El Torito

My family and I love this restaurant! The food is always fast and really fresh. As soon as you sit down, the chips and salsa arrive. This is also the best Mexican rice in town! The caesar salad is delicious and we always leave full and satisfied!

Came in to this location before noon. Not busy at all.
Was seated right away.
I ordered the lunch Fajitas.
Very good food. The lunch plate comes with the meat of your choice (I choose steak), rice/​beans, cornbread stuff and guacamole (I don’t touch the stuff).
Food was delivered pretty quickly. Again, not busy when I arrived.
Service
The server was on key. I was genuinely impressed by my waiter’s service and attention.
He came back to make sure all was ok with food and refilled my water (yes, that is important).
He was quick to want to clear the plates from the table. This would be cool if in group and to get all that stuff off of table but I was flying solo at lunch. But not a big deal.
Overall:
Great food, reasonable price and great service.

Holy hell this place is good. We came in on a Tuesday afternoon and there wasn’t a whole bunch of people there because, again, it was a Tuesday afternoon haha. Anyways I think the head chef sat us down at a booth and then our waiter came and we got drinks blah blah blah, but before our food came out the chef sent us out some complimentary Flautas (SOOOO GOOOOOD). I really just hope he sees this message so he knows we loved them. (We had a few drinks so I completely spaced telling the waiter to give our thanks to the chef)
OVERALL THIS PLACE IS FIRE!

I’ve been going to el torito for over 30 yrs. last night I was very disappointed with the way dinner went. The first bad thing was, there was
a hair in my salad The waitress apologized and brought me out another one. That salad should have been taken off the check. We ordered flan for dessert and that was gritty for some reason. So more than ½ of that was uneaten. Last night just didn’t add up to the standards from the past.

Vegetarians and vegans will likely want to steer clear of El Torito. They have one main dish that would qualify as vegetarian, the veggie fajitas. When I went with a large group to the restaurant recently, the three vegetarians/​vegans in the group all ordered this dish. (Note: This dish is not vegan; it contains butter.) The menu claimed we’d received a grilled assortment of vegetables, including «zucchini, spinach, potatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, green beans, and onions.» What we all received was a platter that was about 85% sizzling onions, 10% spinach, and 5% potatoes. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it at the time, as we’d been waiting a long time for our food as it was. I sent a note to the restaurant after the fact and received a run-​of-​the-​mill, «Sorry, we’ll look into it.»
Otherwise, everything was fine. They have a nice assortment of drinks and meaty dishes, and the staff seemed sufficiently friendly — if not a little on the slow side. It’s pricey, though, for what you get. I see no reason to return in the near future with so many Mexican-​restaurant alternatives in the area.

I have been coming here for years. I love the Mexican Caesar salad and tortilla soup. Well I love a lot of things but those are the things I order most often!

A late lunch — Carné Asada Burrito. El Torito NEVER disappoints! Tony was an EXCELLENT host and attentive waiter. *****

Ate here today, was excellent service until I opened my chicken taco and found a long black hair. Gross. Had the server remove our plates and we left. Be more careful how you guys work and handle food. This should be an excellent place due to prices I was disappointed

I hate to do this, but everything about our experience here was awkward and uncomfortable. Let me preface this review by telling you I was a server for ten years, I know customer service, I can sympathize tremendously with people who work in the food service industry. Unfortunately, my boyfriend agrees this was by far the worst dining experience EVER.
My boyfriend and I went for a late lunch today around 2:30. We walked in, stood at the hostess desk for a couple minutes looking around for signs of an employee, not wanting to be rude and seat ourselves. Finally I see a server delivering food to a six top (the only table in the restaurant), we make eye contact, and then he promptly keeps walking not acknowledging us in the slightest. We see the bar and proceed to seat ourselves. The bar is dirty; there were about 20 various dirty alcoholic glasses clustered on the bar that weren’t bussed until we were leaving. Our server ended up being the bartender who didn’t acknowledge us and boy was he awkward throughout the entire experience. Long story short:
–I ordered a blended strawberry margarita and it was flavorless, weak, and all ice.
–It took 40 minutes to get my tacos (which came out wrong) but I was hungry. The shell literally fell apart when I went to pick it up, so for the first time in my life I ate tacos with a FORK AND KNIFE.
–My boyfriend’s fajitas came out 20 minutes after my tacos did. It took an HOUR to get fajitas! Needless to say, he was not happy. You probably think I’m exaggerating the wait time, but alas, I am not. Our server was the first to mention the 30 minute mark.
–While waiting for the fajitas we had asked for another round of drinks, which we got, 20 minutes later, because our server was reminded… I got another margarita, regular on the rocks, hoping this would be better, but alas it tasted like all sweet and sour mix.
We paid $ 68 for this crapfest of a meal. I tipped 20%. Not that it was deserved, but the server in me wouldn’t allow any less.
The whole experience put a damper on our day and left a bad taste in our mouths. We wasted two hours and too much money on mediocre food and bad service. This was the first and last time we will eat at El Torito.

