Session Taco Locked Its Last Door. Here's Where St. Louis Gets Tacos Now
Revised October 18, 2026
Where can I get good tacos right now in St. Louis?
Start on Cherokee Street: Taqueria El Bronco at 2817, La Vallesana at 2801 and the taco stand at El Torito at 2753. For tacos del trompo, go to Mestiza on Hampton. Skip Session Taco: it closed every St. Louis location on Saturday, Oct. 17.
Keep reading ↓You can already taste it on the drive down Delmar: the crunch of a taco shell, lime on your fingers, a cold margarita sweating a ring onto the table. You park, walk up, grab the door handle and pull. It doesn’t move. The room behind the glass is dark.
That’s the scene at every Session Taco in St. Louis now. The last two, in the Delmar Loop and Soulard, closed on Saturday, Oct. 17, and the goodbye on the chain’s own website is one line long: “Thank you for all the wonderful memories.” Nine restaurants at its peak. Zero left in the city.
Here’s the part people repeat at the bar. The name that started it all, Mission Taco Joint, opened in the Delmar Loop in 2013, and it lost that name to a tortilla company: Gruma Corp., the parent of Mission Foods, sued over it, and the settlement forced the switch to Session Taco. It opened first in the Loop, and the Loop was one of its last two doors; the bag of tortillas in your grocery cart is why it had to change its name on the way.
So skip the dark door. Head south to Cherokee Street, where the griddles are still hot and the air still smells like charred onion and lime. Every address below comes from the restaurant’s own site or from published local reporting, and we cut every place we couldn’t pin down.
Where can I get good tacos right now in St. Louis?
Start on Cherokee Street: Taqueria El Bronco at 2817, La Vallesana at 2801 and the taco stand at El Torito at 2753. For tacos del trompo, go to Mestiza on Hampton. Skip Session Taco: it closed every St. Louis location on Saturday, Oct. 17.
Four orders, four kitchens, one night that ends with sticky fingers. At Mestiza, 3279 Hampton, order the Del Trompo; it’s open noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. At Chico Bueno, 4156 Manchester, order the lamb barbacoa; every taco is $5 and the door is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. At Taco Buddha in Botanical Heights, go Saturday or Sunday for breakfast tacos, served 8:30 a.m. to noon; on a weekday, order online for pickup between 3 and 5 p.m. with the code its own site posts, HHPICKUP3to5, and you get 15% off. And on Cherokee, eat tacos at La Vallesana first and its ice cream second, so the cold hits while the chile is still burning your lips.
That’s the short answer. The longer one is about what you’re hungry for, because the place that nails a crisp-edged carnitas taco is rarely the same place that nails a lamb barbacoa you have to eat leaning over the plate.
Cherokee Street is still the first stop
Walk this stretch of Cherokee on a warm evening and you smell it before you see it: griddle smoke, charred onion, the sweet, sticky note of something with sugar in it from the ice cream counter. You can make a whole taco night of it here without moving the car, and that’s the argument for coming.
Taqueria El Bronco, 2817 Cherokee. St. Louis Magazine’s own Cherokee guide puts it plainly: “This longtime Cherokee spot favors food over décor.” Believe it. You come here for a plate of small tacos, the corn tortillas soft and a little oily from the griddle, onion and cilantro piled on, lime on the side. Nobody’s here for the wallpaper.
La Vallesana, 2801 Cherokee. The same guide’s advice is the right order of operations: “Top off cheap tacos and spicy burritos with a stop at the ice cream parlor.” Eat the hot thing, then the cold thing. The chile heat sitting on your lips when the ice cream hits is half the reason to go.
El Torito, 2753 Cherokee. A grocery store with a taco stand. Per that guide, you can “Grab overflowing tacos from the Tacos El Torito stand outside, or dine inside for the full menu.” Overflowing is accurate. Eat them standing up and fold them hard, or wear them.
Small taquerias change hours without telling the internet. If you’re crossing the metro for one specific counter, call or check its socials first. If you’re just hungry, go to the block. Something will be open, and something will smell good.
Al pastor off a spit: the trompo test
Real al pastor comes off a trompo, a vertical spit stacked with marinated pork, the outside crisping and caramelizing as it turns, shaved off in thin, red-edged ribbons. A lot of places sell “al pastor” that was chopped on a flat-top instead. It can still taste good. It’s just a different thing, and once you’ve had the spit version, the difference is in the first bite: the charred tips, the fat that’s rendered instead of fried.
