El Guanaco Taqueria & Pupuseria Takeaway. El Grand Guanaco Delivers With The Baleada Especial. Oh my god, was that delicious. Chorizo, steak, chicken, queso, eggs, avocado, and cream. I mean, come on. Where has this been all my life? And only $7.99?!?!!?!? The $3 pupusa was heavy on the bread, and the sauce detracted from the flavor. It wasn't a table favorite. Chips were a 4.8/10 for me, but free. Excellent red salsa > green salsa.
Total hole in the wall on Page Ave. Barely enough parking for lunch.
Friendly, fast service.
No frills. No filler. Just totally amazing food. Currently in my top five best restaurants in St. Louis.
El Guanaco Taqueria & Pupuseria Experience Summary
We debated where to go as a group all week. My buddy ended up taking us to the promised land in the form of El Guanaco.
Billed as "salvadoreña, hondureña, y mexicana", I had no idea what to expect.
And after reading the near-completely Spanish menu and the non-existent reviews on Yelp, I still had no idea what to order. So, I went with a fallback that never fails. "I'll have what the guy next to us had."
And man, oh man, did he know how to order!
I ended up with the surprise hit of the month for me, the baleada especial. Holy moly. Listen to these ingredients inside a flour tortilla:
Red Beans
Chorizo
Steak
Chicken
Eggs
Cheese
Sour Cream
That's basically one heck of a hondureña burrito.
Probably the best single Mexican (and Mexican adjacent) dish I've had in St. Louis.
I liked the overall experience at El Burro Loco a bit better, but this was cheaper by a mile and tasted better. This dish is also better but significantly different than the torta down the road at Durango.
As a baby tongue disclaimer, I'm a relative novice when it comes to Central American food. I'm excited to be continuously surprised by these holes in the walls.
The Food At El Guanaco
The food at El Guanaco over delivered from whatever I was expecting.
I literally had no idea what I would get besides a pupusa, and half the menu wasn't in English. So I did my trusty fallback - "I'll have whatever the guy next to me just had."
And, oh boy, did it work.
After eating a lot of decent, but not great food the last couple of months, the Baleada Especial was a breath of fresh air.
I had no idea what it was when the waitress pointed to it on the menu, but it ended up being what I would call a Honduran burrito. The chorizo and steak starred among an outstanding ensemble of chicken, egg, avocado, and queso duro. They had a not quite spicy but perfectly seasoned taste.
When I cut it in half and saw over medium eggs, it was like seeing presents under the tree for a three-year-old.
The baleada was incredibly filling and could stand alone as a meal for $7.99.
After that amazing find, the pupusa ($3) came out and was a bit of a letdown. It tasted overly mealy with a dipping sauce that actively subtracted from the flavor experience. The side of pickled cabbage and vegetables saved it from total ruin. And my buddy would later tell me that he thought his cheese and chicken one tasted considerably better.
Rounding out the meal were the chips. A 4.8 / 10 on the chip scale, they weren't quite as good as Tositos, in my opinion. They were a little too hard and thick without adding enough salt and texture to warrant their space. However, the red salsa was top, top-notch. I'd pour that stuff on anything.
The quality of the salsa made the chip experience a net positive, and the fact that they were free couldn't be beaten.
Everyone around us ordered the Carne Asada Con Tajadas ($16.99). That looked absolutely amazing, and the menu image doesn't do it justice. It's a giant platter of all the local cuisine in one.
El Guanaco Taqueria & Pupuseria Atmosphere And Miscellaneous
The service at El Guanaco was super friendly. They got us the main dish very quickly as they were still over 50% full at 1 pm on a Friday afternoon. The pupusa took a while to come out after the
The waitress's English wasn't great, but that didn't take away from her helping me order. She pointed out what the guy at the table next to me had and recommended the especial version.
You walk into the checkout counter, a pair of giant refrigerators of drinks that doubles as storage, and a wide-open eating area. There were over a dozen plain-topped tables and booths with a TV playing in Spanish in the background. No over-the-top decorations like at El Burro or Ladue Taco.
As a point of reference, we were the only white people at lunch for the 1.5 hours we spent there. A great sign of the food's authenticity and that El Guanaco is still a hidden gem in the area.
Parking At El Guanaco
Parking was a bit tight at 50% restaurant capacity. I got a text warning from my bud that I might need to park in the auto body shop next door, but I found a spot. They have a dedicated lot they share off of Page, and there might have been more street parking behind it if it came to it.
I wouldn't recommend actually parking in the auto body lot for fear of being towed.
El Guanaco Taqueria & Pupuseria Receipt
