Panchos Cuisine

Probably the worst order ever received.
Burnt my tostones, forgot my water, my shrimp soup was gross + my boyfriend was not that sayisfoed with the rice

Worst PR food yet!!

First time here. Arrived at about 2:30 in the afternoon with my friends and their kids. Wanted to go to another Puerto Rican place, but it was closed for remodeling, so took a chance on this one instead.

The menu has a couple pages of Mexican selections and Puerto Rican options on the last page. I ordered a jibarito with steak.

While we waited for our food, they brought out chips and salsa. The chips were ok, kinda darker than most and almost burned in places. The red salsa was extremely thin, watery and pretty heavy on the lime but overall had a good flavor- fresh, slightly herbal, with just a hint of heat. The green avocado salsa was indistinguishable from the Herdez that comes in a bottle. No bueno.

The jibarito was just ok. The steak was fatty and gristly and not seasoned very well, although decently tender. There was almost too much mayo, but the veggies- tomato and lettuce, and grilled onions- were fresh, and the American cheese was perfectly melted.

The rice and pigeon peas that came as a side were also just ok. A little dry and oily, and not very well seasoned. As for the fries, they were fries. I don't like to judge a place too harshly on food that is most likely an afterthought. I tried part of a papa relleno that my friend ordered and it was pretty decent though.

None of us ordered anything off the 3 pages of Mexican options, so I can't speak to those choices, only the Puerto Rican food, since that's why we were looking for.

The waiter was very nice and on point, and the food came out fairly quickly so no complaints there. But the food wasn't to my liking.

Living in the South Side, the places that sell Puerto Rican food are few and far between. I went to the UPS store and I noticed that this place sold both Mexican and Puerto Rican food. Initially, I was hesitant but then I realized that this is probably due to demographics. I decided to check them out.

I decided to order the steak jibarito. It was very flavourful but the portions were a bit small. The steak was tender and the plantain wasn't too oily. The cashier was pleasant and the atmosphere was inviting. Will definitely go back for their mofongo.

So disappointed. I had such great food last time that I ordered again after a loooong international flight. 20min later they called to say they can't accomodate my 'no onion' request. (Allergy) I gave them the exact date and items I ordered last time (thanks grub hub!) and they kept saying "yeah, but I never heard of an onion allergy.' Ughhhhhh. Big boo. Biiiiig boo. It was so yummy.

Anyway $20min and $5 delivery charge was a lot so I suppose I am saving myself $ in the long run.

Gave this place another chance since they have good jibaritos, but took forever and forgot about my kids food.
The manager didn't take the time to listen to what the problem had been, which was very unprofessional.
Don't know how this place is still open, anyway not going back.

Right now I can't even explain it. Not worth it. HORRIBLE food period. If you are going to have Puerto Rican food on your menu, learn to use these key ingredients, Adobo and sazon and sofrito.

I love this as a great take out place. Good tasty foods. Not the typical Mexican because of the other culture here too.

Pretty good place for a jibarito. I agree that there needs to be more garlic on the tostones and jibaritos. We also got the potato dumpling with ground beef and the empanada with beef. I liked the empanada better. The arroz con grandules was pretty tasty as well. They had a whole section of ice cream up front. Looked like it might be home made. I liked the fact that they had Mexican food too. We got some elotes. That was very good too.

I will definitely come back for more.

Completely disappointed by my dining experience.
I was excited to see the menu and the minute I saw they served Lechon I was like... that's going to be delicious! I mean who could mess up lechon y arroz con gandules? I'm Mexican and can't mess that up...
But Panchos rose to the challenge and showed me that you can in fact mess up such an appetizing dish!
My husbands plate was no different... overly cooked dry meat that tasted more like cardboard then anything edible.

The service was so bad. When we got there we were waiting for so long for any food (including appetizers) to arrive on our table we actually had 3 servings of chips and salsa.
I had ordered an appetizer that actually didn't arrive until after my meal was served and I had to remind the waitress of it.
We were given no napkins and at one point we had my youngest daughter steal the utensils from a neighboring table to eat our food. How do you not give someone a fork to eat with??? How do you f*** up the most basic part of your job?!?!?!

I go to alot of restaurants and I am a big tipper 20-25%! The fact is tipping is an option and in this case I would only have tipped 5% but I looked at my Check and wouldn't you know...
Despite the shit service I was tipping $11 on my bill.
No napkins, no utensils, no appetizers, but I left a mandatory tip!!! What a f***** joke of a restaurant. I really wanted to like it but it was pathetic!
I want to ask... how exactly did my server earn her tip???
* food was bland
*service was more like... what service?
*the food took to long to get to the table
* I had a mandatory tip that should've been given to my daughter since she made it possible for us to eat the cardboard they serve

Don't go here... honestly not worth it!!!!!!!
If I could give it negative stars I would!
I think the only reason this place is even afloat is the tacky slot machines they put in.

Pancho's Tacos is a small little shop located next to Game Stop in North Riverside. Feeling a sudden hunger pain I popped in and dined. I was seated promptly and then had to wait several minutes before my order was taken. Other than that, awesome is the word to describe it.

The upside is that it goes beyond your typical Mexican restant eatery- it has a large variety of seafood with a dash of Puerto Rican food. I ordered a taco dinner...pretty standard. It was off the chain! My husband got the Jibarito dinner and he was in heaven. I will definitely be back.

Quick tip: if you plan to eat in have a coat because the place is not well insolated but then its not really the place to sit and eat given its tiny eat in quarters.

Combo specials cost $2 more after 3:00pm.