's better to dine-in, that way it's clearer what you have & haven't ordered.
Also, I had a very negative experience while waiting for my husband to arrive. I waited about 20-30 minutes, during which time the waiter came by 3 times to ask if I was still going to keep waiting. At some point, the delivery drivers (who were very busy not delivering anything to anyone) came and actually took the chairs from my table so they could have a better view of the TV and somehow couldn't understand my English. I've had it with this place. The entire staff made me feel totally unwelcome and like they were waiting for me to leave, and it really seemed as though they were talking about me in Spanish (they'd look at me, say something and laugh, and then the waiter would ask if I was still waiting, then he'd go back in the kitchen and I could hear laughing). Maybe it's in my head, but I don't want to go in there anymore. And since they don't serve margaritas I have even less reason to go.
Their once glorious vegetable empanadas now all have chicken in them. Did they tell me this when I ordered them and stated explicitly that I wanted them served vegetarian? No, they just served me meat. Don't you monsters know that I wrote the most hilarious 5 star review for you on this stupid website? And now you force feed me meat? A THOUSAND MILLION SHAMES.
It also so happened that the texture was wet and crumbly. It's like they ran out of vegetables and substituted meat and sawdust as "vegetables." Non-vegetarians will not be pleased.
Literally the worst Mexican food I've ever had.
Growing up in southern California causes you to develop a decent palate for cheap Mexican food. This place is neither cheap, not good. Actually it's not actually food. Still searching for food Mexican food in Chicagoland. Why does it suck here?
I am a regular here, and while I can say that there are probably better taquerias around, this one has some sort of charm that's kept me coming back for the two years that I've lived here. There are cheaper items (whoever said they are expensive?) such as tacos, sopes, huaraches, etc., that will fill me up just fine, especially with the chips they bring out (love it!) for around $5. They also have some breakfast items (they open at 10AM, I think), and they also have a dinner menu with more expensive entres. Unfortunately, my favorite item, enchiladas, is on this part of the menu, for about $9 I think. What can I say, I'm a poor student.
Also, this place is BYOB, and there is a (cash only :/ ) liquor store immediately next door that I sometimes drop into while waiting for my food at LP, so I can enjoy my huarache with a Carona (and just ask for some lime slices when you get back!)
Pretty lame, and also overpriced.
I called and ordered Bety's Combinacion - a chile relleno and an enchilada with a side of rice & beans and tortillas. Â I requested a cheese enchilada instead of beef or chicken. Â The food was ready in 10 minutes, which was great. Â I grabbed a Mexican Coke out of the cooler, which brought the total to $13.30, which seems pretty pricey.
When I got home, I found one soggy enchilada and a chile relleno SWIMMING in orange sauce. Â The last time I checked, ranchero sauce was red. Â I fished the enchilada and chile relleno out, and they weren't bad but they definitely weren't good and they weren't worth the price. Â The refried beans and rice were completely flavorless. Â And they didn't even throw in any chips and salsa.
Maybe the entrees are better with meat, but as a vegetarian, I won't be coming here again.
No the best mexican I've had but the service was very attentive. They had chips and salsa out before my butt heated the seat up, and they were very pleased to take our order.
The portions were a little small (not by 1950's standards) but for the typical overfed Amercian (cough, cough - me) it was not quite enough. Also I need a little zip in my salsa... A little pizzaz, some wham-pow, or at the very least a small kick. I got none of these and my burrito suffered for it. But the preparation was still good and it was better than Taco bell. That being said I would not go out of my way to go here again.
In our on going quest to find decent mexican delivery- this place is another failure. Â
Meat chunks in my shrimp fajitas - that's off putting.
No tortillas for the fajitas. Which seems to be a huge problem with Mexican delivery in general. Â
However a first- I call to ask about the tortillas - they repeatedly tell me it is in the bag. Â When I explain I have turned the bag inside out- he said they would deliver it in 10 minutes. Â It has been a few days. Â No tortillas. Â Ugh- if anyone out there has a reliable Mexican delivery place- for the love of God send it along!
