La Cocina

Delicious and affordable. My Ortega family endorses! My mother said the chilaquiles is the best she’s had outside her kitchen and they are from El Paso.

You don’t come here for the service or a classy interior — you come for reasonably priced authentic Mexican food that is conveniently located near your office.
I regularly order the enchilada dinner because this is one of the only places I’ve been to that by default piles lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and sour cream on top of 3 enchiladas (stuffings of your choosing). The chicken one is always packed with lots of dark meat chicken, so I offset it with the cheese or veggie one. The dinner comes with rice and beans, as well.
The chips really do taste like Fritos, and they jut have a red and green sauce that you pour out of a bottle on your chips.
Service is nothing to write home about, but they’ve also never messed up my order — so no complaints there.
As a side note, I believe they are closed on Mondays.

Absolute shithole dive. The people working there hate you almost as much as they hate their own lives but they make a great burrito and its close to my work.

As other reviews have pointed out, the service here was pretty sad. And, the cost was not as inexpensive as I expected.
They have queso listed on the menu, but when I asked for it, I was told that they have nacho cheese. I went ahead and ordered it and that’s exactly what I got: A bowl of the kind of nacho cheese that’s pumped out of a vat. Not horrible, but not what I expect from a Mexican restaurant.
Their chips tasted like re-​purposed Fritos.
For the entrée, I ordered three shrimp tacos. The shrimp were like those that come in a cup o’ soup… definitely shrimpy.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this place, but I gave it two stars for being close to my workplace.

I have to first confess that I’m not very good at discerning what’s good authentic Mexican food, but two of my Mexican friends really like it so I’m assuming it can’t be terrible.
Went here for lunch. It is a very simple diner. Not much customer service to speak of, but it’s not like it was really necessary. They took our order and delivered the food and that was all we needed.
The food was cheap in price and large in portions like most Mexican restaurants. I had a Carne Asada dinner with rice, beans, guac, and an enchilada. Wasn’t phenomenal but definitely still tasty.

Yep, it’s a dive for sure and its across the street from a prison. How cool is that!?! Effin cool I say. Service sucks. I thought these hole in a wall type places in the loop were supposed to have fast service. Not here. That said, u get your money’s worth here. They start you out with free chips ans two kinds of watery salsas. The green one is hot. They scoop the chips out of a gigantic Rubbermaid container. LOL. For six bucks you can get a 3 taco dinner with your choice of filling and rice and beans. They have lots of other plates for about the same price. The interior is sketchy as Hell. Be sure to admire the artwork that they have randomly hung way too close to the ceiling. To complete your experience, be sure to stop by the ghetto pawn shop two doors now from this place.

Steak Burrito for lunch $ 7 something after tax. Descent size and taste but comes with no sides.

I don’t mind a bit of «atmosphere», but this place made me feel like I was REALLY down on my luck… think Rick Moranis, kicking a can down the street outside and singing «Skid Row». Service was downright surly, the gal who was apparently SUPPOSED to be running the register was too busy filling out her «1040-​EZ» to be bothered, and the cook who actually ended up taking my $$ was none too sure of himself ($ 15 for a burrito and chips seemed a bit steep, but I was so over the place by then I would’ve left sans any food at all). And I should have, because the burrito (though HUGE) had no taste at all, and the chips were ultra-​greasy. Back to Burrito Beach for me, I can’t even imagine why I thought this dump might be worth a try!

Good, cheap Mexican food in the Loop; there’s really nothing to complain about here! Plenty of seating upstairs (where you get a lovely view of the federal slammer), and a banquet area downstairs. Not much to say in the way of interior aesthetics, but the food is authentic, and that’s what counts.

The outside of the place looks a bit shady. It’s right across from a detention center and the Chicago board of trade. Since I work near the board of trade, I went there and got 2 steak tacos. The order taker was fairly normal, yet I detected a little bit of attitude. Not to worry, I ordered TO GO. After I ordered, I asked for some pico de gallo. The cashier told me that they don’t give pico de gallo to small orders. At that point, I was going to tell her that I don’t eat my tacos without pico de gallo and got my money back. However, she and the restaurant wasn’t worth the effort. Probably not worth the effort of writing this Unilocal.At least there weren’t rats running around for sure… however, you only eat here if there is nothing else. The meat on the steak tacos looked faded brown and didn’t have much taste… and with tacos, the meat is everything.

Using Unilocal I read that there was a crepes place on this street. Ready for a proper breakfast before heading back to Detroit on the train that does not have much in the way of food options, we braved the cold weather and snow flurries and started the walk from our hotel. We walked right up to a cell phone store. Oops I guess the delicious crepes are no more. Luckily La Cocina serves breakfast!
They have a small variety of egg dishes and omlets available. I had the ham and cheese omelet, and added green bell pepper. The amount of food was perfect. The rice a beans were a treat and each breakfast comes with your choice of either corn or flour tortillas.
They have a breakfast special on weekdays. For just a few dollars you can get eggs and hash browns.

