Jose’s Restaurant

Jose’s is a truly phenomenal experience, not just because the food is amazing and the prices are cheap, but because the service is outstanding! Jose’s is a small restaurant, with many of the same few staff members working everyday. They are friendly, attentive, and the service does not suffer the slightest with large groups. I have brought groups of up to 20 people on a fairly regular basis, and that is because everyone I have brought to Jose’s wants to come back!
Another great things about Jose’s is that it is BYOB. If you bring in beers, the staff will put it in the fridge for you and then bring you your beers as you need them. If you like margaritas, you can bring in a bottle of tequila and Jose’s will make you amazing margaritas with their secret, freshly made mix (not store bought mix here) in huge fishbowl glasses. As long as you have tequila, they will keep mixing up your drinks!
Finally, the food is wonderful! I lived in L.A. for 5 years and New Mexico for a year and had the opportunity to eat some pretty great Mexican food. I would put Jose’s right up there with some of my favorites… I have had the burritos (Burrito Norteno!), enchiladas, and one of my favorites… the Carne Asada Zamora. Everything is very reasonably priced, you can have an excellent meal for cheap with their pricing and BYOB policy. I recently tried Jose’s for brunch as well (Fri/​Sat/​Sun $ 6.75 specials for burritos, tacos, tortas) and I will now be going back even more. They have a great breakfast burrito, and they even have chilaquiles! If you are not in the mood for Mexican food, there are pancakes with fresh fruit, french toast, egg/​bacon/​cheese, etc. The staff will brew a fresh pot of coffee for you, or make you a horchata (I highly recommend!)
The reason I mention the food last is because there are many restaurants with great food and prices, but what truly sets Jose’s apart is the service… I feel as if I am part of the family. As a person who has worked in the hospitality industry, Jose’s has perfected their customer service. I believe that is what keeps people coming back, and that is why not only myself, but everyone I have introduced to Jose’s keeps flocking back to this little hidden gem in the East Village! In the evenings, ask for Julio, he is the man!

For cheap Mexican food in the Ukranian Village, Jose’s is the spot.
I’m not a big fan of the rice and beans and sometimes the salsa can disappoint, but I have had some of the very best Enchiladas Suizas with chicken and salsa verde here. And, it’s a steal for just $ 8.99.
Notes:
— the outdoor patio is really nice on a summer evening
— they are BYOB
— you can buy chips and salsa to go

If this stretch of Chicago Avenue is lacking something it’s definitely not Mexican eateries. You can have your fixing pretty much everywhere you turn — along with cheap pots and pans, comforters and socks.
Not at the same time though.
Careful.
Jose’s is not the star of the show. Just across the street from the crowd beloved Cleo’s, around the corner from High Dive and its wings and half a block from Margaritaville Tecalitlan Jose’s suffers from the competition.
For sure.
But that’s a shame because the food is pretty damn good, and much better than all the other digs around. The burrito suiza was not only huge (not hard to achieve) but also very flavorful and smothered in a delicious sauce, the tortilla chips — really fresh but the winner???
Chicken quesadillas in mole.
Holy Chacmool.
Under $ 9 a very nice, velvety and complex mole, not overtly sweet, spicy and bitter just the way I like it.
Jackpot.
Don’t be fooled by the dark exteorir or the empty dining-​room. Jose’s is worth the trip.

This is my FAVORITE local restaurant, AND my favorite Mexican place!
Jose’s is clean, quiet, friendly, with fresh well– seasoned food, and a BYOB policy that will keep you coming back for more.
Their lunch specials are generous, tasty and 6.75 $. Considering that the lunch specials were 5.00 $ for the past year, i consider this hike in price means that they’re finally doing well.
Good Mole, good veggie burrito (rivals Irazu’s!), good salsa… hit it up!

$ 5.00 Deal Can’t be Beat!
Walking home one day from the grocery store and dreading cooking dinner, a sign appeared on Chicago Avenue pointing to Jose’s.
It said $ 5.00 meals… and YES it was true!
I’ve passed this place at least 500 times… so glad we finally checked it out, we’ve been missing out!
It would be easy to upgrade to the $ 8.00 meal, yeah just as cheap, but my mission was the $ 5.00 and to stick to it, so we did.
We got A LOT!
Chips and Salsa to start. Fresh, homemade chips. Salsa how I like it, not too chunky and just the right amount of spice.
–3 Steak Taco’s, generous with meat and toppings, side of rice and beans.
–Beef Mexican Stew with green peppers, onion, potatoes and beef and a side of rice, bean and hot tortilla’s.
$ 11 + Tip fed a family of 3 and it was amazing, like home style Mexican cooking.
Great Service and Jose takes pride in making his guest happy!
A Def Place to Check out.
BYOB too.

My friend brought me here on Saturday and I loved it! It didn’t matter that she had raved about the place during the days beforehand… I would have loved it anyway! I thought it cool that she knew José personally, but after reading all the other Unilocal reviews, I see everyone else that has eaten here does too! Upon arriving José warned us that service might be a little slow because they were very busy, but we didn’t care. We weren’t in any rush. Like many, José came to our table and suggested items from the menu. We each started with ceviche which was excellent. I had 2 tacos: al pastor y chorizo. Yum!
The price was just right, only $ 26 for two of us!
Overall José’s es muy bueno and I will definitely be back again. I wouldn’t mind one of those strong margaritas right now. :)

Could be awesome w/​a little more love.
If you’re goin «oh man I’m so hungry! I’m in need of a hot Mexican injection ASAP!» …don’t go here.
The food is really tops and his margaritas w/​the tequila you bring in certainly make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside up on first sip, but service was SO slow.
So much so that a girl from the table next to us went out of her way to tell us they waited over an hour before seeing the sight of any food.
There was a big party of maybe 8 there that night. Along w/​my table and our helpful friend’s…but really.
More staff Jose!

