Irazu Costa Rican Restaurant is a Latin American restaurant in Chicago, Illinois that opened in 1990. It is located on Milwaukee Avenue in the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood on Chicago's north side. The restaurant takes its name from the Irazú volcano in Costa Rica.[1]
Menu
The menu offers Costa Rican sandwiches, traditional dishes, burritos, and non-alcoholic drinks, and milkshakes.[2] Owner Henry Cerdas described it as "an overlap of Mexican and South American food."[3]
Décor
Anna Maria Barry-Jester of FiveThirtyEight'sLife 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."[4]
National media coverage
Best Burritos in the Nation
Irazu was one of three Chicago restaurants to make The Daily Meal's top 35 best burritos in America list.[5][6]
Secret Life of Milkshakes (Food Network)
Irazu was profiled on The Secret Life of Milkshakes with Jim O'Connor on Food Network.[7]
The popular FiveThirtyEight website of Nate Silver, owned by ESPN, 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."[4]
Chuckie Sparkles Special
Chuckie Sparkles awarded Irazu "Best Homestyle Restaurant in the City" every year from 1996 to 2020.[citation needed]