Su Casa Restaurant
49 E Ontario St
(between Fairbanks Ct & Mc Clurg Ct)
Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 943-4041
41 Reviews for Su Casa Restaurant
I'm glad it is called 'your house' and not mi casa, because I'm not sure that I'd want people reviewing mi casa.
Alright, the waitstaff were a bit rude when I was in here. Service was terrible, and everyone was running around like they were on speed even though the restaurant wasn't even half full. We literally had to wave someone down to get a refill or whatever. They also had no chips due a fryer breakdown. Chips, salsa and guacamole are like bread and butter for starving patrons rolling in from the streets. Run to Jewel or something..or Close for the day! Fryer breakdown?! C'mon! That is like telling people you have no tequila! The veggie fajita that I had was ok, but I wasn't that impressed with the salsa or 'su casa' in general.
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WOW! Su Casa lives up to its cheesy and uncreative name and is definitely even shabbier than it looks. Minuscule and absolutely terrible, watered-down margaritas! The chips and salsa were okay. But, boy oh boy, the large margaritas were smaller than most normally sized ones and lacked much flavor. It was almost as disappointing as a guy who is all talk and no play in bed. Slow service too, and lord only knows why this place is so busy. The building and decor are cute but cheesy, and it does look like the building is falling apart.
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I'm backing Su Casa. For Mexican downtown, there's not many options, but this is the place I will go to for lunch or dinner.
I think the food overall is pretty good. The margaritas are strong. I especially like the fajitas and the sauce it comes with. You could get more for your money, but I feel like they cook their food with a little less lard than your average mexican restaurant.
I feel it sure beats Lalo's. I've had both several times, and Lalo's makes me sick. You can also compare a bag of chips side by side and see the amount of grease coming through a Lalo's bag.
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I LOVE the location of Su Casa... But sadly, the food is only so-so. It's totally give or take whether or not you will catch the cooks on a good day and manage to get some good food. It is just so seriously inconsistent.
I definitely wouldn't recommend Su Casa for dinner, but for lunch, it's not that bad. The staff is at least VERY polite and they make great attempts at being attentive. The sad thing is, we're totally limited when it comes to Mexican food options in this (my) neighborhood! We've got MEXX which is fabulous, Blue Agave which is o-kay and Su Casa? I think there are a few others but not any amazing options. So if you want Mexican food, maybe you should check out Su Casa? Or maybe just go to another 'hood.
The Ms went here with a friend. A pregnant friend who insisted on going here. The Ms was starving, so she tried everything on the table. There was a strong margarita, and that was helpful. But, the food needed more help than that. It was edible, but not by any stretch good. The Ms has had better Mexican food from Taco Bell impostors at airport food-courts. The chips were so greasy you could almost see through them. The guacamole was entirely flavorless. Nothing in the watery salsa had kick or crispness. At your local grocer's you can certainly obtain better canned refried beans, better jarred mole sauce and better frozen tamales. Get in a cab, go to Pilsen, pick a restaurant, any restaurant, and you'll do better than this.
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Great cheap food... *terrible* service. I went there for lunch... the free chips and salsa are always welcome. I had chicken enchiladas with verde salsa and rice... it was very fresh, crispy and tasty! My co-worker agreed as well. The price is very welcome for this location as well, for you always expect to pay $15 or more per person around here. Can't comment on the drinks, but due to the pre-21 wait staff I wouldn't even bother coming here for a drink. There are bars for that, you know. The service was horrendous. I almost didn't tip, that's how bad it was. I pulled out my tip calculator on my phone to make sure I didn't go over 12%... which ended up being $1.81. The waitress wasn't friendly, didn't suggest anything, didn't check up on our table, and I had to waive my glass around to signal that I wanted a refill. And, here's the kicker: After we were done eating and the bus boy had cleared our table of *all* dishes, we waited exactly 12 minutes before our waitress returned back to our table to give us our check. We saw the bus boy longer than we saw our waitress! Horrible service. Horrible service. I guess that's what you get when you hire college kids to run your restaurant amigo!
If you like drinking gasoline and eating Styrofoam then Su Casa is the place for you. I will admit that since I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, I am a bit of a Mexican food snob. But this place is by far the worst Mexican food I have ever had. The quesadilla had about as much flavor as a worn down flip flop and my husband's tacos tasted like tire rubber.
Needless to say I will not be back.
I think this place is miz-undastood.......They are a semi-authentic Mexican restaurant, not "Chili's". The food is less spicy, or "bland" as another put it because that is more like authentic Mexican. Most Mexican food here is "Americanized" to be spicier or more flavorful. I make a point of going here every time I am in Chicago. The food is good. The drinks are decent. The wait staff barely speaks English, it's kinda fun. If you think Qdoba is Mexican food, please don't go here. Haters, just give the poor Su Casa a chance, it will win you over eventually.
