El Torito

I have been coming for the Sunday Brunch the last few months and have really come to enjoy it. Is it the best food in town? No. But for what we pay every Sunday it is definitely one of the best deals in town. We tweak the buffet a little and build our own breakfast tacos with the fresh tortillas they make in front of you, and the service is always great.
I can’t remember the names of the last few folks who served us, but Samantha was our server yesterday and she was great. I never had to ask for a refill or flag her down for anything. She was prompt and attentive with her service and at $ 17.99 per person, I’ll be going back week after week to enjoy the food and service.

I had sat at the bar waited about ten mins for service the bartender Samantha was very sweet but I think it’s ridiculous that she’s working the floor of the restaurant outside of the bar and the bar when I ordered food with her it took 25 mins for an appetizer But came out ice cold so I sent it back Samantha was more than happy to fix it and apologize which I appreciated. I wanted to ordered food to go but when she left to help the party on the other side of the restaurant I didn’t want to wait another 25 mins and it possibly be cold again I ended up paying my bill… There’s great food here and awesome bartender but I think maybe I came at a bad time? I’d just hope they have more people working if it was busy since it was only me and two others at the bar … Thanks for everything though Samantha keep up your hard work considering the manager is putting u in a difficult position !

Horrible service!!! We waited forever and had to keep reminding our server what we ordered and she would still forget. She didn’t even know what new items they offered on the menu. She was not capable of doing her job, I swear she was on drugs! We asked her to split the bill and she said she would do it in the end and in the end she ruined everything. We wrote the bill out for her correctly for each tab and she still managed to mess it up. We were very frustrated and I would never recommend El Torito to anyone! Horrible horrible experience! I am very disappointed!!!

I am upgrading my review — I went in recently with a few friends after Church Group and I think this place has really stepped it up. Katie was so helpful and friendly!

The food is great, really tasty with lots of flavor.
However for whatever reason regardless if there super slow or busy, at this specific location the service sucks.
The boyfriend and I come here often, but were most likely going to stop. Each time we have been here it takes a waiter about 7 – 10 mins before they come and greet us, after they take our order their gone for the remainder of the time. We usually have to ask other staff for refills on our drinks or chips. Once the food comes, it’s usually served by a runner, hardly ever is our waiter the one to bring us the food. Once we are finished it then takes about another 10+ mins before the waiter comes back to brings us our bill.
Now we get it if there busy, and the place is packed yeah we have to wait, however most of the times we have gone it’s always been super slow… so you would think the waiter would come around more. nope. For the conclusion of my rant, if you feel like being ignored at a restaurant feel free to go here, for us, we’re going to look for another Mexican restaurant near the house to go eat from now on.

I don’t like to give reviews lower than 3 stars, but I took my family here for Mother’s Day and the food was mediocre at best.
All the brunch good seemed to be sitting out fit while, the buffet bar was not very clean, and after making a 11am reservation for 4 they «couldn’t seat us» until 11:30am.
I was less than satisfied with the food and service. I won’t be returning for another brunch.

I’ve had good lunches, but tonight for dinner not so great. Took so long getting our ice teas, drinks took forever. Food was so-​so, took awhile, then they turned on the music. Really really loud and the speaker just happened to be behind us. We couldn’t even have a conversation. No pls on going back anytime soon.

My dining partner and I were seated right away. Staff is very friendly.
It took a while for the server to get to us to take our order. Also, I ordered wine and water and just got the wine and had to ask for water again. That’s fine, but then it took a really long time to get the water to me.
I ordered a steak fajita salad. It was so, so good! Seriously, the food was amazing.
I can usually eat really hot salsa, but the salsa with the chips was way too hot for me. That’s weird. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me in all my years of eating Mexican food and salsa. My dining partner said it was too hot to eat, as well.
Our food took a little long to get out to us, but the wait wasn’t horrible.
At the end, we asked to split our check. It was very weird. Can’t even explain what happened. I do this all the time without problem. They couldn’t seem to figure it out. It took a trip back to our table. We had to go up front to «close out» the ticket.
Food — WONDERFUL!
Service — OK

My family and I had a great experience at this location! We celebrated my mom’s b-​day on a Wednesday night and my mom loved it. We received good service and the food was great. They even let you keep the sombrero that’s used for the happy birthday song. I give it four stars and not five because as we were leaving, after paying a fat bill, we didn’t get a good bye or a thank you :\ but overall good place for a family dinner or small celebration. *Side note* LOVED the deep fried vanilla ice cream dessert. I had the shrimp and chicken fajitas as my main dish.

