Torito

A perfect place to share delicious little treats with excellent friends. Terrific service, wonderfully prepared and presented food. Also, it’s in a terrific and funky neighborhood, Lends to the ambiance. One of my new favorite places in Toronto!

The restaurant had a great atmosphere, perfect for a date. The food is good, but not great. There’s really very little Spanish influence in the menu… Very overpriced.

Very much enjoyed the food, service and ambience. All the Tapas dishes were well executed and nicely presented without being fussy or pretentious. There is a regular menu with a couple of special offerings for the day. The prices for both food and drinks were very reasonable. I would recommend Torito for a fun, casual outing.

Great food. Barcelona vibe. Friendly staff and I love their back patio. They have an incredible variety of wine and sherry.

The tapas were tasty, churros for delicious, very friendly service and great atmosphere! Will come back.

It was not the best place, over priced for the portion size, had to ask for refill of water, the service otherwise was okay, food was flavourful and good if you want something small, but to get many different plates is a little much.

Great sangria which is half price on Sundays! And I love the ceviche, avocado fries and the chorizo scrambled eggs are heaven!

Excellent pricing, selection, portions, quality, service and ambience. Not at all pretentious. Wonderful for groups or an intimate date.

My boyfriend and I walked in around 6 on a Saturday because we saw their sangria deal. We decided to sit on their back patio which at the time was relatively busy, though the rest of the restaurant was empty when we walked in.
We ordered the sangria and the Spanish olives and bread to snack on as we had already eaten dinner. The waitress took our order at a standard time but this is where it went downhill for us. The sangria deal was ending half an hour after we walked in, we did not get the sangria until past 7. On top of this we had asked twice about our order to any waitstaff we could get a hold of, none of them seemed to have the time to stop.
Personally I had felt a little sympathy as I noticed the waitress who took our order struggled with English a little bit. However, it did not change the fact that at least 3 other tables had gotten sangria as well as food orders before us. It didn’t help that our order was a relatively simple one too. Had someone come by to acknowledge that we had been waiting for 45 minutes for some olives and wine I think my boyfriend would have not left as angry as he was.
The sangria was pretty good though.

Great place! Wonderful spot for a romantic date night. Great food and drinks… try the margaritas!

Came here w a friend for a catchup session and it was the perfect venue for it! We sat on the patio in the back which was lovely and cozy. They have a great drink selection and Spanish tapas. The service was friendly and conversational. Great music and conversation called for a wonderful night!

This is one of my go-​to restaurants in the city. The food & service is always great. They also have the best ceviche in the city — I dare you to order just one.
The only down side is it can get quite noisy in there — I think the sound bounces around. So if you are out for a quite date night, ask for an intimate corner or in the summer get a spot on the back patio.

Went here for the first time this past weekend. Not a bad evening out, but nothing overly «wow» about it.
Firstly, I’d made an online reservation via their website, and despite our arriving exactly on time, there was no table of four vacant. They actually had to move a couple elsewhere in order to accommodate us. Made me a little uncomfortable seeing the people being moved give us the stink-​eye.
Service was a little spotty. Waiter seemed confused. Didn’t write anything down and as we suspected would happen, half way through our meal, the dishes stopped coming. We flagged our amigo down and he acted as though he knew we were waiting on something, but in essence he was fishing to find out what we were missing so he could go ask the kitchen to make ‘em. It was odd. We sat with empty glasses a little longer that should be expected based on the price point of their menu.
The food was quite good. For the most part, impressive — especially the bacon wrapped dates; ridiculously tasty! Solid turns with the chic pea stew, steak frites, and octopus with chorizo. Next time I’ll skip the lamb meatballs — kinda boring. And I will DEFINITELY skip the straight chorizo sausage — this goes down as the most uninspiring plating I’ve ever seen. Just a plain sausage on a plate. No garnish. No accompanying sauce. Not even prepped or sliced or anything. And for a «sharing» tapas restaurant, it was a pain. Downloading the job of slicing the sausage to the patrons. I mean, if I want a single sausage served to me for $ 10, I’d like it ready to go, I’d like it to impress my eyes along with my taste buds. Otherwise I’ll pay $ 5 from a cart vendor, and it’ll come with a bun and condiments! Granted — they probably make the sausage in house, and it is tasty without question, but it’s just way too unimpressive and borderline cheeky to be served a bare naked sausage on a plate. Stupid comes to mind.
The red sangria was good.
Might try this place again, but won’t rush back, and probably only if someone else suggests it first.

Had a really great first time here celebrating a friend’s birthday! They have a decent selection of tapas here, and having just returned from Spain, I was pleased to see that many of them were legitimate Spanish-​type dishes. In particular, the ceviche was delicious, and the avocado fries were quite interesting (very flavourful, although I found the seasoning to be a bit heavy and too salty.) The octopus carpaccio, while quite smooth and buttery in texture, just couldn’t compare to the freshness of the seafood in Spain. The sangria here (both red and white) was also fantastic! The two servers we had were great, they were super friendly and also spoke Spanish, which added to the authenticity of the experience. Overall it was a fun experience here with pretty good food — would recommend checking this place out if you’re in the Kensington area! Bill can rack up quickly though, since each tapa dish is at least $ 8 and they are not that big, so don’t expect to leave feeling super full unless you spend quite a bit. Definitely best to come with a group so you can share and try more things, or just pop in for a snack!

