La Palapita

Steak burrito lol no meat white rice a slice of cheese !!! Never go there again

Miss this place was a good place back in the days

I’ve been visiting this place, with my buddy, for the past 20+ years! We use to go in drunk, eat their massive, meat-​filled steak burritos and greasy chips with green hot sauce.
It «was» the best.
Just this past Saturday, we noticed the place took a turn for the worst– overpriced, cold, tasteless food. The oily-​salty chips (which we loved) were replaced with something less appealing. The hot sauce was watered down!
The name La Palapita is no longer visible on the side of the building. Some banner advertising burritos and such, has taken its place. The receipt still says la palapita. The place was much dirtier and run down, than it has ever been. The staff appears to now be made-​up of teens who are always grumpy.
Time to shut her down. It was a good run!

Wow. Don’t know what happened here since the last time we stopped in, but holy cow what a downward spiral. Food is awful and overpriced now, and the place is absolutely disgusting. Wanted to burn my clothes when I got home. Yuck…

I used to live across the street from this place and could smell the steak being grilled when I had my windows open. That is when I used to frequent this place often because it had good tacos and they were close. I always thought they were overpriced. They also had rude, ghetto kids working the register, holes in the parking lot, dust and grease all over the place. This place was so disgusting back then, but I dealt with it. Since then, I moved out of the area and never returned. Just this past weekend I was passing by and my daughter and I were hungry so we stopped.
What a mistake!!! The parking lot had a poor patch job, and the outside of the building was in worse shape. I patiently waited for the man in front of me to finish «shooting the shit» to the cashier. At this time, we looked at the menu which had expanded a little. A single steak taco was $ 2.65– OMG! When it was our turn to order, we ordered and I paid in cash (that is all they take) the cashier closed the register, gave me my drink and offered some super greasy chips. I had to ask for my change, he said «Oh shit» and gave it back to me. We carefully took a (dirty) seat and waited. The man that was talking with the cashier said, «Hey, I am a paying customer!» — jokingly! The cashier said, «Yea, Ok!» as he handed him a heaping plate of food on a regular plastic plate. So this dude I had to wait on, got a FREE plate of food and a free plate! Then I noticed the cook use the microwave to heat up the tortillas.
When our food was ready I went to get it from the counter. My daughter and I each had 2 tacos and I thought, Ok– these will be some nice fat tacos, boy was I wrong!!! They had about ½ the meat they used to have and juice was dripping and lacked any flavor. We also got a side of rice and beans, which also lacked any flavor.
Overall, this was a very disappointing experience from the moment I pulled in the parking lot. Service was horrible, food sucked, and the place needs a total renovation. For the price you pay they should have regular tables and chairs– not the plastic fold-​able kind you may use for a backyard cookout.

I was so dissapointed after going here for 10 years i dont think i will ever go back. This place is a joke now a days. The cashier had an attitude (like always) and hicky’s all over her neck. The place was nasty and dirty (even dirtier than usuall). But we can overlook this and we all have. I think they started to use a STEAM TABLE to hold their meat which isn’t bad if it was a good cut of meat like skirt steak or hanging tender (the most common type).
So all that aside, We come here for the steak (like most people) and I can tell it’s now a cheaper type of meat being sold at a higher price. It USED to be FRESH AND FLAME BROILED on the spot… But NOW, it tastes all BOILED and CHEWY. I work with meat (im in the induustry) and I know when places buy CHEAP MEAT and add meat tenderizer like what they’re probably doing at the palapita.
Seriously go back to the old way of doing steak.
Flame broiled and cut/​chopped to order on the good Olé chopping board in the middle of the kitchen.
STOP selling this steam table meat. It just tastes like crap now and i should add that my meat had a beefy tounge taste to it because it was probably being held in the same steam table. (golden apple and some diners sell better tacos, that says alot)
And PLEASE clean the place it costs no more than the price of a new tv. For a years worth of cleaning services since the employees are to Lazy to do any cleaning.
But as for me that’s it. Like most of the previous reviews said I doubt I will come back after a DECADE of loyal patronage to my neighborhood Taqueria.

