El Torero Mexican Restaurant

Phone: 618-451-1177

3439 Nameoki Rd

Granite City, Illinois 62040

El Torero looks like a new Mexican restaurant in town.  I think they try to hard to appeal to the American public, it is almost tacky.  They have an American flag in their name, American flags in the writing in the booths, and all over the place.  If I wanted American food I would of went to McDonald’s, but I want Mexican that is why I went here.

To start out they brought us some chips and salsa.  The salsa was the best part.  It was a little spicy, which is good, they were not scared to turn people off by the salsa being too spicy, unlike every other Mexican restaurant.  The menu was very usual.  It feels like if you have been to one Mexican restaurant you have been to them all.  They have about 10 lunch specials which are very cheap.  I ordered the lunch taco, thinking it was a taco because that is what the menu said, but when the server brought it out it was a taco salad.  I was disappointed, and wondered why they would tease any one like that.  I guarantee that someone else has done this same thing at this restaurant.  So as you can tell they have bad descriptions on their menu.  The taco salad was a shell filled with chicken, lettuce and sour cream.  It was pretty plain for my taste.  This place would be a place to go to if you are in the mood for Mexican, but it didn’t hit the spot for me.

Prices: I paid $4.50 for a lunch taco salad.  Other than that the prices are just as much as any other Mexican place.  

Moe’s Mexican Grill—Multiple Locations

Moe’s Mexican Grill is just like Q’doba or Chipotle, except Moe’s has a salsa bar and they give you chips for free.  If Q’doba or Chipotle were to do these things then I would like them all the same.   But I can pick my salsa and I get chips I like Moe’s better. 

Similar to Q’doba or Chipotle, at Moe’s you pick the stuff you want or don’t want on your burrito, tacos, or nachos as you walk down the line.  The only Moe’s that I know of around here is the one off Olive.  It is packed at lunch time.  I get what they call the “Home wrecker”  It has your choice of meat, beans, rice, sour cream, and salsa.  I usually add queso cheese on it as well.  This burrito is so good, you better be hungry, because it is huge.

Prices: At  Moe’s you will pay about $8.50 for  a burrito, and a drink.

Tequila Mexican Restaurant

Located at 5496 Baumgartner Rd, St. Louis, MO, 63129.
This is a South County mexican place that is in the Oakville area.

When I walked into Tequila I was disappointed, because it looked like every Mexican restaurant that I have ever been to. It had the yellow walls that were supposed to look like you were somewhere in Mexico. So right then I knew it would taste like every Mexican restaurant that I have ever been to. Are all of the Mexican restaurants in St. Louis owned by the same people? It sure feels that way. Why can't any Mexican restaurant differentiate themselves from the others. At least use different plates dishes. When I go to Mexican restaurants they all use the same brown plastic dishes. I almost dread going to Mexican restaurants now, because if you have been to one, you have been to them all.

The food at Tequila was O.K. I got the chicken chimichanga and a cheese enchilada. The food tasted like every other Mexican restaurant that I have been to. It was nothing special. Something that really annoyed me was that when the waiter brought back our receipt after paying the bill with a credit card, he stood there and waited for me to fill it out and give it back to him. This made me feel awkward and weird. Can someone look into this, I really think that all of the Mexican restaurants must be owned by the same people are working together in some way, because there is no distinction between any of them.

Prices: $17.35 for a lunch special, chimichanga, cheese enchilada, and two iced teas

Taco Bell

Taco Bell has many locations throughout the St. Louis area.

Taco Bell is the most well know Mexican fast food restaurant. Although it is the most well know that does not make it the best. Del Taco is better than Taco Bell. The problem with Del Taco in the St. Louis are is that they have the wrong people running the stores and the inside of the stores are disgusting. Unlike the disgustingness of Dell Taco, Taco Bell keeps many of their stores clean, or at least cleaner than Del Taco.

Taco Bell serves all of the well know favorites from tacos to burritos. There are always so many choices when eating at Taco Bell. The items that I usually order are the nacho supreme and the soft taco supreme. I have not ordered the cheesy gordita crunch in a while but that is also one of my favorites. While Taco Bell is a fast food chain it is still good to eat every once in a while. They have very good melted cheese

Pueblo Solis
5127 Hampton Ave
St. Louis, MO 63109
Phone Number: 314-351-9000

Finally a Mexican Restaurant that did not go over the top to make it look like every other Mexican Restaurant out there. The inside is a very simple dining room with about 15 tables. The main attraction is the outside patio which has about 10 tables. This is a small little patio with an overhang, which makes it quite nice. This place surprised me. I was expecting the typical Mexican restaurant where they make the place look like a fake Mexico. This place did not do that.

