Taco Buddha — Restaurant in University City

(Updated Review). (Breakdown of Original review at the bottom.) Had the Baja, Nashville and Taco of the month. It was a fish........ the Baja was pretty good. It had ample size, and pretty good flavors. The Nashville is definitely my favorite. A nice crispy fried chicken. It was a very large piece of chicken that I received, and the fresh vegetables and sauces really accented the flavor of the chicken well. It was very crispy and definitely a taco I would recommend if you go there. The final one was to taco of the month. It was a fish. It tasted like a beer battered breading, and was a white fish. It had really good flavor to it. I would say the beer batter definitely was something homemade. As for the fish itself. The fish was very moist with only a hint of fishy flavor and smell. Overall not a bad taco fish. I also had a margarita. The margarita's flavor was pretty good. The size of the margarita is pretty small. And the amount of alcohol in the margarita mix was okay for day drinking. Definitely not going to get buzzed off the amount of alcohol in this. Honestly they could definitely need to put a little bit more alcohol in it as well as make the size of the margarita larger. The very tiny cup for $7 isn't horrible. But also isn't a great deal. They do have a vegan taco. Which honestly looked really good. That is what my cousin had. (Pictures below.) I would say that this is definitely a very nice place to have lunch. It has a wonderful outside patio. Parking is a little less than desired. But overall it's a nice lunch date to take someone. They did get extremely busy about 30 minutes after opening. So be aware if you go around 11:30 a.m. you may not find a table. I would recommend this place if you like tacos. Much better than any Taco Bell, and price competitively for tacos.

(Breakdown of original review.) The first time I tried to go there with my cousin who is in his '70s, there was an issue with the Hostess. We needed a seat inside because it was 100 degrees out and medically he cannot take the heat. She told us there was plenty of room inside. So wel pulled up 2 parking spots away, got out, and went to the hostess. The hostess never lost sight of us and she still seated 2 people inside before us. Taking the last 2 seats inside. She does NOT know what plenty of room inside means. After talking with management about the issue we had. He convinced us to come back and try them again. Explaining that he had just hired a few new people as hostesses that we're not up to par. When we return to try the restaurant again. They definitely took care of us and it was a...

What happened, Taco Buddha? You used to be one of my favorite places, but I guess things change when you merge with another huge restaurant group. I visited tonight with my 3 year old. There was a wait and we asked for first available. We waited 15-20 min before being seated at an 8 top under the pavilion, split between us and another group. Ordered chips, queso, guac, and a bottled soda which came quickly. The tacos came 20 -25 minutes later. Ordered the Baja (always great) and the Nashville tacos and rice and beans. The Nashville had two small pieces of chicken that were very overcooked and chewy. But the kicker was your service tonight. I was asked by the host to move to another table MID-MEAL to make way for a larger group. The 4 people who had shared the table with us had left and I guess they thought it was a brilliant idea to move the solo mother and her small child so they could squeeze in a large group rather than waiting 10 minutes for us to finish eating or seat the appropriate number of people to the remainder of the table. It was extremely rude and shocking. No one offered to help me move our things or offered any apology, they just stood there until we moved tables and said “only if you’re comfortable though!” No, actually I’m extremely uncomfortable, but feel forced to do what you say because you’re just standing there waiting. If we had only received drinks when you asked us to move, I could understand, but we were actively eating our food and were halfway done. The experience was extremely unwelcoming and really left a sour taste in my mouth. Guys, kindness doesn’t cost a thing, but I guess you are only in it for the money. I’ll choose to spend...

Austin in St. Louis is the best way to describe Taco Buddha, which is more than a welcome addition to the metro area. Having spent more than $150 in a night and tried a few tacos/dips short of the entire menu (yes that includes two different pitchers of margaritas) I can say Buddha does it well but could be a smidge better.

The basic margarita is a tad watered down in taste (but not impact) and the top shelf is solid. The cheese dip is rich and salted to match the unsalted chips well (too much salt is not a good thing but no dip makes them bland). The Cholula is amazing and dwarfs the other tacos without question, the Thailand is a solid second but needs spicy verde sauce. The Galveston is a solid middle of the road. The Baja has all the right ingredients but is missing the flavor to push it up into anything other than acceptable to the mainstream. The Jodhpur looked like a hit but something blanded every note and was a skip and was the worst of the group. I didn't try the Nashville (it should be as expected) nor the Taos , Del Rio, or California (will revisit for those).

Overall a more bustling, expensive ( Clayton by way of U City) version of Casa de Tres Reyes but a solid group outing to eat and be seen. Overall it needs more space and a better floor manager to keep waste space from going unused (45 min wait on a Friday) but well worth the time and money.

They need to mix up the menu and drop/phase out the...