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    El Paisa Alegre

    4.4 (86 reviews)
    InexpensiveMexican
    Open 7:00 am - 6:00 pm

    El Paisa Alegre Photos

    EL PAISA ALEGRE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Divey
    Very loud
    Good for kids

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    Stacey W.

    Overall a great place to pickup some carnitas to go by the pound. If you order by the pound it is only for carryout. We ordered 2 lbs of the carnitas and it was plenty of food. The carnitas are well seasoned and the parts we got was a bit more on the drier side. The staff was incredibly welcoming when we entered. They greeted us with a warm hello and then asked if we had any questions.

    Steve R.

    Still the best tacos in town! The crew are like family to me...always service with a big smile..."Señor Steve...how are you?" I jave been coming here since they first open...pretty sure I've eaten everything on the menu...its all good and made and prepared with a family pride. Huge portions, quality meats....always hot and fresh. I highly recommend this place.

    Masks required in Spanish
    Edwin C.

    Initially, I was planning on getting some of their carnitas tacos. I arrived around 3:30 or so and they' close around 5 and they were already all gone. This place has no frills and seems to be known by the locals. It's definitely a hole in the wall. I ended up order a couple steak tacos and one lamb taco. The tacos are packed pretty full. Their carnitas are a top seller so be sure to get there earlier in the day to ensure you get some. Make sure you ask for salsa for your order. It goes well together. As standard, they throw in some salsa verde and some salsa roja. If you're particular about which ones you get be sure to voice that to them. They' don't throw in any napkins or utensils. This too you'll have to let them know if you want it with your order. The portions are pretty nice for each taco. If you're not able to handle too much heat but still enjoy it I recommend drizzling it on each of your tacos. Otherwise, you'll be suffering from that heat a bit. As for the meat quality itself, each of my tacos had dried up meat pieces in there. They could've easily picked those parts out as they put my order together but they didn't. I was the only customer in there so they shouldn't have felt rushed. It was a bit of a letdown to be honest. Their pictures looked great too. I'll have to try their carnitas tacos next time I'm in the area. As far as safety precautions go, for the most part it's all just for show. If you look at my pictures posted you'll see that a lot of their signs are handwritten. Signs like that upon entry aren't generally taken seriously. On top of that, their signs are only written in Spanish. English speakers don't all understand that so they'll easily dismiss those signs despite the restaurant's good intentions. It also didn't help the fact that their cashier was encouraging me to come inside and order despite the sign that says in Spanish "limit 1 customer inside per order". They don't follow their own signs. If social distancing is important to you go when it's not busy. Unfortunately, the workers don't enforce their owns signs and on top of that other customers coming through there didn't really practice it either. You have to enforce it yourself when you're there. Go at your own risk. Inside they have also closed off the dining area and only take take-out orders.

    Meats
    Susan S.

    Been a while, thought I'd pop in had one corn carnita tacos . Greg meat was good but could have used fat a little Dry. Nice warm corn tortillas, great green sauce . Could have included napkins. I kinda want to make carnitas now . My 21 year old went into the army on Jan 4 not sure how to cook for two new w. He was great at cleaning out the fridge and he did the dishes

    the interior of a restaurant

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    7 years ago

    BEST taco's in the suburbs by far!!! Everything is made fresh the portions are big and the people are super cool.

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    10 years ago

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    10 years ago

    Hidden gem.. Beware, you will want to come back over and over. Carnitas are to die for.

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    11 years ago

    Great tasting food, generous portions, chill atmosphere and great people doing a great job. A+

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    9 years ago

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    11 years ago

    Best carnitas plate in Wheeling. Huge delicious portions. It does justice to "hole in the wall" discoveries.

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    10 years ago

    Very impressed! Small family owned... Doesn't look like much but the food is amazing!! Super fast and very friendly service.

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    10 years ago

    Good basic tacos. No frills, no atmosphere just good tacos. They have brain tacos, and carnita tacos.

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    9 years ago

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    Page 2 of 3

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    4.5(149 reviews)
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    Nice spot and beautiful decor on the ceiling inside. Warm chips and salsa are offered when you sit…read more Kids Steak Quesadilla: good, but a few pieces of steal were tough for my son to chew. Nice that they give an ice cream dessert. Enchiladas: good portion, my son tried mole that was spread on top for the first time, he didn't like it, but it doesn't mean it wasn't good, just something new he didn't enjoy. Cactus taco: they made it right. Nice texture with the crispy beets on top. Fish taco: this was ok, it fell apart bc there were so many tomatoes on top the juice softened the corn tortilla. Salad: good but they didn't have many dressing options and the one that came with it didn't have much flavor to add. Overall, cute spot, price is a bit higher here. They have many seafood entrees, seems to be what many guests ordered so maybe thats popular here. Service was good. No issues and things came out timely.

