El Milagro Azteca — Restaurant in St. Louis

TL:DR 0/10. Bad food, bad service, got sick.

It wasn't busy (weeknight), w/ 6 tables on the patio, none inside. There were many servers, ea. having 1-2 tables ea. Seemed overstaffed - even had 2 hostesses. Noone was overworked or stressed.

Nice venue with a nice patio, spacious.

The menu: They're trying to be one of those hip /trendy overpriced places focused on presentation. Prices on the low end are $15-16 per meal, w/ most at $18-24. Guests don't receive complimentary chips & salsa, unlike every other place we've been in our many years of dining, & instead must pay $4/basket w/ a charge for "spicy" salsa. I've seen places charge for either to-go chip orders or for bar patrons who are only drinking, but never for dining customers. Red flag that a place neither cares about its customers nor has the overhead to sustain its veneer and atmosphere.

When seated, server brought us 2 ice waters & menus, & promptly left to give us time (~ 10 min). Prices are a bit steep, but the fare looks good. We debated between birria tacos, pollo w/ mole sauce, a few poblano dishes, etc. Menu pics make the food look great while making it clear the portions are small, reinforcing a theme of presentation/experience at a high price over value.

Server returned to ask if we had any menu questions - we had 1, & when we were about to order she turned & hurried away! We chuckled lightly at her abrupt departure & lack of awareness - figured it was harmless. She was gone for ~ 5+ minutes before returning.

We ordered a steak-stuffed poblano dish and chicken w/ mole sauce (hold the sesame seeds, bc who puts sesame seeds on mole?). We opted not to get any $$$ drinks. (On weekdays, drinks are priced ok during their happy hour, & are $$$$ at 8pm. For ex., a small margarita is ~ $9, & their "top shelf" is $20. Maybe they're magic?)

We sit & talk, realizing server never brought us straws, & just wait. Another ~20 minutes goes by & a runner brings meals out. As expected, portions are small but look good. Oddly, both tortilla steamers have the lids on upside down, so that the handles are inside & we must open them from the sides releasing hot steam onto our hands. It wasn't bad, just an oversight. Still no server. We begin eating.

The food: the blackbeans' main flavors seemed to be vinegar & light seasoning. They weren't terrible but not enjoyable, & were unlike any black beans I'd had. If you love vinegar you may like them? Rice seemed to be standard orange Mexican rice, but was under/overcooked (inconsistent) w/ hard bits, chewy bits, perfect bits, & soggy bits, texturewise. Hardly any flavor to the rice, being notably bland, & it ALSO had a strange vinegar taste. Chicken was small, but fair, the mole sauce looked the correct color & texture, but was very spartan (~ 1/2 the sauce or less as any of the many many moles I'vehad before). Sadly, the cook plopped the chicken on the vinegary beans, blending the sauces. The mole sauce was NOT good. It was just heat-spicy w/ a chili powder flavor & no depth - couldn't taste the chocolate. Chicken was tender on one end & dry for 2/3, being tough but flavorful. Poblano dish was bland & had too much cheese w/undercooked veggies - steak was cubed & cooked hard, with only 6-8 small bits. There was also chicken mixed in by mistake! It just wasn't good. Poblano dish was nearly cold, rice & beans were tepid.

After a few bites, server returns & asks if everything "looked" good & if we wanted hot sauce (we asked for straws). She returned a few minutes later with unwrapped bar straws.

We finished our meals bc we were hungry, not bc we were happy. Sad, bc ingredients were quality, the recipes were just bad.

Had to track server down to get check. Our bill had a "Cash Savings" line totaling ~5% of the post-tax bill! Just call it a Credit Card Charge.

I'm a high tipper, & servers have 'off' nights, but I only tipped 10% for just showing up to work & existing. Absentee server.

To top it off, we both got sick today. Lowkey food poisoning. So, a very bad ending to a mediocre meal. We...

El Milagro is very good, the flavors and presentation are artisanal and very purposeful in their choices. Every flavor even the Salsa Negra was bright, clean, spring like. The tamales are sweet and light with a flakey light oil quality. With the few items I had there was a very garden quality to the flavors including the salsas and makes me curious if that holds true throughout the menu.

That said being so select and purposeful separates this from most other Mexican restaurants and has to be judged on a different focus and level. El Milagro is closer to Traditional 314 Authentic Mexican than most any other place I have been. I need to go back and have a more diverse tasting (sadly no Horchata but that makes business sense) but don't expect "normal" Mexican. The plates will be curated and trimmed, there are no sides by default, the chips and salsa are extra, there is a minimal quality to the decor and atmosphere (and in the winter a bit of a chill) and little flavors in such a focused and clean delivery can really stand out. For example, the white core bits of lettuce that get included in the dish are distractedly jarring and really stand out when you can taste every note vs a place that has beans, rice, heavy oil, cheese, sour cream and more mixing up the bite.

This deserves its reputation of being a stand out Mexican location and the only comments would be to explore some fat options possibly with the chips and salsa since it is an upcharge, everything tasted good but there was a thick, rich, stick with you note that was missing that some spiced beans or fattened mole or cheese could add to the meal that was missing without ruining the clear design choices and the salsa bowl would keep it apart, minimal and low cost while adding more value for the upcharge.

There could be a bit more personality in the space, the seating area behind the bar is minimal, ceiling bunting would add more energy for a low cost?

Three years in and here is hoping for 10 more. Do not let the location deter you at all, parking is available on the east side and this is worth the trip if you want some Mexican that is a bit more...

We have been 3 or 4 times and I have yet to leave feeling like I have had anything other than a below average experience. I don’t understand how this place has 4.5 ⭐️. This last visit will probably be my final one. The “six crispy taquitos” we got as an app were really cold 3 taquitos cut in half stuffed with dry chicken. We both found small but noticeable sized bones in the meat. We struggled to dip our frail chips in the “volcano dip” because of the skin of dry melted cheese on top. There was barely any chorizo in it and the bell peppers and onions were awkwardly too big for a dip. Has anyone tried dipping a chip in their own dip? While the margaritas were $6 on happy hour they were nothing special and reminded me more of koolaid instead of fresh lime. If koolaid margs, dip you can’t dip, and 6 cold half-taquitos wasn’t misleading enough, when I got my bill I found an after tax “cash discount” which would lead one to believe they get a discount for paying with cash. After all, Merriam-Webster defines “discount” as “a reduction made from the gross amount or value of something: such as a reduction made from a regular or list price”. Upon further investigation, what this establishment displays as a “discount” on their receipt to paying customers is actually a deception: it is a mark up. A discount would be a % off my list price, instead this was 3.5% mark up to my total after taxes. How is that a discount? Understood this is presumably to pass along credit card fees, which are an expense that a business incurs. However, to 1) not mention it anywhere on the menu and 2) to display it on the receipt as a discount is about as dishonest as selling 3...