A Restaurant to Remember-Chicago: Taqueria El Aguila Real
The best burritos I’d had in America so far
A great Albany Park restaurant
This story for me will serve as both a review of a great restaurant and also a memoir of sorts for a restaurant I used to attend regularly while living in the Windy City. The restaurant is just one of many restaurants from Mexico and Latin America contained within the neighborhood of Albany Park in Chicago, Illinois.
The address is 3152 West Montrose Avenue. The neighborhood itself is well-known for its diversity. In fact, when we were looking up neighborhoods in Chicago known for it, Albany Park was shown to be the most diverse zip code, 60618, in the entire Midwestern United States. This should not surprise people who’ve lived in the Midwestern United States. The region isn’t exactly known for diversity or integration. Chicago, in fact, is still one of the most segregated major cities in the United States.
That’s another story for another day.
Low-key commercial strip taqueria
I want to get into the delicious food of this wonderful low-key taqueria hiding near a law office and a commercial strip of stores across the street from Walgreens. My favorite burrito meal that I would get from there regularly was the burrito Suizo, also known as the wet burrito. It was topped with guajillo salsa and plenty of melted cheese.
I would always have that with the chips and salsa they served. The salsa was very spicy. I loved it. It was a green salsa that tasted like it was borne from fire. I absolutely wanted the salsa even on the days I couldn’t handle the heat. The restaurant was right down the street from our garden apartment, not even a 5-minute walk from door to door.
A part of the neighborhood and the memorable cashier
I would go there with my partner mostly. Sometimes, I would conduct business lunches there with my landlord. I would also have lunch there with various other friends that I had throughout the city. It was always a nice place to socialize and enjoy the music playing over the speakers and the delicious, authentic food.
The style of the restaurant felt very authentically Mexican. I remember a cashier I’d met who worked there one time. She spoke mostly Spanish. Her English was okay but I preferred to speak to her in Spanish. I would have quick conversations with her frequently and I would even remember her name and her story every time I came in. I’m sure she appreciated that.
Losing the memory of the heart of the place and the great debate
As I was trying to remember her name and her story recently though, I’d started forgetting a lot. It’s been nearly 4 years since I’ve been there. I would go back there in a heartbeat because not only was that restaurant the heart of the part of the neighborhood I was in, but it was also the best food I’d had for Mexican outside of California.
My partner and I debate whether it’s actually better. I think that maybe the burritos are better at the place but the other food was preferable to the quick access to fresh ingredients in sunny California. He thinks that anything outside of California, especially in Chicago, is going to taste better. That might be an argument I’ll have the readers settle in the comments then. Is anywhere in California better for Mexican food than anything you’ve tried in Chicago?
Get me back to Chicago somehow, I want to feel the spirit of the taste that I’ve never forgotten
I want to be in the thick of that action again. I want to recreate the good feelings I had living in one of the best cities in America and experiencing a world of culture all around me. That’s really what this restaurant represents to me other than the quality of the food. It reminds me that even in snowy, crowded Chicago, far removed from Mexico, California, or Latin America, there is still a place that celebrates the diversity of that area, but also the diversity of the planet. I had my choice of many other cuisines in the area. I definitely tried them but nothing could even come close to recapturing the spirit of this tiny restaurant in the strip mall across from Walgreens.
