El Jarocho Tienda and Taqueria

Experience at El Jarocho Tienda and Taqueria

We went to El Jarocho yesterday afternoon for lunch after trying to get into Aquaport and getting hit by a 30-minute line to get in on 4th of July weekend. We did a hard pivot off that and hit the JCC afterward, which was nowhere near as crowded as Aquaport.

I had seen El Jarocho as part of my research into the taco map of St. Louis. I knew it was a newer place, but it had great reviews from the limited number I found on both Yelp and Google Maps. When we drove past it on the way, right next to one of my wife's favorite restaurants in Didi Mou, I figured we should stop after Aquaport. Instead we ended up stopping before.

This takes up the space that used to be an escape room my wife and I did several times. I thought it was a pretty good escape room too, so it's not too bad that it went out of business. Instead we got El Jarocho.

You walk in and it's very much a strip mall hole in the wall in Maryland Heights. It's a big open space. You can see straight into the kitchen as soon as you walk in.

On your right was a nice young woman hanging out, ready to hand you a menu. You take it back down to your seat, more of a tienda style, figure out what you want, then go back up to the front to order. This happened to me before at other Mexican places in the area where I didn't realize you order at the front. If it's more of a tienda style, like a store, you grab a menu and get in line if there's a line.

Tip: on this Friday, July 3rd at 12:15, there was no one else there. That's the way to do it.

The service was fast. There's no table service here. They give you a number, call it out when your food is ready, and you go pick it up at the counter.

All in, I was a little surprised by the price tag. For three dishes it came out to $35.64, and I paid up front before I got my food.

Food at El Jarocho Tienda and Taqueria

I'm not a huge taco fan, honestly. Three ingredients in a tortilla and I usually can't get enough flavor out of it, so I skipped the tacos and got a bowl instead.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but this was not it. What I got was an eight-color giant dish of fresh vegetables, sour cream, a side of avocado salsa, and some grilled chicken thighs cut up on the grill underneath. Oh my god it was fantastic.

Every one of the eight colors on the dish was fresh, but the clear winner in my book was the avocado salsa and the fresh jalapenos. The jalapenos were spicy, maybe a 2.5 to 3 out of 5. They were coming for you in the spice section, but they were so fresh that they added this under-scored heat throughout the whole dish.

Every bite I was hunting for a little bit of jalapeno without burning my face off, just to liven up the experience. The tomatoes were fresh, the beans were fresh, everything was fresh and alive and delicious. This was honestly one of my more favorite Mexican experiences that I've had.

Now I'm no expert. I didn't have my first burrito until college, so I'm not a connoisseur, but this was super fresh and super delicious.

It was huge. I thought it was a little pricey at like $13 for a bowl, but it was honestly two whole meals for me. I had half for lunch and half for dinner, and I mean literally half.

They serve it to you on more of a platter than a plate. My wife and I could have split it easily and still had leftovers. I give it like an 8.2 out of 10.

The chips were fantastic. I've had a lot of chips in my life so I feel more comfortable scoring those, and these are like 8.6 chips, honestly maybe the best chips in St. Louis. They were fresh and crunchy, and they weren't overly corny flavored.

The salsa was nice, a little compliment to the chip. It's thin and didn't have a lot of heat, so it was more a way to play up the quality of the tortilla than the other way around. Man those chips were good.

My son got a loaded plate of nachos with shredded beef, cheese, and shredded lettuce. He didn't want the tomato, so he got sour cream too. He was complaining there was too much beef on the nachos, that the ratio of beef to chip was too much beef, and that was a problem for him.

Ten-year-olds don't always make the right call on that ratio tradeoff. I'd rather have far too much beef and too few chips, because you can always add more chips. The beef was nice and flavorful with whatever spices they use, and they only do shredded beef there.

He ate all the nachos by himself in one sitting. Then he had some for dinner and my other son had them for dinner too, so it was three servings out of one plate. These are giant plates.

Lastly my other son got a chicken quesadilla. This is what they call small, and it would have been enough for my wife to eat, totally fine. It was like $5 or $6, so sure it's smaller than the other plates, but this is not small by general standards.

El Jarocho Tienda and Taqueria Atmosphere

El Jarocho is a big open space with very clean straight lines. The kitchen is right out in the open, so you can watch them cook.

Roughly six tables sit on the left and eight to twelve on the right. There's a touch of Mexican decorations all around, but not super in your face, more up on the ceilings and the walls. They also have a clear Instagram wall on the back to go take a picture of if you want to.

I would call it a modern hole-in-the-wall Mexican. Clean, no boots, not over-the-top with the decorations or the service. The food took maybe 5 or 10 minutes, about 10 to 15. Again, we were the only ones there.

Parking At El Jarocho

Parking is super easy in a dedicated lot right outside. No issues there.

El Jarocho Tienda and Taqueria Receipt