Taco Joint

Location: 1969 N Halsted
Cost: About $20 per person

Now that both Jenny and The Professor live in Lincoln Park, I'll be lucky if I ever get to eat a meal near my apartment again. The other weekend when Erika was in town, the four of us all went out to grab a bite. In the epic battle of laziness between us North siders, Jenny won. We ended up at right around the corner from her apartment at Taco Joint.

Logistics
Taco Joint has been around for a little bit, but because The Hungry Hound gave it a mediocre review, I never hurried over. This time, I got there before everyone because of my family bred neuroticism. The wait was about 45 minutes on a Saturday night, which really isn't that unreasonable. There's plenty of street parking. Lucky for us, we were able to take over the corner of the bar and never ended up needing a table. The cost is reasonable for designer tacos. You'll probably spend about $10 per person on entrees and a few more bucks for a drink and appetizer.

The Food
We all started off with some variation of a margarita. The drinks were creative and not light on the booze. From there, we tried the Tradicional and the Rojo Guacamole. The tradicional was pretty good with a balance of lime and cilantro while the rojo was a bit bland despite the attempt at spicy red sauce on top. The textures were right, but the flavors were toned down.

For the main course the Ericas split a bunch of tacos, Jenny got the Chicken Torta, and I got the Pulled Pork Tamale. My tamale was large with a delicate pulled pork inside the masa. The crema and frisee salad on top lightened up the dish well. Jenny's sandwich was definitely the value buy of the meal. The bun was well grilled with a nice rub on the chicken and well cooked peppers. It was on the milder side which was right up Jenny's alley. I also made everyone try out the Elotes. The parmesan and mayo was a little heavy, but expectedly so.

Overall
Taco Joint has a good variety of options. I think the tamale was my favorite item, but a lot of the dishes we got were pretty bland. The tacos were hit or miss and I wouldn't get the guac again. Still, you can put down a few solid drinks and sandwich for cheap. I'm giving Taco Joint 2.5 out of 5 Pearls.