Shell’s Coastal Cuisine

Pro: The Shrimp Melt is their flagship. Why? It’s delicious! It’s a pretty simple formula: 1) put sandwich in mouth, 2) eat until it’s all gone, and 3) rub tummy and say «that was good!»
Con: Both the Fish Tacos and Shrimp Tacos are good, both not worth the $ 10 price of admission. $ 6-​$ 7.50? Maybe so…
Bottom Line: The ultra-​friendly lady working the food truck assured me that the have one of the top 5 Cuban Sandwiches in the city. Challenge accepted! More stars to follow if this is true. Until then, enjoy the Shrimp Melt!

There was a food truck rally at my work and this truck offered something other than cheese-​covered meat slabs. I decided to veer away from my usual vegetarian ways because of this lack of availability and went to Shell’s for some fish tacos.
For $ 10, I got two grilled fish tacos in a flour tortilla with some shredded lettuce, tomato, pickled red onions and some kind of creamy sauce drizzled on it and a side of sweet potato chips. They offered a good selection of hot sauces and I drizzled Cholula liberally on my tacos. This turned out to be fortunate, as that’s about all I tasted on the whole taco. It was just kind of weird. These nice-​looking fresh ingredients all together, but no flavor. The fish appeared to be of good quality, nice texture… but it’s like they totally forgot to season or marinate them (I asked a co-​worker who got the same thing and she concurred). The tacos were sufficient and far from gross and I did eat them both (I did spend $ 10, after all), but they were so unsatisfying that my first thought was to go get fish tacos from my favorite Mexican restaurant later on tonight for dinner. They just need to marinate that nice fish in a good blend of seasonings before cooking and I know they’d do better business.
The one bright spot was the fresh sweet potato chips. Those get 5 stars and I would have happily eaten 4 more servings of them!

I tried this food truck for the first time on Friday at Tilles Park Winter Wonder Walk. I was initially suspect at a Coastal Truck, in Missouri, in late November. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Cuban sandwich on the menu. Since La Tropicana closed in October I have been without a quality Cuban.
The sandwich was reasonably priced at $ 9. I was surprised with sweet potato chips on the side. The staff was friendly and the service was quick. The best part was the hot sandwich. This was a large sandwich and the pork was moist. There was ample cheese but not enough to soak through the crisp Cuban bread.
I will go out of my way to find this truck again. Hopefully this type of sandwich can be recreated somewhere else in STL.

They have conch fritters! Just tried them for the first time yesterday since they advertised as having conch. I grew up in Florida and conch is a main staple there so I was super excited when I found out! They were pretty good too! The girl who took my order said that they were planning on revamping their menu and possibly adding conch into some other dishes.
It’s my little piece of Florida in St. Louis.

This was my first visit to this truck. The on-​line menu made it worth checking out.
My friend and I were the first to the truck at lunchtime. I had a lot of questions about nutrition and cooking methods. Everything was answered in detail and with enthusiasm. They really like their food and love talking about it.
I ordered the fish tacos and a side of black beans. My friend got the chicken taco and a side of guacamole. It was no problem to do ½ orders, double orders, different sides. They really wanted to work with us to make sure we got what we would enjoy.
And enjoy we did. Our food was good, hot, and fresh. Both style of tacos were seasoned just right and my friend really enjoyed her guacamole. I liked my black beans as well.
We will both be visiting this truck again when it comes by.

Cute truck, great menu. However, you have to get there early if you really want to be able to choose from their offerings — I showed up too late for anything but veggie tacos and was pretty bummed about that. The veggie tacos were tasty and the cactus salad and sweet potato chips were a nice change of pace, but I wasn’t blown away. If I happen upon them again, I will (attempt to) try other things on the menu but I wouldn’t seek out the truck specifically for another shot. Good but not amazing, and there are so many AMAZING food trucks in the city that my heart remains elsewhere.

