Morena's Kitchen

Dominican restaurant · Logan Square ·

Morena's Kitchen

Dominican restaurant · Logan Square ·

Dominican & Mexican fare, pica pollo, sancocho, late-night

Information

3758 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 Get directions

$10–20

@eater

391,688 Postcards · 10,991 Cities

Morena’s Kitchen Dominican restaurant has opened in Humboldt Park | Eater Chicago

"Chef-owner Miriam Montes de Oca recently reopened her longtime Dominican restaurant at 3758 W. North Avenue in Humboldt Park after closing the original Armitage Avenue location during the COVID downturn. The menu focuses on Dominican staples — sancocho, oxtail, rabo guisado, chivo guisado, mondongo, lengua — and signature items like los tres golpes, rotisserie chicken, and a much-loved Dominican fried chicken made with a secret spice blend and traditionally 'washed' with citrus or vinegar to remove gaminess and sharpen flavor. Sharing a space and a sliding-door connection with a neighboring Mexican bar led to retaining popular Mexican items (tortas, tacos, burritos, chilaquiles), which eased the transition for regulars and broadened appeal; the restaurant also sells less-commonly served meats and stocks Dominican sodas such as Country Club. It stays open late (usually until midnight and 1 a.m. on weekends), sources specific Dominican ingredients through community contacts, relies on Facebook and Instagram for accurate hours and updates due to lingering online listing confusion, and serves as an important late-night and cultural hub for Chicago’s small but growing Dominican and Caribbean communities while navigating food-cost pressures and the challenges of restarting after a prolonged closure." - Nylah Iqbal Muhammad

https://chicago.eater.com/2024/10/11/24267218/morenas-kitchen-open-north-avenue-humboldt-park-dominican-restaurant-fried-chicken

Morena's Kitchen

@eater

391,688 Postcards · 10,991 Cities

A Critic Calls New Nepalese Restaurant a ‘Pure Sensory Delight’ | Eater Chicago

"I found that, despite moving into a bigger space, what's unchanged at Morena’s Kitchen is the soulfulness of Miriam Montes de Oca’s food. The star dish is the pica pollo—"crackly chunks of citrus-marinated fried chicken" that can drive a person into "paroxysms of bone-gnawing pleasure," and it's wise to order extra to go (though you may not be able to resist snacking on a piece on the ride home). Other highlights include sancocho stew teeming with tender beef, root veggies, and dumplings that "warms to a dose of explosive habanero sauce," and shrimp and peppers in a garlic sauce served with a mound of mofongo." - Jeffy Mai

https://chicago.eater.com/2019/6/7/18656938/reviews-vajra-joes-imports

Morena's Kitchen

Katrina R.

Google

Exactly what I needed and some real authentic food. The jugo de chinola is divine. I always order the tres golpes and it transports me instantly to the DR. They also have Presidente and Country Club. Morena is always there and will remember you. Service is warm and tummies are filled fast. Panzita llena, corazon contenta.

Reyna G.

Google

This place called morenas kitchen/la Lena is a Dominican restaurant I’ve traveled more than 2 hours here to Chicago to enjoy Dominican food.They will upcharge you for everything here.They charge you extra for things that are included in the menu.It does not look like the picture as it shows. My mom order a chivo guisado. I ordered bisteck guisado and they charged me extra. Most items were not available on the menu. We arrived in the afternoon. The waitress was nice and tried to reason with the owner but she still decided to charge us extra. She didn’t even bother to give us a discount since we were obviously bothered.I’ve been to many restaurants and never once do they charge me extra for things that are already included on the plate. My total was basically 65 dollars. Not 10-20 per person like google says. Almost 7 dollars for a large drink of chinola that’s not even made naturally. I genuinely feel like me and my mom were robbed of having a nice experience here while we could’ve gone to a better Dominican restaurant. Please save your money not everything here is as it seems. Also seeing other dishes served did not look like the photos I genuinely believe it may have been served to a friend or family and they wrote reviews.

Carolyn B.

Google

morena’s kitchen is a trip to the Dominican Republic if you’ve never been (punta cana doesn’t count!). morena’s food is a seat at a Dominican household table for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and a trip into unique caribbean flavors. the sancocho is to die for and the tres golpes (green plantain, egg, cheese and salami) will forever by my favorite. i got the chivo and moro de guandules last time and it was EVERYTHING! as a person who lived on the island for 11+ years, I could confidently say morena’s food is even better than many dishes I had at local restaurants in DR and NYC. 10/10!

Norman H.

Google

excellent food, extremely friendly service, highly recommend!

Magda S

Google

Amazing!! Very tasty

Joel N.

Google

It was a great meal. Service was great.

Carmen R.

Google

Great food

Eliot Leon R.

Google

Todo nos gustó, el sancocho estaba muy bueno, el pollo guisado muy Rico. Y sobre todo la atención de la señorita , Melani nos hizo sentir como en casa. El gasto es depende lo que desees comer. El servicio al cliente es la clave de todo exito.

Mike S.

Yelp

My husband said he wanted to take me someplace, a surprise. He said to dress casual, and that it was 75 minutes away. He was born in the Dominican Republic, so he was hoping to find the taste of home here. Did he find it? Sadly, not so much. We started with Presidente Beer (from the Dominican Republic), which had a light, easy taste, going down smoothly. It's certainly a good choice for beer over dinner. Back to that casual dining, there were three others here on a Thursday at 9pm. A gentleman in Jeans and T, a guy in sweats, and his girlfriend. So pretty darn casual it is. The restaurant lacks any signage, it's in the building which says "La Leena Restaurante" on the right side under that sign. There are bars on all of the windows and doors, but I suspect those are from the 60's. Then again, I made my spouse bring his cell phone inside the restaurant LOL. BTW, parking is on the street, there isn't a parking lot that we could find. As an appetizer, we each had a beef Enpanada. I loved the crunch and thought the flavor was good. My husband said it was "OK". My main course was Pica Pollo, Dominican style fried chicken with tostones, twice fried plantain. The crunch on the chicken was amazing, the chicken itself was moist. Although after eating the chicken my mouth tasted salty, too much salt for me. The tostones were good, they reminded me of my mother-in-laws tostones. I have to add, my husband said that the fried chicken wasn't quite the same as he had as a kid in the DR. My husband had the Carne Asada, skirt steak and an enormous pile of Dominican-style rice with beans. He said the beef had no taste, he likes things heavily seasoned. I tasted it, and it does have a mild flavor which seemed good to me. His DR style rice and beans was gone super fast, he loved it. As a side we had Maduros, which I thought were perfect. They reminded my of his mom's cooking, but he said they weren't ripe enough, not sweet enough. The waitress was attentive and helpful while placing our order. Oh, we both wanted to order Goat, but they were out, so don't get your heart set on any one thing. In short, Morena's Kitchen might be like your mom's cooking, but it wasn't up to scratch for my husband's mom's cooking. The location with the parking, and bars on the window, and general run-down appearance of the place would have made me leave if it weren't for my husbands dream of finding some home cooking. I'll still give the food three stars, maybe 3.5.