Taco's 4 Life--O'Fallon, MO 1-14-2022

 This restaurant is in the old Steak n Shake at the corner of Hwy K and Hwy N.  It is chain with restaurants in 4 or 5 states in the South.  For each taco meal you buy, their corporation sends 1 protein rice pack to someone in a 3rd world country.  

It is an "order at the counter and someone brings you your food" style of restaurant.  We went on a Friday night.  It was busy, but not overly crowded.  I was surprised.  I thought it would be terribly crowded because it only opened up a couple of months ago.  

As a table we ordered a "table sized" order of chips and queso.  We saw other tables getting theirs before the rest of their food.  We did not.  There was some sort of screw up and ours didn't come out at all.  When our food got delivered, I said we were waiting for our chips and queso and they brought some right out.  So, we ate them with our meal.  They were average.  The queso was a little thin.  

So, they don't serve alcohol (margaritas, etc.) So, their signature drink has some of the flavors of a margarita it is a "honey limeade."  It tried one and really liked it.  It is made from honey, lime, sugar and water.  Anna thought it was way too sour.  

Anna ordered a chicken quesadilla.  She said the chicken was good, but it was just an "average" quesadilla.  There was a aeoli to put on it.  It wasn't spicy at all.  Anna liked that, because Anna doesn't like much spice in her food.  She got a side of beans.  She said they, too, were good but nothing great. 

Mike ordered 2 regular crunchy beef tacos and a side of "queso rice with salsa."  He said the tacos were good and the rice was fine.  

I ordered one fried shrimp taco and one tofu taco.  My side was chicken tortilla soup.  I tried the soup first.  The temperature was a little on the luke warm side.  The flavor was good.  The broth was seasoned well but it didn't have very much chicken in it.  My first taco was the tofu.  The tofu had been marinated but it still lacked flavor.  It had a poblano salsa, but I still didn't feel/taste any heat.  It had cabbage instead of lettuce.  That was OK.  It had a couple chunks of avocado that were cut too big and fell off immediately.  This one just didn't have much flavor.  My second taco was the shrimp taco.  It was very different.  It had a pineapple sauce AND chunks of pineapple, lettuce, green onion and coconut.  It was VERY sweet, almost too sweet.  I liked that I could taste the shrimp but the sweetness threw off the balance of the taco.

Overall I missed any heat (spice) in anything.  There was very little salsa/spice on most things.  

I do have to say that they have trained the kids who work here to be helpful.  They come around and get your finished dishes.  One girl refilled my limeade.  They cleaned tables quickly.  

Anna was slightly offended by the entire concept of the restaurant.  She said she found it to be a bunch of "white saviors" trying to make themselves feel better while going out to eat.  The side our our queso container said "Dip Dip, Hooray!  You're Helping Someone Today!"  She didn't like that and she didn't like the idea of making suburban white people feel like they were really helping.  

I doubt we return.