I ate too much at today’s Mother’s Day Dinner Buffet, the mahi mahi, is as good as Maui, everything was delicious, great staff, you all are terrific, Thank You for making this a Mother’s Day to remember.

I have been coming here scene I was a little girl and it is always a family favorite.
Every time I walk in, I am always promptly seated and greeted by a wonderful and friendly server. They will always bring you fresh chips and salsa to start you off,.
The fajitas here are amazing. Never too oily and the guac is always fresh. I have never had to wait more then 5 min for a seat. I have also never had to wait for more then 10 minutes for a meal. My orders have also never been messed up here.
When it comes to cleanliness, the place is always clean and the bathrooms even smell good. This is more then I can say for most of restaurants in the Arden area

I love this place specially the Sunday brunch. All you can eat and all you can drink mimosas! I was really bummed back when the Concord spot closed down.
I live out in Antioch and occasionally the wife and i make the drive out to Sac just for the brunch.

Went yesterday for lunch with a coworker who had a coupon. I wasn’t all that hungry, so I got a cup of the tortilla soup.
The base was chicken broth with tomato stuff and it was a very pretty red color. Besides being visually pleasing and it was flavorful and tasty. It had nice julienne pieces of veggies and juicy, thumb-​tip-​sized chunks of chicken, the tortilla strips and just the right amount of what I’m assuming was jack cheese. Yum. It hit the small spot.
The staff were all SUPER friendly and nice. But not annoying or fake. They were also pretty quick with everything. But it IS spring break, so…
I won’t address the bathroom. Let’s just say, the building needs some love. I hope they renovate because I would come back for that soup alone.

My experiences here have been a hit or miss recently. The food is good, a little too spicy for my personal tastes depending on the chef but I honestly have a low tolerance for spice. The atmosphere is good, staff always friendly but sometimes service is slow, mostly during weekdays I’ve noticed. The bar drinks are delicious but a little pricey. The décor while authentic is beginning to looking run down and the bathrooms need some serious help. While usually clean they are falling apart.
They have been open on every holiday the last couple of years including Christmas and Thanksgiving for those that prefer going out to hosting or cooking.
Overall I would recommend that you give it a try because I’ve never found fault with the food besides personal taste (I’m allergic to seafood so sorry can’t speak on that aspect) and a slightly limited dessert menu. I do really hope they invest in some updates and repairs to the interior in the future though.

I’m not sure why I ever come back here, I leave unhappy every time. Tonight was literally the last time I will ever go back. We walked in at 7:15 and the place was practically empty but every table was dirty. We tried to walk into the bar and the host told us that we have to wait 10 – 15 minutes because they were running behind. We waited 25 minutes and they finally came over and cleaned a bar table (after ever single person waiting before us decided to leave).
We ended up being there just shy of two hours and during that time they never cleaned another table so we were surrounded by plates filled with smelly food and dirty napkins. They were out of several items on the menu which made ordering difficult. Our food took forever, things were forgotten, we had to find our server to ask for everything even just more salsa or drink refills.
When we finally got our bill we were charged regular price instead of the happy hour price so we had to wait again for our bill to be fixed.
I fully understand they might have been very busy before we got there but we were one of only 5 tables in the whole place at the time so in my option there is no excuse for this kind of poor service.
Moral: I just spent $ 40 on no service, bad drinks, ok food, and a disgusting environment.

Nice entryway, nice host. Time to relax and watch the game. Go Saints!!!
Our waiter Richard is wayyyyy to handsome & cool!!!

