El Loro - Crystal

At first assessment El Loro is a typical suburban Mexican restaurant, the decor is as expected as well as the music, and the menu LOOKS typical as well, but that's about where the similarity ends. Their food is not like a fine dining gourmet restaurant or anything, but it is DELICIOUS for this style of restaurant. Also, the services is top-notch, they are always checking on you and are great with special requests.I ordered chicken enchiladas with mole sauce and one of their well-known margaritas, be careful if you order a large...it is LARGE. I was impressed with the quality of the mole, super tasty, and the margarita was yummy! The reason I give them a four and not a three, is because of how friendly and inviting the space and the staff are, you really can't tell from the outside how cozy this restaurant is. Is it at the top of my list for Mexican restaurants? No...but if I'm in that neighborhood and I want Mexican are they my first choice? ABSOLUTELY!

El Loro is our favorite of Mexican food in the northeast suburbs. We've always gotten it as takeout and it is almost always a home run when it comes to taste. Our order always includes the queso fundido which is delicious! Other favorites are the fajitas or combination meals. The only miss lately was the Pine el Loro. I'd been wanting to try it for so long but it's probably much better as a dine in dish given that it's served in a half pineapple. Serving sizes are mostly very big and we can usually get two meals out of one with no issues. Another plus is the fresh chips and salsa and Mexican white sauce that comes with every order. We do always seem to have a little bit of an issue with ordering online. It seems to be that the orders are coming in from multiple services and aren't necessarily acknowledged so the wait time could be much longer than what is quoted online. My recommendation is to call them directly to place an order vs using a third party service. This will continue to be our first choice for anytime we are in the mood for Mexican food takeout!

This is our go to for Mexican takeout. We ordered the queso fundido, steak fajitas, and the pine el loro which is a half pineapple filled with chicken and vegetables. The queso comes with tortillas, but we prefer to eat it with the chips that come with every order. The fajitas come with either corn or flour tortillas and is so much food. The pineapple dish looked impressive but not sure we would get it again. There are too many other choices on the menu!

There should be a pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 reviews...in before COVID-19 existed times, this place I would easily give 4 stars...now I wonder of their sanitation and merits to keep customers safe. The food was good. I got some tamales de' pollo (chicken tamales) and tacos al pastor and a small side of queso fundido. The queso was great, and the taco's filling more than plentiful, cooked and seasoned beautifully! I enjoyed the tamal como es un tamal mexicano americano...de pollo (a chicken mexican tamal) with a red sauce and some melty white cheese. Good. Maybe enough to satisfy a tamal craving...and yet not enough.My real gripes are with the sanitary lack of restrictions during COVID-19. Many servers, and I saw cooks in the back of house (aka kitchen) also had masks that only covered their mouths or chin...unless they have no nose or no mouth that breathes out, I do not understand how they think this will prevent the spread of the disease, and thus are contributing to it. I will not go to an establishment in which such a simple precaution is not unanimously enforced.

This place was a subpar dining experience. Small servings. Two lunch specials were close to $20. I'm glad we only ordered water. The food was so bland & had to be drowned in Tapatio. The chips were served with salsa & a white sauce. When we asked our sever what it was, all he said was "white sauce." Very informative. We weren't checked on at all during our lunch.

My family has been to this restaurant so many times. Are usually rated a four-star or a three star. However, I thought I would go out on a limb and try something different last night. I usually stick to the burritos and predictable dishes. But last night we ordered and I had fajitas Delmar. as always, our food arrived quickly. Holy cow I could not believe how much seafood was in my dish. Topping a heaping portion of shrimp, imitation crab, and scallops was a lovely, seared and seasoned tilapia fillet. I don't want to go into much details, but everything was just delicious in my dish! So much so that I thought I would have to write a review. This place always has great service even in these days of places being short staffed. I had to have my leftovers at 8 o'clock this morning just because I couldn't stop thinking about them lol. Thank you El Loro

Really enjoyed this place. Been seeing it for years but never came in to see what it's about. Pleasantly surprised.The menu has so many pictures if you don't understand what the text says. Servers were very nice and food came in 10 minutes. Affordable food and drinks as well.Bathroom could use some work tho

We needed to shop in the area and were hungry. As soon as we saw the El Loro sign, we knew where we'd be eating.We both got the dinner combination #11: Beef taco, enchilada, and burrito. I also ordered the jalapeno salsa verse. Th it s is a staple for me whenever I eat at El Loro.Per usual, the service was great (three people sought to help us as we came in, and our waitress was attentive). Also per usual, the food was delicious. There is never anything to change about the meal. The portions are generous and the flavors fantastic.Since this location is close to home, we will easily return for another tasty meal.

We decided to try El Loro in its new spot on Rockford Road. Decorated nicely and we were seated quickly. Service was good and that is when everything went sideways. We were given chips and sauce and their famous white sauce, which has really changed. Too mayo or something so it was too thick to dip into. We got two margaritas and a Diet Pepsi. We started to notice that there lots of tables who were waiting for their food and had lots of chips at their tables. It took a long time before someone came to take our order. We ordered a bean dip which came to us quickly, but it was horrendous. Instead of a thick bean dip, it was like a bowl of pinto beans in their juices with a thin layer of queso or whatever it was...no flavor, no spice...our food arrived later. I ordered the Enchiladas Supreme...white, watery corn tortillas filled with very little of anything. They were suppose to be a cheese, beef, chicken, and bean, but it was hard to tell with all the lettuce on top. It was suppose to have a red sauce, but it was missing. Hubby had a burrito with a mix of chorizo, chicken, shrimp, and beef with no sauce inside or anything. Just a big mess...the sauce on the outside was the same sauce that was on the bean dip. The other order was Chicken Roleta...which looked the best out of the three, but was seriously lacking in flavor. Did we take anything home with us? Nope! Hardly edible. Not ever going back...nice service, but the food was just horrible.

I've been eating here for years!First- Whatever the white dip is that comes with the complimentary chips and salsa is the best! Downside is they give you a big cup of salsa and a little scoop of the white dip. It's free though, can't really complain!The food is really good. I especially like the chicken fajitas! I also like the chicken taco salad or just chicken tacos supreme when I'm being basic. There's almost always a fast turnaround when ordering food here. Even when I eat here when it's busy the food always comes out fairly quick. The drinks are good! The flavored margaritas & daiquiris are my favorite. I have noticed that when I get my check the drinks actually are $1-2 more than the price listed on the menu. We've questioned our waitress about this once and she said the menus were old- which isn't really an excuse for the up-charge. If you change your prices you should also update the menus. Not sure if they ever corrected the issue since the last time I've been but always double check your receipt before paying! The service is okay. They don't really bother you much.