Crossing the Border to Get Some Mexican Fare

For weeks, my friend Karen and I have been trying to arrange our schedules so we could have dinner together with our families.  She had been craving Mexican food for quite a while, so we headed to El Molino Mexican Restaurant on Friday night.

El Molino is located at 2112 Elgin Road in Carpentersville, just south of the corner of Routes 25 and 62.

I made a 6 p.m. reservation for a table of 10. I arrived with my kids promptly at 6 o'clock, and even though our entire party was not there, we were seated anyway.

Our table was already set with silverware, menus and water cups full of ice cold water. Our waiter arrived after the kids and I were seated and took our drink orders.

As soon as the rest of our party arrived, we placed our drink orders and ordered an order of Queso Fundito to share. Queso Fundito is Mexican cheesy goodness in a soft flour tortilla. It can be a bit salty, but it is really quite good.

The adults in our party ordered a variety of dishes – Chicken Burrito’s, Enchiladas Huastaqunas (very hot), Enchiladas El Molino, and Macho Chimichangas. The Enchiladas Huastaquanas, Elchalidas El Molino and Macho Chimichangas were all a big hit but the Chicken Burritos were kind of bland and not really tasty. All the adult orders came with beans and rice.  The portion sizes are huge, so bring your appetite!

We had three teenagers in our party – two ordered the cheese quesadillas and one ordered a bowl of Spanish rice.  Allie and Kyle enjoyed their quesadillas, but McKenzie, who is a vegetarian, had a hard time finding something to order. She did not enjoy her rice, she said it was “flavorless.”

There is a small kids’ menu area on the adult menus that include tacos, quesadillas and chicken fingers. My little kids both ordered the chicken fingers with a side of rice while Karen’s daughter ordered the kids quesadilla with rice. The kids were busy talking and giggling and did not completely finish their dinners. They did seem to enjoy what they did eat.

Our server was excellent. I have not worked as a waitress/server but I can imagine taking care of a table of ten is not an easy task. Our server was always right there to refill our drinks or bring us the missing sour cream.

I had not been to El Molino in several years, but I am glad I went back. The food was good, the servings were plentiful and the service was great.

The only issue I had with El Molino is the noise level in the restaurant.  It gets really loud as soon as the restaurant starts getting full. It makes it very hard to have a conversation with the person next to you let alone a person sitting at the other end of the table.

We would give El Molino a collective 4 out of 5 stars.