What a f#x÷in hole!!! Do not visit this place, de mucho taco around corner, at irving and central way, way better, and byob. Tacos were bad, service was absolutely atrocious.. unless u like shi##y food and service, go elsewhere

What the hell happened to this place??? This was my go-​to burrito and taco place for years. My downtown co-​workers couldn’t wait for me to take orders and bring in LaPalapita as a treat. It’s been a couple hectic months so I’m set to do the order next week. Meanwhile I decide to stop to pick up dinner last week. The place was «different» — loud rap music replaced the jovial Mexican music & Spanish soap operas; it appeared tattooed angry white men had replaced all of the latinos that used to work there.
While waiting for my food I noticed a sewer gas sort of odor I’d never noticed before. The whole experience was «off» but like I said I love their food. Got home and had the WORST! BURRITO!EVER! The steak was grey, flavorless, rubbery and fatty. Thankfully there was very little meat in the Super Burrito. There was a ton of orange shredded cheese (what happened to the Chihuahua cheese?), lettuce and sour cream. So much cheese and sour cream it like was eating a cold veggie wrap.
While waiting for my food the lady in front of me asks for a straw for her horchata. Guy at the register snaps «We ain’t got straws». Not, «I’m sorry we just ran out of straws». A really angry response. She leaves. Guy behind the grill says «take $ 5 out of the register and try to buy straws from the hot dog place». Register guy says «F*** you, you go». Wow. Uncomfortable. Now I see a review from almost 3 weeks earlier & they didn’t have straws then either.
I forced myself to eat half of the cold, grisly super burrito since there was literally no other food in my house and I didn’t want to go out again in the rain. About an hour later my stomach is churning and I break into a sweat. I was sick the rest of the night. Threw the other half of the burrito away. Sorry to my co-​workers looking forward to Burrito Day, that was my last trip to LaPalapita.

My overpriced, $ 8.75 burrito was definitely not the same as it was the first time I got one almost a month ago. (Posted pic)
They ran out horchata!
The steak was pretty chewy and a tortilla was burnt around the edges I had to tear it off! I’ll give it a third attempt, hope not to be disappointed again!

I guess I’m used to tacos from 26 street, cause this place was not happening. The tacos where dry, the tortillas where microwaved and the place itself was a complete turn off. This place is more suitable for when u drunk and growing up in your friends car and need a quick carb load. Would never go again.

I never thought I would ever give this place less than five stars. I too, like many other people, have been coming to this place since I was a kid. Tonight I went there and I can promise you I will not ever be going back.
It’s not that I’ve never had a meh experience before; most of the time the foods on point but a few times it hasn’t been. I get it. It happens.
However, tonight was different in a way that is hard for me to describe. Literally EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong– went wrong while I was there.
Let me start with the people working there– now there’s always been some sketchy characters working there, but at least they knew how to cook some food. I heard that management changed sometime ago so even that I braced myself for. But the two guys there seemed like they just started and had no idea how to do anything. The cashier asked me several times what I ordered and even shouted once, «hey what did you get again?» while I was standing off to the side. He never gave me my drink and when I reminded him about it he tried to act cute like it was somehow amusing. And then when I went to grab a straw and realized there weren’t any he laughed and said «yeah there are no straws». Okay that was annoying, but I could’ve looked past that. The place looks like shit, but what else is new?
It wasn’t until I saw the cook throw my quesadilla INTO THE MICROWAVE that I knew I was never coming here again.
How goddamn lazy do you have to be?!
So I took my food and I got out of there as soon as I could. It took all my self-​control and lifelong love for this place to not ask immediately for my money back.
I get my car and I decide I’m going to take one bite out of the taco– maybe a few more– in the hopes that maybe I was wrong about all of this, like I’m going to be waking up from a bad dream at any second.
The first bite is okay; it’s almost reminiscent of what their tacos used to be. The second bite is almost edible until I end up with a fatty piece of meat– ok shit happens– I go for another bite and the whole piece of meat is completely fat smothered in sour cream and cheese– I’m stopping myself from gagging as I type this. In the end, a $ 12 life lesson.
So that’s it.
After 18 years of coming to this place, I’m so sad to say I will never be coming back.
Ya had a good run, kid. R.I.P.

