Rudy's Taste

By Rachelle Bowden in Food on Apr 3, 2006 12:10PM

Chicagoist had walked past Rudy's Taste on Ashland Avenue many times but had never gone in. Once, more than a year ago, we even grabbed a menu, thinking it looked like an interesting restaurant and that we should try it some day, but we never did. Not even after it was featured in Time Out Chicago's "Save This Restaurant" call out, meant to get people to go to restaurants that are good but in danger of closing. We thought, "Oh yeah, we should try that place." Finally, this weekend we were trying to think of somewhere to go for lunch and decided to give it a try.

What's interesting is that the cuisine at Rudy's Taste is Guatemalan, primarily, but also Caribbean and Mexican and there are Cuban and Puerto Rican sandwiches thrown in for good measure. We read somewhere that Rudy is from Guatemala, but that his father is Mexican and his wife is Cuban, which would explain the menu.

Our lunch began with some fresh-from-the-fryer tortilla chips and some medium-spicy salsa. Never one to pass up fried plantains of any sort, we got the Plantanos Maduros, sweet fried plantains sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar with sour cream on the side. We thought that this dish was going to be overly sweet, but the sugar was actually a good balance with the starchiness of the plantain and the tartness of the sour cream.

Next we had hilachas, a popular Guatemalan stew made with shredded beef and diced potatoes that is simmered for 3 hours in a Creole red sauce made of roasted tomato/tomatillo sauce. The sauce was tasty and mild and the meat, very tender. The hilachas was served with Mayan rice. We can imagine this stew would be a great comfort on a cold day. We also had a jibarito, a Puerto Rican sandwich. Imagine a sandwich made of steak or chicken, lettuce, tomato, American cheese and a generous slathering of mayonnaise. But now instead of bread, imagine if the sandwich was held together with two big, flattened plantains that are fried in hot garlic oil. And to think we were almost about to get the Cuban sandwich. The jibarito was hard to eat, but worth the effort. Like the Puerto Rican Herald says, this is a "complete meal that combines hot and cold, chewy and crispy, creamy and garlicky all in one delicious, messy bite." (Read more about the history of the jabarito and how it was invented here in Chicago.) The jibarito was served with a good-sized scoop of Puerto Rican rice.

One other thing we liked was that the windows and tables at Rudy's Taste are covered in Guatemalan tapestries to give it a unique, authentic feeling. Our one complaint is that the service was super slow. Rudy, himself, was there but seemed to be meeting with an associate the entire time. Besides him, there was only one other employee working the dining room and with his frequent and long trips back to the kitchen, we joked that he was doing the cooking too. The chips in the beginning were good and we quickly drank all of our water. We were then served our appetizer without a water refill and without getting the drinks we ordered. It also took a really long time to get our check at the end of the meal. Besides us, there were only two other small tables of people in the restaurant and they didn't even come in until we were nearly done with our meal. Still, we'll go back because there is a lot of things on the menu that sound interesting and delicious and we have got to try them out.

Rudy's Taste, 1024 N. Ashland Ave., 773-252-3666

Larger photos at rachelleb.com.