I didn’t know there were Spanish abbreviations. Huh.
Where do I take my princess on a wonderful, romantic, sunny Saturday afternoon in the greatest city in the world? Tio Luis Tacos in Brighton Park, of course.
Until two weeks ago, I had never heard of Tio Luis. After doing some research on the best tacos in Chicago (it comes up on virtually every list), boy is my face red. This place is great.
First, let’s start with the ancillaries. Tio Luis has some great pickled veggies (including jicama) waiting on your table. They also provide you with chips and four kinds of salsa: a salsa rojo, a salsa verde, a smoked chunky salsa, and a spicy cilantro salsa. All of them are delicioso. Their tacos come in a regular (6″) and small (4.5″) sizes. This makes it great for idiot taco bloggers to try as many as possible.
I liked all of the tacos I tried, which was five out of their seven. Even the small tacos have a lot of meat and they pile on the onions and cilantro. I especially liked the chorizo, which had a good amount of salt. The carne asada was juicy and tender, with great grill flavor. The pollo was made out of chunks of chicken breast, so it was not dry, stringy shreds of sawdust like most other places.
The lengua taco was really good, but be advised, unlike other places, you can tell this is a tongue you’re eating. You can see the smooth side of the tongue and little taste buds on top. My princess was not in the mood for the tongue.
Here’s the deal:
- Location: 3856 S. Archer Ave., Chicago, IL (Brighton Park)
- Tourists: Josh, Julia
- Tacos sampled: carne asada, pollo, al pastor, chorizo, lengua (also have tripe, and chile relleno)
- Toppings: onions, cilantro and lime
- Salsa: salsa roja, salsa verde, smoked salsa, cilantro salsa
- Extras: chips, picked vegetables
- Tortillas: corn – 4 1/2″ or 6 “
- Atmosphere: authentic, good amount of seating, neat, nice servers (which, of course, also means they aren’t hot)
- Price: $1.65-$3.50/taco
- OVERALL RATING: 8.5
taco tourist 