Su Casa – Chicago, IL

D.Rough and I needed some Mexican food in Chicago, and we’d heard a couple of people say they went there with good results (meaning there were margaritas). The odd thing is we drove past it while exploring the area around the hotel and saw the brightly painted building and neon cactus and made a couple comments about going there. So THAT’s where we ended up.

We got seated right away since it wasn’t packed and checked the place out. It was nicely decorated and fun on the inside (like a lot of Mexican places). The waiter was extremely nice and helped us to some drinks and menus. We scanned the menu and decided we’d split something since we planned to do some heavy drinking afterwards at the roller derby after party. There were a lot of things on the menu worth checking out, but we finally decided on the Guanajuato combination. It was a steak taco, a vegetarian burrito, a chicken chimichanga, and a tamale. We of course ordered a couple of margaritas – they have about 25 to choose from, so we got some lower end ones to save some cash.


The margaritas were tasty, even though they were cheap, but the Grande size we ordered was extremely small. Surprisingly small, in fact.


The food came out really quickly – even quicker than we expected by the less-than-full dining room. Like 2 minutes or so – insane. The tamale seemed a little dry for D.Rough’s taste, but I didn’t mind it – I ate most of that and didn’t complain about it too much. The chimichanga was probably the best part and we both split that fairly evenly. Crunchy fried shell and tasty insides – really pretty good. The steak taco was a tad bland and unimpressive, and the vegetarian burrito was just ok. Overall, the place was just ok, and maybe even a little sub-par.

Had I checked the reviews online, I would maybe have suggested some place else since all of the comments are pretty negative about this place. But we didn’t care. We had full bellies and had already begun the imbibing for the evening.

I think the best part of dinner was walking the mile back to the hotel in the brisk fall air and just enjoying Chicago (which a LOT of people forget to do).

Top 5 things about Su Casa
1. Chicken Chimichanga
2. Great margarita menu
3. Fantastic staff
4. Open late, so you can eat or drink AFTER normal dinner hours
5. Close to Michigan Avenue so probably gets some decent residual traffic from that

Bottom 5 things
1. Steak Taco
2. Vegetarian burrito
3. Tamale was dry
4. Probably would have better suited going to Pizzeria Uno next door
5. The Grande margaritas are REALLY small

Su Casa Mexican Restaurant
49 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611