At Pueblo Solis they start you out with some chips and three different salsas which change daily. This was a nice variety to what I am used to at Mexican restaurants. The waiter came by and took our drink order. I ordered a Bloody Mary and my better half ordered a strawberry margarita. The Bloody Mary wasn’t the best, but what should I expect from a Mexican restaurant, but the strawberry margarita was very good. Be careful when ordering drinks here they are kind of expensive. I think it cost $7.50 for a margarita, but the Bloody Mary was only about $4.50.

The menu at Pueblo Solis was a nice surprise. It was not packed with combination platters like every other mexican restaurant in the St. Louis area. They had some items that I had never seen before at a Mexican restaurant, maybe this is because I am used to picking between 20 different combination platters. The menu did have some of the traditional favorites like tacos and enchiladas. The waiter came around and told us some of the specials and one of them was mexican meatballs served with gravy and tortillas. This sounded really good, I regret not ordering it. But, I ordered the two enchiladas because the waiter said they were a house specialty, and the other ordered a chili relleno and a burrito. The enchiladas were kind of small, filled with cheese and baked. The Chili Relleno and burrito looked great. The burrito was huge and filled with beans and cheese, and the chili relleno was a perfectly done pepper filled with cheese. All in all not a bad place to go, but it is kind of pricey and I would only be able to go every once in a while. Another thing that I noticed at this restaurant was that the food took about 20 minutes to come out, I could tell it was cooked after I ordered it. At every other Mexican restaurant I have been to the food comes out in 5 minutes or less.

Prices: $52.56 for two entrees, and four drinks. The drinks are what killed us. The place would be decent if it wasn’t for the high drink prices.

Contact us at Tim@StlStuff.com

Red Burrito

I have seen the Red Burrito's being put into the Hardee's locations over the past few years. I guess Hardee's can't live on their burgers alone. Didn't Hardee's try to differentiate themselves from all of the other fast food restaurants by just offering burgers and nothing else? Well I guess they are not concentrating on their burgers, because those are not even that good anymore. But, to put in a Red Burrito? That just goes against their whole plan.

Anyway, I went into Hardee's on Lemay Ferry, in the Deirberg's Plaza to get breakfast one day and I saw that they have a salsa bar for the Red Burrito part of the place. Any place that has a salsa bar, or sauce bar of any kind is one step ahead of the other restaurants. I like to get as much of something or as little of something as I would like.

Red Burrito is just like Taco Bell. I was really hoping that Red Burrito would have a fish taco, but to my disappointment they didn't. I ordered a soft taco, and a chicken quesadilla. They tasted just like Taco Bell. But, if I had a choice of going to Taco Bell and Red Burrito, I would choose Red Burrito. This is solely based on the fact that Red Burrito has a salsa bar. Taco Bell should really look into getting one of those. I bet they will do much better business.

Prices: One soft taco and a chicken quesadilla - $5.71

The Bean House, La Casa Frijole
1100 Lemay Ferry Rd
St. Louis, MO 63125

The Bean House is a Mexican Restaurant at the intersection of Lemay Ferry and Telegraph. From the outside of the building the place looked like it had a nice patio, but it was too cold to sit outside. The inside of The Bean House was not decked out, and didn't look like every other mexican restaurant that feels the need to put up that ugly fake Mexican decoration. This was a very straight forward place. The menu did not have the 50 combination dinners that other places have. It was very simple and the prices were very cheap.

I ordered the chicken chimichanga and two tacos. The chicken inside the chimichanga was outstanding. It was not covered in spices like other mexican restaurants, but it was shredded and very moist. The tacos were not anything special, but they were still good. If you go to this place order something with the shredded chicken. It is very good.

Downstairs in The Bean House, there is a little sports bar area. This is a cool little space with a bar, a few T.V.s and darts. We had a few beers down in the basement after dinner and it was a good time. The place was not that crowded and there were definitely places to sit, which is always nice.

Atomic Cowboy
4140 Manchester Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63110
Phone Number 314-775-0775
Website - atomiccowboystl.com

Atomic Cowboy has a wide variety of food, from Tex-Mex favorites to burgers and sandwiches. They do have quite a bit of mexican food on the menu, but they don't serve the free chips and salsa that I am so used to getting from Mexican restaurants. Everyone should find something they like at the Atomic Cowboy. The place looks new inside and is a refurbished building with exposed brick on the inside. We sat in the area with the bar, but in the other room it looked like they have couches and other places to sit. The place was casual and there were plenty of places to sit. We got there at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night to grab something to eat before the Blues game and there was plenty of places to sit.

The food on the menu looked very good. I went for the chicken chimichanga. The chimichanga was one of the better ones that I have had lately. This was chicken stuffed inside a fried tortilla and covered in cheese. And the cheese was very good. I also had a Bud Light, and two rum and Cokes to wash down the meal and get me ready for the Blues game. Next time I go, I am going to get the fish tacos. Fish tacos are hard to find in St. Louis, not many people serve them.

Prices: Chimichanga was $11. I paid $26 for the food and the drinks. Prices are a little high, but the food is very good.