Big Star Chicago

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:

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

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

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

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:

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:

And the 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.