Thursday, August 30, 2007

Review: El Norte -
Burrito Joint on North Side of Chicago

Photo of El Norte's exterior, by Yelp Chicago's Lacie G.

Image Source: Yelp.com's Lacie G.

Note: This entry was originally published in January 2007 with my reviews over on Yelp

Grabbed a couple of burritos [1 chicken, 1 veggie] to go last night.

* Food remains pretty solid.
Seems like they actually take enough time with the burritos to get things heated up, versus some places where you end up getting home and biting into nowhere-near-melted cheese.

* Friendly enough at the counter.
Maybe a little stingy with the salsa. You could be disappointed if you're like me and want some salsa with every bite - make sure to ask for some extra containers. We got one roja and one verde with a 2-burrito order - not a very generous salsa:burrito ratio, in my opinion.

* Will never earn extra points for decor.
Not expecting a lot, of course, but you can count on goofy little things here, like leaving a couple of burned-out light bulbs in the overhead counter lights. Depending upon your perspective, you could interpret it as a manifestation of their unpretentious charm, or you could say it lends an unnecessarily sketchy feel to the already small, no-nonsense kitchen area.

* Entertainment-While-You-Wait-Bonus
You can usually count on the TV in the corner being tuned to something amusing like Bailando por un Sueo or WWE Smackdown.

No comments: