Jalapeno Grill

I enjoy Mexican food, but I’m not a foodie about it. I don’t eat Taco bell, and the best I’ve ever had is Topolobampo. Outside of that, there are very few degrees in between for me — I kind of feel like «how many different ways can you shape 5 different ingredients to fill up a menu.»
We live real close to Jalapeño grill and it is one of our spots when we don’t want to bother with cooking. I often get the daily special which is priced right, and my kids love their ham quesadilla.
The service is quick, the food is filling.
Inside is a little dingy, but the food is just as adequate as any of the other Mexican places in the area. This is certainly not a place you would make a trip out to visit, but if you are in the area this is a safe bet.
I’m editing the post because Unilocal just asked me about the ambiance of the restaurant and «Hipster» was a choice. I’m going to raise my review from 3 to 4 stars because this place is definitely not «Hipster» and saying that for this area is rare.

Not into Mexican food but this place probably has the best Mexican food. I always get the bisteca la Mexicana is soo good. Love it !

Jalapeño, I love you. But I just have one outstanding request: PLEASE GET BETTER NAPKINS. the napkins in the dispensers are just about as bad as toilet paper. I need to use like 10 napkins for one meal.

Ahhhh yes. As a new transplant from California I’ve been dying to find a good burrito in Chicago and while still quite different from what you get in the bay area it was fantastic! Carne asada with avocado and I’ve learned to pass on the soggy lettuce that everyone seems to want to throw in. I still kinda miss the rice inside mission burritos. The quality was great except the steak has some large chunks of gristle but that has been the case at allot of the taquerias out here. The crunchy soft grilled tortilla was fantastic! Oh and these salsas… On point! Always look for a mom and pop taqueria… I found mine!

What an insult to one of my favorite foods. First of all, how do you serve Giardiniera and try to pass it as escabeche? I ordered the el pastor taco dinner, it was by far the worst I have ever had. This place is not even worth a star!!! Not to mention terrible service.
Far too may delicious Mexican spots in Chicago to even bother with this place. I would eat at taco bell and chipotle before this place… the have more pride in their food!

The Perfect Burrito was delicious and The fresh squeezed Lemonade was a thirst quencher. I will highly recommend this place and go again myself.

I ordered a taco salad and soda online and it took an hour and a half to deliver. When it did arrive it was the completely wrong order. The conversation I had with the place felt like an Abbott and Costello routine.
ME: Hey, I ordered a taco salad and soda, but the driver gave me the wrong order.
JALAPENO GRILL: (silence)
ME: Hello?
JALAPENO GRILL: I have an order here for a taco salad and a soda
ME: Yes, that’s what I ordered, but the driver gave me a burrito and chips
JALAPENO GRILL: (long silence, then some talking in the background, and the phone gets handed off) Hello
ME: Hey, I ordered a taco salad and soda, but the driver gave me the wrong order.
JALAPENO GRILL: I have the Grub Hub order right here and it says you ordered a taco salad and soda. If that’s not what you ordered then you have to take that up with grub hub.
ME: What? No. How is this so hard. Yes, that is what I ordered, but when the driver came he gave me the wrong order
JALAPENO GRILL: (silence)
ME: I’m sorry I don’t know how else to say this. I didn’t get my order. I got someone elses order.
JALAPENO GRILL: Oh… the driver gave you the wrong order?
So once we worked that out the driver came back 10 minutes later with my order and asked for the order he gave me back. I didn’t touch it, but I think that’s really weird that he’s going to go give that order to someone else.
Mine was cold obviously, but the food was okay. With so many other places to order why would I order from this place again?

I have lived in the neighborhood for four years. This is seriously the best chicken torta in the area for under $ 8. I love the food and recommend this spot to all my friends.

so far I have ordered food to go twice. The first time I had a steak burrito, and it was the best burrito I have had in a long time.
This time I had a chicken burrito with a side of chips and guac. I think this guac is home made, it was excellent! This burrito is now the best burrito I have had in a long time.
Also want to point out that both times I have gone, the customer service has been great. Give Roberto a raise, I work in food service and there are a lot of people bad at their jobs, Roberto is very good at his.

I’ve been here a handful of times. Bonus points for big, yummy burritos. Unfortunately, even though I live less than 4 blocks away, delivery takes WAY too long. It should not take 90 minutes for some tacos to get to my house. Otherwise the food is good — not great.

Tacos are fresh and fat. 3 salsas and fresh chips when you sit down… I want to try the desayunos or breakfast and the burritos. they got me as a custy now!

I don’t even know where or how to start, so I’ll just jump in. This was our first time here, so we made the mistake of walking up to the counter to order. The layout made us think this was a walk to the counter order pay and they’ll drop your food off at the table. We ordered, and weren’t asked for here or to go, however my husband said to the guy, we’re going to take up one of your large tables to eat so we can watch the car (I was parked on the wrong side of a tow zone sign.) Guess the guy didn’t hear or get it?
So our food comes up all packed to go, we joke with the guy that we’re eating in and ask for plates. He offers to plate it, we tell him no problem we can do it. My one star had nothing to do with this, this can happen.
Here’s where it goes wrong, so it’s a standard service deal, however he never came back to see how the food was. My husband’s was inedible he took a couple of bites and then opened the pork taco, you could see the chunks of fat from across the table, so they don’t trim their meat. I had steak tacos, they were a bit better but dry and chewy, I ate some of mine since it was breakfast for me and I was starved.
When the guy arrived to pick up plates, my husband told him and showed him the tacos, you could see that he didn’t eat at all. We then spotted that other people had chips and salsa, and asked if that came with the meal, he said yes. So my husband asked him to bring them, and said to the guy I’ll eat some of those for my dinner, since I’m still hungry. The guy brings the chips, and says he’ll tell the owner who is in back about the tacos. He doesn’t ask if we’d like something else, or offer to take it off the bill. I figure he needed permission to to this, and we waited for him to come back out from the kitchen, and waited. So we got tired of waiting and left. This is what the one star is about, the way that this was handled, and when he saw we were eating in, he should have dropped off the chips and salsa. Perhaps, he knew we’d complain about those also, they were stale and chewy.
We weren’t expecting fine dining here, we were looking for average. You couldn’t drag me back into this place, and I’m sure they’re just fine with that too, some first time experiences don’t require a second try, it’s like a really bad blind date that you know you’re not going to repeat.

This place is awesome! I’ve biked past here a million times and have been meaning to stop by for a long time. I’m mad I didn’t come sooner! I hope this place gets more reviews FAST!
Very nice guy who takes orders. Came out with chips and FOUR different types of salsas, including GIARDINIERA. Wow, never have seen that at a Mexican place and it was delicious! Like I’ve said, you can tell a lot about a Mexican restaurant by the quality of salsas they put in front of you. I knew from that moment I found a winner. All of the salsas were in fact delicious.
I ordered the burrito dinner special, got al pastor. Came quick. Comes with extra beans and rice on the side, I was super hungry. I devoured it and kept debating which salsa to use next. Giardiniera for the burrito was incredible, how did I not think of this before?
I can’t wait to come back here, this is the kind of place I will begin to bring my friends too.

We always go to this place. Excellent service. Clean. No blaring noise. Big screen but reasonable sounds. Good food. Complimentary home made chips and 4 choices of salsa. I sit hear with my laptop and do lots of work. Just have coffee. I bring friends and family hear. They all eat well. Thank you Luis for this place.