Yeah… no.
I’m really not sure where all these stars are coming from. My experience was less than spectacular. I think this food truck has glimmers of potential, but it has a very inconsistent image, which if you really think about it, is kinda ironic and funny because they bill themselves as «Floribbean».
I’ve been putting off reviewing Shell’s because of this, but tonight, I ran across Catherine W’s review, and was like, «Ohmigod, I’m NOT crazy!». Like Catherine, I tried them for the first time at 4Hands Food Truck Fest, and if you read my truck fest review, yes, we didn’t get there until the latter half of the festival. Shell’s had run out of more than half of their offerings, including their Cuban (which was my first choice), so my choices were limited, which may have played a part in how they turned out, but I’m not convinced that should be an excuse.
Prices are pretty reasonable and in the ballpark with other food trucks. You can order a salad for $ 6.00 or you can go with a sandwich with sweet potato chips or two tacos with two sides for $ 7.50. They do take credit cards. So after debating my choices since I couldn’t get the Cuban, I got into line with three people ahead of me. It took me about ten minutes to get to the head of the line. I ordered fish tacos with flour tortillas, sweet potato chips, and the cactus salad. Once I ordered, it took another 20 minutes to get my food… there were apparently four or five people ahead of me. And yes, I appreciate them cooking it to order, but honestly, I don’t know why they do it because by the time I walked back to my table 10 yards away, the fish was lukewarm. Devise a method to cook in batches or something and keep it under a heat lamp or something… because cooking it to order didn’t really make much of a difference here. Because not only was the fish taco lukewarm, it was all bland. The description is written as fish, grilled onions, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cilantro, and key lime crema. Really? Okay. So I remember tasting the fish. And the tomatoes and lettuce. But the onions, cilantro, and key lime crema, while physically there, didn’t do anything to the tacos. Actually, I’m pretty surprised that it was key lime crema because there was no key lime taste to the sauce at all. At least my tacos did not fall apart.
The cactus salad was not what I really expected; I would really have to describe it as sour pickled green beans. Not really my cup of tea. The only redeeming factor in the meal was the sweet potato chips… they are pretty good.
So, if you read my fest review, I mention that everyone had run out of bottled water by 6 PM, and that it was a food truck that had casually mentioned it. Well, Shell’s was the food truck; while I was standing there waiting for my food, she said it to a customer who was inquiring about water. And all I really want to say is that, you had like three people working, and one of the reasons why I wanted to try you guys out is that one of your employees was taking a break at a nearby table and was talking your truck up like it was the best thing in the world. And if your employee has the time to kick it up and if your menu is half gone anyway, with the little business sense I have, wouldn’t it make sense to send an employee out on a water run? You would have made a KILLING. Just my two cents.
I feel like I should give Shell’s another try, but with the plethora of all the other food trucks out there, it’ll be awhile before I do… and honestly, if there are other choices in the area, Shell’s wouldn’t be my first choice.

I tried Shell’s Coastal Cuisine for the first time at the 4Hands Food Truck Feast, and I won’t be trying them again. After tasting the delicious tacos from other trucks in the area I was very disappointed by Shell’s bland offerings.
I ordered two tacos — one fish and one steak with corn tortillas and green salsa — with a side of sweet potato chips and cactus salad. I was excited by the descriptions of everything, since it sounded like there would be a lot of flavor and spiciness you expect from tropical-​style food. First disappointment was that apparently the fish taco takes forever. I appreciate that they make everything to order, but really, when I order food from a food truck one of the basic things I’m looking for is fast service.
Second disappointment came when I actually got the tacos and tried to eat them. I say «tried» because both tortillas around the fish taco fell completely apart after the first bite, and I had to eat the rest of the taco with a fork. The taco itself was shockingly bland. I actually couldn’t taste the fish at all. The steak taco fared only marginally better.
The sweet potato chips were tasty but nothing special. They were also barely seasoned at all, and a few minutes after getting them they were already starting to get soggy. The cactus salad was an interesting idea, but it looked and tasted like pickled green beans. Good promise but bad execution seemed the order of the day for Shell’s.

