The Black Toro — Restaurant in Melbourne

Overview: A nice take on South American cuisine, with a busy atmosphere, so it is probably best to book a table. They cater for their customers very well and I would recommend the crispy pork hok as well as the mushroom empanadas, if your stuck having to choose something. Prices were okay, for the quality but the amount you got may not fit some peoples appetites.

Full review Tommy special margerita: The venue did have some enticing frozen margaritas I thought I would try the tommy special, because it had the word special in it. I am no Margarita expert, but it tasted like your typical margarita but with a smoother taste.

Vegan grilled corn: What a wonderful piece of corn, which was ‘buttery’, with sweet and juicy corn that coated your lips and mouth. It had a slight charry taste that did not overwhelm the rest of the flavours. The chimichurri accompanied with it, was salty rather than fresh and aromatic, but the portion of corn was perfect for a group of three. 8/10

Tostada and guacamole: A great dish for snacking while waiting for the rest of the meals. The salsa, had a mild spice to it, with a salty taste. The guacamole was fresh, but it lacked the avocado flavour which would have been nice to cut saltiness from the salsa.

Mushroom empanadas: When biting into the pastry it had a similar crumbly texture to a shortbread cookie, but savoury. And then you get to that miushroom filling which was the most enjoyable part of the dish. All this dish needed was more of that flavoursome mushroom filling rather than the crumbly empanda pastry which seemed to be 3/4 of the empanda and the other 1/4 being the mushroom filling 7/10

Grilled broccolini: The broccolini was hot and snappy, the chariness really added flavour to the broccolini and that sauce on top worked really well with the dish 8/10

Hok pork: Finished the night with a big bowl of slow cooked pork, which pulled straight off the bone. The pork was tender fatty and juicy. But the thing that sold the dish was the sticky sauce and trust me it was sticky. it stuck to almost everything, which is good because it means the amazing flavour didn’t go anywhere, it stayed right on the food. The coconut rice on the side was fluffy and soft cooked to perfection. The only aspect of this dish that could have been nice is having more apple flavour to it, as it was not noticeable. 9/10

Vibe/environment: Open kitchen which gave customers a sneak peak of the brilliant chefs that cook the food. The night was quite busy so I highly recommend booking a spot, a great place for friend groups looking for drinks and south American food to share. 9/10

Service: Service was fast, it did not take long for food to come out, and was checked on to make sure everything was up to...

Overpriced. Small portions. Slow service. And worst of all, unhygienic. We ordered two margarita jugs ($48 each) - we wanted to try two different flavours, lemon and watermelon but was disappointed on both. We tried their starters - chips and guacamole (chips had no flavour, guacamole was so chunky and the avocado was not ripe), chicken taquitos (this one was good), wagyu sliders (not bad), and the jalapeno poppers (not bad). After the starters have been served, we waited 15 minutes or so for the "larger plates" which were labelled "to share"... The servings were small. We tried the short ribs, beef was not tender enough, served cold and sauce did not taste good. Now the worst part of the night was the swordfish dish... My friend bit into it and there was hair in it. A long strand of hair with orangey highlights. I have never dyed my hair and my friends both had short hair so it would not have been from us. Again, waited 10 minutes or so before we had an apology from the manager who admitted how disgusting it was to find hair but that they had no idea how it got there (she had long hair with orangey highlights so connect the dots lol). Anyway, we all lost our appetite and didn't even touch the remaining food. Manager cleaned up a bit from our table and said she will come back with the bill 10 minutes went past, we just got up to the counter. Honestly, I know things can be busy but at least aim to serve clean meals. They refunded the swordfish meal from our bill ($200+ which was expected but annoying cause it felt like a waste of money) but it doesn't take away from the disgust and all the waiting we had...

1 Star for this experience Would have given this experience 1 star considering such poor communication but have had a good experience here before although not inclined to give higher than 2.

Made a reservation for 5 on Sunday evening, we were running late so I called up to push the booking back which they kindly did, points there but downhill from here.

Ordered drinks and food (Mains: 1 Ocean Trout, 1 Short Ribs, 1 Lamb shoulder and 2 Pork hock)

Round 1: Waiter takes our order and comes back 5min later to tell us they have no more pork hock, asks if we could choose any of the other dishes, so we switch for two more lamb.

Round 2: Takes our new order, comes back again to tell us they only have the one lamb which was originally ordered, not enough for an additional two.

Round 3: Whom I suspect is the manager comes to the table to apologetically tell us they only have the one short ribs we originally ordered. Offers us a dessert platter on the house but enough was enough, we left.

Manager said we didn't have to pay for our previously ordered drinks but that does not excuse such terrible communication between Waiters, kitchen and customers.

Keep the waiters informed of dishes that are running low to at least inform the customer of their options BEFORE they order and maybe try contacting guests who have made reservations. That small change in practice could save you from such situations and still retain...