Taqueria Olvera

I am very fond of this particular establishment. Instant service, but far from fast food. The food is amazing and the staff are friendly as well. The dining area is clean and the kitchen is completely in view which is also very clean. I recommend this place for lunch and/​or dinner. Oh yea, they have plenty of beer here too!

MOST excellent Mexican food! Their corn tortillas are soft which is my favorite. More than usual meat options. The salsas are varied and VERY tasty! Prices are reasonable and they offer a military discount. All good!

THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD IN THE AREA! Staff is very nice, and the food is amazing! It’s very similar to a chipotle, but the food is so much better in my opinion.

I go to Chipotle a lot and I was wanting something similar and I’ve heard this restaurant is really good. Without a doubt this place is amazing. I can practically guarantee you that anything you order from this place will be amazing. I’ve had the nachos and the tacos along with the burrito. I would have to say my only complaint is the burrito fell apart on me but its more so my doing than the actual restaurants fault.
They have a wide variety of drinks and a selection of tequila. One of my favorite things about this place is that everything is made fresh and the atmosphere is nice. I’ve never been in here on a day where it’s really crowded but the service is always 100% and great.
One weird thing about this place though is that if you don’t buy anything they won’t let you use the restroom which I understand but it’s a bit off-​putting when you’re entering the restaurant and you head for the bathroom and then someone approaches you asking if you’re going to buy something before you handle your business.

Burritos were good family all got carnitas. Kids (10&8) loved the choices of toppings. Great options of tequilas for margaritas (frozen or on the rocks).

Swung by for lunch on a Monday at 1pm. It’s usually not a good sign when you are the only people in the restaurant, but based of the reviews we took a chance. So glad we did! Very friendly staff, nice and clean and the burrito was rather good. My wife’s burrito however must have been awesome because it disappeared.

I love this spot! Reminds me of the Mexican Food I had grown to love while living in Phoenix. I had two tacos (one corn and o e flour): Carnitas and Barbacoa… the Salsa’s are delicious and no joke HOT. They let me taste the Papas Con Chorizo and I loved it. If you are in Fairview Heights and want something good… try this! #stlmetrofoodie

I’ve been to Taqueria Olvera 3 times now. I have tried taco salad and the tacos and the chips and guacamole. I also had the nachos on my last visit. The guacamole and chips are delicious. The taco salad I judge by the protein and the chicken was good. Tacos are good depending on the protein. I wasn’t a big fan of the nachos although the portion was huge. The queso was a little cold and hard…
All in all this is a nice fast casual choice for Mexican food in Fairview Heights. I would say its one step above Chipotle and Q’Doba just because it’s a locally owned place and your options for customizing your meal are endless. Also they have lots of different aguas frescas and flavors of jarritos if that’s your thing.

Based on a Unilocal friends recommend, I tried it on my lunch break. Super clean place, very large portions, and a pretty robust selection. Although I wouldn’t compare it to Cherokee St as my «friend» did, it’s legit. Another Unilocal’r once said the guacamole was too salty… happy to report that they’ve corrected that issue. They are still working on the soggy tortilla from juice.
I’d like to give 3.5 stars because although it tasted great, the spicy salsa and jalapenos made me dominate my workplace restroom… even if it’s my fault for eating spicy, I still blame the tacos. I don’t like poopin’ at work!

Taqueria Olvera, a family owned and operated restaurant, is a great place for good «Mexican» food. I’ve only been back five times since I found them on Unilocal! but each time I found the counter staff to be super helpful. The food that is served is always more than I can eat and spiced to perfection. There were enough choices on the menu for a patron to never eat the same thing twice – and the marguerites were reduced price on the weekends.
Do yourself a favor — — — — — -VISIT TAQUERIA OLVERA!

This place is awesome! The food is so good and fresh. The burritos are huge and the selection of ingredients is really good.
Get the strawberry lime water it is amazing! I had the grilled chicken burrito with rice, black beans, lettuce, tomato, onion, and salsa habanero and it was amazing! Unlike other place the habanero has a real bite to it so unless you like heat stay away. I will be back for sure. This is my new favorite place!

I will NEVER go to Qdoba again… This is SO much better! Set up similar to a Qdoba, their ingredients and meats are SO much more authentic. My texan guy loved it! Great portions, authentic foods, mexican sodas– check it out! You won’t be disappointed.

First visit, and it’s not going to be on my shortlist for a return trip any time soon. I love tacos — hole in the wall greasy spoon or fusion whatever, it’s rare for me to find a taco I didn’t like. That said, these guys do tacos OK, but not great by a long shot. They’re better than TacoHell.
Ordered almost 2 of everything available for tacos, and the meat was about average. Bean soup on the menu = they didn’t have any. Corn tortillas fell apart due to the servers slopping the meats on with too much of the cooking liquid. Ordering was confusing and not user friendly. The Mexican rice was so bland it would’ve got them thrown out of Mexico! But the most shocking of the whole meal was the guacamole! IT WAS SO SALTY it was inedible — no joke and no exaggeration, and I like salt.
Anyway, I’ll probably go back and give’em one more chance because I want to like them — I’m hoping the crew tonight was new or training or something.

