El Toro Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Dhaka Metropolitan

El Toro is the best Mexican restaurant in Dhaka. If you compare the rest, they are either little shops in food courts or small cafes. This is the only large Mexican eatery in town where you can fit in 20 guests.

What I loved:

Decor was Mexican themed. Adds to the experience. Appetizer (Nachos, Quesadila) delivery was fast. Quesadilas were very tasty. A little hot (green chili) but tasty. Toilet area is clean. Enough space for guests to move around. Comfortable environment. We brought a birthday cake. They provided dessert plates & spoon. That was nice of them!

What could be better:

We needed guidance to order as most guests weren't familiar with Mexican food. A gentleman helped us select dishes but the guidance was more around what they sell more rather than combo of dishes that will give the guests a great dining experience.

No soft drinks order taken at the start. Had to find someone to take drinks order.

They have heaps of made-to-order soft drinks on the menu. We asked for suggestion. Most guests ended up ordering coke/sprite.

Coke/Sprite are priced at Tk 250/can. At that price, you would expect drink to be served in a glass with ice. Instead cans were unceremoniously dropped at our table.

We had the special Fajita with every variety. This is a de-constructed fajita with three flatbreads (4-5 inch size). The beef was in the form of gravy. Didn't look appetizing. And no freshly made salsa with it.

We also had Taco. Two per person. Loads of cheese in every variety muted the taste of chicken and beef. I have made Tacos at home with ground beef, Taco spice, shredded cheese, lettuce and tomato. No tomato/lettuce here. Taco was wheat based, half filled and extremely thin & crispy. I missed corn tacos.

I make Guacamole at home to eat with Nachos. The punch of salty, tangy, soury (lemon) tomato & Avocado with freshly chopped mint & green chili - it's like Bangladeshi bhortas. One taste and you can't stop. Guacamole here was muted. No punch.

Main dishes took a while. Had to chase people up.

Rooms are small. We had to split 20 people in two tables. That cut down the interactions.

Overall I would say if you're craving Mexican in Dhaka, try this place. You will have a better experience with a small 3-4 person group. Don't set your hopes too high and you'll be alright....

Actually, they just cook namesake Mexican foods but it's not originally Mexican. You won't get the original Mexican taste because Mexican foods are made with different ingredients, but this restaurant uses the same sauce in every item, where every Mexican food items has it's own different sauces. And they make the foods like, as if you need to develop the taste to eat Mexican foods but honestly, you don't need to develop the taste for it because you'll love it if you get the real Mexican foods, which is why, Mexican foods are famous globally. And they don't use even corn flour which is one of main ingredient of Mexican food. It's like they're fooling the Bangladeshi food lovers, because most Bangladeshis aren't familiar with Mexican cuisine, history, traditions and culture. Mexico is completely a blend of North American, Spanish and indigenous Mayan and Aztec culture, traditions and cuisine. And by the way, the price of the foods is too much high here, too expensive unnecessarily. They don't take cards for the payment which is also a bit annoying. And their attention to the customers are not upto the mark. And they tried to create a Mexican environment, but most of the things don't relate with Mexico. Even they play Spanish music from Spain, but not the Spanish music of Mexico. It just making a mockery of Mexican cuisines and culture. I'm saying this because my wife is Mexican, one of my aunts used to stay in Mexico for more than 5 years, some of my relatives often visits Mexico on their holidays from Canada. And all of them visited here while staying in Bangladesh, and all of them gave a big thumbs down and said, there's nothing Mexican here. Sorry, but just being honest about...

This is the second time I am visiting El Toro after about 10 years. This time I took my wife with me. She wanted to try Mexican cuisine and I wanted to make sure she enjoyed it, hence El Toro. However, soon after our food arrived, I started to feel that something is missing. The tacos were alright, despite the fact that my wife was telling me she's getting all 'fuchka' flavours from it. Then there was this ginger chicken, rice, refried beans dish (forgot the fancy name for it) that was unpleasant. Ginger in the chicken was overpowering, rice was just bland. Then came two drinks, a virgin mojito and another having a fancy name. Virgin Mojito was okay but the fancy one was sugar factory. We were not happy with the food. Is it the same El Toro that I went 10 years ago or my palate has changed? The second one is very unlikely because I have had experience of trying authentic Mexican dish when I was in US and I loved it. I know I love Mexican cuisine, but I didn't like this El Toro. I'm giving it a 3-star only out of benefit of doubt from my...