A friend and I were hungry and we saw this on grub hub. We used the online ordering and got some tamales, Chicken tacos, Steak and pork tacos as well as Chicken quesadilla.
The tamale was wrapped in a leaf and was really good. We had red sauce with it and added just the amount of heat that was needed. The tacos were extremely good and were in small flour wraps and a good amount of cilantro and onions. The quesadilla was fairly big and it wasn't cut into pieces which would've been nice. It was packed with chicken which was nice as well
the food got to my friend's real fast and we were able to get a lot of food for just $25ish after tip and delivery fee.
Los Portales is an extremely cheap, tiny little nook a few steps from the Morse Red Line stop. The portions are large, the ingredients are fresh (the veggie versions of most dishes overflow with a variety of vegetables), the food is very cheap and there are free chips which come with two kinds of salsa. Â I like to come in for a cheap order of nachos (about $4), a few tacos ($1.75 apiece) or huarache or sopa ($2.50). However, Los Portales also offers larger entree-sized dishes which cost a few dollars more, and they also sell American-style fare such as hamburgers, pizza puffs and sub sandwiches. In the mornings you can even get pancakes here, a few dollars snagging you a big plate of five cakes!
Los Portales is small and quaint and probably not the best Mexican food you'll find in your life, but it is nonetheless well-made, tasty and cheap. I would particularly recommend Los Portales to Loyola students and other young, cheap Roger's Park-ers who are sick of the dismal and limited food offerings that can be found on Sheridan. There's not many good food places east of Clark, so Los Portales is a welcome respite.
VEGETARIANS NEED TO COME HERE.
Do you long for Mexican food with seitan? Lucky for you, Los Portales exists. Their food is darn cheap (overpriced? I think NOT!). I'm talking under $7 for a veggie burrito. They don't skimp on portions either.
Their rice and refried beans are underwhelming, very boring. But man, the seitan fajitas are juicy and tasty! I come here once a week for my Mexican food fix. If I'm not in the mood for a burrito, they have a ton of other stuff too. Their salsa is ace! I love me some spicy fresh salsa.
Oh, Los Portales is not a place for a first date. There isn't a lot of seating, so I definitely recommend carry-out!
What an awful Taqueria. Â I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone goes to this poor excuse for a Mexican restaurant when up the street on Clark there are about 50 better Taqueria's just waiting to be enjoyed (Sabor Michoacan, La Choza, Restaurante Cuetzala Gro).
I have a friend who eats here exclusively, has lived in Roger's Park all her life, I'm thinking she must know what she is talking about, so we finally tried it.
The food is total garbage, it insults all Mexican food. We both ordered Burritos (at the friends recommendation) instead of the usual tacos. Just awful. I do not know how your ruin a burrito, insert yummy meat, guacamole, beans, cheese and fry it up! But it was awful. The meat WAS NOT yummy. Nothing about the food was good. I could not even finish half of the burrito. My partner was livid that this was what we had wasted our money on for dinner.
I will NEVER go back. I cry for all the mislead souls that continue to eat here instead of walking west to Clark. Just go to Clark instead, please, for all our sakes. Save yourselves and start eating better Mexican food now. I mutter hateful thoughts every time I walk by this worthless hole in the wall on my way to Morse Market.
The words Los Portales will forever be synonymous with evil. I want this restaurant wiped off the map.
I've been meaning to try Los Portales for about a year now. My interest was originally piqued last April when I was living near the Morse El stop and would pass by their sandwich board advertising vegan burritos (I'm vegetarian, but ovo-lacto friendly). Why I didn't stop then I can't tell you. Then I kind of forgot about them when I moved into an apartment further norther and wasn't visiting the Morse stop much.
But then in the last months I made a couple of attempts to try them again and on both occasions they were closed for a private event.
