What to Eat

What to Eat at Quesadilla: La Reyna del Sur, Now Serving Vegetarian Mexican Cuisine

Only veggies and fake meat products in here.
Only veggies and fake meat products in here. Photo: Nick Kindelsperger

We weren’t exactly surprised to hear about the closing of El Ojo de Agua on Western Ave in Bucktown. Though its tongue tacos were included in Chicago Magazine’s list of the city’s 30 best Mexican dishes — they were very good — it didn’t exactly have much else of note. No, what we are surprised about is Quesadilla: La Reyna del Sur, which opened a few weeks ago in the same space, and is serving only vegetarian Mexican cuisine.

What’s especially odd is that its menu is split between the kind of vegetable-based dishes that we love about Mexican cuisine, and the kind of fake soy-meat products that make us cringe. Essentially, all of the options for tacos are in the latter category — including something that claims to be soy-based chicharrónes. Blasphemy!

But the options for quesadillas and huraches sound much better. There you can order mushrooms, rajas (roasted chili strips), zuchini blossoms, and even huitlacoche, which is a corn smut that is oddly delicious.

Check out the full menu below. Plus: do you know of many other Mexican restaurants in the city that completely refrain from cooking meat?

Quesadilla: Reyna del Sur Menu [JPEG]

Quesadilla: Reyna del Sur, 2235 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60647; 773-235-8807

What to Eat at Quesadilla: La Reyna del Sur, Now Serving Vegetarian Mexican