I have been ordering food to go for a couple of years. The place inside is a dive. I have only ordered the steak burritos as I thought they were the best around. Just went there recently after not going there for quite some and there was a big change in taste for the bad. The steak did not taste as good and was only average. There was definitely a change in the steak and not seasoned. My wife picked up the food this time so not sure if there was a change in management. Not going back there.

Palapita has been a favorite Taco spot of mine for about 15 years now. They have been in the neighborhood longer then that. Never had a bad taco or Torta. The horchata is awesome. My review is based on food only.

Horrible place to eat! Very dirty on TOP of that GHETTO!!! Tacos are not great I don’t see how this place is still open! They really don’t even deserve one star! Yuck!

Amazing tacos, seriously the best, but they never have horchata and the staff is always grumpy. Also, not not very clean.

Since I don’t work downtown anymore I am always on the hunt for something good to eat and since I work about 6 blocks away from this ummm «restaurant» me and my co-​worker decided to try it out.
The extremely dirty parking lot, the old broken A/​C unit hanging out of the back wall and the dusty plants in the window all urged me to clench my ass and run back to the car and just go to Subway, but we were feeling brave.
I’m going to say it wasn’t a terrible taco, but it wasn’t a good one either.
The place inside is absolutely disgusting. It looks likea Cook County Jail holding cell. Grime on Grimey on Grimiest. The girl at the cash register had hickeys all over her neck. The plastic ware bins by the cash register were caked in black dirt. I didn’t even want to touch the gatdamn ATM in fear of losing a finger, plus it was broken anyway and thank god my co-​worker has cash on him.
I like dive places, I think they make some of the best food, but it costs about a couple bucks to clean up the place at night.
That place needs an excorcism and a slew of Merry Maids.
I’m scared to see what the back looks like where they are actually cooking my chewy steak tacos.
I won’t go back, not worth the food poisioning case I’m sure to catch if I do.

So growing up in the neighborhood I’ve always gone to this location for great steak tacos and burritos, however within the last couple months of visiting this place it has definitely gone downhill. No its its not the dingy, dirty exterior and interior. I have always liked past that because I loved the food so much. There are a few reasons why I won’t be returning to this place.
1. This is a CASH ONLY place, read again CASH ONLY place!!! Hmmm… They never used to be. This will drive away many customers because it is super inconvenient.
2. Service: it sucks. The guy behind the counter tells me to walk across the street to the ATM for cash, another guy is behind the counter taking selfies.
On another occasion, an employee declined to sell rice and beans just because they didn’t have the right container to put it in.
3. Food: the Meat (carne Asada) was dry and burnt up. Ick. They used to have juicy and tender steak. The chips were drenched in oil. About an hour after eating the food I had a horrible stomach ache.
Extremely disappointed in the negative change this place has made and won’t be returning back.

I stop for some steak tacos. And the are BAD. The quality of the steak is very bad chew and fatty. Last time I eat here and I only live 5 minutes away. I rather drive 45 minutes to go another place.

This place barely passed a health inspection recently with problems amongst other things not having soap in the restrooms. Bön appetit!!!

I just want to say that I started coming to La palapita last summer. It was awesome or at least I thought. Sadly to say, today I ordered a torta with barely any meat. I felt like I was eating only bread, beans and cilantro. I am so disappointed. Not only that, but their price is no longer in any way considerable for the nasty food they are making. Careless and disgusting. I would advise that this little joint is no longer worth anyone’s time unless you want to pay an expensive price for despicable food.

ONLY COME HERE FOR THE FOOD!
Do not come here expecting to be swept off your feet by the delightful staff, or impressed with the cleanliness and decorations.
Judging this place by the food alone it is amazing. Steak anything obviously, but try the Barbacoa tacos as well, those are my personal favorite. This is the perfect get in, get out, dont let the door hit you on your way joint. No pomp and circumstance, no flash or pizzaz, just amazing, authetic flavorful greasy tacos.