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Pros:
-Close to the hotel (Marriott) where I "live" Mon - Thurs
-Close to the Trader Joe's where I shop for wine
-Good guacamole
-Waitress (Lucy) was sweet and called me "darling" even though I was a complete twit who couldn't decide what I wanted and made her come back four times
-Cheap, small margaritas for when you can't drink much cause you gotta do work when you get back to the hotel room... or at least post on yelp
-$13 bill for a marg and a quesadilla
Cons:
-Super greasy chips (although this didn't stop me from wolfing down about 20, I was famished a la Chris Farley's character in that Gap Girls SNL skit - "Lay off me I'm STARVING")
-Weirdly flavorless cheese in quesadilla - at first I thought it might be oaxan cheese, how super authentic of them!! but nope, just flavorless, grease-oozing goop
The rest of the reviews for Su Casa re making me doubt myself... not something I do very often... {gulp.}
I've eaten here many times b/c it's close to home. I like their margaritas, very strong, imo. Their food has always been "ok", but now that I read other reviews, I'm wondering if I had too many margaritas before eating it????
This place sucks flip-flopping donkey kong dong! Went here once, but never again. I got served some refried beans that looks someone sat on them, a skirt steak that looked like the taco bell threw up on, a poor excuse for a margarita served in a juice glass. Unattentive servers didn't care. I asked for clean silverware and they brought me back silverware that was dirtier than the first set. Authentic? Yeah, it's authentic alright...authentic crap. Don't go here unless you want to overpay for crappy food. I don't even want to call it Mexican food because that would be disrespectful to the real food of Mexico. Too bad yelp doesn't allow zero stars, because this place is a dive.
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Sorry guys, I'm picky.
I live 4 blocks away (however, they are the mex. rest. one nearby)
Tasty margaritas (unless you upgrade it, your drinking lemonade)
Food is very good (not great, not outstanding)
Service (they love to refill your water, however not consistant-speed)
Staff are usually nice, however sometimes it feels like I'm at chilis (i like going to mexican restaurant and having mexican workers!)
Guacamole is really good.
Fajitas are average.
Chips are COLD and usually GREASY.
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It's a little pricey for Mexican, but the food was solid. I had the chicken and cheese chimichangas from the appetizer menu and really enjoyed them. I loved the chips as well, though grease doesn't bother me much, so take that with a heaping spoonful of salt. The best part of our visit was the delightful waitress, an older woman named Louisa. I probably wouldn't pick this place again since I'm a cheapskate, but I wouldn't decline if a friend wanted to go.
Overwhelmingly mediocre. The margaritas were okay, the chips & salsa were okay. The meal was okay. The price was okay.
But there was not one single element that would drive me to eat here again!
This place was horrible, went in for a quick snack and was placed in a table by the corner.. there was a locked door that seeped the odor of garbage... it was disgusting, the food was terrible and a bit pricey...
Overall, I wanted to vomit when i got out....oh, and if you love oil/greased soaked chips, this is the place for you
Stopped in at Su Casa when I was out and about one afternoon just to check it out. Left this place very underwhelmed. The interior is very cave-like which isn't a terrible feature for night time dining, but in the middle of the day the lack of natural light is both disorienting and depressing. The standard chips and salsa were O.K., with the salsa a bit on the watery side. The lunch menu is not available on the weekends, which is not as clearly indicated on the menu as I would have anticipated, leaving you with choices of the same items at twice the price on the dinner side. We went with a few choices from the appetizer menu and were unimpressed. The food generally tasted over cooked and otherwise unremarkable. The service was good, no complaints there, but the even best service would not improve this experience.
If you're looking for good Mexican in this neighborhood, I'm not sure where you can find it, but I know its not going to be at Su Casa.
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Burnt beans and dried rice. Really crapy margaritas. Enchilldas good. But chances are you'll pass about 100 better Mexican restaurants on your way to Su Casa.
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Not very Mexican I must say.
I tried it once and enjoyed the chips and salsa, as well as the margaritas.
Next time, I landed up here because nothing else was open at 10PM on a Sunday night! Tried the nachos for appetizer, and the combo platter with enchilada, tostada etc etc - didn't enjoy that at all.
Ambience is like all other Mexican restaurants - very village-like, but an average place overall.
Own a successful pizza place? Why not try your hand at Mexican cuisine? Weird concept to me, but apparently worked for Pizzaria Uno, the parent company to Su Casa.
This is probably the closest Mexican restaurant to us, which probably explains why we don't go out for Mexican as much as I would like. When faced with the choice of eating pizza or at Su Casa, I lean towards pizza. Ad keeping in mind I could eat Mexican food all day, every day until guacamole was shooting out of my pores.
