Supermercado Chapala

I love the restaurant that is in the back of the grocery store the food is very delicious and affordable. but my only two complaints are that the waiter service needs to be more organized. i have experienced other customers sitting down with shorter waiting periods get there food before me even though i have been longer but its worth the wait. Also there needs to be a better way of cleaning the tables after customers leave because when the next customer wants to sit down they choose not to because it has left over cilantro onions and what not and that’s bad for business. The food is what keeps me going there but the restaurant needs to pick up there service game.
Oh and try there Guacamole its Da bomb they have some packaged and ready to go.
They service Menudo, Barbacoa, Rice and Beans, Whole Char Broiled chicken, Tacos, Tortas, Burritos, and there signature salsa’s

Been going here since i was just a teeny weenie. Best chicken, best tacos. This place is a Chicago staple. I will go nowhere but here for Tacos and chicken. Prices are great, the guys are always on it, and everyone works hard which is why i will bring everyone i know here! Lalalalalalove this place! Literally can’t go wrong, and please try that red salsa they make in house.amazing.

Fuimos a comer tacos a este local
La comida especial mente los tacos estan muy pobres — sin carne solo son tortillas cebolla y cilantro nada recomendable
Nunca más volveremos a ese lugar (fuchi)

This is hands down the best tacos in town! My boyfriend and I can’t get enough of the chicken the lengua the chorizo and the steak all amazing! They sell the chorizo at their meat counter it is definitely one of my favorites! I wish I could give this place 10 stars!

We get carnitas here often for parties. I love the back for tacos and carnitas. You need to put your uptight housewife person aside and just go for it. It’s not super clean, it’s not super English-​friendly, you’ll be the only white girl, but you’ll have a happy little lunch that is the real deal. The people are so nice, and the food is really awfully good. Maybe my favorite tacos and carnitas on the Northside (see my reviews of Don Pedro and La Chaparita for the whole city), which is saying something.

My go to for tacos, carnitas, and some mex rice. The guys at the diner in the back are friendly and the prices are great. I find myself in there at least once a week or two, as I can’t get enough. When you order tacos, they give you some great red and green sauce, grilled cebollitas (bulb onions), lime and some grilled jalapenos. Freakin Yum!

Visits now number in the upper two-​digit range. Never a disagreeable moment. Pollo rostizado, and you can taste the flames. So reliable, a gravitational force has formed that virtually prevents me from dining elsewhere in a neighborhood blessed with Mexican cuisine.

Great Tacos, cheap prices.

Pretty outstanding traditional taqueria at the back of the supermarket. A very basic setup with booths, no menus (you can browse the bain-​maries) and also use the large wall listing of menu items (no prices, but the food is super cheap). One can order at the counter or at the tables and your food will be brought out on plastic plates with some plastic forks. Feel free to eat with your hands as there is a wash basin in the seating area, this is real no frills and an authentic Latino eating experience.
Crowd very much Latino, local and crowded for for lunch on a Thursday.
For the food. We went with a couple of pork tacos, which were decent. Served with a plate of lettuce, tomato, grilled jalapeño (nice and hot) and some grilled whole tiny onions with tortillas. Followed by a half chicken that was pretty spectacular and highly recommended. A serving of Chiccarones which were just OK, needed some salt and little too fatty. Finishing with a pork torta, which was solid a good size crusty bread roll with pork, avocado and mayo. Good sauces on the table to accompany. All for $ 20 with two cans of soda.
Pay at the counter and dump your trash.
Enjoy!

I feel lucky to live so close to Chapala.
I always immediately head to the back counter to see if they have any tupperwares of guacamole left. It tastes great with Doritos Tapatio flavored nachos. The «pollo entero» (served with grilled green onions and spicy peppers, corn tortillas and spicy sauce) and yellow rice with beans make an amazing take-​out meal and I’m always happy to have the leftovers in the fridge.
They used to sell Goya coconut water without added sugar and it was the most refreshing, lovely drink. For months all they’ve had in stock has been the super sugary kind.
I also recommend the fruity popsicles at the front freezer in the summertime — yum.
And the «chicharoncitos» at the butcher counter, mmm…

There’s a restaurant in the back of this place that’s fabulous. Just order a medio pollo, served with grilled spring onions, limes and plenty of corn tortillas. and be ready to get your hands a little messy. :)
This place has character. Not somewhere you’d get dressed up to go, but they’ve got great food.

wow… when other reviewers say this is a gem it truly is. i had heard about carnitas from fellow co worker of mine.(little meats) so i read the reviews and went down there.
it is wonderful food and as i went on a saturday had to do a double take as i thought i saw the rib of a pig there under carnitas. but they do have it… very juicy and tender. almost fall of the bone. enjoyed the meatless tamale as well. will most certainly go back.

hidden gem in the Rogers Park community. Great taqueria inside with awesome guacamole! def worth a field trip here to shop and grab lunch.

