Big Star Chicago

By grace.g.yang ยท June 4, 2012
Under: American,Cheap Eats,Chicago,Dinner,Drinks,Lunch,Mexican,My Life,Travels



On Thursday, Ken’s sister, Flo, came to pick us up to take us back to the suburbs for the weekend. Before heading back for the weekend, we stopped by Big Star for lunch. Angie and John mentioned that it’s a popular taco place and when Mario Batali visits, he likes eating tacos there. We figured we’d try it out, especially since Ken and I love fish tacos so much.

The restaurant is located in Buck Town, where Ken lived back in 2007:

Big Star Exterior

Lots of outdoor seating and surprisingly, a lot of people enjoying a nice long lunch on a Thursday afternoon:

Big Star Umbrellas

The restaurant has a lot of different types of whiskey/bourbon, which they’re also known for:

Big Star bourbons

We just wanted food and had an afternoon planned with Charley and Sammy, so we ordered the guacamole and chips right away:

Big Star guacamole and chips

Generously salted chips and the best guacamole I’ve had in a really long time. It tasted like it was just made and had good chunks of fresh avocado mixed in with the lime juice and onion.

I read that their queso fundido was good, so I ordered it for all of us:

Big Star queso fundido

I didn’t realize we were going to to get additional tortillas for the queso fundido, so we had two additional tacos with delicious cheese and pork. The queso was oozy and very salty – absolutely delicious to start.

Ken and I ordered three tacos each – here are the pork belly and el pastor tacos:

Big Star tacos

And the fish tacos:

Big Star Fish Tacos

The tacos weren’t as good as the queso fundido, especially the fish tacos, but the guacamole and the queso fundido were worth the visit. I thought the tacos fillings were all flavorless and limp. The tacos themselves aren’t worth a visit but the atmosphere, queso, and guacamole are must orders.

Big Star on Urbanspoon

Reader Comments

Looks delicious! I recently tried San Luis Mexican Food Truck on Front St. in FiDi, very similar menu, food is delicious. I had the chimichangas which were amazing. For those of you who don’t like waiting on line for food trucks, check out this link, it’s NYC’s new online ordering site that allows users to place orders for pick up from for food trucks (also delivery or pick-up from restaurants, of course) Awesome concept! Enjoy, ladies and gentlemen!

#1 
Written By Kevin on June 12th, 2012 @ 1:57 pm

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