El Torito

i tried going for dinner tonight around 8 o’clock and its CLOSED. no signs on door –_–

***business closed***
This location of El Torito in Sunnyvale has shut its doors.
All I’m trying to say is that this is location had closed down permanently. However, Unilocal in making me write more to show up as a review.

My friends and I came here for dinner tonight and there is a sign on their door saying they are permanently closed. One of my friends was just here two days ago. I can’t find anything about them closing except the signs on the door.

The last time me and family will eat here. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE & WATER DOWN DRINKS. We arrive around 4 pm after the Sunday brunch buffet. We got seated our host did not greet us and we found out his name Joel at the end on the bill. First of all we order our drinks and a a Sangria. He brought our drinks only to find a nasty watered down sangria that was awfully nasty! We told «Joel» about the bad drink and he came up with an excuse that all sangria is water down… We didn’t ask for an answer we wanted what we asked for. So instead we order a Midori Melon blended cadillac margarita. Once he brought it the presentation was sloppy, no salt on the rim, no lime wedge, no side shot of Cointreau Noir as advertised and it was flavorless! (I’ve order micheladas here in the past and they are not good at all). So we order our food, the waitress was in such a hurry and we notice he was in charge of us party of four and another tae of seventeen people and five others on a separate table. Totally bad, slow, service poor Joel! The manager on duty has poor profession skills. Once we got our food our limes never came. We order a family fajita combo and carnitas michoacan. They oy brought us one small portion of tortillas and one small portion of flour tortillas. Our waiter NEVER came back to see and ASK if we were doing good and enjoying our food/​drinks or a refill, napkins, limes… Ugh we were so bother that we wanted to leave the place immediately! We asked for tortillas and a refill took them over five minutes to bring tortillas our food had gone past cold and my soda refill never came in! I hope the corporate manager reads this and work its way up! Were a fan of El Torrito and we have always preferred the Milpitas location due to its persistent common employee bad service. If they have so much work after the buffet they should close down for an hour and not over work their employees. It looks bad! Terrible from our dinner table. I cant imagine how worst it might be in the kitchen or in the back stage scene. My family didn’t enjoy any single second they did not wanted me to say anything because they were afraid we might get treated worst. Hopefully, someone reaches me with an apology but hence me and my family will NEVER RETURN HERE.

We went for their Valentine Day brunch. The selection was small, their carving station was not manned half the time, other half of the time they gave out skimpy, small pathetic slices of meat. Their other dishes like Chili Colorado were riddled with grizzle. The only positive comment I can make is the service at the table. They were constantly coming by to clear plates and fill our mimosa and coffee.

Came here with a friend to meet up for dinner. The bar area is separate from the dining area which is good to avoid all the loud drunk people. We both ordered the street trio tacos which were delicious! The beans were not the typical refried beans. They were baked and served in a cup. They were also very good. Salsa reminds me of Chevys which I like very much. Overall the meal was wonderful.
The only thing I hated was how they would drop a pan on the floor before singing happy birthday. What’s up with that??? Its extremely loud and almost gave me a heart attack (twice). I’m not ever coming back because of this reason. I came to enjoy a good meal with a good friend. Not to have my heart rate elevated and be distracted by loud, obnoxious noise. Sucks because the food was very tasty and would love to enjoy more tacos!

We had Sunday brunch this morning after seeing the coupon in the mail. We had never been to brunch here before so we were excited to try it. They have a great taco bar with freshly made tortillas. They also have menudo and green posole that really hit the spot. The food was good but the service was excellent. They were courteous and prompt which made our experience very satisfying and we will definitely come back. The price was great too, especially with the coupon. The only thing I didn’t care for was the mimosas. Didn’t taste quite right.

Zero stars
The service here has really gone down hill. Ever since Oscar and Tony left… I have been coming here for years but in the last few months the service is terrible and the food is sub par. There are many other Mexican restaurants in the area, I would recommend skipping this one.

