I was traveling in the area and stopped at this El Torito. Â It was a known entity and I wasn't in the mood for trying something new. Â The food was okay, pretty good - but I ordered a basic meal: enchiladas, rice and beans. Â
However, my waitress was worth giving this place 4-5 stars!! Â Zoila greeted me as though I was a long time resident. Â I saw her interact with other diners in the same way. Â Great service has a way of making any meal better!! Â This restaurant has a gem in her and I hope they know it.
The food tonight, 2/12/2013 was really lame. The vegetables in the fajitas that I ordered were charred on the bottom. I ordered chicken and steak fajitas and I was brought steak and shrimp. They did bring me chicken and let me keep the shrimp too, but the steak was a really crappy cut. My wife's food enchiladas were dry and had about two tablespoons of sauce for her entire plate. We had our irritable baby with us or we would have asked fro replacement food for both of us. The service was meh. Our server was nice, he did say he was new. The manager was nice as well. Not nice enough to make up for the sub-par food though. I will not be going back here...
Review Source:You people that are giving more than 1 star, must work at El Toritos, be related to the owner, or some other connection that is NOT about the food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This place used to be good and crowded, until they decided to revamp and serve pre-made, frozen crap for food... Yeah the tacos may be fresh, but you can get tacos anywhere!!! This place has gone in the sh_tter!!!! GO ANYWHERE ELSE BUT HERE AND DON'T GO TO TACO LOCO EITHER!!!!! THE WORST FOOD IN EUGENE!!!!!!!!
Review Source:I've been to this restaurant in Eugene many times for the past 12 years, but this latest visit on Sunday, Sept 2nd was awful. We arrived at 8 pm, to no host to be found anywhere in the lobby, so we seated ourselves. We waited almost 10 minutes without any of the staff noticing our group of 4, and went up to grab our OWN menus. I ordered the mexican cesar salad and the chicken tortilla soup, while the rest of my group ordered entrees. Our waiter asked if I wanted the salad out early, and I said yes. It didn't come out early or at ALL, even when the other 3 people in my group received their entrees on time...I didn't even receive my soup. I asked the person who delivered their entrees where my soup & salad was & he said he would go grab them. I waited another 10 minutes, watching that guy run back and forth without my soup & salad, then finally, my boyfriend hunted down our original waiter and told him he forgot about my order. The waiter then proceeded to blame another employee. When the bill came, he didn't comp our meal until we asked him to do so after reminding him of all of the bad service we received.
He went in the back somewhere, and out comes a large, disheveled man with a long sleeved denimn shirt on unbuttoned halfway. He introduced himself as the manager, and apologized for our bad service and blamed it on the timing of other customer's dishes. Mind you, the restaurant was completely empty aside from 3 guys at the bar who were there after the Duck football game. HAHA.
Seriously the worst service I've had in a restaurant in ages!
I... I think I'm in love-hate with El Torito. You see, the other day we went in for $1 Taco Tuesday (now $1.50), and had a rather mixed experience.
$4 margaritas: The pineapple one is sweet and delicious, almost like a Pina Colada but with the rich, peppery taste of tequila. And any food/drinks come with unlimited tortilla chips and salsa!
The tacos: Well... the good part is that the the taco bar lady, who is really friendly, makes fresh tortillas from scratch. She actually has a bowl of dough and bakes them there on a hot plate. And man are they light, fluffy and fresh. All I wanted to do was roll them up with a bunch of cheese and eat mountains of them. That would be a rather embarrassing sight to witness though, so I restrained myself and just got four steak tacos.
The meat is a whole nother story. Obviously I don't expect top grade meat, but the 'steak' was very tough, with large chunks of hard fat, and pieces I couldn't even bite through. I actually spat out so many pieces (sorry fellow patrons!) that I ended up taking the meat out of my tacos and just enjoying a few cheese-tacos after all. (unlimited cheese!)
Overall I can't complain. For $10 I had a margarita and four cheese tacos with the most delicious tortilla I've ever eaten (in all fairness, I've just never had fresh tortillas before, so maybe it's just me, not them, but they were yummy!). I'd go again, but no more steak for me.
