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Since I started going to La Pasadita shortly after it opened in the early 1980's ,I have eaten at, or had food from this place more than any other in the city. Over that long period, I don't think more than a month or two has passed without my stopping there at least once. Often my visits were far more frequent. During my wife's first pregnancy, this was what she craved, and we had steak burritos, carne asada tacos, barbacoa and sometimes lengua from here at least three times a week for that stretch. When I worked and lived nearby I would go at least once a week, often picking up burritos and tacos by the dozen for hungry staff on call at the U of I or County. For years.

This is the real thing. Not cute, or trendy or clever, but somewhere you go when you're hungry , when it's late or the weather is awful and you just want something good, really good to eat.

I find it surprising that there is no good dedicated thread about La Pasadita on LTH that I can point to. The place is certainly mentioned often enough, usually in passing or as a point of comparison to other carne asada spots around town. Maybe it's because this place was discussed on a previous board or because those familiar with Chicago's food scene assume everybody knows about it. I really doesn't matter. We can certainly discuss whether they make (as the sign proclaims) the best carne asada tacos in town (I vote yes), or whether the burritos are "too much of a good thing" (I vote no!), but there can be no reasonable doubt that this is a wonderful place and deserves to be awarded.

If the purpose of the GNR program is to single out truly exceptional restaurants in Chicago's neighborhoods, to collect them in one spot so others can be provided a tool to sort out the best from the rest we need to include La Pasadita on the list.

Frankly, I can't understand why it wasn't there on the very first round.

La Pasadita Restaurant
1141 N Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
773-278-0384

I'll second this one. This place truly meets the spirit requirements of GNR imho. In the last ten years I have moved further and further away (17.5 miles at last count) and it is still my go to place for a steak burrito.

Simple, clean flavors of grilled steak, cilantro, and cheese with their superb salsa verde on top; it's burrito perfection. Even the tortilla is good, fresh with a bit of crack to it from sitting on the grill, I almost never find a 4-5 layer chunk of it sitting on my plate when I'm done as so often happens at other places.

Thanks for the reminder, kuhdo, I think I know where I'm taking the kids this weekend! It's their favorite too.

This is one that might bring some of my lurking friends out into the open (please comment, castle-dwellers) since it was one of our go-tos for a few Wicker Park-centric years. I know La P. is not technically in WP, but in my experience that is the primary neighborhood clientele. It's a shame that, as we've seen from the chalkboard at Kuma's and elsewhere, Wicker Park is a swear word right now. Yes, the restaurant scene is over-trendy (cf Gary's Su-Ra post) and often monosyllabic, but the people are typically stand-up, and many of the best use it as a base to explore and cherish all sorts of places on the periphery. La Pasadita is certainly one of those places.

That said, I think it's a few-trick burro. The carne asada burrito is indeed the tastiest in my experiences in the city, but I don't find myself often craving a burrito. When I'm self-hating and don't want to order in this category, I fall back on the same steak on tacos, and then, I think Tio Luis (3856 S. Archer) does a better job with the accoutrements, and also serves a fantastic carne en su jugo. I therefore typically end up with the rajas tacos or the tongue, which are good but not above similar offerings in other nooks. La Pasadita is not a place with creative specials or well-served more substantial fare like consistent pozole or their toppings on fresh masa cakes, which I crave these days from my mexicano restaurants.

Its few tricks are good ones, and have helped it build a very loyal following. You'll find more postings on La Pasadita on Yelp and Chowhound than any other restaurant that size. The family who runs it is very welcoming. But if it's a GNR, then most open-late norteno Mexican restaurants could qualify (if they had enough posts) like Tio Luis, Taqueria San Jose, Arturo's, and Taco Veloz.

Kuhdo, I LOVE the al pastor thread you started. Anything that taunts Hammond into multiple increasingly frustrated and yet hopeful visits to the same restaurant is a great accomplishment here. I'd be more inclined to get behind Burrito Amigo (serving its immediate neighborhood and a few intrepid reporters as of now) as a GNR than La Pasadita. That said, I've been to La Pasadita a dozen times, and the fact that I did go back means something was fondly remembered on my palate. For me, it comes down to an ongoing argument this year - can a place be honored on the strength of just one or two dishes? If yes, I'll gently affirm my fondness for the carne asada burrito and not stand in the way of a well-written and obviously affectionate original nomination from someone who knows their city Mexican. If you do know of other dishes you love there, please name them, and I (and hopefully everyone) will go back to get a fuller scope of the place.

