MadCo just got a new restaurant, and I went there and munched this week.
Real Agave, a modern Mexican taqueria, started its soft opening this month at 1017 Century Drive in Edwardsville. The menu specializes in street tacos, and they’ve also got other Mexican food favorites like quesadillas and burritos.
I’ve been dying to go since I wrote a feature on the restaurant several weeks ago. My boyfriend and I love trying authentic Mexican restaurants around the St. Louis metro, so I brought him with me, too.
One of my regrets from some of my first few MadCo Munchies reviews is not getting a specialty drink from the restaurants, so now I don’t make that mistake. A restaurant review should include the whole experience! So I started with a housemade horchata, and we ordered some chips and salsa to share.
When I originally interviewed the owners, they told me that they’d have chips and salsa, but the appetizer wouldn’t automatically come free for the table. This is because the owners are focused on fresh, homemade ingredients — and yeah, it was worth it. The salsa was incredible. Without me giving him this information, my boyfriend said, “You can tell this was made today.”
The horchata was great, too — perfectly creamy. So we’re already off to a really good start. For our main meals, I ordered a carne asada (steak) burrito, and my boyfriend ordered three street tacos: one with chorizo, one with chicken and one with carne asada.
My burrito was huge and also delicious. I only ate half and took the rest home. I honestly think two people could split chips and salsa and a burrito and go home full. All the tortillas were also housemade, and we found out so was the chorizo, which I didn’t even know was possible. My boyfriend said his chorizo taco was the best he’s had since moving to the Metro (and he’s had a lot of chorizo).
The meals came with three housemade sauces: a sweet and spicy, mild, and hot. The sweet and spicy sauce was my favorite. When I go to a Mexican restaurant, I usually pick either carne asada or al pastor (marinated pork) for my protein, and this time I just happened to get carne asada. Next time I’ll try al pastor for two reasons — one, I bet it’s delicious, and two, I think the sweet and spicy salsa would be perfect on it. My boyfriend’s favorite was the hot sauce, which I also really enjoyed. It had a great flavor with heat instead of being spicy just for the sake of it.
All the employees were incredibly friendly — one of the owners was walking around, checking on customers. Our server was incredibly knowledgeable abount the menu, and she had recommendations for us to try next time. I’m very curious about the Mexican hot dog.
So, to make a long story short, I don’t typically use a star system on MadCo Munchies, but if I did, Real Agave would get 5/5. It’s fantastic, and if you have any interest in authentic street tacos or just all-around delicious food, you should go support one of our city’s newest businesses.
Dining and Cooking