Chano’s Drive In

This is no Chano’s! I use to look forward to a chicken nachos or a chicken burrito stuffed full of chicken, but now it seems with a new name/​ownership I got a chicken nachos stuffed with a lot less chicken but instead a spoonful of more beans as filler.

This review is for Chano’s, but the one located on 3000 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90 007. I couldn’t find it here on Unilocal,but i know this is the same one.
So i went there today at around 3 am. My husband, sister and I were looking for a place open at this time, but we weren’t craving any burgers. So we noticed this little place was open and i had heard of the name and fame people had given it. I heard it was good, but to my surprise it was the compete opposite. First of all I ordered some CHILI cheese fries for me, but there was literally only 3 tiny pieces of chili on the fries. Then my husband got 2 hot dogs and the wiener was so thin and gross. He also got a chicken fajita burrito which was nasty. There was pieces of bones and i took a bite of it and threw it out. My sister got 2 chili cheese hot dogs which was like the combination of my chili cheese fries and my husbands hot dogs. So for all this we waited around 15 min and it came to be about $ 23. So for me this was a waste of time and money. My advice is dont go there!

Food is great! Price is cheap and food is tasty.

Ordered the machaca burrito and it tasted like ass. I’m amazed this place can stay in business down the street from USC. Seems like it should be near Compton College given the fact that the ingredients are very low-​quality and it smells like Magnums and Astroglide in the restroom. Chano’s is for people who don’t know about Alfredo’s (see my review) or Alberto’s/Roberto’s.

Hands down the worst burrito I have ever eaten! I ordered to the asada burrito and every piece of meat I ate was chewy. Same thing happened to me years ago at their other location up the street on figueroa and I swore I would never eat here again. I thought this location would be different and I was proved wrong!
To top it all off I paid $ 8 for this burrito for only 3 bites. I want my refund but I rather take my frustration out by writing about it better.

Terrible! We only stopped to use the restroom. I ordered tacos de papas, pollo, and frijoles. After I paid, the woman said they were out of papas and frijoles.
The pollo was of poor quality and cut, the tacos had no flavor, the salsa was rancid and they didn’t even have limón. 2 giant thumbs down.

Yummy crunchy beef tacos.

Got a quick lunch break there. Tacos are very fresh made. Will definitely consider this next time if I layover at USC area.

Better than a $ 12.00 hotdog!
This place is a real deal and the food is good too:
Fish taco got mixed reviews from my Fish Taco connoisseur of a daughter
I had the chile beef burrito, I like it although because the beans are runny, all of our burritos «leaked»
Bean and cheese– delicious, but with leakage…
Quesadilla– a bit thin.
Love that red sauce–

Happy that I got a free cheese quesadilla when I checked in, bummed that the food I ordered wasn’t that good. Taco meat (asada) was dry and bleh, but the tortilla on it was grilled to have just the right amount of crispness. Also got the Specialty burrito, but it shouldn’t e called that bc it’s one of the worst burritos I’ve ever had. It was medium sized, and heavy with mushy beans, too much rice, and soggy lettuce. would have preferred Taco Bell over this.

False Advertising… my Unilocal app on the cellphone says there’s a Unilocal deal but Chanos says they don’t honor it even though they see it and knows that it exist.
Also I use to go to the one across Jefferson near 30^th back in the day and it was good. I went to this location once a couple years back and it taste like boo
Truth be told, seeing the deal made me pull over and waste 2 minutes of my life to give them another chance but que sera sera Chano

THEY HAVE A VEGETARIAN MENU! (I’m not vegetarian, but some of my friends are) Its nice to be able to go to a place where we can both eat and not have to ask to change the menu! PLUS its yummy and cheap! Service has always been wonderful and the BEST part is that they have BIKE PARKING! (not to mention they will allow a solo cyclist to bring their bike inside while they order)

Love it here. Always get theyre lengua tacos, so good!

Love it! Bacon burger special is the best. Real thick bacon slices, Nice sized steak fries:)))). Nacho plate is too die for, big pieces of asada. Yum yum yum! Tasty soft tacos, they make em a bit different here but they are soo good. And when redeeming the Unilocal offer I had no troubles. The cashier was super friendly and quick service. I’ve noticed they don’t mind adding extras to your order.
for intance i ordered the chili cheese fries and asked to add bacon to they did and not just bacon piece but lots of bacon SLICES!