The food is alright, the service is pretty good. It is pretty hard to screw up a cheese enchilada, but they manage to miss the mark about half of the time. The inside is a little cramped and the patio makes me nervous someone is going to grab my food off my plate.
Not great, not terrible. Just kind of "there" as far as Mexican food goes.
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I think that Su Casa is good - nothing spectacular but tasty. I like the atmosphere inside, fun and authentic. First of all get a top-shelf margarita (not the classic). I Recommend the "3G" made with Sauza Tres Generation Tequila and either Grand Mariner or Cuantro (I forget). I like the juice combo they use in the Margs, it has a little bit of a citrus flavor to it.
The food is decent, not spectacular, but consistent. I rarely have a problem getting a table when I walk in. Yes it is touristy, yes it is pricey but not a bad meal or a bad time if you are in the area.
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I loved this place for a quick lunch while I worked in the hood. Great price for the food, service was always right on. They have a small outdoor eating area too. Their ranchero sauce is delish, steaks tender, and their salsa never left me with the burn.
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My girlfriend and I went to dinner here one night, and this place had some of the worst food AND service I have ever seen. Avoid this place like the plague, or a kick in the teeth. I get the shakes any time I approach Su Casa.
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Please dont go here. It makes me sad when i walk/drive by and its full. So awful.
I was told the margaritas were really good. My first one was a weird mix of tap water and strawberry puree w/ tons of seeds. There was no alcohol, so i sent it back b/c it was too expensive to choke down. My second one was a glass of tequilla with some strawberry seeds. I guess the way to get a strong drink here is to say they are weak. I was super nice about it, so there was no reason to ruin my drink.
We were stuffed into a small corner in a room with huge groups. I couldn't hear myself think. Which was good b/c i didn't want to think about how bad the food was. It was cold, bland, and my carne asada was almost too tough to eat.
The food is bland. I always find that you can judge a Mexican restaurant by the quality of the chips and especially the salsa. The salsa here is basically out of the can with those red flaked peppers added for hotness (which can also found on "hot" entrees at many cheap Chinese restaurants). Either splurge at Frontera Grill or go to a neighborhood taqueria.
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Went here last night for dinner because I was really in the mood for Mexican, and didn't want to go all the way up to Evanston where my fave Mexican place is. Big mistake on my part.
The decor is okay. The place was not even half full (it was just after 8pm) and I was led straight to a table jammed in the corner behind a wait stand, and the table was imbalanced to boot. When I didn't order a drink from the guy who showed up less than 30 seconds after I had sat down, I was left alone for several minutes before another person came to check to see if I was ready to order.
The salsa they give for their chips & salsa has decent flavor but it's a bit runny; some diced tomotoes would've made it much better. And the chips... my ateries hardened just looking at that basket full of overfried, greasy chips.
I am willing to give some doubt, however, and held off judgement until I got my food; after all, it wouldn't be the first time a Mexican place had lousy chips & salsa but great food. Well, so much for that hope!
Their menu features two margarita sizes; smaller ones run $4.95-12.95 depending on the brand of tequilla; larger ones are $6.95-18.95. I ordered a small Patron margarita ($12.95) and was shocked to have a little glass come out that held perhaps 2 ounces of drink. I'd asked for "blended", which I figured meant frozen, but it was basically just heavy on the crushed ice, and too heavy on the triple sec.
I ordered the house salad ($5.95), which actually was not bad - a sizeable plate heaped high with lettuce, tomatoes, avacado, and some kind of chips (different than the chips & salsa chips), with a really nice lime dressing.
The house combination sampler appetizer is big enough for a meal ($9.95) but it's a bit hit-or-miss about the quality: the "mini-tacos" were soggy and the cheese on them tasted canned; the jalepeno poppers were so-so; and by "two nachos", they mean two round nacho chips slathered in cheese and baked - ugh. The best things about the combo plate were the chicken rolls (not sure what they were called, but they were good - rolled and baked), and the fresh sides (pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream).
The older woman who waited on me was pleasant and my water glass was kept full, which is about the best things I can manage to say about this place. Other than that, I would not recommend Su Casa unless you were really desperate for Mexican food and didn't have the means to travel elsewhere!
I most likely won't come here again. The food was below average for the prices ($12-18 dishes). Maybe the food is more "authentic" than I'm used to b/c keep in mind that I like Chili's and Taco Bell. ;)
The menu also wasn't very varied--most of the appetizers were some form of nachos, and the "combination dinners" were all some combination of taco/enchilada/tamale/chimichanga. The carne asada was very good and so is the beef taco.
It was overall just a plain experience. The waitresses are friendly "mom"-types and the decor reminds me of Cafe Baba Reeba (where you feel like you're sitting outdoors). I suggest Lalo's.
I'm not sure why everyone thinks it's so terrible. Had no wait at happy hour and totally decent quesadillas with margaritas. Our waitress was sweet and the place worked for us when we needed some bloodsugar adjustment.
