Casa Azteca

Food is great great great! Environment and staff… eh. Used to love this place, gone downhill recently. A little dirty and the staff and owner always hanging out in the dining room, eating, drinking, wrapping silverware. A little awkward, kinda like you’re eating in someone’s house.

Among my favorite Mexican I’ve tried since leaving Texas. I went at lunch time and they have a buffet. They make you tacos and serve up enchiladas that were great. Surprisingly my favorite thing they had was fried chicken. I wouldn’t have thought a Mexican place would have great fried chicken but I am glad my boyfriend made me have some. Defiantly on the list of places I will be stopping again.

The food is awesome. Don’t compare it to the Mexican place you grew up with in your home town, because no one reading these reviews cares about your old home town. Go to the buffet, load up with tacos, enchiladas, rice, beans, and some fried chicken. Enjoy the mural of a sexy Hispanic woman lying on her back covered by a mostly-​transparent sheet while you eat delicious food until you explode. The negative reviewers are morons. This place is great.

Meh. Not bad, but not very good either. I love Mexican food, but would not return here by choice. Can’t recommend.

To my surprise, this place is excellent. Disappointed to see lot of negative reviews because folks are judging based on comparison to where they are from. You have understand that this place is in a working class section of O’Fallon, Illinois; you’re not going to get the authentic experience. This is plain and simple a good TEX/​MEX buffet… period. They have your standard fare of the Mexican stable classics, burritos, enchiladas, etc. I find that the taste here is very flavorful, and sharp. The buffet lay out is a bit annoying as they serve the food to you from behind the buffet stand. Not too thrilled with someone touching my taco shell with their hands (I’m a germ freak) as they scoop the meat on there, but oh well. The flavor is heavy on cumin, but I think it tastes good. The buffet is really cheap. The atmosphere is cozy. Not sure if they need a salad bar in there, it doesn’t fit well. They should just have additional Mexican dishes instead. But do stop on by, cause you will be surprised.

I decided to try this place out for myself yesterday. Man, i should have stayed true and took in all of the negative reviews about this place. A coworker recommended it and Unilocal says stay away. You should really stay away.
It’s a run down Mexican place with a buffet that is quite plain. You have a small salad section and then you get to the entrée portion. There is someone behind the buffet to make your tacos and get your items, I don’t mind that at all. What I do mind, is the tasteless meat. It could have been cat litter in sauce and you wouldn’t know the difference. The burritos/​enchiladas are filled with something but hell if I know what it is. The disappointing aspect was the salsa brought to the table with the chips. It’s tomato sauce from a can that has maybe a little onion and jalapeño added to it. It made me very sad.
The waitress was very nice and attentive. That was the highlight of the meal.
All in all, I’m shocked that I didn’t get mud butt before I made it home. If you want Mexican food, Taco Bell is light years ahead of this place.

We were told that this is THE place to eat for Mexican/​Tex-​Mex food in O’fallon. Wrong. The food wasn’t gross, which saves this business from a 1-​star, but it was far from flavor or interesting.
The buffet we heard rave reviews about was pretty lame and didn’t offer much choice. Perhaps I’m skewed by being told how awesome it was, but this was definitely one of the poorer experiences I’ve had at any restaurant, especially a themed one.

I want to like this place I really do but the food just doesn’t have it. The owners and staff are outstanding but every time I go hear the I spend the next 30 min in the bathroom.

We went here about a year ago, and every time I drive by (I live close), I shudder and can’t believe that the parking lot is consistently full. Everything was wrong when we went. The atmosphere was cheap, the furniture flimsy, the service apathetic, and the food looked and tasted like it was leftovers from the lunch buffet. I suspect they could do a better job if we tried them again, but why waste my time?
I just returned from a trip to San Antonio, where every other block has Mexican that would blow this out of the park. The only way this place is still in business is because people around here must not know any better.