2 times here. Second was just yesterday. Nice warm night and very nice to find the back patio that is really quieter than the main dining area inside.
For was just as food the first time although I noticed the summer menu is different from the winter menu. In the winter they had paella. This time there was paella styled pasta.
The good stuff: sangria (half price before 7) avocado fries, lamb meatballs, cerviche and chorizo.
Not as good: pear apple salad (too sweet as salad and not much), steak frites (steak was too well done for my taste and salty but the zucchini fries were excellent), only chorros as dessert (while they were very good but not always in the mood for deep fried stuff for dessert after zucchini and avocado fries)
Will go back and try other stuff too. But note. Big parties will have 18% gratuity added automatically. I am okay with that since waiters were nice. Just not always sure if I can hear their announcement of what they were bringing to the table

Uhhhh… I don’t think so…
Overpriced and underwhelming. Just because you serve tapas doesn’t make you a spanish restaurant…
Nice décor and decent service but let’s be honest, this is a restaurant and I’m here for the food. And the food just wasn’t that good.
Tapas are meant for sharing but the portions were so small that our table kept ‘fighting’ to find something to eat. The prices don’t help either and $ 10 for 3 slices of cheese is just silly. Especially when you can walk around the corner to Global Village and buy a whole pound!
Full disclosure: I’m from Spain and perhaps a bit more demanding of anything that calls itself ‘Spanish’ but this was a huge letdown.
Don’t think I’ll be coming back…

Sunny patio in the back of the restaurant is perfect for after work drinks and food!
My friend and I ordered quite a few dishes to share.
My fave was the grilled octopus skewers (first time trying octopus!) with the sausage.
The sauce was super tasty and the octopus was tender and grilled perfectly.
I thought the patatas bravas were okay — I’ve had better.
I also liked the fried manchego cheese a lot!
We also ordered bacon covered dates, ceviche, avocado fries, arugula salad and churros. All were good but were not incredibly amazing making me crave more.
The white wine sangria is also really tasty.
Also, maybe I was extra hungry that day, but I wasn’t really full afterwards. I think this place is a bit cheaper than other tapas bars I’ve been to but the portion sizes are also smaller.

I used to come to Torito a lot. When they first opened eight or nine years ago I was a huge fan. It was a warm, inviting and super fun place to eat, drink and make much merriment.
I’ll confess that after 5 visits or so, I became bored with the menu because it didn’t change. I was happy to find that they now take reservations and also have added a whole slew of new things to the menu while keeping some of the favourites such as Chick Pea and Spinach Stew (this is yummier than you can imagine) and the Steak with fried egg.
I will also say that I was hoping for the same hospitality to which I had been treated before. They don’t rush you here and they know that tapas is about eating good food, having nice drinks and enjoying the company of those you’re with. Their Sister restaurant, Carmen, failed at this and as a result I gave them a far lower rating than what the food deserved. I can cook at home and I serve tables all day at work, so when I go out, I want stuff I don’t usually make at home and to be treated well. It’s about the total experience.
Torito, despite not having as much culinary finesse as Carmen, was a wonderful night out and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for romance, a night with the girls, or some casual cocktails and nibbles.
We began with a pitcher of the white sangria. We asked out server for suggestions and he confirmed a few of the dishes that we had been eyeing on the menu. The Sangria was a lot of apple, and not a lot of other fruit, but I liked the size and I liked the strength.
The octopus carpaccio was recommended by our server over the grilled octopus. It was delicious and almost creamy in texture with a whisper of pickled red onion and a couple of capers. I wasn’t in love with the colour of the squid ink aoli, but the combination was delicious.
Almonds and dates covered in bacon were crunchy, oozy sweet and sexy. THIS is what Tapas really should be and the flavour profile had the punch to live up to it. You must oder these. If you happen to be a vegetarian, you should happen to take a night off and eat these wonderful morsels.
Shrimp were plump and served with a nice sauce which didn’t rely strictly on garlic for taste.
Lamb meatballs were super tender nestled in a bright, zippy tomato sauce with both fresh mint and mint pesto. So delicious.
We had some cheese for dessert and a glass of wine each.
Then our amazing waiter topped off the night with some complimentary churros.
This place is not getting all 5 stars for the food, but it is far more similar to authentic Tapas than many other «tapas’ places in Toronto that just want to charge you half the price of a main for a quarter serving size of food. Everything is always tasty and satisfying.
The service is warm and friendly and so is the environment. The pillows the decorate the brightly coloured benches say «Stay, and enjoy our food and drinks!» The music is never so loud that you can’t have a conversation, but tuned up enough so that you may occasionally need to do a quick chair dance. Have fun and love life! THIS is the essence of Tapas.
I have never had anything less than an amazing time at Torito and now that there are still a few things on the menu I haven’t tried, I’ll be back.
And to all you Toronto diners, there is no need pay money to scarf back tacos and be treated like shit by your server. Wise up and quit being so hipster that you always have somewhere cooler to be than out for dinner with whomever you’re with. And if you want a taco, go to a taco stand.
Or go to Torito and kick back for a couple of hours and enjoy!

