Irazu Visited 5/21/10 3.5 Forks

Irazu 1865 N Milwaukee Ave
(between Moffat St & Oakley Ave), Chicago, IL

When Deanna first mentioned Costa Rican food, I had flash backs to when I was in Costa Rica many years ago and I couldn't remember what the food was like...which isn't really good considering a love food and would remember it if the food was good. But it was a Friday night and there were 6 of us and we thought it would be best to go a bit more casual and laid back.

The restaurant has a great outdoor patio and luckily one of my friends was able to secure a spot for us outside. They are a BYOB place, which always helps to keep costs down. When I looked at the menu, everything sounded great and it was crazy crazy cheap! Burritos were $5 and tacos were $2. Dan and I decided to split 2 different dishes so that we could try different things. We ordered the casado with tilapia ($12 which was one of the more "expensive" items on the menu) and a Milanesa Sandwich ($4.95) which was a breaded steak sandwich with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Deanna got the vegetarian plate, Aarti and Erin got a veggie burrito, and Soph got the casado with chicken. As a table we got an order of Yuca with garlic oil ($3.95). When the Yuca came out, there were tons of pieces on the plate. We were each able to have at least 2-3 pieces. The yuca it's self was good but the BEST part was the garlic oil. It was just pure garlic goodness.

The first dinner plate that came out was Soph's casdo and it was enough food on the plate for 2 or maybe even 3. There must have been 2 giant chicken breasts and it came with sides of special costa rican rice (kind of like a dirty rice and beans), sweet plantains, a fried egg, and a cabbage salad. Our tilapia casado was the same but with tilapia (obviously) and the fish was cook well with no fuss. It almost seemed like it was steamed or cooked in a way that was not oily or saucy. Everyone else seemed to really like their food and most took home a to-go bag. The one thing that I wasn't a huge fan of was the milanesa sandwich. For me, there was too much bread and the steak was dry and a bit too tough.

I read and heard that the oatmeal shake is really good but I didn't get it. I would definitely go back and try a bunch of different things b/c it's so cheap (Dan and my portion of the bill was $24).