Mi Lupita

After spending several days in the hospital with my grandfather before he passed — my husband met up with me and we were exhausted, just trying to find some place close to St. Clare hospital to get a quick bite and then get home.
The server was a little bit too hasty for my taste, not giving us much time at all before immediately turning around and coming back. He was pleasant, very nice, but needed to be a little bit more patient.
The margarita was OK. A little bit too sour. I like mine a lot less sweet. Too much pucker factor.
The salsa, however, was FANTASTIC. I have added it to my list of «Favorite Salsas» and it is up there with Milagro’s poblano pepper salsa, surprisingly, since the food is not of the same caliber. The mother of the owner was very sweet and appreciated that we liked the salsa so much she just kept providing more and more and more of it! :)
The food, honestly, was not very memorable. I think I got fish tacos, and I remember dumping the salsa onto the tacos to give it some flavor — fish was bland. Mexican Rice was OK. I guess, I expected, knowing that they blend the salsa in-​house every day and it was deliciously spicy and flavorful, that the fish would be deliciously seasoned and flavorful. Not so much.
Ultimately, we have some great Mexican places on our list, as you all know — since I’m a Mexican Food connoisseur — and we likely will not go out of our way to go here again unless we are out there and desperately want good salsa.

We didn’t even eat here. We came in to eat with a group a friends who had already been there for some time. It was a Friday night around 7:30p and the place was packed! The parking lot is teeny tiny. People were parking all over the grass and in the parking lot next door. We did the later. Once we got inside, we saw that every single table was occupied and there wasn’t even much room at the bar. There was no one at the hostess station and when we looked around, we didn’t see any waiters. Eventually, a guy we later found out was the bar tender rushed by and pointed us the direction of our party — they were seated around the largest table available table and didn’t seem to have room for one more, let alone four.
Yes, there was a seating problem, but I was starving. I walked back to the hostess station and a minute or two later a waitress came by and gave me a menu. I looked over it and wasn’t really drawn to anything — especially for the price. On top of that, according to our party, it took an hour to get their food. Sorry, but I’m not interested in paying $ 13 for a mediocre fajita that takes an hour to come out.
So, we left.

Great for lunch! Food is great and the owner, Jose, is better. I was taken for my first time to Mi Lupita in Fenton with co-​workers. Jose was very welcoming and I enjoyed the witty banter between him and my coworkers (who obviously had been there a good deal). This kept me entertained in the short period of time it took to deliver the meals to the four of us. He did not allow our homemade chips, salsa and beverages to hit the bottom of the basket/​dish/​cup. I got the combo with taco/​quesadilla/​enchilada. The plentiful portions were accompanied by yellow rice and refried beans. I waddled my way out the door and vowed to return on my next trip to STL.

My husband and I love getting a pitcher of Margarita’s no ice. You pour your Margarita over the ice with or without salt and a lime. This is NOT that nasty sweet and sour mix you find elsewhere, these are DELICIOUS!
Always pleased with the food, chips, salsa and service as well.
Totally recommend giving it a try to see for yourself.

I have enjoyed this restaurant for several months sice I moved to Fenton. My wife and I are from the southwest and are not picky as we know its hard to deliver authentic mexican cuisine with what sysco delivers here. Decent food, decent service, terrible maturity and respect in the late night. Tonight we had a very young female server doing her best to run several tables and close the restaurant, all the while being verbally harassed by very drunk, and very childish adult men at the bar. The manager politely asked them to stop once, but didnt make much effort at actually controlling a positive and mature environment.
Allowing grown drunk men to harrass young sober girls is unacceptable to me and those drunks are the loud mouthed cowards that will run this restaurant into the ground.
Once an establishment becomes a safe haven for immature drunks, it will always be an establishment for immature drunks.
Never coming back again.

We have tried all the Mexican restaurants in Fenton and this by far is our favorite! The service is always excellent, clean restaurant, and the food is always consistently good. I would give it five stars if they would bring back the salsa they had a few years ago. The salsa now is average, but the previous salsa was the best I’ve ever had; I would come in and buy just salsa and chips sometimes!!! Margaritas are good and strong. Atmosphere is friendly, and families welcome. Good division from bar to restaurant side with televisions if sports are being broadcast.

We eat here often, never has bad service or bad food. Very friendly staff. They have great burritos and they also have outdoor seating.

Food is average. I had the tamale dinner and the tamales were pretty tasty. We ate at a very slow time of day but the service was fantastic. A little dark inside and lacking on décor but overall a pretty good experience.

Food was good, the service was terrible, had to keep asking the waitress to get our waiter, a younger guy who acted like we were bothering him. I think our waiter was family, probably grandson, won’t be going back.
Service is as important as the food, he absolutely ruined our meal.

