St.
Louing
El Jarocho
Authentic street tacos in St. Louis
One of the first things I needed to find after moving to St. Louis was authentic Mexican food. I’ve always been used to having endless options for authentic Mexican food, bakeries, snacks, and groceries, but I was surprised to discover that St. Louis has a much smaller hispanic population than I was used to.
The majority of Mexican restaurants in the St. Louis area are actually more along the lines of Tex-Mex. Lots of fajitas, cheese sauce, and complicated combination menus. I tried four or five different taquerias that were highly rated, including some on Cherokee street, but the flavor and ingredients just weren’t what I was looking for.
Before I found El Jarocho I came across El Toluco (rip), a similar Mexican grocery/taqueria combination that was close by, and they had awesome Al Pastor tacos - but unfortunately they closed down within a few months of finding it, so I was back on the search.
I kept looking, and eventually I came across El Jarocho. I’ll take any opportunity I can to talk up El Jarocho, because they’ve been an absolute godsend. Here you can find street tacos with corn tortillas, onions, cilantro, and meat, served with lime. The steak tacos are amazing, and the green sauce is top notch. My biggest complaint about El Jarocho is they don’t have Mexican rice or refried pinto beans - they have white rice and black beans.
My favorite item on the menu is the “Burrito nuevo”, which is a burrito filled with steak, queso fresco, and fries. It’s very similar to the California Burrito that you’ll find all over San Diego, just minus the guacamole.
This is a great taqueria/grocery store combo and I highly recommend you check it out. I’m going to keep looking for more good Mexican food, and I have many more places on my list to try, but El Jarocho is always going to be a staple.