Takeout Review: A Toda Madre

Takeout from a restaurant you love can potentially be a disastrous experience, as not many sensations are worse than being completely let down by your favorite dish. Luckily if some of your favorite foods reside on the menu at A Toda Madre in downtown Glen Ellyn, then this takeout is for you.

When ordering takeout from a sit-down restaurant, the most important factor is picking up your food fresh. Allow for time to park, and time to flag down the bartender at an overcrowded bar with limited standing room.

For this particular takeout meal, however, I did not take all the necessary precautions to ensure freshness, as I waited in line for the hostess table (a mistake I’ve unfortunately made more than once) before then waiting to flag down the bartender — meaning this meal could have been even more satisfying than it was.  I’ll be sure to order again soon and find out.

The order was placed for rice (not just any rice, white rice, with poblano cubes, sour cream, and chihuahua cheese…yeah it’s good), and three sets of tacos; the A Toda Madre, the Bien Trucha (my personal fave) and the Pescado (ordered specifically thinking it would hold up well to take out).

The Bien Trucha, which combines grilled skirt steak, with chorizo, chihuahua, and roasted tomatillo-serrano salsa, was delicious as always with maybe just a hint of takeout attrition. The Pescado similarly impressed, with predictably little takeout attrition as it’s fried exterior held up well, and the slaw goes on separately at home. For whatever reason though, the A Toda Madre was hit a little harder by the takeout.  As a pastor marinated pork with chihuahua, pineapple, pico de gallo, and salsa morita, the pork ended up colder than usual and may have been a little soggier due to the pico, salsa and pineapple. Meanwhile, the rice was fantastic.

All in all this experience exceeded my expectations, and as far as takeout goes I give this a solid 5 out of 5 stars. If you are stuck on what to do for dinner tonight, go ahead and treat yourself to some A Toda Madre takeout.