Have gone to this location several times now on Saturday evenings for dinner. We always have to wait about 30 minutes to get a table in a mostly empty room. Service is definitely slower than at Pedro’s but the food is also pretty good. Have to try Pedro’s a few more times to see if the service is consistently better there, and if it is, it’ll be no mas for El Torito. I give El Torito’s 3 stars because of their food and the servers are trying to make your experience a good one. I just don’t think they have enough servers working in the evening hours.
Went back this past Friday. Got seated right away, and service was fast. Food was still great. I’ve never had a problem with the food, it was always the waiting time to sit. We’ll be back.

BIG PORTIONS! You can feed your whole family with just one entrée. (exaggerating a little) I had enough leftovers to split it for three meals. So I gave an extra star for that. I got the macho combo and it was only 13.99! It has chicken enchilada and tamale, stuff green pepper, beef taco, rice and beans.
2 stars because the service wasn’t THAT bad and also the food was just OKAY. Not the best Mexican food but it’s doable. I also liked how there was just unlimited chips and salsa but the salsa was kind of tasteless.
This is definitely a good place for big groups!

Haven’t been to an El Torito in quite some time since they took the one away near us.
Came here on a Wednesday, walking distance from our hotel. The place wasn’t very busy so they could accommodate our large group of 15 easily. I ended up getting the shrimp tacos that were really good, nice flavor.
Th service was very good as well, attentive considering how big the group was. I definitely wouldn’t mind returning if I was in the area.

Came in for lunch because my hotel room wasn’t ready yet. First thing first, clean bathroom :-). I sat at the bar because, I was alone and I like sitting at the bar. They offer a $ 9.99. It didn’t look like it was too good. They brought me chips and salsa. The salsa was pretty good. I ordered the Street Taco Trio, carnitas. It came with rice, very good beans (I would have liked more of those), and chipotle salsa. I don’t care for chipotle but I’m sure it was good for chipotle. I’d say it was very good overall.
They have a good tequila selection, it was too early for tequila. Standard tap beer. Pacifica and XX on tap. I watched the server make a few margaritas she seemed to now what she was doing. Once again, too early for me.

I think this brunch was $ 17.95 Not worth it! The hostess sat us right away. The waiter, didn’t know much about what was on the buffett. He wasn’t sure if there were any eggs! Wow really! He didn’t mention the memosa’s to us at all! So the only B-​fast stuff was the omelet, potatoes and fruit! Other than that, they had salads, enchiladas, rice, beans, some sweet corn something (that was good) and a few more items! I
I think this buffet, should be priced around $ 7.95. Maybe if you drink the memos’as then you should pay $ 12.95 Not worth it! And El Torito, make sure your staff knows whats going on!

Let me start off by saying that many reviews are based on the experience only and not really based off comparisons to other similar restaurants or types of food. This review is a truly scientific review based on the fact that I have ate at a gazillion Mexican restaurants and have also ate at 4 different El Torritos for Brunch.
With that said, I can honestly say that this was the worse El Torrito Brunch experience that I ever had. The food was not bad, some items were good, some were better then others, but some were outright terrible. What gives this review such a low rating and made it a no come backer place for me was the running of the joint. Here are a few examples and then I will finish my review off with a HUGE tip for management.
1. We arrive at 11:30 or so and I notice a tray next to the salads and seafood that contained ONE greasy tostada shell. I assume that this was for tostadas or to be used with cerviche. 20 minutes later the tray with one greasy broken shell was taken and no one ever replaced it. Its a good thing that no one wanted tostada shells that day.
2. The first area that I hit when I arrived was the taco bar. They had carnitas, grilled chicken and grilled steak. I got a carnitas and steak taco, the meat was very good, but the tortillas were cold, but no biggy. I went back up and I noticed that the grilled steak sign was gone. A lady in front of me asked for grilled chicken and then after making her two tacos, the grilled chicken sign was taken away. As long as I was there, they never replaced. So if a person didn’t eat pork, then they were out of luck!
3. The chefs special were BBQ ribs, these things resembled jerky. LOL they actually had good flavor but were dry as heck and appeared to have been sitting there for a long time!
4. The Mole dish was horrific, A pool of grease coagulated over the top. I actually saw lots of people bring some back to the table and then leave it on their plate.
I don’t know where management was or why they didn’t check on these things to make sure everything went smoothly. This place has potential to be a great buffet like the other ones in the bay area, but it appears to be neglected.
Tio to management edited, can discuss off line or in PM
At 17.99 a person, they need to step up their game. I was disappointed that I came here and my Sunday brunch was ruined.