This has become our regular restaurant on Thursday nights. It’s family owned and ran, the food it super good, the margaritas are the best around, and we’ve met a lot of really nice people there. The owner is there almost every night. The second time we went to eat here, the owner remembered us and it had been at least 2 months between visits; that is really impressive and won us over big time!

My wife, two daughters (ages 15 and 10), and I were looking for a Mexican restaurant to try in the Fenton area, as we have felt the food at Three Margaritas has went downhill a little bit in the recent year. We knew about Mi Lupita, but it is kind of tucked back out of the way near old town Fenton, and isn’t very appealing from the outside, appearing run down.
We visited the restaurant on a Thursday night (2012-​07-​26) at 4:30pm. The waiter was friendly, but I would not call the service fantastic. It was adequate at best. There was another gentleman that was walking around as well, and he appeared more pleasant and interacted with the customers in a more frequent manner.
The customary chips and salsa were good. The chips were standard bag fair chips and not made fresh, but the salsa was good and carried a mild kick to it. I wanted to try their pork soft tacos (and off menu item) and a pork tamale, but there wasn’t an item as such available. The waiter volunteered that this was a combo option and took that as my order. My wife tried a dish that was some steak in a tomatio sauce and it was very spicy (which she was looking for) and it was served with fresh grilled tortillas. She was very happy with the dish. She also commented that her margarita was strong and tasty, just like she likes it. My pork tacos were very good and the tamale was very tasty as well with plenty of meat in each and the seasoning was perfect. One of my daughters ordered beef tacos, and she was also pleased with those, and my eldest daughter ordered an enchilada dish and she was pleased with hers as well.
It is a little out of the way. It doesn’t look like much on the outside. But on the inside it is clean, and surprisingly updated with a nice looking bar. We will be back to try more menu items and recommend you try it too. It looks like a place to get away from the crowds that flock to the other two Mexican restaurants in Fenton (Three Margaritas and Azteca) and the food was better than both, with less crowds.
Enjoy and support local businesses.

Fantastic meal & magnificent margaritas! This restaurant is the real thing. Highly recommend if you are in the mood for real Mexican cuisine.

It had been a couple years since we tried Mi Lupita in Fenton, but we were looking for a little diversion from our usual Mexican spot (Azteca’s). Sure glad we did. They had some different dishes on their menu than you would find in 90% of the mexican joints in town. I find it funny, though, when people review a mexican restaurant and blast it for not being «authentic» when they order a tostada or burrito covered in cheese sauce. Of course, that’s not authentic, what did you expect?
I had a great «authentic» pork and potato dish. Strips of pork and potato sliced thin and covered with a very flavorful spicy red sauce. I’m not usually a big pork fan, but boy was this good. Very tender and melt in your mouth. My wife had the steak fajitas. They were good, not great. The meat was tender and had a good seasoning. Their margaritas are definitely not the run of the mill that you get at most places. They were tart, in a good way, and plenty strong. There was a unique flavor that I couldn’t put my finger on.
The restaurant wasn’t overly busy, but the service was great. Our waiter took the time to explain a couple dishes and made some recommendations for our next trip. We will definitely come back. I was pleasantly surprised and we had a great time.

This is an average Mexican restaurant. I agree with D.T. that nothing tasted really authentic. I went for lunch and had a beef tostada that was OK. The price was reasonable which earned them a third star.
Nothing fancy about this restaurant, but the food was served quickly with friendly service.

OK the food is good. No doubt. The Margaritas are very good. No doubt.
But oh man did we have terrible service at this place. My b-​i-​l and I both got the shrimp and chicken fajitas… they brought us us chicken and beef. OK not a huge deal… but they took away our food while my hubby and sister sat there with their food… twenty five minutes later still no fajitas… and my sister and hubby are done with their food… so I talk to the manager… and finally our food comes. Mind you this entire time no one so much as checked on us to see if we needed water. I mean come on. No water, no chips, nothing…
I mean I have gotten better service at o’charley’s!!!
Oh and they did comp us… for one of the fajitas and that they were snarky about… actually, they were fairly snarky about the whole situation. Gee thanks guys. So generous. For making us wait… not giving us any service and then condescendingly saying that all that we could get is a ten dollar comp.
In short I doubt we will go back. There’s other places to get Mexican in this town that are just as good.