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Carry-out: Appetizer
The chips, salsa and guacamole are great.
The chips are hard bc these are the real Mexican chips not the wimpy ones you get at other places.
The person taking order was really nice.
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First off, any decent Mexican place needs good chips and salsa, and theirs left much to be desired. Chips were much too hard, and salsa was fairly bland, and too runny (I prefer Pico de Gallo).
Service was good, atmosphere was good, and had no wait on a Friday night, however, food was fairly average, and I didn't really care for the classic margarita, though my finace really liked the strawberry margarita.
All in all, very average, and I'm sure there are better places in Chicago.
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Before I moved to Chicago I was able to eat at some pretty decent, reasonably priced Mexican restaurants when I lived in West Lafayette, IN. When we ate at Su Casa the other day we knew we had found our new second favorite restaurant.
I have to admit that sometimes when restaurants aren't very busy your food seems to take forever..Like they were just slacking off in the kitchen and then realized there was an order up...But this was definitely not the case at Su Casa. It was not very busy and our food was on our table in less than 10 minutes after we ordered it!
I was disappointed that I specifically asked if we could get the "chips and salsa" that are normally free and was told that they were all out of chips right now...But when we were leaving the waitress was bringing out a basket of them to another customer. I think they might have just been cooking but I really don't know....
I loved the food. I had the enchilada dinner with mole sauce. My husband had the burrito dinner. He said his burrito wasn't very cheesy but I am not really sure it was supposed to be. It had red sauce on the outside. And I had more than enough cheese from my enchiladas to share with him.
The waitress was really good about refilling our waters since this is all we drank.
I loved the casual atmosphere, the food, and the fact that it wasn't over priced.
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I went to Su Casa for lunch recently on a Friday afternoon...the outdoor patio was a nice option on a warm day, but a little cramped and really small tables. The lunch-sized entrees are a good size and a good price. The salsa, like many other places, tends to be a bit spicy for my mild-mannered tastebuds. The chicken fajitas I ordered were really good. Also, they make some killer margaritas! The bartender inside was mixing them up for us like nobody's business... so he gets an A+ for the very strong drinks. As for the food itself, I wouldn't say it's anything special but it's worth a shot.
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If you have ever had really good Mexican food, you didn't get it here. In fact, if you have ever had half-decent Mexican, you didn't get it here. What a horrible, horrible disgrace to honest, hard-working Mexicans.
This place is gross. I went here a couple summers ago and apparently forgot how bad it was because I made the mistake of going again recently. Taco Bell is better Mexican than this. We got margaritas which were way overpriced and just not good. It reminded me of high school when I would force myself to drink anything with a little liquor in it. The only reason they get two stars is their good service.
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The food is pretty good, definitely not authentic, but still alright. The staff is good - the waiters always let you order breakfast even if it is not the breakfast hours. Sitting outside is loud because it's a busy street. I've also never have had a problem getting a table, never a wait.
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It's one of my friends hangouts so I tried it. The chips were very fresh, just cooked I would even venture to guess. The salsa was fresh and tomatoey with a spicy kick. The gold margaritas are yummy but OMG I had two and I was really a little tipsy. At some point something came out of the kitchen that made the entire room smell of fish. That's why I am taking off a star.
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I thought for sure we were on a hidden camera show! Unfortunately Ashton Kutcher didn't jump out at the end of this horrific experience.
Margaritas the size of a shot glass, a waitress who made an appearance every 1/2 hour, the WORST Jalepeno poppers EVER!!! You can't just deep fat fry anything and call it Food! Overpriced Crap, worst meal ever, worst service ever. Pretty Chunky Chairs that's the only positive, hence the 1 star.
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lazy waitress, 25 minutes to get a margarita...bleh. i wish that i had read the reviews of this place before we decided to stop by for ONE DRINK!!
i would not bother ever going there again.
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This Mexican restaurant has seemingly been here forever on Ontario, and is actually a spinoff of neighboring pizza juggernauts Pizzeria Uno and Due. When I was a teenager it was cool to go downtown and eat Mexican food at Su Casa, and we were proud to know what Su Casa meant. A few years later my well-traveled taste buds have grown up and I would definitely say that the food here is best left to tourists who want Mexican food a step up from Taco Bell. It's a colorful establishment, and the food is OK but not that exciting to me. Have a drink and pretend you are in Mexico.
The waitstaff here is awesome and so is the food... this isn't the place for you if you are looking for a huge margarita.. their grande is only about 8oz...
i think the chips and salsa were great actually. the looks of the restaurant tricks you into thinking your meal will me GRREEAAT though. my skirt steak was bland. and skirt steak only at its worst is bland. but it wasn't THAT bad. they serve hearty meals! dessert was phenomenal-- find the thing engulfed in cinnamon. yum
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