Though the place is on the tex-mex side of things, the menu was interesting and varied - more gourmet than you would expect but not too much so. The interior is very nice, spacious with high ceilings and skylights. The rice was very fresh and nothing like the usual 'mexican rice' these kinds of places offer, and instead of beans I got a little scoop of some sort of sweet cornmeal stuff which was really good. For the table service and chips crow this place is quite good.
Review Source:Sunday brunch for Fathers day could have been better. Took the family thinking that brunch meant loads of choices. We had the options of warmed leftovers, tacos and lousy service. The sticky floor really put me off. Everywhere we walked it was like stepping on cold syrup. Gross. Tacos and pork were good, everything else was not.
Review Source:Standard, out-of-the-can "Mexican" fare that will not excite you, but will not necessarily disappoint you, either. Part of the RealMex chain (which includes Chevy's, Acapulco, Las Brisas, Who Song & Larry's, etc.) this is the only RealMex El Torito outlet in the State of Oregon. The only other RealMex outlet is the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant on Washington St. in Portland. (Across the state line in Vancouver, Washington, is a RealMex Who Song & Larry's)
Headline: The only real reason to come here is for the All-You-Can-Eat Sunday Mexican Brunch Buffet... Which they only offer twice a year: On Easter and on Mothers Day. At $16.95 per person, it's a helluva deal, given all of the tasty choices with which to load your plate. If you can't make it for either of those two events, you'd do as good or better elsewhere, as there is nothing here that makes them outstanding, or even anything above marginal.
If you enjoy an All-You-Can-Eat Sunday Mexican Brunch Buffet, and want it on one of the other 50 Sundays in a year, your next best bet is the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant in Portland, as they serve it EVERY Sunday, starting at 9:00am. If you're just a fan of All-You-Can-Eat Sunday Brunch Buffets, your best bet in Eugene is Marie Callenders. And your better bet for Mexican food (minus the Buffet) is The Mission Mexican Restaurant, on Franklin Blvd.
I LOVE El Torito! My friends and I come here almost every Tuesday for their 99 cent tacos. The drinks are super cheap (happy hour 2-8) and good, but could be stronger. Â The other food I have tried there has always been fresh and delicious (especially the Mexican Caesar salad). I say, give it a try and decide for yourself!
Review Source:Ok, I have to admit something right off the bat... I only come here for Taco Tuesdays. I have never had a main course at the restaurant.
With that being said, I come here EVERY TUESDAY. They have the best Happy Hour in town served by some of the friendliest people. I always order a couple $3 strawberry margaritas, which aren't very strong but taste delicious. While I'm at it I go up to the taco bar where a friendly young man makes conversation while hand-making soft tortillas for tacos. The meat is to die for (you can choose from chicken, pork, or steak) and then you put on your own toppings. They are small but they are only 99 cents, so I usually get four and leave a happy camper.
I brought a friend of mine one Tuesday and she loved it so much that she now comes with me every week.
*** One downside, the taco bar is located in the actual bar of the restaurant so you have to be 21 or older to get there. The staff is nice and lets me order and pick up tacos for my friends who are under the age limit, so it hasn't been too much of a problem.
Sadface in Eugene.
I was staying at the River Inn nearby, and decided to give this place a whirl. Nachos and salsa were alright, but my main was not too appealing. In fact, I didn't finish it, Highly unusual for me. Usually I'm a bottomless pit.
Tequila selection was so so. Upgraded the tequila in my margarita to Don Julio and the price of it skyrocketed, in fact, I'm sure they gave me the wrong price, but I just wanted to go. There were Ducks flags everywhere and I assume its a popular place to go for the jock crowd where they can shoot tequila and get 'real' Mexican food.
le sigh.
