T N T Mexican Restaurant

I came here a few years ago and the food was pure trash. The steak tasted like a foreign animal. My ex husband and I walked out and didn’t EVER EAT there again!

I’ve come to this restaurant since I was a child. It’s very low key and sometimes hard to find. I have to admit I order the same thing every time but that’s because it’s amazing! (Chorizo with papas and eggs) My friends have ordered other things on the menu and have said it’s so-​so. The staff is friendly and pretty fast. Decent spot for the area.

The bathrooms are full of gang graffiti. The staff stares at you while they are eating on the dining room floor. All the food had shortcut after shortcut, and it was all microwaved. The wait staff screwed up half of my order. The all pastor tasted old. The carne asada was dry and old. The beans had a hard skin on them from the microwave. The salsa tasted store-​bought and bland. The only edible thing was the rice.

Well I see why there are only two other reviews, and also why the place was empty when we arrived. This place has a terrible set up and it reminds you of a depressing mini banquet hall. The staff sits at tables and stare right out at you as they eat their own food and fold napkins etc… how tacky! But seriously I do not give a shit about that it’s really all about the food, I just wanted to point out how bizarre of a set up they have and how they have not cleaned up the gang graffiti in the bathroom like ever! The bathroom is saturated in graffiti from every gang in the South Chicago neighborhood. The fact that it was not cleaned up just shows that they do not care and have given up, and that the place is gang turf and not their own business.
Now it is time to get to the food, the single most important thing that can make one forget about to depressing décor, the gang graffiti, the awkward stare downs of the staff facing you while you eat and they eat and fold napkins is the food. The food can be a saving grace for places like this that fail in set up and décor, but in this case, nope.
First we got the complementary chips and salsa, or should I say store bought type chips with spicey ketchup. The salsa was very spicey and burned with spiciness; however, the taste was just like the crappy store bought B.S. you get from the store like Pace or Tostidos, it was jsut not good. For the first time we actually had an empty chips basket and still half of the salsa. When the waitress asked if we wanted more chips and salsa I declined. I ordered the steak burrito and two tacos to sample one with El Pastor and one with the pork stew; however, I never recieved the El pastor taco which was good for two reasons; first, I was full from the burrito and other taco so I was in over my head, second, my brother ordered the El Pastor taco and he said it was horrible. Well my pork stew taco was tasteless, so they did not make the meat right. My brother said his chicken enchiladas were not that bad and he said the beans were not bad either.
Now as for my burrito… geez…well the waitress brought it out and cautioned me that the plate was really hot, OMG red flag! When you are at a regular Mexican restaurant and they nuke your plate it means they probably nuked your food too… yup, they sure as hell did. See, they wanted to have melted cheese on top of the burrito, so they figured they would sprinkle it on then nuke it for awhile, ahhhhhhh! That is horrible! The steak in the burrito was a little tasty but dried out thanks to the microwave, hey do not look at me, I did not order melted cheese on top this is their normal practice! Also to mention the first bites of the burrito burned my tongue and the roof of my mouth from the heat. That is NOT supposed to happen when eating a burrito. Let me think of the last time a burrito burned me, uuuummmm, never! There was also rice inside the burrito which usually ticks me off, especially since it was rice and peas which is a Puerto Rican idea, well the garlicy rice was actually good. My brother liked his rice too, in fact, it was the best thing they served! Well half way through my burrito I found it laboreous to keep eating it yet I forced myself, the meat was just too frickin dry! Finally we were done with our aweful meal and left with a dissatisfied feeling and a burned, numb tongue, I will never return here, but hey, $ 4.50 for the burrito I guess you get what you pay for, well I would rather pay another $ 1.50 elsewhere and get good quality.

Yummmm… yes, this place is pretty divey with the plastic-​coated table clothes and sparse décor. But the food is delicious and inexpensive. The chorizo on the taco was perfect, not too salty but full of flavor. Get the horchata — it’s fantastic. My only complaint are the chips and salsa — the chips were stale and the salsa was too spicy for enjoyment (and I like spicy food). I’ll be back :)

I was actually told not to come here. My friend told me the food was awful. And why did I come anyway? Because she recommended another place which ended up sucking, so I just assumed she had bad taste.
And she probably does. But now I know that if *she* dislikes something, it must be really bad.
When I walked in around noon on a chilly Tuesday, the first thing I thought was «Where am I?» Because it was dark. I waited a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the lighting, and was able to make out a few things. A couple morosely staring down at their tablecloths, looking as if they were breaking up. Two middle aged men in wife beaters, with numerous tattoos all over their arms; they looked at me as if I were interrupting something important. Broken Christmas lights strung around the entire room. Iron bars over the tiny windows, which barely let in any light. And a suprisingly perky waitress who smiled at me and immediately put me at ease. She’s the reason TNT gets two stars instead of one.
So how does naïve little AK interpret this scene, you ask? How rustic and adorable. Clearly people aren’t here for the ambiance. They must be here for the food. It’s probably authentic and amazing!
After being asked if I was from the health department and assuring them I wasn’t, I was seated next to the a window, right next to the hot neon sign that announced «open» to those on the sidewalk. Twenty minutes later, the waitress remembered me and came to ask me if I wanted a drink. Twenty minutes after that, she got my meal order. Thirty minutes after that, she brought me my tacos. And when I bit into my chorizo taco, the first thing I thought was that this DIDN’T taste like bad Mexican food; it tasted like bad Indian food. The «steamed» tortilla was dry, crispy, and had visible burn marks. It tasted like a day old burnt chapati. The chorizo was mixed in some chunky sauce that tasted a lot like the brown mystery cream of the sort of generic «chicken curry» you find at an all-​you-​can-​eat Indian buffet.
I had asked for green sauce. When she brought me red sauce, I tried to explain myself more clearly, but she assured me that the sauce she brought me was correct. «That’s green.» I must be colorblind. Maybe it’s the lighting. But wait, there is something green in here. Something slimy. Something that won’t be speared by my fork. Wait, is it? It is. It’s an OKRA. wtf?
I left my tacos with an ample pity tip and left.