Hola Torito - Restaurante Mexicano — Restaurant in Olhão

Comparatively speaking, 'Hola Torito' (their new name) would get 9 Bombs (5 Stars) because Mexican restaurants in outside the USA are normally quite inauthentic and bad. This place actually has better Mexican than some stateside cantinas.

Their Guacamole (€4) is quite good with fresh smashed avocado, plentiful in the Algarve as cultivation of the little, green delights has skyrocketed in recent years (weather similar to SoCal where avocado trees flourish), diced white onion and tomato, garlic, salt, and cilantro. An order comes with a basket of fresh, hot, crispy homemade tortilla chips (otherwise €3 w/ their tasty salsa, also made in-house).

I have had their Enchiladas Rancheras (€10.90), which are pretty good, coming with rice and beans, but I prefer the crispy Gringos tacos (3 for €10.90) with ground beef, cilantro, cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole as well as rice and beans.

The Margaritas (€5) are excellent even though they could use a tad more tequila, but I recommend getting a Jarro (jug/liter ´€15) if purchasing three or more because you will get at least one additional margarita for the price.

So often, even in the US, you get store bought tortilla chips which taste like crispy cardboard and Old El Paso prefab taco shells, but Hola Torito stands out by taking the time to make their own chips, salsa, and taco shells ... HOOAH!

I cannot, in good conscience, give them 9 or 10 Bombs (5 Stars) because I know deep in my heart that this is not the best Mexican restaurant I have ever eaten at, but by European standards, they do a pretty damn good job. The owners apparently lived in San Diego for a time and, fortunately for us, learned a few things about making authentic Mexican food ... Olé!

CombatCritic Gives Hola Torito 7 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More...

This place is an absolute must go! I honestly had the second best food I have ever eaten in my entire life in this place - and I am Turkish so our cuisine is pretty good. We went there around july 2021 during the European cup, and even though it was pretty buisy and we had no reservation they got us a spot and constantly found time for chit chatting and joking around :) we had three waiters constantly checking on us. Our drinks food and desert were a piece of art. I loved the jalapeño- watermelon- margarita so much I ordered 3 of them. My hubby took the mixed plate tacos and I had the burrito with minced meat. Can’t remember the exact names of the dishes. And to top it up we got the home made chocolate mousse, an absolute delight. Now I have to say, since I live in Germany and we don’t really have any good Mexican food here maybe everything was even better seen through Pink glasses and a longing for decent Mexican food. But I definitely know I will always go back there whenever I’m in olhao. I won’t lie I even considered doing another trip there to have food holiday. Only minus, we right away received nachos as starters without ordering them, assuming then they would be like a welcome gift just to figure out we were charged for it. But still the home made salsa made up for it. Also for the price of 3,50€ absolute no biggy. Another point is we did go there with an attitude of not sparing any cost as long as we are fed good and leave happy. Which we did. I for once as someone who did gastronomy herself considered it a clever move. Still better than charging ridiculous amounts of money for standard quality. All in all one of our highlights...

Horrible experience, flee at the very sight of this place.

We waited 30 minutes just to be seated, and when we were finally acknowledged, we were graciously offered a table in what can only be described as a windy alleyway that smelled of frying oil and bin juice. We accepted (big mistake) since we’d already waited so long.

Then came the next 45 minutes of pure invisibility. We sat and watched as servers passed us by, not once making eye contact, not once stopping, as if our table had been cursed. They even began to argue among themselves about who wouldn’t take our table, like we were the plague. One of them audibly sighed and muttered something under her breath when she finally approached (not to take our order, no) just to drop off sticky menus as if doing us a favor.

After almost an hour and a half total, no drinks, no food, no apologies, just the honor of sitting there like unwanted ghosts. Other tables that arrived after us were served within minutes apparently you need to be friends with the staff or perhaps speak to them in ancient Portuguese to be acknowledged. The place is a disaster: rude staff, disorganized service, and a general atmosphere of neglect for paying customers. Avoid it like you would a burning building. Actually, a burning building might have better...