Finally my wife and I successfully stopped in for lunch on our way home on a sweltering bike ride from the Green City Market in Lincoln Park. I ordered a veggie torta and my wife ordered one veggie taco and one veggie gordita.
Unlike too many restaurants that claim to have veggie options, Los Portale's veggie items were filled with deliciously marinated and grilled veggies (red peppers, onions and mushrooms are what I remember), tasty beans and cheese if you want it. All items are also available vegan for those avoiding dairy.
This was the best veggie torta I've had outside the Mission in San Francisco. The bun had the perfect texture of being slightly crispy yet still bready. And the fillings, as I mentioned, were incredible.
My wife was similarly happy with her taco and gordita, filled with the same tasty veggies. I tried a piece of her gordita and really liked the crispy and flaky fried gordita shell.
We also ordered large horchatas which arrived in 32oz Big Gulp sized cups. It's a good thing it was hot and we were thirsty, since normally we don't drink that much horchata. Next time we'll get medium sized ones.
Especially for vegetarians and vegans I wholeheartedly recommend Los Portales for quick, but fresh and tasty Mexican food.
The salsa is super yummy :] And I had a yummy tongue taco here :] NOM!... I also popped my horchada cherry here :] OMG, totally in love with that drink!!! And I usually don't drink anything but water, tea, coffee and wine... :] Hahahaha.... YUM YUM YUM!!!!! It's tiny but it does what it needs to do, serve yummy food, quickly and it's cheap too :] Menu is pretty big as well :]
Review Source:Pros: tastier than other area taquerias, fast and inexpensive.
Cons: nothing especially stellar and everything comes in styrofoam.
Small dining area, so great for those nights when I want to grab and go. Â But I see people eating in, too, as well as BYOB-ing.
While the standard main dishes are good, I find the sides (rice and beans) are much better than average.
Haven't been in a while, but I used to live around the corner, and it was bomb as hell. The chorizo tacos are ace, and the steak and chicken tacos are excellent, too. If I'm not mistaken, they have a combo where you can do like, a taco, quesadilla, and something else. Cheap, fresh, and very friendly, sweet staff. 10 bucks will get you full and then some. One time my friends and I dined here later in the evening and we didn't know they were about to close, so we took our time and had a full meal sitting down. The staff was patient, and served us as if they were staying open anyway. I felt so bad and apologized and left a big tip, but they were so friendly anyway. Good food, great service.
Review Source:The problem with Yelp is reading reviews before going to a restaurant robs you of that taste. Â You know, that taste of undiscovered food, like the food was made just for you and you found it like finding a 20 on the street. Â Anyways, not to get sentimental, but I worry that reading reviews of this place will ruin its charm. Â It's good, but try to taste the food without the aftertaste of hype. so.
I stopped by in December for a hangover-cure-brunch. (i just admitted i have weekly hangovers, didn't I. Â Awkward). Â The cute server was flat bellied, quiet, but friendly. Â I was initially wooed by the GIANT goblet of fresh squeezed orange juice for $3. Â I was finally seduced and subdued by the totally bitchin $3 huarache that was as big as a burrito and endless chips and really flavorful salsas.
Since my first tryst with portales, we've been back almost weekly, watching the tiny server's belly grow and grow with each visit. Â I'm from LA, raised on dirty taco shops and burrito joints, Â and I've learned to keep my mexican food simple: fresh corn tortillas, spicy salsas and tasy meats. Â I can vouch for most all the meats here except for the milanesa and the tripe (one could even call me a meat connoisseur, of sorts. Â giggity giggity). Â the tortillas are good, the sopes and huaraches have this interesting almost crunchy texture. Â I guess they do lose some points for not having lengua, but what can you do...
Now i feel like I'm obligated to continue to patronize the restaurant for  6 more months so I can see that baby.  I mean, if they make such good mexican food, I can only imagine what their baby making skills are like.  num num num.
too soon?
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