Irazu Costa Rican Restaurant is a Latin American restaurant in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

that opened in 1990. It is cash only and

BYOB BYOB or BYO is an initialism and acronym concerning alcohol that means "bring your own bottle" or "bring your own booze" or "bring your own beer". BYOB is stated on an invitation to indicate that the host will not be providing alcohol and that gu ...

. Irazu is located on the storied

Milwaukee Avenue (Chicago) North Milwaukee Avenue is a street in the city of Chicago and the northern suburbs. Route description True to its name, the street, which began as a Native American trail, eventually leads north to the state of Wisconsin and through Kenosha an ...

in the Bucktown/ Wicker Park neighborhood on Chicago's north side. The name Irazu takes its name from a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

in Costa Rica.

The menu is known for its Costa Rican sandwiches, traditional dishes, burritos, and non-alcoholic drinks, especially milkshakes. Owner Henry Cerdas described it as "Latin soul cuisine-an overlap of Mexican and South American food," and intended to be a casual, non-pretentious atmosphere suitable for kids.

Décor

Anna Maria Barry-Jester of

Five Thirty Eight ''FiveThirtyEight'', sometimes rendered as ''538'', is an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in th ...

's Life blog described the décor as "A beautiful outdoor patio strung with lights and murals of volcanic scenes at indoor tables are the superficial draw. A chalkboard next to my table listed the top 10 sites to visit in Costa Rica, and the tables were covered in a particular red plastic that had me wondering if I’d been magically transported to Central America."

National Media Coverage

National Best Burritos

Irazu was one of three Chicago restaurants to make

The Daily Meal The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. It is the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group. Jim Spanfeller is a former CEO of Forbes.com. In 2016, Spanfeller was acquired by Tribune Publishing. Content The Daily Meal produces original c ...

's top 35 best burritos in America list.

Secret Life of Milkshakes (Food Network)

Irazu was profiled on "The Secret Life of Milkshakes" with Jim O'Connor on

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Food Network)

Irazu was featured on

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that premiered on April 23, 2007, on the Food Network. It is hosted by Guy Fieri. The show o ...

with

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

visiting and sampling the chicharron with

pico de gallo ''Pico de gallo'' (, ), also called ''salsa fresca'' ('fresh sauce'), ''salsa bandera'' ('flag sauce'), and ''salsa cruda'' ('raw sauce'), is a type of salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine. It is traditionally made from chopped tomato, onio ...

and a pepito sandwich with steak and black beans.

Check Please!

Irazu was featured on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

TV food show

Check, Please! ''Check, Please!'' is a multi-Emmy Award winning restaurant review program that began on Chicago's PBS member station WTTW in 2001. The show's popularity inspired spin-offs in several other markets. A San Francisco version of the show, ''Check, ...

Five Thirty Eight's Burrito Bracket

The popular

website of

Nate Silver Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEight' ...

, owned by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, profiled Irazu's burritos in its Burrito Bracket national competition. The blog noted the irony that burritos are not Costa Rican food. Barry-Jester wrote, "It serves a popular burrito, but that’s not why people go there to eat."

Chuckie Sparkles Special

Chuckie Sparkles awarded Irazu "Best Homestyle Restaurant in the City" every year from 1996 to 2020.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.irazuchicago.com Latin American restaurants in Chicago Restaurants established in 1990 Costa Rican cuisine

Menu