El Publito

This is definitely authentic Mexican food. I’ve never had any thing similar to in the st. Louis area. There are some very different items that you can order including the octopus and beef tongue. The salsa is very good, it’s spicy, just the way I like it. The prices are reasonable and the food is delicious. It felt a little awkward being the only Americans in the place but overall it was a decent experience. I would go back. The meat (steak and pork) were very tender and delicious. One thing I wish they had was fountain drinks with free refills. They only have glass bottles of soda and I didn’t see any diet in the case. Waitress was very friendly, no problem with the service.

Always greeted with a smile when i walk in the door. Got just a chicken taco and chicken tostado both really good and defidently will be back again soon!

We live right around the corner from El Publito and dig Mexican food, so we thought we would give it a try one day.
Stepping through the front door transports the guest to Mexico City… the bad part of town. There was only one other patron there, who looked like ‘The Ugly’ from ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ movie.
We approached the order desk (set up to order, then sit and wait for it), and the lady at the front counter didn’t even want to make eye contact with us… it was apparent we were NOT welcome there. There were two other ladies cooking behind the counter, in the small kitchen area, and were all eating with their fingers out of this large open air pot which had some sort of meat in it. No gloves were present.
The restaurant is connected to a Mexican food store, and a small boy came around the corner and watched us. I was needing a beer at this point, so I asked if they sold beer. She had a puzzled look on her face and rattled off something in Spanish to the kid, who ran next door and asked someone something. He came back and said something to her, which in turn she replied in broken English to us that they did not officially SELL beer, but they had some in a cooler and they could sell us a limited number. Hmm…
So we sat down with the menu, in a booth covered in tid bits from another diner or two, smeared with grease in areas (the cleanest table we found). It was tough to concentrate on the menu with Pedro, their pet fly, buzzing my head.
It took all of 2 minutes looking at the menu and feeling the bad vibe this place had, to exit the building without saying a word to the staff. They did not try to stop us.
Think we dodged a bullet there! So NO, I would NOT recommend this place… other than to the Health Department or Immigration.