    While in town for a work seminar, the front desk assistant at my hotel recommended this place with…read morea personal rave review. So, I stopped in during the week, just after lunch time and found this little hole-in-the wall of a restaurant conveniently nestled in a shopping center next to the local Walmart. Even though I walked in and the restaurant was completely empty, the pure vibrancy of the decor and the cheerfulness of the staff encouraged me to stay. Not to mention that the aroma making its way out from the kitchen was absolutely mouth-watering. I took a seat at the bar while I perused the menu and was delighted in the simplicity of it. You know the food is about to be fire when the menu is simple and a restaurant focuses on what it does well. In addition to the excellent service, the food was absolutely phenomenal. I started off with some chips and salsa.... which was delightfully flavorful and perfectly crisp. Then, I had a bowl of the tortilla soup. Each spoonful was like deja vu. Each bite made me feel like I was in my grandmother's kitchen as a little girl all over again. The broth was perfectly seasoned and each bite came with a chunk of chicken and an assortment of veggies... truly perfecto! Once I was done with the appetizers, I made my decision to try two tacos from the menu. The first was a salmon taco--and it didn't TASTE FISHY. It was grilled to perfection and then paired with an unexpected yet delicious topping of crispy potato strings and chipotle aioli. I ate every bite of this. It was the perfect combination of crunch and flavor, I just couldn't get enough. Then I also ordered the carne asada a cabron taco. Simple, yet dynamically flavorful. I was so full at this point but took this one home to eat at a later time. Still as amazing as the day I ordered it i'm sure. While I neglected to have any desserts or margaritas here, I was assured that they are just as remarkable as anything else. I had a wonderful meal, excellent service and I greatly look forward to going back if i'm ever in the area again for work. 10/10 Highly recommend!!

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    Oh my gosh DELICIOUS!!! I came here when I stayed nearby at a hotel and was genuinely amazed at how…read moregood the food was. They have a wide variety of meats and offerings so I feel like a group can all find something they like. The restaurant had plenty of seating and was kept very clean. I appreciated how kind and helpful the staff was. The portions were large and decently priced. I thought the ingredients tasted fresh.

    An interesting option for me. While it's not really as flavorful as some of the other Mexican…read morerestaurants nearby it does offer a clean spot with very reasonable prices (particularly on Taco Tuesday), spacious dining room, and nice seating to socialize with friends. It's also fairly easy to park here and service is pretty quick and friendly. The menu is not super adventurous which helps appeal to a wide audience, but at the same time offers 15 protein options, which is more than enough choices to make repeat visits interesting. In addition to being a pleasant spot to hangout with friends, the reasonable pricing here -- particularly with the option to make the meal quite healthy, is something that will draw me back for repeat visits. The portion sizes are pretty good as well and the churros are a great dessert to finish the meal. Overall, a solid option to enjoy Mexican cuisine in a nice setting. The meat could use a little more seasoning, and the salsas could probably be kicked up a notch as well (even the spiciest option was pretty mild for me), but still enjoyable.

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    4.1(539 reviews)
    3.0 mi
    $$

    I came here for my son's birthday and because we had some coupons he got from school. The whole…read moreexperience was first class. It was a busy day and the hostess offered us a table that wasn't ideal, but said if we'd like to wait longer we could have a better table. Our waitress Carey was very accommodating, allowing us to use both coupons and bringing some dessert for all our kids, some ice cream, on the house. The food was also good, but the people are what make me loyal to a restaurant, and this was one of the best experiences I've had with service, so we will be back.

    It's been quite a while since my last visit here however came back again because a group of friends…read morewanted to come here and have lunch. I really had some high hopes that may be over the years that had grown and learned and gotten better. Unfortunately, it really hasn't during a very slow weekday afternoon. I walked in and there was absolutely no staff at the front to greet you in any way shape or form. I also consider this very poor deterrent for crime and also very poor for security in general. Well, service was decent. It wasn't great. It wasn't quick. The food did come out quickly though. The food was good, not great. And although I did take home my Carnitas pork fajita bowl and looking forward to warming it up the next day, when I opened it up from the plastic container, they gave me the entire bottom was full of oil. It is really rather disgusting and while I do understand that they had to fry up the tortilla shell I would have assumed it would have been drained properly and did not contain this much oil. Also, I feel like the margaritas got significantly smaller. If you look at the picture on the menu, they have a completely different large glass being displayed versus the Glasses. They actually gave us with margaritas. So I really feel like the portions got smaller on the margarita while the price stayed the same, which frankly now makes it overpriced. There are better places to eat that have Tex-Mex than this

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