I would first like to say, if i could give this place 4 and a half stars, i would! ha!
Ok so i meant to write this after the first Jose event, but well i am lazy. So this food is very tasty. I had the 3 taco dinner, but i had my runner’s appetite so i asked for an extra taco instead of ordering two dinners. Jose quickly obliged, but if i had known it would throw everything off and i’d get my food 10 minutes after everyone else, i would’ve ordered two dinners. I wasn’t worried though since i killed the plate in a couple minutes. I had two steak and two al pastor tacos, which he’ll prepare if you ask. Good cheap food, and extras (sour cream, cheese, avocado) are comped. At least i think they are, as BYOB was in full effect and i stopped paying attention to the bill.
Also, the bathroom is unisex, but not really. We made it a unisex bathroom. The men’s is a dark, frozen tundra while the women’s has pics of snakes wrapped around some woman as well as a cute pic of britney circa 2001.
Jose is the Mark DeRosa of dining.

Jose was saved.
Well… more like, Matt L was saved. I went to this event because I couldn’t let my bro Matt fail at his first event. Hell naw!
Thanks to Hollie for bringing the tequila. Jose made some great palomas with them (because he ran out of margarita mix). Good lord! Those goblets contained half a gallon of drink. My tender delicate hands could not even lift them.
Anyways, the food is excellent. The mini potato flautas were yummy. I got the steak zamora. Perfectly seasoned served with a side of rice and beans. The beans! Oh, the beans. They were so good.
I licked my plate clean and drank up the goblet of paloma. Matt was pushing me to drink tequila out of the bottle. I knew his ulterior motives and politely declined. See, this is what you get for supporting your bro.
Jose had the VP debate going on a flat screen. The final attraction was that I won the Palin bingo… twice. You betcha, bitches.
I am Jose 6-​pack.
P. S. I would gladly move our Wednesday hangout from Tecalitlan to Jose if he serves margarita pitchers. I am too lazy to bring a bottle of tequila.

So until the Save Jose’s event, I always had eyed this place off of Winchester whenever I shopped at Permanent Records, wondering if this place was a hidden Ukranian Village gem. To my delight, this place definitely turned out to be that, but I certainly suspect it may not be for much longer, with all the good words coming from our event. :)
Jose’s has definitely moved into my personal list of top BYOB restaurants in the city, without a doubt. Very, very reasonable prices, with the majority of entrees on the menu Mexican, and under $ 10, with a few in the $ 11 – 12 range. Like others mentioned, you can order Italian food by request, though Jose no longer lists the Italian entrees on the menu. The potato flauta I tried right when I came in was great, and the menu was so interesting that I had a tough time deciding what to get. I chose in the end to get the Sincronizada with cheese and chorizo sausage, which turned out to be a great choice. The sour cream actually tasted really good here, unlike at some Mexican restaurants I’ve been to that’ve had unspectacular sour cream. And in the end, that was the major reason why I chose to take some of my Sincronizada to go.
The margarita mix that I saw some of the others get with the alcohol they brought looked interesting, so perhaps I may try that instead of bringing beer next time. Dessert menu also looked decent, though I opted in the end to get the café con leche instead of a dessert, which I’d agree had a nice taste to it. Looking forward to returning here in the future.

Jose’s is not improperly named. Jose’s is Jose. The restaurant and the man are positively inseparable. Despite a help wanted sign on the door right now, Jose is pretty much the entire staff. There are two other cooks in the kitchen (including, on occasion, Jose’s father who owns the building the restaurant is in) but Jose is greeter, bartender (despite it being b.y.o.b.), maitre’d, and waiter.
And one day, hopefully, he’ll be as big a minor Chicago celebrity as Maria at the Whirlaway.
How do I know all this? I know it because Jose’s got a personality as big as his dining room. During the Save Jose’s Unilocal event, he chatted up Matt L. and I something serious (he also sat down to watch the debate with the whole group). Here are some additional facts we discovered that are actually useful for a review:
— You can still order Italian off-​menu. Jose prides himself in his alfredo sauce.
— All of the recipes at Jose’s are family recipes and Jose oversees the kitchen himself to assure the recipes are followed precisely.
— All of the sauces served as part of the recipes, to ensure family secrets, are made by Jose himself.
— On take out orders, Jose carefully instructs his staff on how to prepare the box so when you open it up at home it looks just like you got it from the restuarant.
— The menu is constantly changing as Jose experiments with new dishes, including one day only specials.
On the day we were there, Jose greeted us not only with chips and salsa for freebie starters but also mini-​potato flautas (a very nice touch). They were so decadently flavorful that I also ordered the «full sized» version as my entrée. A giant plate of three mega-​potato flautas followed for $ 8.
The only improvement that could possibly be made is to add a few more vegetarian options to the menu (I only counted Chile Rellenos and Potato Flautas). Though all of the meat and seafood around me did look very appetizing. The presentation was as beautiful and artistic as the tastes because, as Jose says, «you also eat with your eyes.»
And since you also get drunk with your mouth, it also has to be mentioned that the drinks Jose will mix for you are surprisingly strong (hidden by how tastefully sweet they are) and he’ll only charge you for the mix (in this case, it was $ 3.50). And they’re giant!
Who knows if he can keep this up if the place suddenly gets really popular (he’ll have to at least hire a second Jose to keep up the magic)? But as it stands now, this unique, incredibly personal, dining experience should be booming and for some reason it isn’t.