From what I've seen the main clientele at LaP are Mexican folks, likely from the areas to the south and west. I'ts their neighborhood too, although less so now than in the past. When LaP opened, it was all their neighborhood, and they remain the primary target audience.

As to the second point, there are only three things on the menu . To me, that's a good, even great thing. If this is an issue then I guess Gene and Judes, Johnnies and Candelite will need to go.

I think you're on to something there.

Kuhdo, the Gene and Jude's point is well taken.

Can you crosslink some previous discussion / citations from the board? And if there's anything else you particularly love other than the carne asada, I'll run back up and try it early this week.

Greasy has a jones for it




Foodies evidently agree



Just ask Mellonhead



Hat man knows where it's at...


Maybe e.Mullet was there too...



DaBeef read about it ......



And don't forget the Wivdaddy...



And other glancing nods and brief mentions can be found ... But this is not the whole point, regardless of it's post profile or what we decide to do here, this is in every way as Octarine points out, a really great Chicago neighborhood restaurant. Few other places in the city (Manny's comes to mind) can claim a clientele so diverse (one is likely to find cops,gangbangers,laborers,students,yuppies,Mexican families and stoned out hipsters standing shoulder to shoulder at any given time) or a trade robust enough to allow for the creation of a bizzare mini empire in a two block stretch. There is lots of love on the street for this simple place and with good reason.

Can I get a witness?

Kuhdo,

While "Greasy" may have a jones for La Pasadita, it's track record on LTHForum is what counts for an LTH GNR.

There are any number of, as you pointed out, La Pasadita references on LTH some of which should be linked in the GNR nomination thread for it to have serious consideration.

La Pasadita
1, 2, 3, and many more.

That said, I'm a long time fan of the East side of Ashland La Pasadita and am happy to second your nomination.

Love the carne asada, barbacoa and lengua, not so much the burrito which I find, and not just at La Pasadita, disharmonious from a size/meat/tortilla standpoint.

La Pasadita Barbacoa Taco


Enjoy,
Gary

Gary, I fear you caught me in mid-edit mode. I don't have the linking thing down, but hopefully the above collection of quotes will do....

Amen!

I have a rule for myself - if I have been going to a place for 20 years or more, my objectivity is compromised, and I cannot really comment on it. Thus I usually refrain from commenting on LTH, Healthy Foods, and La Pasadita, since I have been frequenting all three since what feels like the dawn of time.

When going to La Pasadita, I only eat one thing (okay there have been times I strayed and had a Carne Asada taco with a Chile Relleno taco, just to get my greens, or maybe the nopales garnish) - a carne asada burrito. Hold the cheese, but do not hold back on cilantro, onion or salsa. The smell of the charring steak is wonderful, and the theater of the cleaver converting those steaks into exquisite little crisps of charred protein just starts me salivating.

So, yeah, great nomination. But why just Oriental? In my experience the quality is equal in the northwestern outpost as well, though I think the eastern store has a lot more character.

Either way, while I would not permit myself to nominate it for the reasons I note above, I heartily support this nomination.

I'm a "no beans, no cheese" guy, but I agree 800% with the rest of dicksond's sentiment. La P, and (it's offshoot) Las Asadas invoke a Pavlovian response for me, and many others I know. Many do not even have to be in the place for the smell. I'm sitting at my pc desk, and the salivating has begun. La P is one of my treasured spots for carne asada.

After pondering this thread in my heart, I ran up there this weekend to re-sample the carne asada (unwrapped) and to try the G Wiv-certified barbacoa, which I had not sampled before. Both were exceptional enough to remove my reservation about the extremely limited menu scope; they do really nail carne asada. I think their newer locations do trend towards the gringo market, but there is also something pleasantly neighborhoody about the original, as if it does have a memory of earlier cityscapes, and there is obvious affection from advocates in all surrounding neighborhoods. I'll add to the endorsements.

... nice to see someone picking up my reference to this place as La Pasadita Oriental...

Anyway, I finally, after all these years, got to this place and all I can say is that, if this place turns out stuff consistently at the level of what I had, they do indeed deserve a GNR. I had a burrito with carne asada, onions, cilantro and cheese, dressed librally as I went with their fine green sauce:



Outstanding. At five bucks, a reasonably priced, maximally quick and mightily tasty lunch.*

Antonius

* One of the things that sets their carne asada a bit apart from most is the level of garlicky-ness -- to me it was quite garlicky but not to an absurd degree. In addition, I would say that it is a cut above most in not being excessively salty. The green sauce was, moreover, very nicely balanced.

