Puebla Modern - Restaurant Review

Puebla Modern - Restaurant Review

• 4.12.2017

How apt is it that I'm reviewing a taco place on #tacotuesday! A couple of days back, me and Imad were on our way to Elgin when we decided to stop at St Charles for a bit to enjoy the uncharacteristically glorious spring day and have some tacos. Without any recommendations or leads, we decided to head to Puebla - a modern Mexican restaurant.

For first impressions, Puebla definitely left a good one, I love the decor, the ambiance, the super high ceilings and windows - everything was perfect. Surprisingly, it's also a reasonably priced place - when I first entered the place, I definitely thought the bill would be a $100+ but ours came to about $60ish with drinks.

Now a little bit about the restaurant itself - Puebla, in its own words, specializes in recreating traditional Mexican cuisine with a modern twist!

Coming to a Mexican place, we both decided to stick with tacos and try out a few! Here's what we tried -

PESCADA - fresh fish/ cilantro lime aioli lettuce/ pico de gallo 

This was my least favorite  but Imad liked it the best! He loved the burst of flavors - me, not so much. I thought the kick wasn't the best and couldn't really taste any flavors on the fish itself. 

ESTILO BAJA - crispy beer battered fish/ red cabbage slaw avocado/ chills garlic aioli/ cilantro 

This was absolute perfection! Me and Imad kept on wondering throughout how something that's been deep fried could be this light and airy - seriously! Loved the texture, how it tasted, and how it looked!

EL JEFE - grilled shrimp/ sautéed onion chihuahua cheese/ chile de arbor salsa

My favorite of the bunch, and for Imad it was his least favorite. I'm a big shrimp fan - just keep some shrimp in front of me and I'm a fan. The shrimp here were juicy, not dry at all and full of flavors! The caramelized onions, which I loved, is what out Imad off since he felt it was too store bought BBQ tasting (go figure!)

All in all, out of the three that we ordered, there was atleast one kind that we LOVED and would come back for, the others were great, but nothing to keep raving about. The ambiance of the place, detail to attention, super friendly attendants were all great and all together made the visit a lovely dining experience!

Are these the best tacos I've had? Nope! Having said that, they're good but not great, especially when compared to Bein Trucha and El Molcajete in Geneva!

I've been to these two soo many times and every time I'm blown away by how fantastic everything served here it! I will get to eventually reviewing them once I've gotten some self control and actually take pictures of my food before gulping it down!

Rating - 7/10

Downtown St Charles
51 S. First Street St. Charles, IL 60174
Tel: (630) 945-3408