Cardona’s

The tacos were just okay. The tortillas were dry and hard when we ate at the restaurant. The enchiladas were good but just a bit spicier than I can handle. Overall, just average. Not bad for the price and portion. BYOB.

Might be my favorite Albany Park taqueria. The hand made tortillas are off the chain and the décor is homey and charming. Expect a bit of a wait though, home made tortillas take time!

The food is always good. The staff is always pleasant the place is always clean. I recommend the guacamole and the tacos pastor! I even did chorizo and eggs one day here for breakfast!

very unprofessional. ordered tacos and was told that they were going to be ready within 10 minutes or less. I decide to go a bit early and the door was closed and the front lights were turned off. I knock and knock as I watch them chat away, never opened the door. Stood there for more than 5 minutes. Got home call them and I told the lady that I had went and that the door was closed and that I was knocking she then hangs up. How rude! Calls me back within 10 minutes or less and says, «the door is open you can come and pick up your order now.» Uhm, no thank u! Never ordering again.

They make their own tortillas! I’m usually a fan of flour, but I do love fresh made corn tortillas. I just stopped by for a carry out snack — 1 Rajas taco. Very good, green salsa is pretty spicy. Looking forward to going back.

Yummy. This place is a gem with wonderful, authentic, freshest-​around Mexican food. The service is great, and the Mexican soap operas on the TV are almost as great. The only bad thing I could say is that there was too much good food to finish.

I gave this place another try. Unfortunately, I will not be returning. I got steak tacos again, still small, but the bigger issue was that the meat was very poor quality. I kept biting into crunchy cartilage. I couldn’t finish my food and ended up throwing it away.

I’ve been there before and can’t believe I haven’t written a Unilocal review yet. Sorry about that, but Happy 2015, Unilocalers. However, good luck on finding a restaurant that is open today.
Cardona’s is certainly open for business. This is a place they you can find all things Mexican on the menu, such as tortas, huaraches, tacos, soups, and refreshing drinks. You name it, they’ve got it all!
Although they’re tricky on providing water, unless you ask for it, their drinks are quite good. I’ve had the piña colada and the limon Aguas frescas. You will definitely need one of those to go with the complimentary starter salsa. That salsa… let me tell you, is super on point. Nevertheless, it’s spicy and please be aware.
I constantly order different items every time I visit there. Today I had the pechuga empanizada; they are like Mexican-​style chicken patties with beans, rice, and lettuce on the side. Hubby, on the other hand, had two (2) servings of huaraches. One (1) serving is already quite large and big enough to fill up a commercial plastic oval plate, if you know what I’m talking about. Well, he consumed two (2) of them… I swear to God that I’m not starving him at home… I’m a good wife.
With two (2) drinks and two (2) entrees, the total came to $ 25 before tax and tips. The service is not as speedy as a McDonald’s drive-​through or other fast-​food type of Mexican joints, but the three (3) ladies who work there are «Working.» Yes, it’s with the capital «W.» Thus, be patient and watch some Mexican soap opera in the meantime.

The huaraches are the best ov had in Chicago, and iv had plenty. Byob!

As the other reviews said, not much from the outside, and do not expect much from the décor (maybe used to be a Korean bbq, because of the tables have the insert and the lower table has panels that move for insert of the equipment?) But the food is great, fabulous guacamole and love, love, love the nachos! They do not add guacamole, but chunks of fresh avocado. Either no meat or chicken. All cooked to order. BYOB, so price is cheap! We love it. They are sweet to us, we don’t speak much Spanish, nor they English, but we make it work and the one waitress recognizes us and is sweet. Must be a family restaurant. Only negative is one night we had ordered the guacamole, and it was so limy, it wasn’t good — but the rest of the dinner was fine and we probably could have returned it, just didn’t. We have eaten there 7 times. We eat usually about 7 or 8, and by the time we leave it is much busier.

This place used to be good since they make tortillas a Mano meaning cooked to order but the waitresses there need a huge adjustment to there attitude it’s like there either in a bad mood or tiered lol and the steak tastes like its boiled in water gross and I found a small hair in my coffee what’s the point of hair nets in the kitchen when the costumers go through the kitchen to the dinning area skip this place go down to la Palapita which is a on my top list

I like this place i really do. Their tacos are Bomb! But it seems you have to wait a AWFUL long time just to get your food. I ordered like 7 tacos all steak took way to long in my opinion. They weren’t all that busy either, I don’t know but ill come back and see if they will speed it up next time.

Come for the Spanish Soap Operas, stay for the food!
Let me start by saying this place is authentic. I found myself trying to tap into my college Spanish courses to remember what some of the basic food words were. In addition to that they have true Spanish candy at the register and Univision Spanish Soaps on the television.
But I suppose I should review the food. I stepped out of my comfort zone to try the Mexico City style Torta Cubana. For those of you who have had the Gargantuan at Jimmy Johns… this is the Mexican equivalent. It comes fully loaded with every meat known to man as well as an egg and who knows what else. It had good flavored but their was just too much of everything which made it tough to handle.
My girlfriend had more traditional food and I would consider it good but nothing to write home (or I suppose in detail on Unilocal) about.
Overall it’s a nice little place with a friendly staff. The atmosphere feels as legitimate as any other and the food/​menu seem to match.

