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.
If you’ve been a loyal reader of the Sun Day News, you may remember Mason Souza, a previous Assistant Editor. In the beginning of our tenure here, he recommended Los Fernandez Restaurant in Hoffman Estates. Since he was affiliated with the paper, we put his recommendation on top of our “To Do” list, and after only four short years, his turn finally arrived.
Los Fernandez Restaurant
2557 W. Golf Road
Hoffman Estates 60169
(847) 882-2900
www.losfernandezrestaurant.com
Directions: Take Rte. 47 South to I-90 East to Rte. 59 South to Golf Road East to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 25 minutes
Nancy loves miniature golf, and during one of our heated tournaments at Congo River Mini Golf, we always noticed the Los Fernandez Restaurant right next to it. Being the astute foodies that we were, we never thought of going there. Then years later they moved to the Hoffman Village Shopping Center next door to a short lived indoor glow in the dark miniature golf center. Of course Nancy wanted to try this mini golf center, saw Los Fernandez, and a light bulb lit up over her blonde head and she exclaimed, “we should try that place sometime.”
“Sometime” finally arrived and here is our review. Los Fernandez is a huge storefront restaurant; half of it is a banquet hall, and the other half is a colorful restaurant with cute Mexican tchotchke adorning the walls.
The waiter brought over a basket of warm homemade tortilla chips with three different dipping sauces. One sauce (which we thought was the best) was a jalapeno/tomatillo mixture, one a traditional salsa, and the last was a red chile sauce.
Dining Duo Tip: Combine the jalapeno/tomatillo sauce with the traditional salsa and your taste buds will have a Cinco de Mayo party!
Since Nancy is still on her diet, we took a pass on the appetizer and went straight to the entrees. Nancy ordered the Chimichanga ($10.99). This was a deep fried burrito filled with your choice of meat (Nancy chose the ground beef). This was topped with pico de gallo, shredded cheese, served with Mexican rice and refried beans. She asked for the pico de gallo to be put on the side and for some reason they forgot to put the cheese on top of her Chimichanga. The Chimichanga was huge but the meat was very bland and could have used a lot more seasoning.
Jim won with his Fajita Mix ($16.99). This was a mix of steak, chicken, and shrimp with caramelized Spanish onions, diced tomato, and sauteed sliced green and red bell peppers. This also came with Mexican rice and refried beans. The fajita mix arrived on a huge sizzling platter overflowing with ingredients. This was really delicious, the only downfall was they didn’t take the tails off the shrimp.
Now to complete our Mexican Fiesta, we ordered the Sopapillas ($5.99). This was a scoop each of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream served with deep fried tortillas wedges, and covered with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Because of Nancy’s infamous diet, I had to step up to the plate and devour 99% of it. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do!
If you like fajitas, this is your place. Contrary to most Mexican restaurants, the food served here is not that spicy and neither are their salsas.
The costo for our Cinco de Mayo celebration was $45.02, ‘ole!
Jim’s take: My fajita and refried beans were delicious. Why is there no hot sauce on the table?
Nancy’s take: I loved that jalapeno/tomatillo sauce with the salsa; I ate a lot of chips…
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com.