I was going to give this place 3 stars because of their fast service during lunch and tasty enchiladas… BUT due to reading about cockroaches at this place, my entire body is now itching, I’m probably never coming here again, and I’m dropping it to 2 stars.
For better or for worse, thank you Unilocalers.

First time and last time I will eat at this place… the food is blend, bad service and dirty… I wouldn’t recommend this place…

Not the best, not the worst, just nothing special.
I’ve been craving Mexican lately something fierce and stumbled upon La Cocina by my office. La Cocina serves breakfast and lunch and offers carry out and table service options. After two visits I remain underwhelmed.
On the plus side:
* Tacos are cheap
* 3 different kinds of veggie tacos: cheese, green pepper and cheese, avocado
* It’s a tacquiera, not an americanized chain
On the minus side:
* My tacos were wrapped so poorly that I thought I got one giant taco, it was a mess sorting it out
* On both visits my salsa has leaked all over the napkins by the time I made it back to the office
* At just under $ 7, I felt the veggie burrito was a rip off — lettuce heavy and bland
* Service is indifferent, don’t expect the cashier to crack a smile
Average at best; I can see myself returning when my Mexican cravings get the better of me, but otherwise I won’t be rushing back.

All I gotta say is $ 1.50 tacos.
I only eat here for lunch and even then only occassionally. I usually get 3 tacos for $ 1.50 each and that does me just fine. Chorizo, chicken, beef, or steak (extra, I believe). With lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Can’t be it for the price.
I also have the burrito suizo quite often when visiting. It is quite large (two servings if you don’t have a curly tail and oink like me) and made to order with the same meats as above.
Like others have said. Not the best but not the worst. A solid place to lunch during the week but don’t try impressing anyone by bringing them here.
¡Feliz comiendo!

I used to always come to this place until I heard one of my coworkers found a cochroach wandering around… I’ve never seen any bugs in this place but the thought of it did it for me. When I did eat here it was pleasant. The salsa was CRAZY hot. I thought I could handle spicy until I tried their salsa. I thought my tongue was going to fall off!!! The food was ok. Service is ok.

La Cocina serves my favorite tacos bar-​none. I love the meat they use there as well how they make them. They only add onions, lettuce, cilantro, and tomatoes. The red salsa is also very very tasty.
The only thing I don’t like sit the service. Although most of the time it’s fast, the people that take your order are rarely ever hospitable. I’ve been going there for the past 8 years because I absolutely love their tacos and they still don’t recognize me and know that I only order the red salsa. They even forget to put that in the bag sometimes.
Outside of the tacos, I’ve not tried anything else here. For a burrito, I suggest going to Burrito Buggy instead.

If you absolutely crave the ambiance of a dirty authentic burrito place, but want crap food, I recommend La Cocina.
I have eaten at many burrito joints growing up on the South Side of Chicago and then adulthood on the North Side. The food here is probably the worst. The burritos are terrible and the carne asada is even worse. The scarce meat on the steak burrito is hard and tough. The carne asada is paper thin and and might have been prepared in the microwave.
I can appreciate that this place is in the loop and that’s the only reason that I give it 2 stars. It’s affordable lunch dining in the loop.
The only way that I can imagine that someone would like the food here is if they have never eaten at an average mexican place (outside of Chi-​Chis or Pepe’s)

Vom.
It troubles me to even write this review.
Suffice it to say La Cocina is the worst dining choice I have made in the city. Service: nonexistent. Food: disgustamundo. Décor: Lawn furniture-meets-Grandma’s basement.
At least there weren’t rats running around, so I guess they get the one star. OMG do not go here. I feel like I need a shower every time I think about it.

Mmm-​mm-​mmm!
See poking out of the downtown hustle and bustle is a beacon of hope, a friendly reminder that you can find reasonably priced lunch among the greedy, opportunistic chains.
La Cocina is basically a Taco Burrito King #X on Clark St in the south Loop. They’ve got the obligatory horchata fountain eternally recycling the sweet, cinnamony goodness like a little latin fountain. The ladies at the counter stand vigilantly by, waiting to take your order and crack fun at those unfortunate souls who pronounce queso with a kw or frijoles like some distant relative of Angelina.
I get the burrito rajas con queso. Sure it’s vegetarian but I get over it. A flour tortilla is filled with beans, lettuce, cheese, green peppers, tomatoes and sour cream. I leave off the tomato y crema but that’s just because I’m weird. A side of frijoles con queso and a large horchata and I’m set back $ 6 or so and muy feliz.
La Cocina is a breath of fresh air in the south loop.