El Torito

This location is now a homeless shelter as it has closed. Numerous homeless dudes hang out and live on the patios. El torito is pricy and not very good anyway so it’s not surprising that these locations are slowly closing. The brunch was ridiculously over priced for the small amount of food they put out. They also seemed annoyed when you ordered something other than the brunch on Sunday. I guess we know why it closed. Lol

Damm when did they close this location? I came to town just to come here.

We stopped off here for a quick bite and HH and were pleasantly surprised at the great, overall service. Fiancé and I both realized our utensils were dirty and kindly asked for another set. From hostess, server to manager Christina, everyone was extremely apologetic and gracious, comping our HH Flautas. I usually dread complaining at restaurants, but they were attentive and made us feel at home.
Ordered the 1800 Fajitas, had some magaritas, drinks. Had a great time.
Recommended! :) I know it should be a given but it isn’t always… so thank you guys, for the great time and experience!

I have to say El Torito is consistent at being mediocre.
I have been to a few of their locations now and never really had a great meal, or good service to be honest.
Service is slow, not very friendly and the food really sub par for the prices.
Far from authentic, I have eaten off their menu as well as the buffet and both did not blow me away.
The only thing I love is their cilantro pepita salad dressing, its too tasty, other than that no reason to come back here.

I’ve been to a couple of El Torito in Orange. I was around this area and decided to stop by, although the tacos were a lot bigger, the meat was chewy and had a lot of nerve. I had some guacamole but didn’t taste authentic, and I’m sorry to say this but in all honesty the hips here were disgusting. Tasted so oily and old.

Another Taco Tuesday feast and satisfied once again!
Nikki was our server and she was just awesome! For example, the chips seemed stale and she had no problem changing them out for fresh ones! She is always smiling and very enthusiastic! :)
We enjoyed the fresh tacos ($ 1.50 each) as always!

Father’s Day lunch with my son.
After doing a few errands, hunger pains signaled chow time. Luckily, we had a few restaurants to choose from. I let my son decided. Mexican, he said. Okay by me.
They had an AYCE Brunch for Father’s Day.
There was quite a few groups on the waiting list. We were quoted a 30 minute wait, but were seated in less than 10.
It’s my first time here and and first time for a Mexican AYCE.
They had 3 stations where they prepared your food a la minute. A taco station, an omelette station and a shrimp fajitas station.
They also had a good variety of food ready to eat at the buffet station, as well has a waffle station and a good selection of desserts.
My favorites
Taco station — freshly made tortillas was definitely a plus. Your choice of Steak, chicken or carnitas. All good. Condiments station with all the fixins.
Soup — I got the Pozole con Verde — wow, the flavor was great.
Drink station — you had your choice of orange juice, agua de jamaica or horchata. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. All were good
Arroz con leche — rice pudding was delicious
They had a kids station, but it was very poorly stock. Your choices were cheese pizza, fries, cookie and milk.
Good thing they had a cheese enchilada on the main buffet. My son loves it.
The service was okay. It’s basically serve yourself. I appreciated the waitress giving me a bigger glass (instead on the small ones the had at the drink station). But she took the glass away when I went to go get more food. I didn’t get that. Lol.
Over all a good burch with the munchkin.
Rating 3 ½ Stars
2015 Review #75

First time to this el torito we go to the one in santa ana ca. We thought we would change it up a little bit we came to the Fullerton one and it’s not bad waiter is very nice he constantly comes to our table to fill our Champagne I like that food is good no complains on that. The hostess was nice

I used to eat her often… until the buffet got my partner and I sick. All we had to eat that day was their lunch buffet, as we were extremely busy, that is all we ate.
We got the worst food poisoning ever and I ended up missing an awesome concert the next day. I let management know about my illness. Doctor said it was either chicken or beef (which we both had from the buffet). They took down my complaints and said someone would reach out to me, however no one ever did. I just flushed those concert tickets down the toilet, along with vomit and diarrhea. Don’t trust their buffet.

Worse service we’ve received in a long time!
— waited 25 mins to be seated; parties of two that came in after us were seated ahead of us twice. It wasn’t until we were the only ones in the waiting area and about to walk out, that we were seated.
— waitperson never came to take our order, it was taken by the manager to whom I expressed my concerns. She (waitperson) came over (as she was giving us our bill) to ask if we wanted anything after our food came out but took 10 minutes to bring a refill of chips.
— The food was okay and did come out quickly as the manager said he would place our order to the front of the line.
I believe since the service was so poor the waitperson was not attentive that the manager should have comped our meal and apologized.
WE WILL NOT BE RETURNING EVER. I am an event planner/​manager, I won’t be suggesting this restaurant at all for the next Christmas party or baby shower, etc.