I decided to host a little food event with all my closest friends. The week before I was turned away due to not making reservations, so I was a determined MAN! lol…
Lets just say in a party of 12 – 15 people, its safe to say we almost ordered EVERYTHING off the menu.
⁵⁄₅ goes to their:
–Bacon wrapped Dates (Pintxos) with a drizzle of aceite (oil)…just decadent, and indescribable.
–Patatas Bravas, think of it almost like spanish taters with lots of tomato and cream sauce, cooked to perfection.
–Hand cooked Jamon Serrano, served on a lightly toasted sour dough, and thinly sliced curred meat, much like prosciutto!
–Grilled Spanish Chorizo, one long piece grilled to perfection, perfect balance of flavors!
–Albondigas de Cerdero, spanish lamb meatballs served over with a mint and tomato sauce, cooked to tender perfection! perfect balance with the mint, since lamb is a warm meat.
Among other notables of creativity, their fried avocados was delicious as well as their Kale salad which was a nice re freshening difference. Their ceviche was another delight as well.
For those avid eonophiliacs, they serve a delicious organic rioja, which was a nice surprise since I’ve never had organic vinto tinto!
Their sangria was alright, however would have wished the fermentation process could have been longer when letting the wine and fruits mingle.
Overall a Gem located in the heart of Kensington! que bueno!

Kensington Market is one of those places that I go to when I want to nibble as opposed to go to a sit-​down restaurant because of the diversity of authentic and casual joints which makes me want to pop in to Seven Lives for some ceviche and perhaps a taco while still having the option to go to Pancho’s for a dessert. Why go to a Mexican restaurant that might do food well, but suck at churros when one of the best places for churros is right next door?
But once in awhile, for the sake of convenience and quality conversation, staying put in one spot makes the most sense. I had heard many good things about Torito Tapas Bar, a Spanish tapas restaurant; so I decided to check it out (seeing as I had such a great experience at sister restaurant Carmen).
To quench our thirst we opt for a pitcher of Red Sangria ($ 35), neither the worst sangria (e.g. sugary) nor the best (e.g. good balance of wine + mixer) that I’ve had. I digress for a moment to say that the best I’ve had to date can be found at TEN Restaurant and Wine Bar in Port Credit. The sangria was mostly apples and not much of any other fruit.
We opt for the White Bass Ceviche ($ 10) with corn, fresh chili peppers + cilantro. We are told by the server that their ceviche is marinated for 3 hours, unlike most other restaurants that make it ready-​to-​order. While marinating anything for longer periods of time is usually a good thing because it amps up the flavor; the citric acid may have «overcooked» the fish a bit as the texture was not as smooth as usual. The flavours were well-​balanced though as the ceviche was not overly sour. The taro chips served as both a functional and delicious «spoon.»
We then moved onto a dish of Patatas Bravas ($ 7); a common tapas dish found in Spain which is served in a tomato sauce and topped with aïoli. While the potatoes here are sliced into rounds as opposed to cut like fries and wasn’t topped with cheese, I couldn’t help but refer to this as a Spanish poutine. The tomato sauce was very buttery and naturally sweet.
Rossejat ($ 10), a paella style pasta with shrimps + aïoli was a glorified plate of chow mein? It was a tad too oily for my liking, but still delicious. I wish there were more shrimp, but then again they’re only charging you $ 10 a plate.
My favorite dish of the night, Piquillo Peppers ($ 14) stuffed with braised oxtail on a vanilla-​scented purée was very juicy and tender. It definitely embodied more than just one dimension of flavour as the sweetness of the piquillos cut through some of the richness of the braised oxtail.
For dessert we had the Crema Catalana (sorry, forgot the cost) and it is very similar to a crème brûlée save for the added citrus flavor. It is a dessert traditionally served on served on Saint Joseph’s Day.
It is also worthy of noting that there is both a front and back patio with more drinking space on the way as the basement is currently being renovated. The food at Torito is very flavorful and being a tapas bar, makes it a great place to go with a (small) group of friends to be able to get a nibble of everything. With most dishes under $ 10, it also makes for a less expensive option than the likes of Patria. However, I think I prefer sister restaurant Carmen in Queen West (not sure if it’s because chef Luis Valenzuela is focusing more time since it’s newer (I saw him in the kitchen at Carmen, but no sign of him at Torito). The dishes at Torito are delicious, but don’t expect anything fancy.