El Toro Bravo

This place is great for brunch, lunch, dinner and ‘Taco Tuesday’ any day of the week! My latest and greatest stop in was for a late lunch. They can turn any burrito into a burrito bowl for free and you get free chips and salsa anytime before 5pm so I got those to go as well.
PROS: fast service, kind service, decent prices (under 10 $ for TONS OF FOOD) free chips
CONS: food isn’t remarkable or bad…

This place is super underrated!
The chips and salsa with bean dip are free and always hit the spot!
I love their chicken enchiladas, steak burrito, steak quesadilla, chile relleno… Pretty much everything I have ordered on the menu is delicious! It’s not authentic in a taqueria way, but for like a fresco way, the food is delicious and the service is consistently great.
One of my favorite spots in Davis!

As much criticism as this place gets for not being authentic enough, I truly do like it and I’m Mexican if I must add. Why do I like it so much? Well, let’s just say, I find that Toro Bravo offers good mexican food that tastes fresh and a lot healthier than most. I’m a healthy human being, so that is an important quality when choosing where to dine. Most of the time I cook my mexican food at home, I like to control how much fat, oil, etc. but I don’t mind Toro Bravo because I feel their stuff is a bit healthier and cleaner than most Mexican food places in town.
Food: I mostly order one entrée and that’s the savory quesadilla which comes with tons of cheese and prawns, side of delicious cilantro-​lime rice and black whole beans. Yeah, my grandma would be so disappointed in me, but this entrée makes me happy. I only consume it when I’m really splurging as the serving is enormous, easily can feed two or make two meals out of it. The quesadilla is amazing, the tortilla is soft, yet crispy on the edges with pieces of fried cheese on it, prawns are seasoned very well, but definitely not enough prawns. The cheese is super fresh and tasty and goes well with the prawns, they also add onions and roasted red peppers. The rice here is truly a gem, super fresh, citrusy and yummy! The table chips/​salsa are fresh and delicious, but the salsas here are not spicy whatsoever. That’s one of my only complaints.
Service: Friendly and fast.
Price: Very decently priced for the quality and quantity and especially since it’s Davis.
Ambiance: Spanish music blaring, lots of chit-​chatting, also they have TV’s with sports on most times. Truly feels authentic, with a tad bit more class in my opinion.
Overall: I like this place because it tastes a lot healthier and fresher, I never go home feeling gross because of all the oil or fat I contained. Most Mexican people may disagree with me, but this is solely my opinion and they cater to my needs for the most part. I highly recommend it if you want a bit of a lighter Mexican fare in Davis.

My favorite Mexican restaurant in Davis! The place is casual — you order at the counter — and food is outstanding. Also have great margaritas, nice décor, and friendly, attentive staff. You really can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. High quality fresh ingredients. The chips served with a mild salsa and black refried beans may be the best have had anywhere. Went for dinner and can’t wait to try for brunch. Highly recommended!

No idea why this restaurant doesn’t have a higher rating. I’ve been here a dozen times or so; the service and food are consistently impressive. My favorite is the 3 taco platter, and you get to choose between a bunch of different meats… same price no matter which meat you choose (even seafood).
Reading the reviews, I see people saying things like «omg everything was perfect… but it’s kind of strange paying at the counter, so here’s three stars.» You guys need to lighten up a little bit =/.

The drinks are really good and the staff is delightful. Really enjoy coming here every week or so.

I have only had brunch here but it was OUTSTANDING! I had the Chilaquiles. We also had chips and salsa, which were amazing! I need to go back and try some of the other meals. Definitely recommend their brunch.
Love that that they have a variety of fruit infused waters to choose from as well.

The food was awesome (chimichangas that were a little on the salty side) and the place has a great ambiance. I could have enjoyed the ambiance more if my wife and I didn’t spend half our time swatting flies.

Came here for lunch today with a group. I split the huevos rancheros (from the weekend brunch menu) with a friend. It was good, and the yolk was nice and runny. We were served hot chips and two salsas as soon as we were seated, and when the meals came they brought out hot tortillas for the table.
Ordering was a bit strange, though: you order at the counter, and they bring your food to the table — fine. But for some reason, they had us pay individually after everyone had ordered, which was weird.
Overall, a fine spot for a quick lunch with a group.

The carnitas tacos are great. The pork is tender, the green salsa is mild, and for $ 5.43 on the a la carter menu, you can’t beat it. Chips and black bean salsa is very tasty too.
Clean, with a friendly staff. Pretty hard to complain. I will be back.

They have a real traditional albondigas thank all the gods in Southern California. The waitstaff is incredibly friendly and helped me to the car.