I think the chips and salsa of a Mexican food restaurant say a lot about what the rest of the food will be like. Â Chips here were fresh-made and delicious. Â The salsa was just the right spiciness for me (medium) and very flavorful. I would come here just for those two items alone. Â The $0.99 tacos tonight were simple and delicious, too. $3 "well" margaritas on the rocks also tasty, especially for the price. Nachos could have used more melted cheese. Still, great value and surprisingly good for a chain restaurant. I'd definitely go back here again for happy hour.
Review Source:Stopped in here for lunch the other day. Â It was okay but I have certainly had better. Â Salsa was okay could have been more spicy, chips weren't very great and pretty greasy.
Service was decent. Â Sat outside and enjoyed the sun, and sadly got burned oh well. Â I'm not from Eugene so I likely will not be back to this place, but it was close to shopping where we were so it worked.
We can get a little judgmental about big chain restaurants, even when they serve decent, if inauthentic food (e.g. Olive Garden). El Torito's is a big chain restaurant that serves terrible, big-chain food.
We ate there recently with some friends. One had a tasty quesadilla. The rest of us were served cold and bland food. The cheese in my enchilada was firm, not melted. My friend ordered the Sizzling Enchiladas, served in a black skillet a la fajitas. The waitress said it was her favorite, but as my friend later dished it onto her plate, there was no sizzle or steam. Everything quietly slid down, including the soggy-looking onions and peppers.
I paid a little more for a Cadillac Margarita, but you'd never know it as it too was bland.
The Mexican Caesar salad and tortilla soup are good, worth it as a snack if you're dragged out for drinks after work. I also love the atrium in this restaurant, with vines crawling down from above.
This place can be overrun with families and their kids, crawling over your side of the booth and throwing crap from their high chairs. If this Mexican food is safe enough for babies to eat, do you want to?
Went here a few times in the past and it was always okay. Stopped in last night (Sunday evening) after my son ran the Eugene Marathon earlier in the day and we were excited about the new $11.99 three course dinner menu which included appetizer, main entree and then dessert.
For the record, we usually frequent Olive Garden on our Eugene visits but the place was packed. So we opted to go across the street to El Torito.
Arrived around 5pm, were immediately seated. Server was right there to bring us chips and salsa. Decent chips. Good, fresh salsa. A little spicier than Chevy's Fresh Mex, but similar in consistency and texture if you've ever had theirs.
No drinks. Driving back over the mountain to Bend. Just water.
Glanced at the $11.99 three course special and we all agreed that sounded like a good idea. Surprised by this as my wife and daughter would not normally have gone for the selections offered.
Son wasn't with us. He was out celebrating with his friends.
Apps: Daughter chose the taquitos, wife and I each had bowl of soup. Soup was out right away, but daughter's taquitos didn't arrive until just before the main course. Wife and I both thought the soup was the best part of the meal.
Main Course: Daughter chose Beef Sonora Quesadilla, wife chose Cheese enchilada with a mini chimichanga. I paid extra for the chicken & shrimp fajitas with a cheese enchilada.
In short, they were terrible. My shrimp tasted "funky" and I was sure they were going to have an adverse reaction later that night. Chicken was dry and charbroiled burnt. Onions & peppers....were there peppers? Were burnt. Cheese enchilada? How can you go wrong with a cheese enchilada? Go to El Torito and you'll find out. Tortillas for the fajitas (corn) were dried out and brittle.
Wife barely touched her meal. Daughter picked at the quesadilla. We left a lot untouched.
Dessert: We all opted for deep fried ice cream. Remember the old Wendy's commercials with "Where's the beef?" You get the idea. Somewhere in there was a dollop of ice cream. Yep. Bite sized.
We all walked out of there thinking, "What in the world? THAT was a horrible meal. Never again!"
So El Torito in Eugene is officially scratched off our list. Next time we'll wait in line for Olive Garden.
Tres estrellas!
Dont come to El Torito expecting fine cuisine. Â They have a cantina where some decent margaritas come out of. Â They have a supercharged margarita that's made with 100 proof that I wanted to try, but didn't want to spend the extra $8 for it. Â I did get a house margarita that tasted fine for what it was. Â Came out in lage glass with ice, again tasted OK, but it was gone in about 4 drinks. Â That sucked.