I can understand why the reviews to Casa Azteca here are all over the place. This is Americanized Mexican food, the atmosphere isn’t great, but we go here a lot. Why? The tasty Mexican buffet and good prices. They also have good drinks, the large Corona beer bottles, and Pacifico, ya :)
The buffet is small, with not a lot of variety, but it is yummy and I wouldn’t change it. In the first half, you grab a plate and you either make yourself a salad (nothing special, iceberg), or you get the sugary cinnamon chips (sopapillas?) with honey for dessert later on. On the second half of the buffet, you tell the attendant what you want out of choices of tacos (how many, hot or mild sauce), enchiladas, and they make the tacos on the spot, and set them and the enchiladas on your plate. Hold it out a little for them. Here you also fill your plate with rice, beans, mini-​chimichangas, etc., also hot wings and sausage.
The tacos are hard shell corn tortilla, and overall decent. You could make these tacos at your house, so not much special about them, but they’re fine and I like the meat in them. The enchiladas are quite good. The spiciness is where I like it. I get the «hot» on the tacos and it’s not really hot. The rice is good too, which is important to me for Mexican food. So my buffet plate of rice, tacos, enchiladas is my tasty combination. It sounds really basic, but it’s good.
Don’t be put off by someone behind the buffet asking what you want like some other reviewers seem to have been, this is just how it works. You can tell them how many and what you want in your tacos, and how many enchiladas. Hopefully that prepares you. If you want a better impression, go behind someone else and watch :)
You do get chips and salsa at your table immediately. I like the salsa, wish the chips were fresher sometimes. When you go back up to the buffet, get a new plate. Your old plate will likely be cleared for you before you make it back to your table.
The buffet is why you come here, and that’s what we almost always get. Grab a table, order a drink, and head for the buffet! But they do have some decent looking menu items. I’ve only ordered twice now off the menu myself and both times were good. I know someone else that almost always orders off the menu and enjoys his meals.
If you’re looking for higher quality menu items, you can find that at other places around (maybe La Casa Mexicana in Edwardsville). If you’re looking for more authentic Mexican, you can find that at Mi Tierra in Fairmont City. Maybe think of this place as an analog of good neighborhood bar food, but in a Mexican restaurant. What I mean is, the variety isn’t much (I’m talking about the buffet), but it’s quite good, and it’s consistently good every time we go. By the way, I’ve never had a stomach issue from their food, apart from it being too full.
I hope that gets you in the right mindset to try this O’Fallon staple and enjoy it for what it is. 3.5 stars, where it is right now, is a good rating I think. If they improve their menu game and atmosphere, then 4 is no problem. Keep the neat wall murals, improve the seating and the rest of the interior.

Very displeased,
Coming from California only two months ago, we were jones ing for some «authentic» Mexican cuisine which we’ve come to love in CA. The only thing authentic was the language. We spoke with two hosts who didn’t understand basic English questions. The first question I asked was what beer they offered, since they weren’t listed on the elementary menu. They gave me a blank stare and repeated, «beer?» After asking about domestics, three times, finally a server said bud.
We were then promptly served chips and salsa, as any good Mexican place should start. The chips were like any run of the mill restaurant chip, over greased and under seasoned.
Then came the daunting task of ordering out food. Their menu is numbered and if your order strays in any small way from the numbered menu, you will receive an incorrect order. For example, I asked for a shrimp burrito. Very simple, a little surf and turf. She seemed to understand so I asked if she could kick it up a notch by adding some spice. All I said was «spicy?» Again I got a blank stare. So I asked, «spicy? Chipotle? Jalapeño?» Ok jalapeño! I ask, she said.
I will admit the service was quick, but my «spicy shrimp burrito» arrived as a «spicy beef burrito.» Way to go!
As I wait for the server to return, I have enough time to write this review in its entirety.
Bottom line, don’t waste your time.

Best Mexican Buffet on this side of the river!!!