Well, let me first say this is not the first time I have been to El Torito, and it’s always been «OK» before.
I was talking to a longtime friend on the phone as I drove, when I told him where I was going for Cinco De Mayo he said «eeeww. I was there, it was awful. Bad food!» I took that with a grain of salt since I have been to El Torito many times over 20+ years. It’s usually OK.
Not today, not this location, and I hope this does not pervade the entire chain.
I walked in today, went in the men’s room on arrival. There is a leak, pretty bad, from one of the toilets. Water all around. Smelled a little funky. I continued into the bar.
It was pretty quiet, but it was early. I saw the sign for the $ 1.50 tacos, and margaritas for $ 7. So I ordered two tacos and a margarita.
When my margarita arrived it was served in a plastic cup. Now, mind you, this is El Torito, and this is a big, sit down restaurant. Plastic cup? For a $ 7 margarita at a sit down restaurant? I posted a picture of it. A neighboring customer and I talked briefly about how unsatisfactory this is. What is this, a dive bar? Or maybe a fast food place? Nope, it’s not any of those. I expect better. Much better.
So I got a receipt for my tacos and went and picked them up. They were just ok, not great. I ate them, drank half the margarita and left. I might have been there 30 minutes.
But the thing that ruined it for me was the plastic cup. And, that the bar top in front of me was a little sticky. Lack of cleanliness. Lack of attention to detail. Plumbing problems. Funky smell.
All in all, I won’t be back to this El Torito, and I hope their management will wake up and apply some reasonable business standards to their operation there.
El Torito, I will not need to discuss this review with you. I notice you respond. You need to look inside yourselves, because the problems at your place this evening were obvious, and you should not have needed me to point them out to you. You’re there every day, right?

Soooo rude!!! Came in 10 minutes before they close, and the host with these braids was sooo rude. Told us we had to order by 10:00. I’ve been a server for years, and we always seat until we close and serve food after.
Never ever coming back to this location. No wonder they only have two stars

Not content with clean establishnent. Not happy with floor and dirty tables. Not likely to return or recommend to family and friends

Oh boy, i give this place half a star.
I’ll start by saying, this was a horrible dinning experience. Bad from the minute my friend and I sat down.
The service is Really Bad; slow and careless, we sat down at the bar and no one came to us after we waited for more than 10 min. Unhappy we asked the hostess if we can sit at the dinning room, she was polite and helpful. She got us to our table and got our drinks. The server came minutes late and looked unhappy.
The service was mediocre and so was the food. My friend and I were looking forward to Taco Tuesday, it was ruined. We should of left the second time we got sat down.

So this place is not bad. They always have specials. Their happy hour is killer.
The only reason I took off one star was because we walked in on Sunday and they only had the brunch option. I’m not much of a brunch/​buffet kind of gal. I just wanted to go in and eat my favorite meal.
The margaritas are good. I like this place. My family and I eat her all the time.

Service is good and quick. Food is good too. Rice and beans tasted authentic. I am the first customer here today. Its a little cold in here. but will definitely return.

Best service today by Claudia. The food was delicious and she was very attentive. Explained everything to us in detail and I was registering my rewards card from awhile back and she gave us the guacamole after I registered it. Usually they have you wait for ur next visit in many places but Claudia gave it to us right away.
She definitely got a good tip from us. Will return for her service and the food.

Food is great. Service is great. Make sure you ask for the server named Patricia she always is helpful and has informed us about saving money with all of the drink and food promotions. Join their rewards club get the discounts, get the email promotions and utilize all of the great deals they have to offer. Free guacamole, $ 2 off of their great Cadillac margaritas $ 5 off completing their survey by one get one free are just a few Patricia informed us about that no other servers have informed us about. We keep on going their because of her service.
Remember ask for Patricia you will see how she cares about her customers.

$ 5 margaritas and $ 1.50 taco Tuesday!!!
I used to come to this place a lot when I worked in the area. It was good, inexpensive food in a nice atmosphere with good latin music.
Recently went back for a coworkers reunion and sat by the bar. For taco Tuesday, the waitress takes your order, gives you a ticket and then you have to pick them up by the taco lady. The tacos were good and there’s ground cheese on the salsa bar which I find unusual but tasted good! They were a bit on the smaller size though. I ordered 3 and we had to order an appetizer to share because it wasn’t enough.
The sampler appetizer used to be bigger. I like the wings and the quesadillas but everything else like the nachos etc is just ok.
Our waitress was friendly but slooooow! She asked a few times how we were doing but not really noticing there were empty glasses on the table, we were missing silverware, etc
My strawberry and mango blended margaritas were good (not a big drinker so didn’t mind that they were on the lighter side). If you want stronger drinks, order them on the rocks.

Awesome happy hour! Large Beer for $ 3.25, Small Margarita for $ 3. Happy Hour is M-​Thursday 3pm (or 2pm) until 8pm! Sit in the bar area. They also serve regular menu items at the bar area if order. Also free salsa and chips each table (unlimited). I uploaded happy hour menu info.
Weird, but I experienced pretty awesome service. Probably because we sat right next to the cashier area at the end of the bar, server can’t miss us! During football Mondays, they have 99cent tacos and happy hour stuff!
Did I mention that you can use your bday free entrée on any entrée during happy hour time too?! Sweet!