El Toro Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Champlin

We stopped in for the first time on a Sunday evening; noticed the outdoor dead winter planters on the sidewalk, and the bag of ice melt-- it's been 3 months since winter ended, not a good sign. Inside, service for seating and ordering was prompt. Immediately noticed that the tabletop was excessively sticky, however, which was a huge turnoff. When your arms, napkins, and even your cell phone stick to the table, it is an issue. Is it clean? Is it a buildup of grime or cleaner? Either way, not acceptable. Chips and salsa were hot and fresh. I ordered the Tropical Fajitas, which according to the photo, showed a fresh pineapple half, filled with the described meats and fajita veggies. On arrival, the entree looked nothing like the photo. 3 canned pineapple rings lay on top, another 2 were buried under cheese sauce with the tough, overcooked shrimp, and julienned (too thin a cut for high heat) steak and chicken, which all continued to cook on the hot fajita platter. If they were out of fresh pineapple, that should have been mentioned to me as I ordered. If the dish is never made with fresh pineapple, the menu photo and description needs to be changed. While the meat mix had flavor, it was drenched in cheese sauce and tough. I usually send items back when they're not acceptable but last night chose not to due to personal circumstances. We may return to try other items; my husband's Enchilada Verdes were tasty. We happened to see a server using an all purpose cleaner on the other highly varnished booth tables near us, so we assume the sticky situation is varnish becoming tacky with cleaner over time. Hopefully the business takes some time to pay attention to all of these things, but when customers continue to rave about the food, sometimes the business doesn't care enough to bring other concerns up to a...

The best thing I can say about this $60 experience is the time from ordering food to picking up was quick. I always tell people to find five positives, so here are four more. Close to home, easy access to enter and exit the parking lot, large portions, and the woman that helped my husband was friendly. I wanted this to be a good meal, but that wasn't to be.

Based on the reviews, I thought we would be safe trying this restaurant for an authentic Mexican meal; what I've learned is the other reviewers may not have had authentic Mexican food.

I'm not sure I would go as far as saying it was "okay," even for an Americanized version. This Americanized Mexican food all tasted the same with only slight texture differences, overloaded with tons of oily cheese and sauce, and mostly indistinguishable ingredients.

We ate some of what we ordered and then looked at the remaining food, which was most of what we ordered, and threw the leftovers out. They won't be any better tomorrow.

Chicken Tostaguacs - Made with chicken and beans. For Two $9.49 + $0.50 for an upgrade to Pinto Beans. $9.99

1 Chalupa, 1 Tamal & 1 Chile Relleno Combo - $13.99

Chimichanga - 2 flour tortillas deep-fried and filled with beef tips, fried beans and rice topped with nacho cheese, garnished with guacamole salad. - $13.99

Jalapenos Poppers Burst - Breaded Jalapenos stuffed with cheese, deep-fried, and served with lettuce and house dressing. $8.69

Sub-Total: $46.66 Tax: $3.51 Tip: $9.33 TOTAL $59.50

We won't...

I've been to this restaurant off and on for about 5 years I always thought the food was pretty good so I decided I wanted to try them because it's been about a year. I call whoever answered the phone you need to tell them, you do not say hello when you are answering the phone for your business. Then I proceeded on to say what I wanted, I said I like to order some food she didn't hear me, she said what did you say? I said I want to order some food and she got real smart and said okayyyy what do you want real smart and I told her that's okay. That's a big turn off so whoever's answering your phone you need to get them off the phone because that's a big turn off when somebody is trying to order food and the person answering the phone is getting snarky and smart, not good for business. But somebody has an attitude like that I don't trust that I want to have them touching my food or anything. They lost my careful who you allowed to answer your phone business and they're the closest Mexican restaurant to my house and I thought they were pretty good but I like to always try other establishments and I have some of my favorite establishments that I do go to but I really did like this place but that girl's attitude on the phone made me change my mind and that's really sad if you value...