I feel slightly trolled, coming in thinking that we got a great deal for chips and salsa for only $ 1.50, only to find they’re usually free on any other non-​taco Tuesday day. Lol… ah well. Got four tacos at $ 1.50 a pop which just barely beats out G street Wunderbar’s $ ⁵⁄₃ taco Tuesday special so I can’t complain.
Now for the food.
Chips. Not sure if made in house but either way they are nice and thin with a satisfying crunch. More than able to hold bountiful amounts of the salsa and or black bean dip that is served with it.
Veggie: Warm and tasty, but not overwhelmingly flavorful.
Carnitas: Damn good. Juicy with a generous helping of salsa Verde on top, onions not too strong even in their raw state. Meat, awesomely tender and pulling apart…
Chicken: Looked pretty dry but the tomatoes and guac on top really helps balance it out.
Chorizo: Has the appearance of school lunch taco meat but none of the horrifying orange grease. Got a lot of smoky chipotle flavor.
My overall winner would have to be the carnitas. :)

Great service and great food! Free chips, salsa and black bean dip with your order. The chips are always served warm. I’ve had the fish quesadilla and the chicken enchilada and enjoyed both of them equally.
The house margaritas are tasty too!
Definitely would recommend this place. :)

Preface: I am a gluten-​free vegan.
The rice is not vegan. When I asked my server what, if any, of the beans were vegan, her response did not instill much confidence, i.e., she stumbled and looked confused. Chopped mango in my salad was served incredibly under-​ripe. If you are sensitive about GE food, note that food is cooked in conventional corn oil, and chips/​tortilla are made made from conventional corn products.
It would be nice to see this restaurant adopt a clearly-​marked vegan menu, at the very least, available upon request.

I enjoy taco Tuesday just for the prices, other than that the tacos are average. Not really authentic Mexican food but decent. I’d rather head over to El Burrito and get their tacos. The service was average too. Not sure if it’s because we’re college students and it was later in the night. But the servers didn’t really pay attention and we had to call for them multiple times because they wouldn’t check up on us.

Taco Tuesday Night.
Got:
carnitas (dry, okay, still good)
chorizo (BEST ONE, SO GOOD & FLAVORFUL) **I’d get this again!!!
chicken taco (not bad, but they dumped the most avocado on mine so that killed it)
veggie taco (wasn’t as memorable, but it wasn’t awful)
Went with someone who only eats chicken (sparingly in her diet), someone who eats everything but more for protein & just mostly chicken when meat, and someone who eats everything.
So one guy said the chicken was the best. I wouldn’t agree though. Aside from that I don’t think I’d ever get the other ones again, maybe I’d try their shrimp or fish tacos instead.
Service: the waiters were exactly the happiest or friendliest, didn’t give eye contact.
^for me I was totally okay with that, we came half an hour before closing so I get that. but for my roomies boyfriend, he wasn’t impressed (this was when they were still open, not past closing. but maybe in my opinion they’ve had issues, or the people who we encountered just sucked or had a bad day).
*their was a table that came in before us and still weren’t done by the time we were. don’t do you guys. be done before closing or hurry up, don’t chit-​chat.
Chip: the bean sauce was not that salty (bland to my roommate, she said it use to be salty, but its easily fixed with a salt shaker).

I ordered the breakfast burrito. It looked disgusting and it was disgusting. Normally I would return my food if it tastes that bad, but I didn’t feel like talking to the cold and aloof waiters.
The bean dip was good. Big whoop, anyone can make good bean dip.
My boyfriend ordered the chicken burrito and he said it was just plain tasting.
Don’t waste your money here.

Best Mexican food I’ve had in Davis and a really good taco Tuesday deal! I chose to celebrate cinco de mayo here and really liked my food.
On Tuesdays tacos are $ 1.50 and you can choose from several different kinds. I opted for 3 tacos and tried the chicken, steak and carnitas. The different meats came with different toppings too, and the portions were quite generous. All of the tacos were well cooked and the ingredients were fresh and delicious. The chips and salsa were very fresh too, with chips being warm to the touch.
I also had a mango margarita which was delicious. The horchata here is smooth and refreshing, I just wish it was a little more cinnamoney but I liked how it wasn’t too sweet. Highly recommended for solid tacos!

Came by here after class this afternoon for lunch and I was really impressed. The food was amazing, salsa + chips was great.
Their burrito and taco was superb. The portion wasn’t too big nor too small, it was just right. Overall, I would come back again for dinner next time.

I came here a few months after its opening in Davis because of their rather interesting blend of flavors (shrimp burritos are a very coastal Hispanic dish)
First off, they are expensive! So definitely not a good place to grab a quick bite to eat but if you are up to having a lunch date here, good place to stop.
I had the chicken flautas and was surprised by my first flauta because I really liked it but had expected to not have any feelings for it. But then I had my second one and it was as salty as the sea. How does that even happen?!
I don’t know how it is now but that was my experience.