The taco stand in the back is the best– try the cesina (my favorite!), the lengua or the cabeza. Great guacamole! Mexican Coca Cola! The service is terrific! Plus, you can get two tacos each, a soda, and a side of guacamole for about $ 12.
Go Chapala!

back in the 00s i lived in a condo across the alley from this place. you walk out the back parking lot to the alley and that was my condo off to the right, 3^rd floor.
call me a baby, call me a whiner. but chapala had 3 dumpsters that they filled up every evening, 7 days a week, at about 7pm. crashing glass. stomping on boxes and pallets, etc. this usually lasted until 9pm.
then between 3:30 am and 5am every day, 7 days a week, a private garbage truck showed up. for about 15 minutes it was rolling dumpsters, slamming the metal lid open, slamming the dumpster against the dump truck, then hydraulics of the dump truck lifting the dumpster and slamming it 2 or 3 times to get every last smashed item out of the box, hydraulics slamming back to the ground, slamming the lid back to the dumpster and against the wall. then 2 more times.
every day.
nothing on the inside of that joint could give it any more than that one star for me.

One of my favorite cheap eats in Rogers Park. You enter a supermarket storefront and in the back there is a dining area frequented by mostly Hispanic customers. Take a look in the hot bar to see what they are serving up that day. Chances are that you probably won’t know what the heck it is, but look anyway. In my case I sit down at the tables and order up a couple of tacos or a burrito. May sure you ask for the onions and limes, or cebollas y limon to put on your tacos. To be honest, it helps that I speak some Spanish because many of the employees don’t speak much English. If you want a safe bet just get the carne asada tacos or burrito. You can also order a taco plate that comes with beans and rice for a couple of bucks more. Add their delicious green or red sauce and you have a great meal. Love this place!

our 16^th stop along clark between devon and howard.
This was going to be a different kind of a review. We were thinking perhaps 3 stars.
I was going to talk about the amazing chicken. $ 5 for a half a chicken, served with tortillas and a generous portion of grilled onions and lettuce, tomato, sour cream. about how the chicken tasted like magic. was wonderfully seasoned and moist. perfect.
I was going to talk about how the horchada was good. you could taste the rice powder, but not in a bad way.
I would’ve talked about the carne asada, cesina, pork, and chorizo tacos we tried. all of them servicable. not amazing. a little dry across the board, but tasty, especially with a little of the smoky, red, chipotle salsa.
I was gearing up to exclaim over the bowl of grilled onions we were presented as a free appetizer. They were delicious and surprising.
sure the dining area set up in the back of the mercado was a little skeevy looking. a little dirty. and sure it was a little hard to order cause they were out of both the barbacoa and the carnitas (disappointing!) and the guy working the counter knew so little english.
but the food was good, super cheap, fast.
This was going to go down as a surprisingly positive experience.
That is, until Neal and I both walked away with a raging case of food poisoning.
Husband and Julie came out unscathed. It must have been the pastor that both Neal and I tried. Come 9pm the next evening we were fevering hard. Neal was throwing up. My body was rejecting the bacteria in a different way. This went on for over 24 hours and I was left beat up and depleted, horrified and sad.
Sorry Chapala. I was ready to give a positive review, til you done me wrong.
Never again. I don’t care how delicious your chicken is.

I live near this place and always used to frequent this place for a torata de milanesa or chicken burrito with Lot’s grilled onions and peppers on the side. But since I have been watching my weight I frequent less maybe once a month. I recommend the pollo/​chicken asado and the fresh carnitas when they come out fresh so ask how long it has been sitting out their. On the weekends though there is usually a line of people with huge orders so be patient. I also must warn you that the seating and table area is not so clean but the food is good and cheap and the horchata/​rice water is just right.

My daughter introduced me to this place. It’s a nice sized grocery store leaning towards the Hispanic community. But it the back next to the deli is this little seating area that has tacos, burritos, tortas, etc. It is pretty spartan, but the fare is authentic as the street markets in Mexico. 6 Tacos, a pineapple soda and a horchata set me back $ 8. Best of all,. there is a small parking lot behind the store.

This was the second stop of my Ethnic Grocery Tour.
This Mexican grocery store sells fresh produce, memorable guacamole and specialty items such as Mexican sour cream. There is an eating area with about 10 little booths where you can eat some the best carnitas around and roast chicken. They also have a selection of tacos like cabeza tacos.
The store was packed when we went in on a Monday morning, it might have been due to the heavy thunderstorm, but people looked pretty happy to be there.