I have had my share of meals at this location over the years, but my review concerns only the lunch I had last Wednesday.
Entering the doors and walking up to the podium area, the host was nowhere to be found so I generallly stand where i can be seen from the bar and the dining area. Fortunately, my wait was brief because one of their friendly food servers greeted me and led me to my table. She brought me a menu, asked for my drink order and brought the obligatorry chips and salsa with my drink.
I am partial to their steak (carne asada) fajitas; I love their Burrito Especial, but i came on a Wednesday and it was Enchilada Day! An ample amount of rice and refried beans come with most meals, and the size of the portions are good. Taste was pretty good for the meat filling, and the cheese was not piping hot but melted, Burrito shells were a bit dry at the ends, so a bit harder than i care for — but just the tip/​ends so not that much of a deal.
A pretty good lunch and an attentive food server go far in my book, and both made it a good day.

I am a long time customer of the «Little Bull» /​El Torito. Businness travel has enabled me to eat at quite a large number of their locations ranging from Rohnert Park (in northern California) down to Newport Beach and as far east as Washington D.C. You usually can expect a quality meal in a nice colorful environment. That said, I recently visited their Simi Valley restaurant and was pleasantly surprised. I was last here in mid 2015. At that time I had a good meal but was put off by the tired appearance inside. It screamed for commercial cleaning, fresh paint, something. The wait staff did an okay job but there was no sizzle. Okay, this last Saturday we were there for a birthday celebration. Well surprise, surprise! The place has been freshened up and we had a very good, energetic and personable waitress. I tried a new (at least for me) entrée, Tacos Jalisco, that was excellent. Kudos to the manager. I’ll be returning and soon! Recommended.

Excellent service… l had the steak and shrimp Fajita dinner, excellent combo. Just enough, not too hot for the Midwest pallet… wonderful staff and customers. Good family eats, at a reasonable price!

I come down from Oxnard to eat here.
All the El toritos are closing down, I hope this one doesn’t!
Great staff and service and foods always fantastic! Try the enchilada rancheras!
And mm can’t forget the fried ice cream!
Thanks guys!
Will be back soon

Went for Sunday brunch and was pleasantly surprised by the selection of food and the attentive service. The taco bar was by far my favorite. The wait staff was friendly and kept my champagne glass full. What more could you want from a Sunday brunch? Will definitely be going back.

The interesting thing about this update is that this is my first update, so when I am about to write how disappointed I am right now, it won’t seem such a stretch from my initial review. However, what you don’t know is that my opinion of this place had actually risen a significant amount… before falling down to the extreme depths of despair that I now feel.
I’ve only been maybe 5 – 6 times more since my review in 2013, but I truly enjoyed those visits to El Torito, in particular, the guacamole, which I always got made in front of me. Whatever was in it tasted amazingly good, just the right amount of salt, lime, cilantro, and who knows what else. There definitely was that «extra something else» to give it that perfect flavor. I even enjoyed the chips and salsa, more than I had originally written about. I always ordered the chicken fajitas, and it consistently tasted delicious. Each time, there was an ample portion of chicken, always moist, tender, with lots of fajita sauce flavor in every bite. Loads of sautéed onion and peppers, plus rice, beans and even a little scoop of some sweet corn «pudding» (not really sure what it was… just that it tasted yummy). Each visit was consistently good, and each visit left me feeling full and satisfied. UNTIL RECENTLY.
Two weeks ago, hubby and I appeared at our Simi Valley El Torito, and I found it very odd that on a Saturday night at 8:15, it was EMPTY. I mean EMPTY. There was one other couple in there, and this is a big place. I’ve been there on a Sunday at almost 9, and it’s been empty, but not on a Saturday at 8:15. That smacks of something suspicious to me. I now know why.
The menu looks the same and reads the same… but what I learned is that just because it reads and looks the same, doesn’t mean it IS the same. In fact, it is now very different, but nothing is identified on the menu to reflect that. My once glorious guacamole was very weird, unappealing to look at, and even worse to eat. The bright lime green color was now pale green and kind of sickly looking. The flavor completely missing. I had them re-​make the guac in front of me again, but both times, it had NO flavor. Where was the salt and whatever other herbs and spices it once had to give it such a great flavor… and even when I added my own salt, it was still flat. No amount of salt was helping. Absolutely lifeless. Also, why was it such a faded green color? Were they using inferior avocados? I simply don’t know, but it was downright awful, sad to say. The waitress and I just agreed to remove it from the check. I didn’t even want to eat it… and this was guacamole that, in the past, I’ve consumed all by myself. It used to be THAT good.
Then, we get to the chicken fajitas… I am so into my food that I pay attention to what I eat. Not just how it tastes, but how it looks… so when I continue to get the same dish from the same place time and time again, I will take notice to how much chicken is sitting on the plate. All the other times, it was definitely 2 entire breasts sliced. I always had so much food left over, I was always excited to eat leftovers. This time when it arrived, I saw only 1 chicken breast plus some other white-​ish looking slices that turned out to be potato slices. I looked at my husband and said, «Why are there potato slices on my fajitas?» He just looked at me. Worse yet, it wasn’t swimming in fajita sauce as I had come to know and enjoy. It was rather dry, in fact, and certainly, the chicken had no appreciable fajita flavor… or any flavor for that matter. At this point, I pushed my plate away and asked the waitress to get the manager.
The manager appeared, and in my very nice, but controllably annoyed voice, I explained about the guacamole and then the fajitas. He couldn’t understand why the guac was off, but he then enlightened me to the «new changes» they were making, i.e., potato slices added in exchange for a chicken breast, less sauce. I told him I hated the changes and that potatoes simply do not go with fajitas and the altogether missing sauce that was once so full of flavor, was a huge mistake for them to make. This dish needs moisture, it needs flavor, and it most definitely needs the big amount of chicken that I so appreciated in the past. I also told him that to NOT reflect these changes on their menu was also a mistake and that other customers would not take kindly to that, just as I don’t. While he was very apologetic, and while he removed my entrée and the guac from the bill (as well he should have since I didn’t eat more than a couple of bites), it did not make up for total disgust I felt about the food. It was awful, and I will now not ever return. When you compare a place like this with that of Los Agaves, wow, there simply is NO comparison. El Torito will still get its customers, I’m sure, but I now know why it was empty on a Saturday at 8:15.

