La Cocina de Frida: User Reviews

The food was uninspired. My wife ordered the rellenos, one of which was lined with what my wife said was a plank of mozzarella, and the other, a picadillo relleno, filled with what the menu promised to be an interesting meat, fruit, & nut stuffing (reminds me of rissoles I make, and empanadas I've had, actually, in a way); rather, it was dry, and bland, and the exiguous drawing of salsa (menu says "a bed of tomato salsa, but all that was there was literally a thin line of a nondescript sauce, drawn on the plate), on a plate that needs more, didn't do much to help.

I ordered the "Bomba," a combination of pork, chorizo, ham, bell peppers, pineapple, thick top of cheese. I wanted a carne de puerco, served with nopalitos, but they were out.

What I had was a bland bowl of chopped food that lacked heat and smoke, despite promising a chile de arbol salsa; I expected a medley of fruit sweetness, some heat and smoke, which sounded like a nice bounce off of the pork. It fell flat; like the rellenos, the dish was bland, and otherwise, in truth, I tasted nothing of arbol. Topped with a serious amount of cheese that, as with the cheese relleno, acted to kill off what was already a dish lacking in vitality.

Secondly, the service was very, very poor, though he meant no harm - nice, but very much in need of training. The patio had, I think, 4 tables going - one of which had wrapped it up. Ourselves, and a couple of other tables, effectively. Our server took our order, and after what seemed to me to be a considerable lag, our food was dropped. That was the last time we saw our server, until corralling him near the end of the meal, at which time my wife asked if she might have a bit more salsa for her plate. He disappeared, and never came back. We wanted a second round of drinks - the server knew this, as we earlier toyed with it out loud when he dropped the plates, talked, and decided we had the time and inclination; we only waited for him to return, which he never did.

We began to finally walk inside, as we had long finished our meals (again, he never came back - and never brought my wife's request). We passed our server and told him we'd like to pay upfront.

We got inside to see another server handling a few tables there, We got inside to see another server handling a few tables there, the kitchen goofing around quite loudly, and that's it. No managers apparently on duty, only two waiters who just didn't have it down, again, in our opinion.

Our waiter knew we wanted to leave, at this point, and came up to us to tell us he "couldn't give us a bill, but it was ____ " (He told us the total). I asked why he couldn't give us a bill, he said the printer wasn't working, and so I asked to see the total on the computer, which he obliged. I paid, and we left, very, very disappointed.

For us, a complete disaster, from start to finish, unfortunately.

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I ate there once when it was Angel's and found the food great, a second time my service was lousy and I had not returned until now. It has been over a year but with the new look and name I decided that I would try them. The menu looked great from the street and I must say I really enjoyed the food. The service was however, a disaster. There was not anyone to great my family of seven we had to venture past the kitchen to the back after waiting 7 minutes at the door. We finally found a gentleman who then said it would be a 30+ minute wait for the patio but the inside was not wait. We chose inside. After 25 minutes we were served water and chips and then waited another 10 before our waiter took our order for appetizers and white rice with butter, the request for the rice was to have it come before the main courses so the my niece would eat. To make a long story short the food arrived an hour and a half after we got there, no one offered to refill our drinks and not one person other than our server asked if we needed anything. What made this really bad was that in the time that we sat there, three other couples had came in, been served and left before we had even received our meal. The simple white rice with butter came 15 minutes after the main courses were delivered. The owner did offer a gracious 25% discount for her not checking in us after she proceeded to tell use that her good waiter called off and we had received the new one. The $42 off the meal was nice and thankful but the purpose was I was just very disappointed in the service and as a manager myself I like to know what is happening in my store or shall we say what is not happening. I do not think I will be visiting this establishment any time soon. Someday I would like to try again and see if they can redeem themselves.

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My friends and I tried Frida's for the first time during Andersonville days. The patio area was very pleasant but everything else was a disappointment. We had a party of 8 and ordered two pitchers of margaritas along with two orders of guacamole. The servings were small and the margaritas were weak and sweet. I ordered thier famouse mole steak enchiladas. The mole sauce was dried up and hard and the steak was like eating pure grease. The bill came to almost three hundred dollars and we only had one margarita a piece. The price is outragous and the food was horrible. We will never go back and want to warn people not to waste your money or time with this restaurant.

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My husband and I went to La Cocina de Frida last night specifically because I wanted to try out the garden. It was beautiful and was the only reason I didn't walk out fifteen minutes after we came in. It was 9:15 when we arrived and the hostess told us it would be a fifteen minute wait and we could sit in the garden to wait. When we got there, we asked her if we could order a drink and she took our order. Ten minutes later we still hadn't received a drink. I asked another waiter if we could get our drinks and he pointed to a table he said we could have (I assume he didn't understand what I said). As we were getting ready to sit down, another group of people were ushered to the table. At this point, I stood up and was ready to leave when another waiter (the only one who seemed to have any clue how to serve people) came over and showed us to another table. This was 30 minutes after we got there and still no drinks. I mentioned to the guy who seated us that we ordered drinks a couple of times but no one seemed to want to give them to us. After we sat down, the service only marginally improved. There were a lot of waiters and busboys walking around but none of them seemed to want to serve us. The food was ok (my enchiladas de mole was served at room temperature so I assume it sat in the kitchen for awhile) and my husband really liked the Frida special but I would not go back. The garden was the only reason to eat there and the service was so bad that I can't justify it again.

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This may be the worst service I have ever experienced. We had to ask for water. We ended up waiting over an hour for food. Come on! Who waits an hour for mediocre Mexican? Frida would be so disappointed...

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La Cocina de Frida is one of the best Mexican restaurants I have ever experienced or reviewed. The food is so excellent, you will be wondering how they did it. Every item on the menu is made fresh every day from scratch and you can taste the difference. This is a wonderful place to go if you are looking for a real food experience. The care and energy that is placed in each dish is worth waiting for! The owner is very welcoming and she comes and talks to all the patrons. Everyone on the staff is also very friendly. This is not just a neighborhood joint trying to be a Mexican restaurant, this is the real deal. I savored every bite of food. This is truly a great place to have a meal and share it with friends.

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went there for a dinner one night, i live in the neighborhood, after it took 20 minutes for water and a water down drink.. i didn't even want to order dinner...there was 2 other tables in there....i guess not many people enjoy this restaurant. i went down the street to ole ole and got awesome margaritas and excellent service and it was packed with customers!

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Maybe it was because it was my first date, maybe it was the great food and the freshest Margaritas in chicago. But I have to say I didnt want to leave La Cocina de Frida last weekend. The place was packed and we got a cozy little corner table that was simply adorable! The patio was all lit up with candles and the weather helped tremendously. I ordered the ceviche to start and then had these enchiladas that were doused in a black bean puree that was phenomenal. My date had the chicken with a red guajillo and peanut sauce and it was amazing.
we ended with one of the best flans I've ever had and drank more margaritas!
I'll go there again and again. Service was good and the value fabulous!

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Do not go here. We went last weekend b/c we noticed the "Patio Open" sign. It should have said, "Patio Opening Soon" b/c we did not get service for literally 30 minutes. This is the first review i've ever written b/c normally i am a very patient customer. However, becuase the staff were extremely rude upon requesting a waiter i felt compelled to write this. To be honest, the DMV has better service!

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I went to this restaurant 2 weeks ago and I have gone back 3 times. I just cant get enough of it!
I had the enchiladas de Mole with plantain filling that were out of this world. I wish they had a little bit bigger menu but what they have is made so great!
Try the fresh juice Margaritas in the patio, I fell in love with it. Try to go at night when the patio is candle lit all over!

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