Tipsi Monkey Taco & Tequila Bar

The name makes it sound like a male nudie bar but its a mexixan restaurant. The only meat slapped in my face was a burrito and it was alright.

Enjoying this amazing wings for only 40 cents watching the game… Every time I stop by I have a great time ^.^/

Shrimp enchiladas consisted of plain shrimp rolled in a plain flour tortilla with what seemed to be a canned sauce thrown on top. Yuck! Hubby had BBQ tacos… dried meet with BBQ sauce. Yuck!
The waitress was nice and the chips n salsa ok. Otherwise steer clear of this place. Drinks were horrible. Peach margarita def did not have any alcohol in it. Unless your taking straight shots don’t bother. They don’t even have a drink menu. This place is in need of a Rescue!

DRUNKY MONKEY
Well we didn’t see any of those here but that would have been fun. Thanks to my fellow Unilocalers for steering us to this place.
A giant rain storm was heading towards 6 Flags Great America and we decided it was time for an early dinner. We walked in about 5pm on a Saturday. There are only 4 low tables and the rest were all tall boys. There’s also a bar and an outdoor patio you can eat at. We ended up at a tall boy which my little one did not like but we did not have any other choice. It was too rainy and cold to eat outside.
Our waitress was very attentive. She checked with us 3 times before we ever ordered. I noticed from other reviews that service was a bad thing here and we had the opposite experience. Our waitress was very attentive.
We ordered a Bowl of Tortilla Soup with diced tomatoes, onions, avocado and Cilantro, lime, Corn and Corn tortilla strips. We asked our waitress if the soup was spicy and she said, «No!» It was for our little one who loves soup. I will tell you it was spicy. My little one was a trooper and kept eating it. I was so proud because we love spicy in our family & she kept muscling it down. We finally said it was okay to pass the bowl to Mom & Dad. As we spooned in the spicy goodness, our little one kept dipping tortilla chips in. That says a lot about how delicious the soup was. What made me laugh was the menu said «Dare us to make it spicy!» I kept thinking wow what would they do to it to make it even hotter. It was at the perfect heat level already.
The menu on-​line says the first two bowls of tortilla chips are free. We checked with our waitress on our third bowl and she said we weren’t going to be charged for it. Yes! Thanks! The chips were served warm and the hint of oil on the chip told me they were fresh. I also loved the salsa too. This was also made fresh. The onions, jalapeño & cilantro were crunchy. You only find that in fresh salsa.
My wife and I decided to share two dishes. So we ordered an appetizer of POTATO TAQUITOS and the Enchiladas Luis.
The Potato Taquitos contained a delicious potato filling in a corn tortilla & deep fried. They were also served with a house salsa, which was really good. These were so fresh that 20 minutes later they were still piping hot in the middle. My little one jumped in on these and loved them. She loves to Shanghai our food. I love the amazing palate for her age. The filling was amazing and so tasty. I could totally understand why she wanted these.
I added on a side of guacamole to the appetizer for only $ 2. I kind of wish I did not do that. It was not my favorite. In fact it was less guacamole and more avocado chunks covered in lime and spices. I would not order this again. In fact, our whole table agreed that this was the only weak link.
We also ordered the ENCHILADAS LUIS, which were four corn tortillas stuffed with grilled steak, cilantro & onions and topped with luiz’s nearly famous enchilada sauce and a side of rice and beans.
Our little one took all of the rice. I snuck a fork of it and it was the best rice I’ve ever had. I loved the chunks of corn in the rice.
The steak enchiladas were fantastic. I can not wait to have these again. The beans were also really good and I could totally taste the lard in there. That is the only way to make them authentic.
Everything was amazing. I could hardly believe there was fantastic Mexican food in the middle of nowhere. The Tipsy Monkey would be an instant hit in downtown Chicago. I really can not wait to come back.
This place has a bunch of tequila to choose from. We were able to order bottles of Miller Lite for only $ 2. That’s a great special for a Saturday night.
One of the cute things I saw was when the bar closes. It says it closes when the last monkey leaves. Now that’s when I would see a Tipsy Monkey turn into a Drunky Monkey. I’m gonna have to come back at 2am or maybe not.
We also met the owner Mel. We gave him a bunch of compliments and he was very humble. We also told him to tell the chef everything was amazing. Mel even brought over a bowl of ice cream on the house for our little one. That was really nice of him. I think he felt bad she tried to muscle down the spicy soup. We told him it wasn’t a problem.
So if you are looking for an incredible meal in an expected location then this is the place. My wife had also been on a roll when picking delicious suburban restaurants. Well this was my pick but I still am going to include it in the list I made for my wife. I’m sure she would have found it. I just got lucky and beat her to the punch. I can’t wait to come back.