El Torito is a remnant of a generation ago when going to a Mexican restaurant involved a suburban strip mall with a garish themed fiesta and plain food to cater to the average white middle class family. I remember going to these places as a child, and on a recent afternoon my group decided to hit them up at their Arden Fair location for a late lunch. Their location across from the mall is high volume in a classic Mexican Hacienda-​style building.
Over the years, they have toned down the interior and upgraded the food. There is just too much competition these days. Fortunately, the generous servings of fresh chips and tasty salsa was quickly devoured by our group of five. We missed the lunch specials, but most of us opted for some variant of seafood or chicken. I had the shrimp tacos which were served street-​style with a great sauce and whole beans and rice. Of course there was a little scoop of sweet corn paste on the place in true El Torito fashion!
Overall, their food is just average served in a nice, but also average environment. You could do a lot worse, but the quality and availability of Mexican food in Sacramento — even in the suburbs — makes places like El Torito harder to justify. However, the chips and salsa work with strong drinks and a good location!

We had the best experience. We were celebrating a college graduation today. We called 25m before saying that we had a large group of about 12, tables were ready to go when we got there. And then we realized that our group was more like 15. They quickly accommodated without making us feel bad. Grabbed another table and then we had more people show up and they cleaned out the booth next to us. They were very attentive and never seemed overwhelmed.
Without asking they split up each party’s tab and each tab was correct. All the meals came out quickly, the extras (straws, sour cream, water, sodas) those came without needing to be asked.
While acting 4 more people showed up and they cleaned out another booth near us once that group left.
I ordered the shrimp fajitas, those were an ⁸⁄₁₀. I heard the tacos from from the «2 or 3 Combo» was gross, the Mac & Cheese Enchilada was pretty bad but tolerable, Flautas were good, Tamales were good and no one else complained about their meals.
The ladies that helped us were fantastic, I’m glad we chose this place. Thank You

So finally after weeks from my last visit, My bf decided it was time to give them another chance. I was apprehensive about it but thought why not we already had their worst. Plus we have certificates so it was alright. This time we did no sit at the bar.
Soon as we walked through the door we were greeted by the hostess and what seemed to be the manager. When seated the hostess asked if we preferred a booth.
After being seated we were greeted by Angelita. She was great from start to finish. Answered our questions, very helpful and attentive to us. Every server, busser, manager everyone that walked by made sure we were doing well and didn’t need anything. I appreciate that aspect of their restaurant this time. Everyone was involved with checking in on everyone. There wasn’t a separation just because it was divided by sections.
I order the combo plate with chicken and shrimp fajitas and a cheese enchilada (I paid extra for shrimp instead of steak)
He ordered the chicken and shrimp fajita plate. I also had a blackberry margarita.
Everything was good. My beans were great and I don’t even like beans. The shrimp was cooked perfectly.
When it came time to pay even to put my certificates and my debit card in the book. Angelita took care of the bill and was very polite. She never changed her attitude after she saw the certificates she came back still in a great mood. I was happy to leave her a larger than normal tip.
This visit may have changed my mind good food and great service. Enough food I have more for lunch.

I came to El Torito on a weekday afternoon for lunch with a friend because I had a $ 10 giftcard and it was «Buy One Get One Free» lunch. Score!
I used to LOVE El Torito back when they had a location in Citrus Heights and when I lived in Rohnert Park. My family and I used to come here at least once a month, and have even had a few Thanksgiving/​Christmas dinners here too!
The space is open and nicely decorated. Service is good as well and they have plenty of people working to accommodate the rush hours.
I ordered their crispy taco (beans instead of meat) off their lunch menu and it came with rice, beans and a corn cake. It was a perfect meal for one person! Flavors were good and everything tasted exactly like how I remembered it. My friend got a crispy taco as well but hers also came with a chicken and sour cream enchilada and rice, beans and a corn cake. She liked her taco but not so much the enchilada. It was dry on the outside with no sauce?! When I have ordered these before (with beans instead of meat) they always come covered with a nice rich sour cream sauce. So disappointing it changed.
We had two Margaritas (which each came with an additional shot) as well which tasted great! Didn’t get any buzz though, so might have been a little weak, or we just had a lot of food because our meal also came with chips and salsa.
I would come back again if in the area, but wouldn’t go out of my way. Prices are a little steep for what you get, and better value can be found elsewhere.

Debería darle 0 pero no se puede, vine a una boda y se supone tendría 4 bebidas y ya no me quisieron dar la ultima que porque «se llegó al límite por las personas», no entiendo porque prometen 4 bebidas por invitado si no las van a dar… muuuuuy mal servicio, la comida no es la gran cosa. Ademas hace mucho calor y los ventiladores apenas dan vueltas.