Zapatista

1703 Freedom Dr.

Naperville, IL

630.904.1703

www.zapatistacantina.com

twitter.com/EatZapatista

Parking: Free lot

Days: Daily

Times: All Night Long

Drink Deals: Featured $5 Drink, every day but Friday

Food Deals: $5 Taco Dinner on Mon; All You Can Eat Fish Tacos on Fri

Zapatista is a welcome addition to the restaurant row, located near the many business parks in the Naperville/Lisle area.  Given that these business folks work normal 9-5 hours, the restaurants are smart to feature Happy Hours – see our reviews of White Chocolate Grill, Morton’s Steakhouse House, and now Zapatista – the newest Chicagoland location is an easy walk over! Happy Hour Tour regular Tamika & I checked out the new Mexican restaurant soon after its grand opening.

Like many Mexican restaurants, Zapatista features Margarita Mondays.  The margaritas are served in super large martini glasses for $5.  Now unlike other restaurants, Zapatista doesn’t just feature the basic margarita on special, but they offer strawberry, mango, pomegranate, prickly pear, raspberry, too! On other days, the margaritas cost $8 for basic flavor, additional $1 for fruity flavor.  The margaritas are good, but I would have loved to have a freshly made margarita versus the pre-made margaritas poured from a fountain. The rustic feel of the location lends itself to think fresh market ingredients, but it was good nonetheless. 

Zapatista gets the jump on Taco Tuesday by featuring their $5 taco special on Monday nights.  The taco special includes 2 tacos that can be mixed or matched with chicken, carne asada, carnitas, vegetables, or pescado.  For $5, I assumed that the special included tacos only, but it actually includes a full dinner with either rice & beans or spicy fries as a side!  I had the chicken and carne asada tacos, and I’m glad that I chose both so I could sample more than one. The chicken taco was by far better than the carne asada. The carne asada taco was all right, but it wasn’t very flavorful compared the chicken taco cooked tinga style, stewed with tomatoes and chipotle.

The service at Zapatista was welcoming and friendly.  With this being the third location to the Chicagoland area, Zapatista must be doing something right and they clearly care about their customers returning.  Case in point: I ordered my tacos without onions, but they were served with a healthy dose of onions.  The bartender insisted on getting me a fresh plate, but I wanted to eat with my friend and, opted to brush the onions off AND for this, I received a free margarita instead! Other staff talked to us as well to tell us about other daily specials, such as $5 sangria and Mexican Limonadas, in hopes of our return.

Onion issue aside, you can’t argue with the great deals and service at Zapatista.  Not only is it a good after work spot but it’s welcoming for families with a “kids eat free” special on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Zapatista is definitely the place to go when you want to get out, but save money for vacation.

-JG

Rating: 3.5  Margaritas