Mestiza, 3279 Hampton Avenue, calls itself “The best tacos in Lindenwood Park,” and its own site points you to the right order: “Go for Del Trompo, Birria Fundida, Casi Alucinógenos, and churros when you want something smoky, crisp, rich, and just sweet enough to finish strong.” Order the Del Trompo first. Its posted hours run noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday, and Monday isn’t on that list, so don’t plan a Monday taco night here.
Birria, and the woman who sold it off her porch
Birria is a taco you hear before you taste: the crackle of a shell that’s been dipped in red, fatty broth and crisped on the griddle, then the slurp when you dunk it in a cup of consommé. It’s on half the menus in town now. One place built its whole name on it.
Taco Drip STL opened a takeout-only storefront at 1920 Carr Street in the Carr Square neighborhood, as St. Louis Magazine reported. The story behind it is better than any tagline. Stephanie Boyd, known as “Chef Stef,” started by selling tacos off her front porch, and the brand still carries the line “off-the-porch original STL birria tacos.” The same reporting says the menu runs to birria tacos, loaded drippin’ nachos, birria fries and crispy “birri-tos.” Bring napkins. The name is a warning, not a joke. It’s takeout, so check its socials for the day’s hours before you head over.
Vegan tacos that don’t apologize
Terror Tacos, 3191 S. Grand. A fully vegan taco shop on South Grand, built, as St. Louis Magazine put it, to reflect the owners’ love of hardcore and metal music. The same story called it “a bold, in-your-face vegan taco joint” when it was coming to that address. Bring the friend who swears they hate fake meat and don’t tell them until the plate is empty.
The Grove and Botanical Heights
Chico Bueno, 4156 Manchester Ave in the Grove, calls itself a “TAQUERIA DE BARRIO,” and the posted menu is short in the way good taco menus are. Every taco is $5. The one to order is the lamb barbacoa, built with “guajillo, cinnamon & clove,” warm spice you smell when the plate lands. The site says it’s “OPEN DAILY 11:00AM - 9:00PM,” and there are no reservations; you just walk in.
Taco Buddha, 1634 Tower Grove Ave in Botanical Heights, with sister shops at 7405 Pershing Ave in University City and 11111 Manchester Rd in Kirkwood. This one isn’t trying to be a Cherokee taqueria; it calls its roots “New Mex Tex.” The weekend move is breakfast tacos, served 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday, eaten on a covered patio with a dog under the table. Weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m., dine-in happy hour means half-off chips, dips and house margaritas.
Mission Taco became Session Taco, and then it was gone
It started in the Delmar Loop in 2013 as Mission Taco Joint. According to Sauce Magazine, Gruma Corp., the parent company of Mission Foods, sued over the Mission name in 2023; the settlement required a new name, and the brand became Session Taco in September 2024.
Then it shrank. Sauce reports the group closed Town & Country and Kirkwood in late 2025 and early 2026. The St. Charles location was converted into Sobremesa, a broader Mexican concept, in June 2026, and Sobremesa closed in September. The last two Session Tacos, in the Delmar Loop and Soulard, closed on Saturday, Oct. 17. In the Central West End, LaPez Mod Mex, which used to be a Session Taco, is closing too.
So if a list, an app or a friend sends you to any of those names, it’s sending you to an empty room. The good news is the list above. Every one of those kitchens is a short drive from where a Session Taco used to be.
The average cost of a taco, and why tacos feel so expensive now
Here’s a real number instead of a guess: Chico Bueno’s posted menu puts every taco at $5, so a three-taco plate there runs $15 before a drink. That’s the honest frame for the average cost of a taco at a sit-down taqueria in this city. You don’t pay for one. You pay for the three or four it takes to feel full.
Why are tacos so expensive now? A taco is small, but everything in it is a cost a kitchen can’t cut: meat, a griddle running all day, a person pressing or warming every tortilla, rent on the block. Slow food like birria or barbacoa ties up a pot for hours. The best defense is the one the good spots already use. Short menus, high volume, no wasted trays.
For your wallet, the trick is simple. Compare by the order, not by the taco. A cheap-looking taco that’s half the size isn’t cheaper.
