Los Ocampo

Since I spent a summer in Mexico while in college, I am on a perpetual quest for authentic Mexican restaurants. This comes closest in St. Paul so far. Los Ocampos on University is recently opened. Food was tasty and «real» Mexican. 4 stars because service was slow although they weren’t busy.

Having had a great experience at the Suburban Avenue location, I was pretty disappointed with the new University Avenue location. The service was friendly and the atmosphere welcoming, but I wish the food quality matched what I had earlier.
I thought the vegetarian pumpkin flower dish I had at the Suburban location was bursting with flavor, and I couldn’t wait to try it again. I ordered a pumpkin flower huarache, and it was bland, except for the slivers of green pepper. The horchata (sweetened rice drink) was very watery, as if they kept adding new ice every day but not new flavoring. My husband’s fried pepper dish was pretty good, but the rice and refried beans were just average.
On the upside, there were some nice perks. The televisions showed a variety of sports events, including Crashed Ice in a foreign country. It’s always nice to have a restaurant with a parking lot in the city. Our server appeared to be bilingual. There were enough plusses to make me willing to try there again, but it does give me pause when I leave a Mexican restaurant thinking, «I can make better refried beans than that!» (And I’ve only made it once.)

Their Tlacoyo is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, they made it veggie for me without batting an eyelid. It’s beautiful restaurant entirely covered in tile and is sunny, bright and warm even on a winter day and there’s plenty of people watching through the windows.

I’ve been to all the other locations, and this place needs some serious work to get on the level of my personal favorite location at Chicago & Lake. I liked the interior– the rounded wall of windows is a cool effect. But our service was abysmal and the food was just OK.
I went with a group of coworkers for lunch on a Wednesday. This location is restaurant style (vs. taqueria) with table service and a menu like the White Bear location (which includes full bar!). They do have a sweet lunch special for $ 10– you can get virtually any dish with a side of rice & beans, soup or salad, and a fountain beverage. I went with my longtime love, a Quesadilla al Pastor (note: quesadillas are not what you would expect– its basically a big taco but with more fixings and a thicker grilled corn tortilla) and felt it was average. Rice & beans were good, but the salad was a sad combination of iceberg, shredded cheese, croutons, and a couple tomato slices with your option of French or Ranch (?). A few coworkers got tamales which were hard and cold– the opposite of any self-​respecting tamale I know.
The service was just bizarre… a few people got there early and ordered waters that never arrived. A different server took our order and handled everything else, but he was definitely out of his element. Everything took a really long time, especially splitting and paying for the bill We did say we wanted separate checks at the beginning, but I’ll admit that is mad obnoxious with 7 people. One of my coworkers got charged twice and had to talk through the order with them for like 15 minutes. The whole thing took about 2 hours– way more than most people can afford to do on a weekday lunch.
I’m going back to Chi-​Lake next time.

Finally! Another Mexican restaurant on University. The closest one to us was on Suburban Ave and that was a bit of a hike. So glad to see these guys move in. A nice and refreshing alternative to La Cucaracha.
Great customer service. They get you in, out and get you what you want. Great green salsa.
Nice view of University Avenue.
Los Ocampo chicken pollo burrito tastes great.

I’ve been to two other Los Ocampo restaurants and I’ll be honest that this didn’t have the best food. However, the service and environment of this location surpasses the others’. This location is a full service sit down restaurant and the design is modern, clean, and very bright. The bar oversees a semi open kitchen.
As for the food, I recommend the chicken wings. The buffalo sauce was amazing. The tamales with salsa verde was also tasty. My favorite Los Ocampo dish though is the tlacoyo with pork. You must try it with the spicy green sauce. The jamaica juice was sweet but not tart it usually is. Overall, it’s comparable with other full service Mexican restaurants in St Paul.