We did the 11.99 special where you get to choose an appetizer, entree, Â and desert. Â For what it was, the portion was very generous, but the quality was low. Â I had the chicken nachos, taquitos, and churros. All edible, yet more forgettable. Â My wifes tortilla soup had more oil than Bahrain. Â No thanks...
The highlight of the meal was the margaritas I would have to say. Â Our son is 9 and he was able to pick a free entree off the kids menu. Â Kids 12 and under eat free every Wednesday. Â He loved that. Â And he loved getting a free sunday. Â That is where the 3 rd star came from.
Our server was good, even though he REEEALLY wanted us to order some drinks. Â I can't stand it when servers pressure you to get a drink.
The kiddos are going to stay with Auntie this spring break, which means we will be going out way more than we should be. Â They had a pretty nice looking Happy Hour menu, with lots of low priced drinks. Â We're gonna go and check it out when we have time and see how that is.
Im going to say this place has potential. Â It will only get better if they do something about the food. Â If they kept the same atmosphere, and upped the quality of the food they could have something good going on. Â But they need to get away from that americanized touch. Â Till then this place will always be mediocre in my eye.
My buddy decided he wanted to come here for a late birthday celebration. Â We got there around 7pm on a Friday, it took about 25 minutes to get a table, which wasn't too big a problem considering we had 8 people.
For starters the chips and salsa were both fresh and tasty. I ordered a pitch of their standard margarita(not just for me... ) on the rocks. it was about 20 bucks, so not too bad. Â It wasn't overly strong, but it was by no
means weak either.
I wasn't feeling like eating much so I just got a bean and cheese burrito. I don't think there is a Mexican place anywhere that could screw up a bean and cheese burrito. It was good, pretty much what I thought it would be.
Our server was fairly prompt and we didn't have to wait very long for our food or drinks, though it was pretty busy.
My only gripe is that they added a tip even though two of our party were young kids... I mean come on! So we didn't tip besides that.
Overall a good time, I'd go back.
While the food was decent, the service my husband & I experienced last night was terrible. Â We had a nice table by the fire by apparently that meant we would be overlooked by the server for the evening. Our water glasses were empty more than once for over 10 minutes and we were seated before the tables around us, but were the last to receive our food (which took over an hour to get), our boxes & our check. Â It took us nearly 2 hours at the restaurant to have dinner and we didn't even have drinks. Â I will not be returning.
Review Source:I just enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo party, which was awesome! Â They set up a massive tent in the adjacent parking lot, with DJ, booze reps, full bar, and big dance area. Â Lots of people showed. Â $10 cover, but a good time was certainly had.
Aside from the party, I've had lunch here a few times. Â The food is always good. Â Standard Mexican Restaurant fare. Â The prices aren't cheap, but they aren't outrageous either. Â Upper end for Mexican food. Â Full bar inside, with lots of seating for normal family dining. Â Clean and brightly colored. Â Lots of that fake-stone cement.
Service can be slow, but I know very few people who walk out complaining about their experience here.
If El Torito had not come highly recommended by a good friend, I would probably never have ventured in. Â I'm not a big fan of strip mall Mexican joints. Â This strip mall locale is usually indicative of lardy, cheesy, unhealthy Mexican/American nastiness. Â
Not the case at El Torito! Â Es muy fresca! Â
Last time I stopped there, I had the Mexican Caesar salad with chicken. Â It was to die for. Â The cilantro-peppita dressing was super yum. Very fresh tasting.
Our server, Tess, was very helpful, friendly and expeditious. Â They were out of their famous little corn muffins and she was very apologetic.
This place is about as authentic to Mexican as Olive Garden is to Italian cuisine. Its not the fact the food is decent and the prices are a bit high, but the fact its very commercialized desensitizing our taste for authenticity. It got so bad our waitress misprounced "quesadilla" and "rancheros" and really looked foolish attempting to describe the dishes in the way they were prepared. The scenary is nice, but as a franchise it is built in a particular theme and structure, making it no different than anywhere else.
Review Source:
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