I went here because the SO thought it would be the same as some other Mexican buffet he’d been to in the Metro East right off of 64 that he insists had the same name. I’m not convinced that place exists, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this place instead.
I like Mexican food, everything between authentic and Tex Mex. I thought, «Buffet? Yes! This is what Mexican food has always needed.» Maybe it would be… if more than2−3 of their food items were worth eating a second time.
The buffet is in two parts, salad bar and hot food. The salad bar is American, minus that it has these awesome pickled tomatillos. Pretty sure they only have ranch and Italian dressing, possibly a third that I didn’t consider. The lettuce and cabbage mix only had a few topping choices, comparatively to what you normally get at a salad bar.
The hot food… I’m not sure where to start. They have both bean burritos and hings that may or may not be fried bean burritos (chimichanga attempt?) readily available to you, as well as rice and refried beans. Normally I would be okay. Just give me some sort of sauce for my burrito and chimichanga thing and a little sprinkle of either cotija or queso fresco for my beans and boom. Alas, the three topping choices were hot salsa, mild salsa, and shredded pork… sauce.
The shredded pork was awesome, but the attendant mentioned that it’s normally only for rice. I don’t mind plain bean burritos, but I usually expect something (lettuce, guacamole, sour cream? seriously, anything) at a restaurant. I save my plain burrito eating for those rare days I decide I hate myself enough to eat a frozen burrito. But who eats plain chimichanga things? The frying doesn’t add flavor. I dipped it in the shredded pork, but I didn’t feel good about it.
The attendant offered an enchilada or a taco. The taco was fine, minus that it was just meat, lettuce, and either hot or mild salsa. The enchilada was actually really good, possibly had mole sauce. It tasted slightly chocolatey, at least I hope that’s how it tasted. Also, the sopapillas (more chip like and less fluffy than I’ve had elsewhere) with honey were easily the best thing they had.
You might be saying, «Mediocre food? Yeah, but it’s a buffet.» I have to stop you right there. Everything they serve is spicy. I like mildly spicy. I’ll even eat some hot wings or jalapenos here or there. No. Nothing they have is mild. Mild salsa? Try slightly less hot salsa. Tacos aren’t safe because they are topped with salsa. The enchiladas, which, let’s be honest, are normally one of a few go to things for nervous Americans, had a slow, deep burn. The least spicy things I ate were the burrito and chimichanga thing, but the blandness wasn’t a good substitute. (Also, adding spice to your food isn’t a good substitute for flavor.) The next least spicy things were the pickled tomatillos, and they were a little bit spicy. I tried eating chips to help, but they weren’t very good.
Finally, I will leave you with this. I see that another reviewer said you should assume food like this will make your stomach hurt. I have eaten a lot of Mexican food (and Tex Mex and everything in between) at a lot of places, and I have never had a stomach ache. If you look at some of my other reviews, you would discover that sometimes I go to the closest crappy, cheap Mexican place for melted Chihuahua cheese to cure my upset stomach. (I don’t know why it helps; I just go with it.) I have never once had a stomach ache. Until Casa Azteca.
Just drive into the city, or at least to another town, if you want Mexican food.
Pros: Mexican buffets are hard to come by, service
Neutral: atmosphere
Cons: food

«There food is very mediocre and nothing to write home about.»
«This is easily the worst restaurant in the Metro East.»
” I’d almost rather sit and my office and eat a Lean Cuisine.”
” I felt uncomfortable someone was behind the buffet, trying to rush me to pick something. «
I rarely, if ever, write reviews on Unilocal.But this nonsense from previous negative posts is so ridiculous I had to jump on here. I’ve been going here since before I was mentally conscious way back when they had a place behind Ice Cream Haven, so I’m admittedly biased. That said, Casa has a place in so many people’s hearts for a reason. You have to get the buffet; anything else is amateur hour. The food is in fact not mediocre but rather a heavenly gift that tastes like its been prepared by Quetzalcoatl himself. I would eat this food anytime, anyplace. I’ve written home much I miss Casa more than I can count. If someone told me they didn’t like the salsa I’d look at them like they were a mongoloid as well; I’d buy pickle jars of the stuff if I could. And regarding the negative reviewer who said she would rather sit in her office and eat a Lean Cuisine… honestly someone who eats that type of garbage doesn’t deserve to have a seat in what is by far one of the best joints in the Metro-​East. How much credit can you give someone who bashes their boss for being cheap on Unilocal anyways? Some people just don’t know how much appreciation should be shown for a free meal at this place. And finally, this is a Mexican restaurant who’s shining glory is its buffet. No, there isn’t labels because I’d like to think they respect their customers’ intelligence by not needing to spell out the obvious Mexican fare. Mentioning a place such as this will give you an upset stomach is like pointing out a bar unfortunately was the reason for your hangover. Judging by the negative reviews, I’d have to say these people are idiots. My reasoning? Only idiots hate on Casa.