I've taken the kids to one of the La Pasaditas a couple of times, when we were roughly in that area on a Sunday afternoon, but I tend to think we've gone to one of the west side ones... under the vague impression that IT was supposed to be the great one. So I'm pretty sure I'd never been to the east side one before last Sunday.

Anyway, I got a couple of steak tacos and one barbacoa. The steak is good and authentic, but I think I'd have to have a taste-off in close proximity to judge it against several other places I also think do a nice job in serving juicy steak rather than crispy, chewy steak bits. (Such as... the west side La Pasadita I'd evidently been to.) To my surprise, though, I was really impressed with the barbacoa, which had a tender, pot roasty meatiness that blew away any previous encounters with this classic Mexican way of preparing beef.

The other thing that set this one above is atmosphere. All the La Pasaditas are solid choices, but the one on the east side stands apart not just for its food but for its authentic vaquero hole-in-the-wall feel. Best steak taco in Chicago? Maybe, maybe not. Best teleportation device to Mexico amid the futon shops and used car lots of Ashland near Division? Absolutely.

Great pics, Mike and Antonius . . . ones that I would have recognized as being taken at La Pasadita instantly, in just about any context. Just viewing them delivered a wave of thoughts and sense memories that are immensely satisfying.

I think this is a great nomination.

=R=

Over the course of many years I have found La Pasadita to be very consistent indeed. The only real variable from visit to visit has been whether or not the carne asada gets chopped and served directly from the grill or after a short hold in a tinfoil bin. I really prefer the latter, as I find the meat somewhat more tender after a little rest, but the difference is not dramatic. Other than this, La P has been among the most reliable of the spots I visit regularly.

kuhdo -- I hope I didn't sound as if I was doubting anyone's judgement but I just felt I needed to qualify what I said about the place since I've been there but once. It's such a simple, focussed operation, that I'm sure they do achieve great consistency. Really a swell place and I'm glad your nomination moved me finally to get me thither! Muchas gracias...

Antonius

Not at all. I thought your point about consistency was well taken. Glad you liked it!

Wednesday was a day of GNR-nominees for Antonius and me: lunch at La Pasadita and dinner at Sol de Mexico. La Pasadita was the perfect solution for a super-quick lunch -- two tacos of carne asada was exactly what I needed. Simple, balanced, great flavor. I'm delighted that Chicago has excellent examples of both high end Mexican cooking (e.g. Sol de Mexico) and snacks/street food like the tacos at La Pasadita.

I'm happy to support kuhdo's nomination.

Since I actually live in this hood and I love the barbacoa and chilies rellenos taco's, I'm thinking that would make it officially a great neighborhood restaurant... for me. But I'll share.

Last weekend, Heston Blumenthal, McGee and others visited La Pasadita on the west side of the street:

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/ ... hesto.html

This restaurant is currently up for GNR renewal. Please post your comments below.

Thanks,

=R=
for the GNRs

I still go, I eat, it remains just as good as ever. I admit that I tend to go to the west side as often as not, since I do not see much difference in the food and the booths are more welcoming, but the east side surely has all the character.

The pile of crispy, grilled steak in a fresh tortilla adorned just with cilantro, onions and hot sauce (no cheese, please, to detract from the meat) is supremely satisfying.

This was the first stop on our Vuelta a Taco (taco bike tour) in September and a great start it was. I've been back several times since and heartily support its GNR renewal.

LTH,

La Pasadita (east side of Ashland) was is and remains in my top couple of taco spots, the fact that it's open late into the evening remains a source of comfort.

Unlike many I am as big of fan of La P's lengua and barbacoa as I am of the carne asada, if not more so.

Solid GNR renewal from this lengua lover.

Enjoy,
Gary

Had eastside La Pasadita for the first time last night (I know, apparently I've been living under a rock for the past 10 years). I woke up this morning wanting a carne asada taco for breakfast. That meat is juicy, charred, simply seasoned...delicious. The lengua was pretty damn good too, and super tender.

The chile relleno taco was a bit much...I got through about 2/3 of it before my cheese & batter overload alarms went off. After a couple bites of a carne asada taco, the alarms reset & I powered through the rest of the relleno taco though

I can't wait to go back again to try the barbacoa.

It was easily the best carne asada taco I've had, was a steal at $2 a pop, and had a really cool, no-frills, gimmick-free vibe. I always hope for places like this when I use the GNR list to pick what's for dinner.

More on La Pasadita here