I am a fan of the Woodland Hills location. I have not yet eaten at the Simi location, but have been disappointed to learn that they do not offer a lunch buffet. I think that is one of the Woodland Hills’ location’s biggest attractions! Aside from that, their tortilla soup is perfect for a cold or gloomy day and their tableside guacamole is really delicious. One of these days, I’ll try out the Simi location, but it surely won’t be during lunch time!

I got the no bull nachos. It was ok. The beans didn’t taste authentic other then that it was good. I loved the music 90’s mexican music was on. :)

To my surprize, I had a good experience this past weekend here. I was greeted right away and most of all seated promptly.
Being with several friends on a Pre-​Birthday dinner there was know hurry to order our meals. Just relax and enjoy each others company.
As we all ordered our meals the food came out all at the same time, witch was a plus, and most of all the server was helped by additional servers. Always good to see this. Work together as one.
The manager that was on duty was also very alert, walking around and checking on her guests. Must of all also very attentive on the floor. Thanks Norma for your service.
It had been a long time eating at this location. I can’t even remember the year I was here. El Torito was one of the spots to go too back in the 80’s and 90’s.
The food was very good, nice and hot and most of all the quality and taste. So we where all very happy.
The server was also very attentive. The salsa was lacking something tho. Not sure what it was, but for the most part, an enjoyable evening. So good job. Just be consistent in your service and the quality of your food and most of all provide exceptional service.

Love their Taco Tuesday & happy hour. Can’t go wrong w/​$ 1.50 tacos, on a Tuesday. U can sit in the dining area or bar area. Juan at the cantina will take care of you. He made me fall for the Blackberry Margarita. Ohh so yummy! & $ 5 happy hour hell yeah, Haha.
I like the ambiance of the place, can be dark or well lit, & I dig the loudness of people in the bar area, but it can be a bit busy esp since they have their daily specials, esp on taco tues. But I like that you can see the tv, but also hear the various music playing in the background. So appropriate for the cantina, lol.
This will be my ½ way meeting point to meet w/​friends & take a breather

We had a bad experience at another El Torito location, and we went to this location with the complimentary meal cards they sent. First off, we had to sent the chips back because they were extremely greasy and had a horrible taste to them. The next batch of chips were better, but no flavor with their salsa. The server helped us ordering the correct way which was nice, but the food at El Torito has very little flavor. I have gone to Cisco’s and Don Cuco’s and I have to say that those places season their food and have better flavor. With those choice, I think I’ll move on from El Torito… Sorry!