Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.
Jim and I have a long list of perspective restaurants to review, or so we thought. We have learned to always “Google” the restaurant before we show up to make sure they haven’t fallen victim to the COVID-19 fallout. To our dismay, we discovered that restaurant after restaurant was either permanently closed, or only open a very limited number of hours/days. It really saddened us that most of the casualties were the small mom and pop treasures that are always enjoyable. After 25 minutes of searching, we decided to go to a restaurant that has been in business, what seems like, forever. We’re talking about Lalo’s Mexican Restaurant in Schaumburg.
Lalo’s Mexican Restaurant
425 S. Roselle Road
Schaumburg 60193
847-891-0911
Directions: Take Rte. 47 South to I-90 East, To Roselle Road, South to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 31 minutes
We lived only a few miles away from this restaurant since it’s opening, but never went to it. Now that we live in Huntley, we decided to give it a try. We never said we were smart. Lalo’s is a large restaurant and nicely decorated. It is in the location us old folks might remember as Down the Hatch.
As usual, at a Mexican restaurant, after sitting down the waiter brought us a basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa. The chips seemed to be made from very coarsely ground corn and were very thick. They were probably too authentic for us; our educated palates prefer the thin and salty artificial ones that you can buy at the store. The salsa was surprisingly mild. Nothing showed up on Jim’s “sweathead” meter.
Nancy being the daring soul she is ordered what she orders at every Mexican restaurant we’ve been to, namely the Chiles Rellenos de Queso ($19.95). This was two poblano peppers filled with cheese, egg battered, and pan fried in mild ranchera sauce. It is served with a side of Spanish rice and a zucchini salad. Nancy hates zucchini, so she quickly “86’d” that. The waiter then asked her if she would like corn or flour tortillas. She stared at him like a deer in headlights, never having had tortillas with this dish. She went with the flour tortillas and he proceeded to tell the blonde granny to try putting the Chiles Rellenos in her tortilla and eat it like a fajita. She said she’d try it. When her meal arrived, she did what the waiter suggested and fell in love. This is the way she will forever eat Chiles Rellenos. She said they were absolutely delicious.
Jim went berserk and ordered for his dinner the largest appetizer known to man. He had the Botana Combinada ($16.95). Here is a detailed list of everything that comes with it. There were nachos with cheese and refried beans, a ham and cheese quesadilla, two tamale’s (one pork, and one chicken), four flautas (two shredded beef, and two chicken), and a seafood empanada. It was served with sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo. The quesadilla was Jim’s favorite. He actually thought the appetizers could use more seasoning, so he asked the waiter for some hot sauce. Out waiter obliged and brought over a bottle of red and green hot sauce. Watch out for the green stuff, eat at your own risk!!!
We almost forgot to mention, after we ordered our entrees, the waiter brought us each a cup of chicken soup. This is a first for a Mexican restaurant. It was delicious and full of chicken meat. What an unexpected treat.
No dessert for us today; we even took half of our food home for another meal. Nancy even asked for more flour tortillas to take home. Senior’s rule!!!
The price for our afternoon fiesta was $47.20, losing four restaurants to review, sad…
Jim’s take: I loved all the appetizers for my meal. It was something different for a change.
Nancy’s take: Chiles Rellenos are usually mild, but not today; it had a kick to it. It woke up my taste buds.
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at: thediningduo@gmail.com