This place is has issues.
I have been to many el toritos over the years. This one has some issues.
Visited for the lunch buffet. Service from the wait staff was friendly and attentive.
Buffet itself was slightly disappointing. Looks like the lunch selection has been drastically limited. This may be an company wide el tortio thing, however it just made me sad. :(
The biggest issue was with the food itself. Most of the items in the buffet line were poorly cooked. Corn cakes were wet, salad was old, enchaladas were dry. Made me stay away from most items.
When I got to the taco maker, the meat was fine, however the tortillas seemed like the mix was rough and produced a lumpty and tasteless tortilla. (–2 stars)
Worst of all, stacks of freshly washed dirty dishes. Myself and multiple customers had to go through stacks of dishes to find one clean one. One lady actually had them go back to look for clean dishes. Unfortunate but fixable (–1 star)
I don’t believe i will be back to this location again. Hopefully this is not a company wide issue. El Torito is one of my favorite places, and i would hate to have to drop it.

I will give this place 4 stars and bonus a half.
The service was great and friendly. Our server was attentive and took the time to greet and welcome everyone. Even the manager popped by to make sure things were good.
Food. The steak fajita were flavorful and the steak was perfectly done. I would have liked the onions and peppers to be a bit more Caramelized but they were still darn good.
Flan! Creamy and smooth texture and really was a great desert.

Went here and had a horrible experience. The waitress was so nice, but we didn’t get our guacamole app until our entrees arrived. And they were both cold.
The company made it right, but we had come from a long day, waited a half an hour for our food, 20 minutes for our first drinks when there were only 2 other tables.

Really enjoyed the food here. For appetizers my boyfriend and I ordered the nachos with shredded chicken which was really good. For the main course he ordered the fajita trio (?) and that was sooooo good! I ordered the carne asada and it was HUGE! With a side of rice and beans. Yummm
The food was great but the service was not that great… I mean there were only 3 tables that were taken out of the whole restaurant. Our server, Jose, was really nice though and the gentleman who sat us down. Not terrible service but slow.

This location has been here forever! Shirley B and her husband had a date here back almost 3 decades ago, and my own BF was a regular at the lunch buffet while he was in college! The place hasn’t changed a bit– lunch buffet is still here, which actually surprised me, as it’s such a great deal. Like HH though, it’s only available M-​F (til 4PM).
Several seating areas, including a formal dining room, the bar and surrounding high-​tops, and the sunroom type area. Menu isn’t too large but has all of the standard Mexican options you might be craving: chile relleno, fajitas in the cast-​iron skillet, a group nachos order, a multitude of margarita options, and even fish tacos (available a la carte or as a plate of three).
Chicken and beef fajitas are both good– peppers and onions are delish, charro beans are too. Guac app is a generous portion, and chips and salsa are free (Mexican Restaurant Rule #1!) — pricing may strike some as a bit high but the quality is good.
Coconut margarita is basically a marg mated with a piña colada, house specialty is available in several flavors– the strawberry is much better than the Midori.

My best friend and I on a complete whim decided to try this place out, on a Sunday of all days, and let me tell you, we were happy campers!!!
We were seated fairly quickly, which was really nice, and came to findout this place is all-​you-​can-​eat. My best friend can-​eat-​it-​all!!! She goes for gold when there is a finite amount of food presented to her. The first question our waitress asked us was,
«Would you like bottomless mamosas?»
Her and I both looked at each other, confirmed an answer with our eyes, then looked at the waitress and both said
«HE** TO THE YES!»
We had so many mamosas! We also went to try out the food of course, which was actually really good! They have Pan Dulce (Mexican sweet bread), Huevos (Eggs), all sorts of breakfast things! It was really nice! And there was a gentleman making fresh omletes out of ingredients you choose!!! HOW GREAT IS THAT! The bill for what we consumed was actually really good, because we ate (and drank) a lot!
Overall; nice little place for breakfast and drinks if you want a mexican breakfast at a fair price