El Torito

Worst El Torito EVER. My boyfriend made reservations for his sisters graduation. We were a big group. Apparently the person whom he had spoken to (which turned out to be the manager by the name of Carl Johnson) did not write down the reservation for a party of 10. We asked for a manager and that is when my boyfriend and his brother spoke with Carl. It turns out my boyfriend spoke to Carl on the phone and Carl did not write down our reservation. Carl did apologize and although it did seem like a very busy night at this establishment, he just seemed so agitated and not willing to help us. He could have been a little more understanding after all it was his mistake. Mind you we arrived at about 8:25pm. We made reservations for 8:45pm. So course we had no other option than to wait. My boyfriend’a sister noticed there was an empty table at the bar so she asked about that table and Carl was quick to reply, «that table is already reserved for another group». We understood, but as time went by I took notice that the table was still empty. It was 8:55pm and I finally decided to go up to Carl and ask about the table. All of a sudden there was no reservation and all of a sudden it was okay for us to sit there. Really Carl? Another thing that bothered us about the whole experience was not once did Carl come to check up on our table. My boyfriend’s mom husband had to get up just to get someone to assist us. That is when Carl came to our table and asked if «we needed anything?». He seemed so annoyed with us that at this point we just didn’t want to even look at it. He lacked empathy and customer service skills. The whole experience was just terrible from the reservation not being written down (their mistake), to the wait time, to getting someone to actually help us out, and our food arrival (we ordered our food at 9:10 and our food didn’t make it to the table until 10. ON TOP OF THAT some of us didn’t get our food until 10:30pm). All I can say is that this was one of the worst establishments I have ever been to.

The Good:
Their happy hour specials.
The corn pudding side is delicious (put such a tiny portion).
The Awful
The tortilla soup is ridiculously salty, and more like tomato soup with too much cheese. Within a couple minutes the cheese forms a floating mass on top that makes it unappetizing.
I’ve seriously never had a saltier soup.
Enchiladas are also incredibly middle of the road when it comes to flavor, and too expensive for what they are.

All the girls at work wanted to go to happy hour, we decided on el toritos because of their drinks specials and wanted to try a new place. Fiesta platter was good and so was the bacon wrapped shrimps yummmmm. Drinks were good.

The 1800’s Fajitas are delicious! Love this staff and friendly smiles. This place has a warm, personal and old school vibe that really knows their regulars! Love the Patron Perfect Margarita! And happy hour is great too! Ive been going to El Torito since I was little and always come back for some delicious classic mexican food!

I have been going to El Toritos brunch for over a decade. This location was the one time I was seriously disappointed. Even the menudo had no flavor. The price was more than usual too, at $ 24.95. The only thing I can say good about this place, is they kept the champagne coming! lol

Oh el torito. I think I need to quit you, at least at this location.
I used to go here for happy hour all the time. Now, years later, I have a two year old and we met another mom and her toddler today as well. We got the buffet, and we’re really excited to be told that it was «buy one get one free day,» whatever that means.
I’m trying to shed some baby weight so I went to the salad bar and got two rounds of salad and pretty much avoided everything else. The guy making the salads was pretty nice; however it was almost impossible to get anyone to come by our table. Like, ever. Had to hunt someone down for a drink, had to hunt someone down for a check, etc. And once we finally got someone to bring us the check, he said we needed some coupon or email about the buy one get one free promotion. So, way to provide misinformation too!
Started feeling queasy when I was on my way home… I had nothing else to eat that day so it couldn’t have been anything else. Luckily I didn’t barf (don’t think anyone else in my group was sick either), spent a good chunk of time on the toilet afterwards though basically peeing out of my ass! I hope the experience at least helped me drop some aforementioned baby weight!
Needless to say, I think that’s about it for me and El Torito Santa Monica!

I came here with some coworkers to partake in the lunchtime buffet. It was perfect since Cinco de Mayo was just around the corner, so this was a great way to satisfy our Mexican fix. I wasn’t expecting much since El Torito is a chain restaurant, and sadly, my expectations aligned well with reality.
The buffet was nicely spread out over multiple tables in a large space near the entrance. It was empty for the most part, so we didn’t have to deal with any crowds. The tacos, especially the pork-​filled ones, were delicious and flavorful. The mashed sweet corn side dish was also a winner. The rest of the offerings, however, looked pretty lackluster and there wasn’t much in terms of variety. I was especially sad that the desserts were mostly breads or pastries and there weren’t any flan or other yummy desserts.
Overall, I appreciated the affordable price point of this meal and the convenient, validated parking. However, while some items were tasty, I also felt that there were slim pickings for something advertised as a buffet. I may be back if my coworkers want to head here, but otherwise, I think I’ll stick with other decent Mexican places nearby.

Omg, I know its JUST El Torito… but wow! We went with a birthday offer to celebrate my wifes birthday. DONT EAT HERE!!! I have eaten here MANY times, but there is something wrong with the kitchen an we never even saw the «manager». WE only got 10 $ all you can eat tacos. Our server was new and had noooo knowledge of anything, so we had to ask the bartender for help. After getting our first plate of tacos, the second plate took 25 minutes for only 2 tacos and the third plate took over 15 minutes! I am still more angry that the clueless server was the apologetic one and this mysterious «manager» was nowhere to be seen! I am by no means a snob and have been at this location many times with mixed opinions. If this was an actual restaurant, i would actually call corporate. This place has become a dump and miss managed. I will NEVER come back. You have been warned people!

Always go their with family really good food enjoy it all and they have really good caring people that work their.

Gots to say, I’m always very impressed by their daily lunch buffet. They’ve got a really impressive selection (except the dessert) of decent Mexican food for AYCE and for $ 11 the only problem is fighting off the sleepiness afterwards. But if you can afford to eat a lot, this is an awesome place! First, they have a salad station where someone actually will make an amazing salad for you, complete with the cilantro dressing and choice of chicken or beef. I love this dressing. I buy it at Ralphs and make my own salad with it, but here they know what they’re doing. Also, they have an cheese enchilada station, where they also have beef with mole sauce and other dishes that complimented the enchiladas. But above all, they had the sweet corn cake stuffing that I can’t get enough of. Well, apparently I can actually, since it’s AYCE and I got my fill after all.
They also have a fresh taco and burrito stand with your choice of different meats, and a soup and dessert stand. There was only one soup, which was fine. The dessert section was a little sad but better than nothing.
Sundays their bottomless champagne brunch is $ 17, and totally worth it too. Parking is free with validation, the servers were excellent and I had no complaints!

El Torito is a reliable spot for pretty much any meal, though my personal favorite time to visit is brunch! The bottomless mimosas and abundance delicious Mexican breakfast foods can make anyone’s Sunday morning!
But El Torito is also great for lunch, dinner or just drinks at the cantina. The severs are always friendly and make me feel right at home.
The only complaint that I have from my most recent visit here on a weeknight is the techno music! All I can say is WTF?!

Reservations were placed in 2 weeks prior for ¹⁄₃₁ @ 12. Our first meeting for our wedding party.
We get their 1145 & checked in. @12 we asked how much longer and told 10 more minutes. @1210 We were told the party that has our table is paying and they were cleaning the table. @ 1220 told the party has not left because now they tell the staff they are celebrating a birthday.
@1230 we seated at the bar that was difficult for our party to get out to go to the brunch because we’re seated in a both for 10.
Need a better system. We were told for the inconvenience they will discount our bill and bill came nothing.
Food was ok. Service was ok. The Bartender was not equipped to handle such large group in his area and management should have staff better especially since they seated us their.
Brunch was ok. By 1 pm alot container were empty. I actually left hungry.
Not satisfied with whole situation.