The food is ridiculously good! The sauces are amazing, and the staff is wonderful. I absolutely recommend this place!

Stopped by The Tipsi Monkey before heading out for the evening. The place was far from packed and after we tasted the food, I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t. The food was excellent. After living in this area all my life with no real fine restaurants. Normally you’d be used to finding more towards the Chicago or Milwaukee area. The chef was super friendly, stopping by the table to see how we were liking the food. He also chatted with us about how he came about opening the place. I definitely recommend this place.

So we found this place, the menu looked good and we decided to give it a try. We are so glad we did — it was great! Everyone was really nice, our waitress was friendly and attentive. Even the chef and the owner came over to say hi and make sure we were doing ok. The food was awesome, it was so fresh and full of flavor. I have to say, this is on our list of favorite places to eat — we will be going back often!

We love the Tipsi Monkey! It is close to home, and delicious. The service is really great, and the food is awesome. I wish that I could vouch for more of the menu, but the steak tacos are so good, that I cannot bring myself to order anything else when I’m there. The waiter, I believe his name is Raj? Is as charming as they get, and he will do quite a bit to please his customers. He once walked to the store to get tabasco sauce for a friend of mine, because they didn’t have any. And even when the store had none, he searched until we had tabasco on the table. Not a HUGE deal, but its little things like that that make service great. I would also suggest the strawberry daiquiri. It was one of the best I’ve ever had. The setting isn’t ridiculously impressive, it’s a small room but it’s decorated well, and it’s never over crowded. I hope this place stays open because in a small town like the Harbor, options are hard to come by, and this place is great!

This place is fine. I think it’s overpriced for what you get. The staff is nice and the food okay.

The sad truth is that the stars had to align just right for my visit at the Tipsi Monkey to occur: we drove past the place on our way to a different restaurant in the area which happened to look VERY closed (read: not closed for the day, but closed for the last three decades), we weren’t at all familiar with the area, and I wasn’t originally in the mood for Mexican food. I can’t tell you how happy I was that we stopped.
I can only describe my entrée as «the U.N. lunch special» (my own nickname, not one given by the proprietor) in that it was BBQ pork tacos with deep fried wonton wrappers as the taco shells (I’m moaning as I type this. Delicate, crispy, just substantial enough to maintain structural integrity in the perilous travel time from plate to mouth!), served by an Indian kid, in a Mexican restaurant located in Illinois. !!! There’s soooo much going on in that equation I’m not sure why it all works out, but the sum of all those parts was nothing less than blissful.
The Tipsi Monkey isn’t just some blahblah restaurant with a trendy name to attract out-​of-​towners. Nor is it run by some brainless schlep who is willing to throw all kinds of money at gaudy table tents and garish dining room décor while cutting every corner possible in the kitchen. Though, now that I’ve said that, I should mention that the dining room is decorated … interestingly. I was tickled to death by it, but those of you who prefer to find yourselves in a hermetically-​controlled, gilded snob box jaded restaurant critics might laud as «haute» or «chic», well … you might be underwhelmed.
The following are a few of the things we discovered tipping back a few at the Tipsi Monkey.
— Homemade wall decorations: they looked like stock pictures of monkeys and they had hand-​drawn word bubbles coming out of their mouths. I laughed my butt clean off.
— The bar’s closing time posted on the door is not a set time but «when the last monkey leaves.»
— The head chef (were I one of those jaded restaurant critics I might call him the chef de cuisine), smiling, greeted us at the front door. He had just finished a quality check at another table to make sure they were enjoying their meals. I immediately took this as a good sign.
— COMFORTABLE seating. Too often have I found myself in a restaurant — be it part of a chain or independently owned and operated — where the dining room is so stuffed with tables and chairs that I, as well as other diners much less the poor staff, scarcely have room to breathe and relax. «More tables = more people = more money» is a deceptive restaurateur mentality. Totally counter-​intuitive at the sacrifice of comfort.
— A varied and sassily-​written core menu. After I’d made the agonizing and painful decision on my entrée, I wanted to keep reading just to keep giggling.
— AWESOME, attentive, personalized service from one of the co-​owners, Raj. I will qualify this statement by pointing out that we were in somewhere near the hour of 3:00pm on a weekday, a time most restaurants see the least business; however, if I am trying a restaurant for the first time and want to give them the best chance to impress, I won’t time my visit for 7:30pm on a Saturday.
I’m not sure if Raj was some kind of warlock or better yet a Jedi Master, but somehow he talked me into having two shots and a (hand-​poured, house recipe!) pomegranate margarita in the middle of the afternoon. He used a pomegranate liqueur in the pomerita and apologized that he wasn’t currently using his original recipe because pomegranates weren’t in season. … They juice pomegranates. Talk about NOT cutting corners!
Both of my midafternoon shots were free: one (Sauza silver tequila — not the best, but not the worst to give away for free) was because I was willing to «like» Tipsi Monkey on Bookface, the second was because we’d stopped in the day before my 30^th birthday. Rumchata + Jagermeister = tastytasty Cinnamon Toast Crunch shot.
My boyfriend ordered a smothered flank steak special upon Raj’s suggestion. More magic, trickery, or Jedi juju must have occurred in the back-​of-​the-​house because that was one helluva tender flank steak. I already told you about my «U.N. lunch special» of awesomeness. They make their guacamole to order using a house recipe and, while it didn’t stand out to me as the most unique or mind-​blowing preparation, sometimes sticking to the basics is the best way to go. It wasn’t broken so they didn’t fix it.
The Tipsi Monkey is owned and operated by the family who owns the convenience store next door (I poked my head in to say «Hi» to Raj’s grandma and assure her that he really was a «very nice boy»), not by some far-​flung corporate office in Ohio. If you’re lucky, you’ll be greeted by the head chef and served by one of the owners. If you’re REALLY lucky, that same owner and one of his managers might invite you out for drinks and show you a great time while you’re visiting from elsewhere.