Quick detour for the Creve Coeur shop owners reading over someone’s shoulder: here’s how locals find you.
How to order like you’ve done this before
A traditional taqueria taco is small and usually sits on two stacked corn tortillas. That second tortilla isn’t filler. It’s structure. Juicy fillings soak straight through one, and the double layer is what keeps the whole thing from falling apart in your hand halfway through the second bite.
The classic dressing is onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime, and that’s it. No lettuce, no shredded cheese, no sour cream. The raw onion gives you the crunch, the cilantro gives you the green, the lime cuts the fat. When it’s right, every bite tastes bright, hot and clean.
The words on the board, plainly. Asada is grilled beef. Carnitas is pork braised low and then crisped, soft in the middle and crackly at the edges. Al pastor is marinated pork, ideally off the spit. Barbacoa is slow-cooked meat, usually beef, sometimes lamb. Lengua is beef tongue, and it’s the most tender thing on most menus; the name scares people off and they miss out. Tripa is intestine, crisped hard, and it’s an acquired texture. Suadero is a thin beef cut cooked slow in fat, and when a place offers it, someone in that kitchen is serious.
Order three or four, all different. That’s how you learn what a kitchen does best, and it’s how regulars order anyway. Then go back for a second round of whichever one made you stop talking.
Hit the salsa first, carefully. The green one isn’t always the mild one. Taste a drop on a chip before you pour it over the whole plate, because the burn that sneaks up on you three bites later is real, and water won’t fix it. A bite of tortilla will.
A taco night that doesn’t fall apart
Pick by craving, not by ranking. If someone in the car wants birria, someone wants vegan and someone just wants a plain asada taco with lime, you’re not going to make everyone happy at one counter. Cherokee covers the plain-and-perfect crowd. Mestiza covers the al pastor purist. Terror Tacos covers the vegan. Taco Drip covers the person who wants their hands red to the wrist.
Check the day. Mestiza’s posted hours skip Monday. Taco Buddha’s breakfast tacos are a weekend thing. Takeout spots move fast and close early when they sell out. A two-minute look at a restaurant’s own page saves you a twenty-minute drive to a dark window, and after what happened on Delmar, that’s a habit worth keeping.
Two more guides for the drive
This guide is about tacos. For the wider picture, from full-service restaurants to regional cooking and where to take a group, and for a longer walk down the street that anchors all of it, start with these:
Still hungry after all that? Find more local kitchens, trucks and counters across the metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, and check a place’s own page before you drive.
If you run the taqueria, the truck or the one-griddle kitchen on this list, read this part. When a chain closes, its regulars go looking for a new spot that same week, and they find whoever shows up first. A Gold listing puts your tacos, your hours and your photos in front of those customers for under a dollar a day. See how to get more customers →
Frequently asked questions about tacos in St. Louis
What happened to Mission Taco Joint?
It opened in the Delmar Loop in 2013 and became Session Taco in September 2024 after a settlement over the Mission name with Gruma Corp., the parent company of Mission Foods. The St. Charles location became Sobremesa in June 2026, which closed in September, and the last two Session Tacos, in the Delmar Loop and Soulard, closed on Saturday, Oct. 17.
How much is the average cost of a taco?
At Chico Bueno in the Grove, every taco on the posted menu is $5, so three tacos come to $15 before a drink. Most people need three or four to feel full, so compare taquerias by the cost of a full order, not by the price of one taco.
Why are tacos so expensive now?
The same pressures behind every menu: meat, labor, rent and the hours slow-cooked fillings like birria and barbacoa tie up a kitchen. The places that hold the line usually keep a short menu and move a lot of tacos, so less food goes to waste.
What is a must eat in St. Louis?
Locals will name toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake and St. Louis-style pizza first. Add a plate of tacos on Cherokee Street to that list: a few small tacos from different counters on the same block, eaten with lime and onion, is about as St. Louis as an evening gets.
What areas to stay away from in St. Louis?
We won’t rank neighborhoods by fear. Every place on this list sits in a neighborhood where people live, work and eat every night. Use the same sense you’d use anywhere: park where it’s lit, keep valuables out of sight in the car, and check a restaurant’s hours before you go so you’re not wandering a closed block.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.