I popped my food truck cherry! Shell’s showed up for a recent charity event and man am I glad they did. They have some awesome food. Their menu consists of lots of different tacos and sandwiches.
I decided on the shrimp melt with sweet potato chips. It was delicious! The shrimp was sauteed in butter and white wine and cooked just right. It was topped with melted white cheddar cheese. Mmmmm.
The sweet potato chips reminded me of a favorite local potato chip. They were seasoned just right and crispy. Them seemed to be «kettle cooked».
I will definitely seek them out next time when looking for some great food.

One crappy thing about working in West County is that no food trucks ever come out to these parts. Luckily Shell’s Coastal Cuisine is trying to change that. They currently come out to Chesterfield every Thursday from 11:15am until ingredients run out.

After driving around for a while (more on that later) I finally found the truck sitting out in the parking lot of some large office buildings. I got there around 12:30 and there were a couple customers out there. I can’t resist a Cuban sandwich (ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, mustard, pickles), so I ordered that ($ 7.50 tax included), it came with a large amount of sweet potato fries.

It came out about 4 – 5 minutes later and looked great. It was done panini style with thin n crispy bread. It tasted really good and was nice and easy to eat without getting messy, which is a huge plus for me. I’ll admit I was hoping for a little more assertive flavor. Maybe offering some kind of spicy mustard would be a good idea. But it was still very good. The sweet potato chips were awesome, nice and crispy and salted just right.
Finding the truck was a pain due to Google Maps crappy directions. The address is 15 400 S. Outer Rd. The best way to get there is to take 64 West to Chesterfield Pkwy East, make a left (so you’re going south), go through the first light, at the next light (Schoetter Valley Dr) make a right, then another right into the giant parking lot. Keep driving down the lot and eventually you’ll see em. If you keep an eye out you can see them from Chesterfield Pkwy.
I think I’ll be back next week for the fish tacos.

One review? Why haven’t my fellow Unilocalers been stalking this food truck more often? I’ve had tacos at all of the taco trucks, and I’ve gotta be honest, Shell’s were my fav. Of course, I don’t eat meat, so that limits my perspective a bit (and I am obsessed with Seoul Taco’s Tofu Gogi Bowl… it’s a tough one to beat). But I’m glad that I headed back to Crestwood Court on Saturday to check the veggie tacos out.
I arrived at 3:40, so most of the trucks were finished serving. But not Shell’s. Score! I walked up and ordered an order of veggie tacos (2 per order-​with grilled peppers, onions, zucchini, and sprinkled with cotija cheese, key lime crema, and your choice of red or green salsa) for 7.50. They asked me what salsa I wanted, and after inquiring about their spiciness (I don’t do spicy), they assured me that neither were hot. So I picked the green. I think all of the tacos usually come with black beans and rice, but because of the large event I’m sure, in order to be more efficient, they were serving their sweet potato chips with everything instead. Fine by me! I really wanted key lime pie too, but they were out. Bummer. They also warned me that they were out of onions before they charged me, and made sure that that was ok. I do love onions, but I said yes. However, they must have found some, because my tacos actually had onions in them! Double score! And I really appreciated the heads up anyway. Also, the sweet potato chips were easily the best that I’ve ever had. A few were more chewy than crispy, but with their flava, it didn’t even matter. I actually kind of dug it. And luckily, they gave me A LOT of them too!
I’d love to see them add another vegetarian item, like a sandwich, but I’ll definitely be back to try the rice and beans (if they are vegetarian), and for more of those yummy chips. The service was fast, friendly, and I felt that it was a bit of a better value than some of the other things that I’ve had (probably because there were so many chips!). Oh, and when I return, they better not be out of pie!

I love Shell’s Coastal Cuisine! She is a restaurant on wheels. From scratch you can order all kinds of taco’s (including fish, shrimp, steak, chicken) and wonderful sandwiches such as their Cuban. Meals are very reasonable, food is quick and cooked to order.
Shelly pops in at differrent locations. Look her up to find out where she will be next. She has visited me and the staff at Don Brown Chevrolet a couple times– and it has been a couple times not enough. Her food is very refreshing.
Thanks Shelly!