Can’t believe this is in the Harbor! Great food, lots of flavor, I hope the word gets out and they can do well.

My fiancée and I stopped in for lunch last Tuesday. Due to not having the greatest of weather, the place was very quiet. We were greeted by one of the owners, who was fantastic in helping us and making us some great pomegranate margaritas. The chef, Luis, came out and asked us what we like, as we were looking at the menu. My fiancée loves the regular milanesa, which is not on the menu, but Luis said that he would make it special for him. I ordered the tacos. Chips and salsa were brought out to us and they were fantastic. Then came the food. 2 large plates of deliciousness. I am not a fan of when, especially at hispanic restaurants, everything is put on one plate and tends to run into whatever is put next to it (especially beans). Tipsi Monkey avoids this by putting the sides of rice and beans in small bowls on the plate. Love this! The very first thing out of both of our mouths when we took our first bites was «mmm». We were hooked. Everything was delicious and cooked perfectly. Great food, great staff, and a great atmosphere. I would definitely recommend this restaurant/​bar to anyone.

Felt like some kind of weird franchise. Like indian owned mexican. Really weird. The food was average nothing special. Also in a shady motel parking lot.

My wife and I try to make it once a week. Fantastic food, Margaritas from scratch, Chef Luis is the most accommodating Chef I have ever met! Bartender Jessica great also and very nice. Try it folks you will not be sorry.

I had spent all day traveling from the STL to Chicago, soaked to the core because my train I needed was at O and I was at US, tired, hungry, and just plain exhausted. I get a text from my friend saying «Hope you are hungry, we are going to TIpsi Monkey». At first I was thinking to myself «Is this a new drink?»
We pull up, and surprise, it is a restaurant. Cute place. Walk in and the bar is off to the right, tables to the left, and straight in front of you in the kitchen, where you can see the guys making your food. I was surprised it wasn’t crazy busy, since it was 8:30 on a Friday night.
Drink menu. So many choices, so little time. I decided to go with the Monkey Sangria. I went with the class, but I was curious about the 55 gallon drum. I mean after all, I was on vacation. My friend went with the Drunken Monkey. That, my friends, was amazing as well.
A couple drinks later, we decided to get food as well. Well, it seemed like a few drinks later… anywho…their food was good as well. They have killer (fire? is that the word the kids say nowadays) chips and salsa. Not everybody can say that. Their salsa was fresh and had a nice kick to it. They also had verde for the gringos/​as that can’t handle spice.
Back to the food. I ended up getting the special that they had. I went with chicken and spinach tacos, which reminded me of the tacos that I would get from the food truck. They were just the right size and came in a 3 pack. My one friend went with Enchiladas Luis, with the potato chrizo mix, beans and rice. OMG. Party in my mouth. He husband went with the Fish tacos and those were yummy as well.
As if we weren’t full on alcohol and food, we decided to order dessert. Dessert Nachos. Insane. Tortilla cut into wedges, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, then covered with chocolate and caramel sauce. Oh wait. There’s more. Then, you have the ‘dip’. Coconut ice cream with coconut flakes and sauce as well.
My taste buds went into overdrive after that.
If you are in the area, you much check this place out. I am a fan and I can not wait to go back!