Great food! Have been going here since they opened. Great buffet that has something for everyone! The people who give bad reviews must have a second agenda!

If your in a hurry this is a great place to come to as they have a lunch buffet. There food is very mediocre and nothing to write home about. You can get tacos, salad, desert chips, rice and beans, maybe some taquitos. They will bring chips and salsa to your table as well. I think it is overpriced for $ 7.95 for lunch.
This is my second time trying this place out. I’m not a fan of the flavor of their beef nor there rice. The salsa is bland. I don’t think I would come here again.
Maybe if i was a heavy drinker, they have a nice patio area, but i have never seen anyone sitting out there.
I don’t know if there is any other mexican place close by, maybe thats why this place makes it, but it’s worth trying something else next time.

Wound up at Casa Azteca for dinner the other night, and had another good experience.
Casa Azteca is your normal neighborhood type Mexican restaurant. Putting money into improvements isn’t always the first thing on the list. So while the place was remodeled after a fire in 2006, it hasn’t necessarily been maintained or updated.
But the food was good for Americanized Mexican food. The chips and salsa were good, the salsa was a little watery to my taste but I still ate it. As for the buffet, which is the reason why I go there, the food was good. Surprisingly the men at the table all made their first stop at the Salad Bar portion of the buffet. The salad bar is nothing special, but I do like their ranch dressing.
The rest of the buffet includes tacos assembled as with choice of salsa, enchiladas, beans, rice, chimichangas, hot wings and more. The tacos are pretty good, along with the enchiladas, but my favorite is the hot wings.
Overall this place has a bit of a feel as a greasy spoon, but I have eaten here many times and have never been sick. Rather, I have gone and eaten my fill and gone away pleased. I don’t go here often, but there is a certain hunger it fills when I’m there.

I really, really, really am not a fan of this place. But my boss for some reason likes it here and will pays for my food, so I really can’t complain. The service is usually pretty quick and it’s inexpensive (probably why he likes it… he’s a little cheap). But you get what you pay for and the quality of Mexican food isn’t good. I’d almost rather sit and my office and eat a Lean Cuisine. However, us admin girls would come here after work for drinks and their drinks are usually pretty good and strong. Just what I need after the end of the month is due at work.

I found this place via my Unilocal app on my iPhone. A friend of mine works off-​base at Scott AFB and we met up for lunch.
We were looking for something quick. Walking into Casa Azteca, I thought we would have a bit of a wait but they had a buffet. Sweet!
I thought service was excellent and the staff was cordial. There were various items on the buffet. The warm hot sauce was fabulous. The enchiladas were yummy and loaded with cheese. My friend (who is a picky eater) had hard tacos and went back for seconds.
Bottom line: If you are looking for a place near Scott AFB to have a quick bite during your lunch break check this place out!

I feel there needs to be a better review of an O’Fallon, IL staple. I have literally been here hundreds of times. Why? Proximity aside, this place is known for one thing: The Buffet. It looks small, but believe me, you’ll get enough. If all you get is the tacos, beans, and rice, you’ll be happy.
Items on The Buffet:
Tacos (ask for spicy). Simple, but some of the best you’ll get.
Beans and Rice, done with perfection.
Buffalo Wings, and why the heck not?
Enchiladas, Burritos, Fried Chicken, Chili, mini chimis.
There is a small salad bar as well.
Sopapilla-​esque crips with honey for dessert.
Complimentary Chips and Salsa.
They have a patio as well.
My friends and family grew up on this place, so maybe we’re biased, but the place has been consistent over many years, and we haven’t found a buffet we enjoy more, not even the new «la parilla» buffet in town (they only do lunch buffet btw).
Azteca is delicious. Now go there, have 2 plates, think about it, then go for the pain of a third.
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