If anybody had a burrito crave this day it would’ve been me. After checking out several restaurants that didn’t pan out, as I was walking out of the local FoodMart I saw this place across the street and decided to give it a try. Inside it was dimly lit for dinner and even though its a small restaurant they set it up as a kinda fancy dine-​in place meant for family dinners.
One of the cooks (dressed in full gourmet chef regalia) also worked the register so he came out to help me while the other and only employee in the restaurant stayed in the kitchen. Checking out the menu everything seem decently priced, most dishes being $ 5 – 6. Burritos were still on my mind so I ordered 2, one picadillo (ground beef) and one lengua (beef tongue). They prepared them fresh and it surprisingly took about 7 – 10 minutes to complete the order.
When I got home I unwrapped both of these bad boys. Both were huge, thick burritos, but were sloppily built. Upon picking them up even though they were wrapped in foil you could tell they were falling apart. All the ingredients were just tossed together hastily which was why it took a little over 7 minutes to make. This, right off the bat made me consciously question if the meat was properly cooked or not. Everything was super juicy/​oily and leaking everywhere. I sat the beef burrito down for a minute and within a short amount of time there was a pool of burrito juice on my plate which made the burrito even more soggy.
The burritos themselves were mostly bland, you can tell they didn’t season or marinade the meat and the quality of the meat itself was pretty much equivalent to Taco Bell. There was more refried beans, lettuce, etc. than ground beef so it was pretty much a bean burrito with sprinkles of ground beef mixed in. The tongue had some actual flavor to it, but it wasn’t enough to save the burrito’s overall horrible quality. They threw in some mild and hot sauce, both of which were just as bland as the burrito, the hot only adding a burning sensation.
There are better Mexican food joints for cheaper prices. I have a feeling things would have been a lot better if the cook took the time to actually prepare things instead of trying to get the order out as soon as possible.

I stopped in for a couple of tacos a Saturday afternoon and was surprised by generous amount of filling. The shrimp taco lacked flavor, and I had to drown it in red sauce to finish it. The tongue taco was tasty, but some of the pieces had too much connective tissue for my liking. The red and green salsa lacked the depth and tang, but the chips and salsa were complimentary so it’s not a valid reason for me to knock this joint down a star or anything.
The following day I endured a 5-​hour bout of bloody diarrhea that regressed into plain diarrhea for two days. Since none of my friends got sick from the dinner we shared at a Japanese restaurant the same day, I can safely say that Jalapeño Grill was the source of the food poisoning.

It was fast service, however, the huarache was not good. I got one with al pastor. The meat was not flavorful and was chewy. I don’t think I’d go here again.

This is my favorite place to eat! Love, love, love their veggie burritos! They also just expanded their menu and I’m so excited to try it all!
Also, if you are a fan of salsa, get the verde! It’s AMAZING!
Plus, they are always attentive and friendly if you are dining in or ordering takeout.
Overall very nice place!

While out and about my phone died. I was across the street at the best post office in the city when it happened. I looked at Jalapeño Grill and said, «If they let me plug in my phone, I’m eating there». Sure enough they did and I sure ate well.
I had the taco dinner with one of each taco. All three were delicious. I had that with a large orchata and a free basket of tortilla chips for $ 10. I of course left a good tip for Aracel, the lovely young lady who stole my heart. I will be sure to go back not only for the food but to bask in her intelligence. She is seriously the sweetest y’all!

Had I written this review after the first time I had food from here I would have been like «oh hell yeah, good food within a reasonable walking distance!!»…but that’s not entirely the case, it seems. Their steak burrito has yet to let me down, except the first time when they forgot the rice (shut up, I like rice in my burritos) but they realized their error and asked if they could put it on the side. I tend to get a burrito suizo anywhere I can, because they’re delicious and this was no exception. In fact, I even ate a fair amount of the tortilla, so that must mean the burrito was good, right?
Subsequent visits have shown this isn’t the case though. Had a gordita, that was actually good and didn’t fall apart on me. Maybe I tend to eat gorditas when drunk and THAT is why they fall apart, but this one didn’t and that made me happy. Chicken was seasoned well and not over cooked. The steak has always been seasoned perfectly (nothing worse than when people make steak super salty), but the al pastor was bland.
I do think they give a good amount of meat though and the burritos are cheap, so I won’t complain too much. I’ll just remember to stick to the steak. Oh, the red salsa is gross. The green is definitely spicier than I expected, but that’s not a bad thing!