Wife and I stopped in here for cinco de Mayo. We were surprised at how dead it was, there were only 2 other tables with people at an early dinner.
The wife and I both ordered ‘gritas” which came out promptly but were absolutely gross! They were clearly made from a premix and a bad one at that. They had a really horrible citric acid aftertaste that only comes from a bad pre-​mix. I reluctantly finished mine but my wife couldn’t finish half of hers. Did I mention they were weak?
The chips were nice and warm but the salsa was nothing more than jazzed up tomato sauce.
I ordered the beef fajitas w/​beans and rice and the wife got a bean and cheese burrito. My fajitas were very tough and the meat should have been sliced on against the grain and not with it. It was very greasy with no discernible flavor and was served with a handful of lettuce, cheese, and sour cream but only 2 tortillas.
The beans and rice were nothing special except the rice was overcooked
They one highlight of our meal was our waitress, she was very attentive and super personable and the only reason I gave this place 2 stars.
I am really sick of 95% of the Mexican restaurants in the STL and Greater STL area being carbon copies of each other. The menus are the same, some are even photocopies of each other and their bland ass recipes are all the same.
Mi Lupita could change it’s name to El Maguey, Tres Margarita, Dos Primos, Azteca, etc, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. THERE IS NOTHING AUTHENTIC ABOUT ANY OF THESE RESTAURANTS!
I have a conspiracy theory that only one Mexican family owns all those restaurants and the explains why they are all so similar.
/​rant

We are regulars at the Mi Lupita in Ballwin and now that Jose «Pepe» Campos is running this one in Fenton, we have started visiting so he does not get lonely. The menus were always similar but Pepe is bringing more consistency to the family recipes.
For those Fentonites and other locals not familiar with the menu in Ballwin, try the pork in anything. It is world class guisado de puerco. I also like the chiles rellenos, bistek Zacatecano, huevos con chorizo with or without nopales, huevos Zacatecanos, pollo asado with chorizo. I’m not sure but hopefully he has brought Pepe’s Tacos here as well. They are carne asada tacos with chorizo served on corn tortillas (as they should be) with onion and cilantro (as they should be). If you are wanting gringo, Pepe makes great seasoned ground beef and makes it into good tostadas.
Make friends with Pepe. He will take good care of you.

i’m from tucson, so i usually don’t go to mexican food when i’m out of town. i believe that for the most part, the further you go from the source, the more inconsistently you’ll find good food. but, i was in fenton for work, i looked up a few places here on Unilocal,and decided that mi lupita was worth a try.
the regular salsa was mild and flavorful, but i like it spicy. i asked for something with a little more heat and they brought out a green salsa that really packed a punch. i ordered the chili relleno plate the first time i went — and it was okay. the potato flautas that i ordered the second time i went were divine.
the place is definitely family friendly, and it seemed to be full of regulars. the service was super good — they treated me like a regular even though i sat by myself at the bar. i’m hooked — the next time i’m in fenton, i’ll go back.

I prefer traditional Mexican food over the run of the mill Tex-​Mex you find at most places locally. This has proven to be a big hurdle when looking for good Mexican eats in Fenton. Mi Lupita has changed that. There several seemingly authentic Mexican dishes mixed in with the Tex Mex items that are required to keep Mexican places afloat in St. Louis.
Our waitress, who has waited on us several times, has been very helpful in suggesting items on the menu. She was quick to point out that several of the items on the menu are served spicy or mild, depending on your preference, with a kind warning that ‘spicy’ is not an understatement. She was right, they were definitely hot, but flavorful too. We got the Bistek Ranchero and the Carne Adobada con Papas, which are basically steak or pork, with potatoes served in a spicy sauce with flour tortillas. The heat on the pork dish was balanced at ‘just bearable’, and had me craving a return for spicy food for a week. I am thankful to find a Mexican restaurant in the county that will serve things good and spicy if you happen to like them that way.
The Mole Pollo is unreal; Enchiladas Verde were phenomenal. The best I have had away from Cherokee St. and would give them a run for their money. The tamales (my barometer for good Mexican food) were very good, served in the corn husk, of course.
Several items come with nopales (cactus), and got a strong recommendation from our waitress the last visit. Might be worth a try next time!
If you want to taste something more authentic, you are in the right spot, but be sure to break out of the ‘fajita box’ and try something different.

My friend and I went here last night (Friday night) around 8pm and we were the only people in the place. This was a little disheartening, but we went in anyways. We started off with their house chips and salsa, which was a bit spicy and a little on the watery side, but it was still pretty good. I had the enchiladas verdes (green sauce) and my friend had a combo plate with a flauta, tamale, and a chicken enchilada. All of our food was very good and priced right. Most of the dinner plates are just $ 7.95.
I also had one of their house margaritas which was very drinkable, but not the best I’d ever had. It was pretty strong, which is a good thing in my book, and you’re definitely not hit with an abundance of sour mix when you take a sip.
The service was great, as it should’ve been since we were the only people there. I would definitely go back if I’m in the area. I hope this place stays open for a while, but only one or two customers on a Friday night isn’t a good sign. Go check this place out while you can!