The guy at the drive-​thru denied Unilocal’s check-​in offer and said they no longer honor the free quesadilla with purchase! Boo!
I do not recommend the Breakfast Burrito or Chorizo Burrito. They were filled with mostly refried beans, and I believe I found only one strip of bacon in the burrito!
The Mix-​up soft taco was tasty. Papas Hard taco and shredded beef Hard taco were good and greasy… exactly how a fried Mexican taco should be!

The food was great. I actually came to the one that is bigger than the other smaller one.
I checked in via Unilocal and unlocked one of their deals. If you buy something you get a free quesadilla.
So I asked the cashier about it after I had gotten my burrito and he said he couldn’t honor it because he didn’t know anything about it. So he told me to go to the other Chano’s and ask his manager.
So I got my burrito and went to the other Chano’s and asked the cashier there about it, he asked me to describe the cashier, which I did and he just told the guys to give me a quesadilla.
SOBE WARNED! If you go to the Chano’s closer to the Coliseum and try to get the Unilocal deal, be prepared to drive down the street to fight for that quesadilla! :P
P. S. Yeah the food was good as hell and totally worth it.

Awesome catering experience!
My friends and I threw a USC-​themed birthday party this weekend and, when it came to food, the first place I thought was Chano’s. Of course – it’s practically a USC institution.
I called in a couple of days before the party. I ordered 20 mini-​chimichangas (10 chicken and 10 beef), a side of pico de gallo, and a side of guacamole. It all came out to $ 37.
When I got there to pick up the food, it was ready to go and nicely packaged. By the time I got to the party to prep, the food was nice and warm and the salsa and guacamole were perfectly cool.
When it came down to feasting, we really loved the food. The beef chimichangas were my favorite. The pico de gallo was really good. The guacamole could have been better. It was the watery, soupy kind. However, for the price, the quality, and the taste of the food, I thought it was great and everyone loved the food at the party. Getting all of us pleased with food is always difficult but everyone was happy with the food from Chano’s.
Would definitely do it again.

3 Stars
The receipt has the address from their location down the street, so some of the reviews might be mixed up. I stopped by for lunch and got a Quesadilla w/​Carne Asada and jalapenos, a Bean and Cheese Burrito with sour cream, and fries.
Service here was great. Both the girl taking my order and the guy making the food were cool. Fries… u don’t have to ask. the burrito was good, but nothing special. Quesadilla was good though. I would’ve given 4 stars, but the hot sauce here really is garbage, and the quesadilla was way more oily than it should have been (see pics).

Taking over for what used to be a KFC, I find it very funny that Chano’s, a USC favorite, decided not to take down the enormous KFC bucket outside of the restaurant, choosing to make it yellow and rebrand it as «Original Chano’s» instead. It has to be one of the first Mexican restaurants to have a giant bucket outside that has nothing to do with the food inside (there is no «burrito bucket» or 10 piece enchilada meal).
So compared to the «real» Chano’s further north on Figueroa, where you sit outside, get bothered by homeless people, and get really bad service, this Chano’s is SWANKY! There are plenty of people behind the counter that are happy to make suggestions on what you should get, make jokes, and get your food out to you in minutes. I ate the Original Chano’s up the street for four years of college and now that I’m a grown up in the body of a small child, this Chano’s is more for me, with its indoor seating area, garbage cans not owned by the City of Los Angeles, and separate vegetarian menu (skeptical, but I’ll ignore my conscience).
This location has all of the good of the original Chano’s in a cleaner environment that is more geared towards the USC population (see the above mention of a vegetarian menu, they even have a veggie burger!). The nachos are still huge and good. The fries are still amazing. I’m sure some people will still get food poisoning every now and again, but if you’re on the southside of USC, no need to be a purist, this Chano’s will not let you down.
Tip: They don’t have a bathroom, but they do have Purell at the front counter so you can feel like you’re not eating the whole day off your hands.

A new Chano’s opened up only a few blocks down from the original location! This one’s a lot cleaner, has more parking spots, and actually has indoor seating unlike the other one. It’s really close to the Coliseum so I’m sure business will be BOOMING once football season rolls around!
Food is the same as the other location’s. They have burritos, tacos, nachos, the usual. I got their carne asada fries ($ 6.85) which were pretty good but nothing special. I’m not too sure what the big hype about Chano’s is. It’s good, but not THAT good.
No bathrooms inside, but they do have an ATM. Service is also very friendly! :)