Chilanguita Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in St. Louis

First I will say I use to go to El Maguey down the street all the time, but they recently closed. My dad and step-mom where in town and we decided to try Chilanguita, it was all of our first time at the place a couple of days ago.

Atmosphere - personally I really liked it. I loved a lot of the art work and the mix of Día de Muertos style art and neon was something I had never seen before. My dad thought it was a little dark than he would have liked. The table was made out of several large boards. Which again i thought looked nice, but the side where my dad and step mom sat the board had warped a bit and the plates would not sit completely flat, so all four corners of their plates was not touching at the same time, causing the plates to rock a bit as they ate their meal. My side of the table was fine, don't know how common of a issue that might be with other tables, it was just something we noticed on our table. Other than the minor issue of the table and my dad feeling it was a little to dark I have nothing negative to say about design/atmosphere of the place.

Service - It was ok, it wasn't great service but it wasn't bad service. We got waited on fairly quickly, the food took a little bit to be served, but within reason. The salsa and chips was not refilled nor was a offer made to refill them. Drinks was refilled before they was empty, so I don't know if that was a oversight by the server on the salsa and chips or something the place does not offer, but we never got a refill of either chips or salsa. We was checked on but not to often, the worst part of the service was once we had finished we had to wait a good 10-15 minutes before our server came back at the end so we could pay. The server was fairly young and she was polite and did a ok job all and all.

Food - I will give two perspectives here, I like spicy food and my dad and step mom do not. Salsa - I felt it was a little bland, they loved it. Chips - we all liked the chips, not great but pretty good. I had the ground beef chimichanga, my step mom the chicken chimichanga, and my dad the chicken quesadilla. They both very much enjoyed their dishes, I liked mine, but again felt it was a little blander than I was expecting/hoping for.

I will go back and try the place again on my own, likely try some other dishes and see what I think, since it is only a few blocks from my place. Also when my dad and step mom come to town we will go back as they often find most Mexican restaurants to spicy and I love Mexican food.

My final verdict would be a 3 for just me personally but my dad and step mom told me they would have given it a 4. So for this review I split the difference and give it a 3.5 final, rounded up for the star rating as they both said 4 and I really did like the way the place looked.

This is a edit to my review above. I have since been back four more times. Twice on my own, once with a coworker and with me dad and step mom. My coworker like my dad/step mom is not a fan of real spicy food and he loved it as well.

I have like some of the other food I got better. Taco and Tostada where very good. I tired to get sopapilla which I love, first two times they was out this last time they had one. It was different than any other place I had one. It had chocolate sauce instead of honey and chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla, it was pretty good. I also tried a refried ice cream which was very good.

All of the follow up times the service was better than the first time, also had no table issues either. So I think it is just the one table that had issues.

So my new final verdict is, if you like Mexican food but don't like really spicy stuff, then I strongly recommend it. If you like really spicy food, then this is still worth a visit but likely won't be as spicy as you...

I want to start by saying that I want to give this place another chance as the first impression could have been better, a lot better.

I have been very excited about coming to Chilanguita for a few weeks. The fun umbrellas in the patio sparked my interest, and it has been years since something exciting has been at this location.

I liked the modern spin on the decor in this restaurant. The neon lights and large portraits on the walls were cool. I liked the fact that they were playing reggaeton instead of traditional music.

I ordered an avocado salad with steak. The portion of meat was very generous. The plating of the food we ordered was appealing. The drinks were nice and even had little umbrellas.

There were some things that I wished would have been better, one of them being the overall tone of the environment. It states that the restaurant is open until 1:30 am, but I got the feeling that serving dinner wasn't exactly what was ideal at that time. We came in around 9 pm, and it was almost like it had shifted into full club mode. Again, I like raggaeton, but we literally had to yell across the table and kind of just gave up on talking because... well, I planned on being at a restaurant, not a nightclub. Not to mention, everyone else was yelling, too, so they could be heard over the music. It was as if people had ended their shifts or had tables that were wrapping up, but they were hanging out and eating in the dining room with customers, which gave what I feel a bit of unprofessionalism. It also felt like a lot of the others may have been friends with the people working at that time, so it was a little uncomfortable and awkward.

The noise was so loud it left me on edge and ruined the experience. I hope to be able to return and update my review to something...

BEST GUACAMOLE IN STL HANDS DOWNNNNN, a sprinkle of pepper and salt and WOW, I have had guacamole this good ONCE in my life and have never been able to find it elsewhere.

Salsa isn’t spicy, but superrrrr fresh and they keep it coming!!!!

Also service is amazing!!! I work in customer service so I have very high standards and they execute above and beyond those standards. They are quick, super friendly, super attentive (water, chips, and salsa all stayed full), the vibe overall felt great. Literally love love love.

The only issue I have with this place is that I don’t come here enoughhhhh!!!!!! Hidden gem.

I got the Birria tacos, as per usual, I sometimes get the chile relleno. Love them both. That Birria was LOADED up. My mom’s chile relleno was HUMONGOUS!!!! This was my first time getting gauc…….. ALSO the mango margarita on the rocks???? You’re kidding, literally so good. I also only have taken a couple of sips so please trust and believe my review isn’t being influenced by anything besides the flavor and the service. Also it is pretty cute here too… I do enjoy the neon signs…

Update: the drinks are strong-ish, but certainly don’t taste it, feeling fuzzy...