Abelardo’s Mexican Fresh — Restaurant in Saint Peters

Full disclosure, I’ve made and continue to make poor decisions that I routinely remind myself of as a sort of personal poke in the eye for the sheer stupidity of making said bad choices. However, none of them have been as disappointing, unrewarding, and loathsome than the decision to move myself and children away from lifelong friends, familiar streets, and the unbelievably perfect and always predictable weather of sunny southern California. Not a day has passed in the last three years that I haven’t reflected on it and how much of an unfulfilling impact it has made on my day-to-day life experiences. At times, it seems that choice has negatively impacted even the smallest pleasures, one being, Mexican food. I have visited more than my fair share of restaurants, eateries, and fast food spots since being here and little by little, after each experience, the frightening realization became irrefutable, I will never again experience the wonderful and always satisfying pleasure of a Carne Asada burrito in my life again. In my mind this has been the equivalent of losing an eye, limb, possibly even a loved one. I had quietly chosen to accept this fate, stopped frivolously wasting my money, hoping maybe the next place might be different. This has been one of many crosses I have continued to carry never speaking of what once was or had been until, one evening in December last year, sifting through google maps, for what, I really don’t recall. When a familiar looking and sounding establishment caught my eye, it was called, Abelardos Mexican Fresh. It reminded me of a quaint hole-in-the-wall establishment from a past life of mine called “Albertos” and you could find it or a place very similar to it on almost every other block or side street you might venture down in every small SoCal town. Even better, these wonderful concrete oases eateries regardless of the town you found yourself in would always be open into the wee morning hours and some never closing!! This establishment in St. Peters is the only true beacon of what Mexican food is and will be to me. I’m sure some authentic cooking grandmas or mothers exist here and share that deliciousness of handed down generation after generation style of cooking for their friends and loved ones although, the ones who have opened businesses in the community have been relentlessly beaten down by poor reviews from inexperienced people with equally as poor and inexperienced palettes. I believe, to maintain their livelihood and investments, they’ve probably had to adjust their original recipes to accommodate the paying customer which has tarnished the taste for anyone who’s been welcomed into the home of great friends who’ve shared there wonderful family secret recipes of traditional cooked Mexican food while swapping stories over many cervezas! I’ve read many reviews on the various different eateries and restaurants in St Charles and St Louis Counties and there’s always those two or three bad reviews, when you’ve finished reading them, you can easily picture the type of individual they are. It’s because you either know someone like that or you purposely try to avoid people like this since short of chewing their food for them, there is nothing that can be done to satisfy or meet their expectations. It’s that simple. My sincerest advice, give this place a go, I think you’ll be happy you did. And if you’re not, it’s always possible, it was an off day. They have and will continue to have my patronage when I’m all too often reflecting on my poor choices! A small request to the owners, please, please, please, if it’s possible, get the red sauce. No, not the red sauce you have, you know the one, it’s the hot red sauce that’s sorta sweet….It’s so deliciously good, you can literally drink it. That sauce ties it all together, creating a cascading deliciousness of paradise, it makes all those bad decisions seem almost worth...

Wow, we waited for this to open for the longest time, and it's well worth the wait. We have been 4 times now, and I think I have a good sense of the place now. If I could give half stars, I might take off half a star simply because the place is new, and sometimes it seems they are still working out the kinks.

To know before you go: this is a counter service restaurant, and there is a drive-through as well. We have only dined in so far, so I can not comment on the drive-through. As it's counter service, there is serve yourself soft drinks and a small salsa bar with some really tasty salsa options. The interior is nice and new, and my wife and I love the flower designs of the seating and booths. 4 trips in, and it's always seemed nice and clean to us.

To our surprise, being counter service, they brought us complimentary basket of hot out the fryer chips. Only once, when they were much busier, did they forget to give us chips (thus my saying they are still working out the kinslks)

Now, to the food. Fantastic. The portions are huge, and the costs are great, so you really feel it's a much better deal than pretty much anywhere else. Forget Taco Bell. This place is a Taco Bell killer. The burritos are huge, you pick them up they have heft! We tried a fajita quesadilla as well and I asked my wife " how do you eat this thing?" As it was so full. But that fajita quesadilla might be the tastiest of them all. Delish.

We decided after our second trip that we just have to start ordering less and sharing more. Every time we leave here, we are stuffed to the gills.

If you order a platter, instead of giving you 3 small steamed tortillas like the typical Mexican restaurant, they give you one huge super burrito sized tortilla all nice and wrapped up for you, giving you the option to make yourself one mega burrito out of your platter or tear and share as you see fit. I kinda love that.

The ala carte tacos are stuffed and great. These aren't your tiny, delicate street tacos.

The tamales are tasty and much smokier than I imagined they might be.

They offer a wind range of menu options and even more traditional Mexican meats like beef tongue or cheek.

They serve breakfast all day, and if you're hankering for a breakfast burrito, you won't find one better or more worth the price.

I have seen other reviews comment that this place seems less spicy or more bland and I can see that, the meats do seem a good bit less heavy on cumin than typical, but you can always kick that up with the very tasty salsas.

All-in-all, we are so glad they opened, this is going to be a regular place for...

My order was part of a large group order as we were all working at the near by hospital in St. Peter's. I got the chicken quesadilla and I also order 4 chicken street tacos my total was like 30 bucks, and this my first time eating here, and it was coworker recommended. We ordered online an then went to picked the order up. When my coworker went to pick it up after waiting awhile, he still had to wait and then ask how much longer it would take(we are on lunch). He gets back to our site and hands me my order and part of it is not mines, and he doesn't have what I ordered. In fact they gave me some type of meat in my tacos I thought was beef, but I'm not sure, I don't eat beef or pork so please get this away from. He calls and let them know the order was wrong and he so graciously went back up there to get the replacement order and some other items that were missed. Second part of my order, I also got a chicken quesadilla, now usually when I get quesadillas they use shredded chicken breast. I have chicken thighs in my quesadilla, I have never had dark meat in a quesadilla...it don't even taste the same. Like what...lmao...the chicken tacos where so dry and also had chicken thighs mixed in with the chicken breast that was on top, I had to pay extra for the sour cream, lettuce, and cheese on the tacos.I am mad I spent 30 bucks on this mess and never will I return to either of the locations, cause my coworker said there are two other locations. Chicken thighs in a quesadilla, I couldn't even give it away nobody wanted it. I only have them 2 star because they replaced the order, but it still was a...