I’ve ate here lots of times as its in the same parking lot where I work. But for the first time in 5+ years I had brunch. It was amazing. The made to order omelets were great, a nice small selection of seafood, made to order tacos, salad, churros, waffles, fresh fruit, lots of desserts, bacon, sausage and so much more. Oh and I can’t forget the flan, it was the smoothest and tastiest I’ve ever had. So if your in the mood for a good brunch buffet, I highly recommend coming here!

The weekday lunch buffet is passably good. It’s nothing to get excited about but they do have a nice variety of dishes, full service salad and taco bar as well as a soup station and desserts.
I like their steak tacos and corn cakes. Service is pretty friendly and the décor is kitschy and cute.

Just like fast food, they want you to leave as soon as your done with your food. They forgot to bring tortilla with my cambo fajitas, i had to ask them 3 times. until i got the tortilla food was cold. They gave me the bill before we’ll done with our food while my plan was ordering ice cream. 2 star is for the food quality.

I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but compare this place to the Tex-​Mex that I know and love back in my home state. The mango margarita was sweet — could not taste the alcohol (not sure if that’s a good thing or not). The chips and salsa were pretty good (and bottomless, gotta love that). The veggie fajitas were kind of bland… I could taste the char from the skillet on almost all of the veggies. Also, all of the cheese was hidden inside of the poblano pepper — what was that about? Rice and beans were mediocre and forgettable. Overall, not great but not terrible. We probably won’t return.

Don’t ask how I ended up here on a 107-​degree evening in Santa Monica…
As you can imagine, this place serves Applebee’s-style-gringo Mexican food. But the hostess, two of the waitresses and one bus boy were some of the nicest, most efficient, helpful, happy restaurant staff I have ever met.
So if you’re in the mood for meh food and spectacular service, this is your jam!

Went for Taco Tuesday last night. The drinks are amazing and I highly recommend the passionfruit mojito! For food I got three carne asada tacos. They were only $ 1.50 each thanks to Taco Tuesday. However, they were so incredibly spicy I could not eat them! Ive been to this location so many times and never had that problem before. I complained to the waiter who brought out more water for me. My mouth was on fire and it totally ruined the experience! Will never be eating tacos here again. They need to warn people if they are spicy as some people have allergies or dietary restrictions where they cannot eat spicy food

Came here again as its walking distance to work. Their family fajitas cannot be beat. Soo sooooo good!!! I also recommend the wet burrito. My boss got that and it looked amazing. He ate it all down the last bite– said was great.
If you’re a vegetarian the veggie fajitas are delicious as well. Make sure to add the chile relenjo with cheese. To die for.

Went to their Happy Hour with my boyfriend and had a great time! Happy hour is only in the Cantina (bar area), but it’s fairly large and on a Friday at 6pm we had ZERO trouble finding a table as it was mostly empty. There are large flat screen tvs for your sports viewing pleasure (which didn’t really apply for this visit as our favorite sports are in off season BUT still awesome for fans in general).
We started with a pitcher of Margaritas for $ 20 (not bad, we got a little less than 3 each from it, so a bit better than the $ 5 margi HH deal). They bring out warm tortilla chips with salsa that both taste fresh and incredible together! I could’ve filled up on those alone, but we came to eat, so I digress. On to our meal!
We shared the huge nacho platter (all appetizers $ 3 off) and each got one of their street tacos. Now, I am a NACHO LOVER (all caps doesn’t begin to express my love for nachos) and these were terrific! Real melted cheesy, half chicken/​half steak per our request, and with a sauce I can’t quite put my finger on– but that was so good I could lick it off my fingers! lol Guacamole, sour cream, and jalapeños on top sealed the deal. Yummerific! My boyfriend had to remind me about my forgotten taco.
The street tacos were good. I had carne asada, my boyfriend had chicken. The sauce that came with them was very spicy, but tasty.
Overall, it was great! Our server was friendly and quick, the bill was small compared to our full bellies and we didn’t have to pay for parking (this location used to validate and if you stayed over the time there was a fee)! I would definitely recommend for happy hour!