Great fast place to pickup a great burrito. Dropped in and was expecting not much for a vegan but they had a great burrito with soy chorizo.
The people working were very nice and great guacamole! Nice and fast food in an area known for chains.

Fantastic shredded chicken tacos. 10 out of 10.
Tacos: $ 2.25 (get 3 or 4)
Burritos: $ 7
Nachos: $ 7
Salads: $ 7

Vegetarian friendly, try the veggie chorizo!!! Awesome place, very clean and friendly staff.
Affordable and child friendly. Go!!!

Just got here Greatness. Soft tacos just how you want them. Service with a smile. The food is great and on the very cheap side

Local residents — you need to frequent this place so that they remain. This is on par with the taqueria’s in the Cherokee St area of St Louis, but without the travel. They have 6 different meats to choose from, corn or flour tortillas, and a great selection of salsa. They also have Mexican beer on draft or in the bottle, and Mexican sodas with real sugar. There has not been a crowd the times I have been, so not sure how they would handle a rush. Our service has been exceptional, and they are willing to let you sample just about anything you are not sure of. Really great, authentic tacos!

I was craving for chipotle, stopped by. It was a super long line. Almost out the door then realized that Taqueria was right around the corner so we decided leave chipotle and came here! I’m so happy we did! The inside looks very nice and is super clean!
First off, the service was great! The people working here were very friendly and showed us all the meats that were available. The people that work here are also very honest too!
We had the steak burrito which was very flavorful. With each bite you were able to taste everything inside of the burrito. The steak was not dry, it was very moist! The way steak should be!
We also had the nachos! It was super good! We were able to taste every single thing that was on there. From the creamy cheese sauce, cilantro, pico, barbaco, jalapeños, everything that was on it!
The salsas were great! We had tried habanero jalapeño and avocado jalapeño. They’re both spicy but not enough for someone that loves spicy food lol
I love that they had an awesome variety of drinks! We had the horchata which is a rice drink. It was very different considering it was my first time having it but it was good.
Overall, the food was fantastic! Only downfall was that they skipped on the meat a little bit on the nachos. But I’ll def. return again to try other things!

Move over Chipotle! You’ve got some serious competition here!
Chipotle is probably the only chain that I really like. Although it’s not really authentic, they try to do a good job with their sourcing, and those burritos are pretty filling. I had a lot of late night and post-​exam meals with Chipotle in grad school, so it is pretty near and dear to my heart.
I might have to dump them though.
Taqueria Olvera has been open for about a week, and it makes an impression. It’s behind DSW Shoes in a separate strip mall so you really can’t see it from the main streets. I hope the lack of visibility doesn’t hurt the business because it’s time that we got some good grub here.
I went in on a Saturday night around 8. They had a respectable amount of customers still eating in the restaurant. Moreso, you know the food is going to be good and authentic when you can only hear Spanish being spoken amongst everyone when you’re walking in. .
It’s set up exactly like Chipotle. You’d want to order either a taco ($ 2.25 each), burrito, nacho, or salad (all $ 7.00). You then choose a meat: carnitas, pastor, guisado de res, barbacoa, pollo asado, or papas con chorizo. I asked which one they recommended, and the woman said either the carnitas or the pastor, but her favorite was the pastor. She gave me a sample to try, and I was hooked. You then add on whatever you want, including pico, lettuce, tomato, onions, guacamole, cilantro, cheese, sour cream, and limes, and salsas.
So…you also know it’s fresh because when they run out, they run out. They had run out of guacamole by the time I got there. It’s a free topping, whereas at Chipotle, it costs extra to put that in your burrito. I’m torn because I can understand not making a new batch if it’s late or if it’s not going to be good… but I am so sad because I was dying to try it! She also let me try the salsas before I decided on one. I know another reviewer said to get the mild one because the medium one was pretty hot… but I have a huge problem with spice… and I didn’t think that the medium one was that bad. It does have a kick to it, and I wonder if it’s a bigger kick slathered over your meal… but the taste test wasn’t too bad. I went with the mild though because that’s what I usually get, and it was totally fine. There was a kick to it, but it didn’t last.
If you’re expecting a Chipotle-​sized burrito, you may be disappointed. It was a little smaller, but not by much. I was pretty full after it without any sides, so I think the portion serving is exactly how it should be. The only other thing is that there is a lot of MSG maybe? in the pastor, which I didn’t expect. I had a very dry mouth for the rest of the night… but no headache.
They have a variety of Jarritos and fruit drinks, including horchata ($ 2 for a small, $ 3 for a large). Of course I had to get the horchata. It was very good. It may have been a little bit too sugary… but I think it’s because I usually get it without ice… and they may have sweetened it more to account for ice dilution?
All in all, it’s a very solid place… you can be sure that I’ll be back to try more of what they have.