Doesn’t look like anything special from the outside, but definitely worth it. Super cheap (i think the most expensive thing I saw was $ 11.95), no limit on tortilla chips, and takes credit cards– if those aren’t persuasive enough reasons I am sure the food will win you over.
Since it was my first time at this place I decided to play it safe and order the carne asada tacos. The boyfriend was far more adventurous and ordered the Cubana. The whole menu has pictures for the most part, so for beginners I would guess this could be helpful– the only bad thing is there are no descriptions :(Anyways– My tacos were pretty freaking good for $ 6.95. My boyfriends torta was a MONSTER. The thing easily took up the whole plate. It looked like a sub on crack– and it had like 30 different kinds of meats. Not for me, but if you’re into that sorta thing I promise you will not go hungry! There was only one waitress there and the place was pretty hoping. She did a good job keeping up. All in all, pretty good experience and only 19.94! Excellent.
Oh and a few other things– salsa is deliciously spicy, don’t wait for the waitress to come grab your credit card– just go up and pay at the register, plenty of street parking (pay to park or residential) and right by Kimball brown line stop.

Love this place, the food is amazing and they have a great variety of food that can be somewhat difficult to find outside the south side of Chicago, like Pambazos, chalupas, authentic huaraches, and suadero. I recommend all of these, specially the pambazos they are delicious.

The meals here are very filling! It’s a great price for what you pay for. I ordered a veggie burrito, it was a bit bland/​dry. My friend ordered a chicken dish and really enjoyed it! Nice place to go, friendly people.

I ordered take out and got the Chilanga torta. Chilanga is a pejorative term for people from Mexico City. At Cardona’s, it is also a really tasty sandwich with sliced milanesa, oaxaca cheese and poblano peppers.
The green salsa is pretty good, nothing unusual there. The red salsa had a nice roasted pepper flavor and was neither too spicy nor too mild to be enjoyable for the average spice-​loving palate.
Next time I think I will try the pambazo, which I haven’t seen on many other menus and looks interesting.
There was a small mixup with the price. The prices listed on
were different than what I was charged, but not by much. I’ll be sure to confirm the price before my next order since I don’t have an official menu handy.

We are somewhat new to the Albany Park area and always looking for new restaurants to try — especially now that it is nice out! We decided to try Cardona’s tonight and it was fantastic — I’m already planning on bring my friends here.
We both had the tacos — he carne asada and I had fish (special order — it’s Friday during lent!!) and both were delicious. My fish was pretty amazing — super tender and very nicely flavored. And the BEST re-​fried beans I’ve had in the entire city… and I’ve been to a few very good Mexican Restaurants. And, their horchata was OUT of this WORLD. Just perfect flavor and thickness… I don’t like it when it’s too thin.
But honestly, the waitress was friendly, the set up is pretty cool, super cheap, equal amounts of families (very well behaved children) and couples and some drama-​filled Novelas on T.V. If you want some delicious Mexican food, this is the place to go.

We just moved to Albany Park and decided we wanted to check out a local place but didn’t know where. We checked Unilocal for places within walking distance (parking is at a premium on my block) and we decided on this one… and it was an excellent choice.
There were only a few people eating there and we walked in and placed our order right away and it was done quickly. I had a steak torta and my bf had a ½ chicken and ½ steak burrito, they were both AWESOME! I also had a lime Jarritos— the total bill was around $ 13. Both the torta and the burrito were big enough that we each only ate half and saved the rest for later. :)
I’ll definitely be visiting here again.

This place used to be a Korean restaurant, and you can still see remnants from the past here. The built in table grills that were used for Korean BBQ are now covered and replaced with round Mexican artwork. If it were up to me, I would have created some kind of Korean-​Mexican taqueria BBQ place. Kinda like that food truck in LA… kalbi tacos and horchata soju anyone? *sigh* A girl can dream.
Anyway, back to reality! This is your basic taqueria, with an extra room next door for parties. I ordered a carnitas taco, a suadero taco, and chips & guac. Both tacos were topped with cilantro and onion, with salsa verde on the side. The carnitas taco was just «ok». The meat was very moist and tender, but it tasted like they had cooked it with a bit of lime juice, which I didn’t care for. I preferred the suadero taco, which is chopped beef brisket. The brisket was crispy on the outside, but tender within. Suadero isn’t something I see too often on taqueria menus here, so it’s worth trying. And the guac was fine (a little too chunky with tomatoes, though).
I noticed that they serve pata tostadas, which I’d like to try during my next visit. As far as the rest of the menu goes, it’s regular taqueria fare that many of you already know by heart.