Toro Toro Fort Worth — Restaurant in Fort Worth

This is going to be a bit of a long story but the tl;dr is the food is great and the service ruined our anniversary celebration.

My fiance and I made a reservation early last week to come celebrate our 4 year anniversary with the bottomless brunch on Sunday. Toro Toro has been our place to celebrate everything the past few years. We have celebrated previous anniversaries, life milestones and even our engagement with this same bottomless brunch many times before and had a 5 star experience every time. We have recommended this location to countless friends (we won't be anymore). We arrived for our reservation and we were seated around 10:30-10:45ish with no wait. The restaurant was not empty, but certainly not crowded. We were greeted and placed our orders and everything was great. Also, when the reservation was made we input all our food allergies. The waiter even acknowledged the allergies when greeting us. I have a very serious allergy to avocado and it can be life threatening if consumed. Previously when we have come to Toro Toro, all dishes with avocado have been modified, so that I do not die and can still enjoy the meal, by the staff beforehand. I have never had to make a request for the food to be modified because it has always been done for me without having to worry about it. Anyways, the food comes and there is avocado in the shrimp cocktail. That was okay, because I had not asked for it not to be modified, and I had other food to enjoy. We enjoyed our drinks and food until the next course came. Our waiter was nowhere to be found though even when the second course was brought out. We were hoping to get refills and the arepas arrived. They looked fantastic, but hidden underneath them was an avocado sauce that I would have eaten if my fiance hadn't checked first. Again, this was not a huge deal, but we just wanted to talk to our waiter about getting the food modified and getting another drink. Yet still no one came to our table. We waited for 5 to 10 to 15 minutes before we had to flag down another waiter to ask for ours. Then our waiter still did not come to the table but instead a manager. She asked me if I had eaten the avacado, I said "no", she laughed and said good and then just took the food without actually letting us get to talk to her. The wait for a waiter continued. After probably ten minutes, another waiter (Vanessa who is amazing and would be the only reason we returned if we ever did) noticed how frustrated we were (FROM ACROSS THE RESTAURANT) and actually came over to have a conversation with us. She listened to how we felt dismissed and how the managers never asked what was wrong or were willing to listen. She was fantastic. Finally our waiter arrived, but we were so discouraged (possibly because the first thing he said coming to our table was to joke about the avocado and then leave without taking a drink order or anything) we asked for the main course to go. They finally brought the main course to go (we never got the dessert portion of the brunch which I understand we left beforehand, but this place has been a restaurant we loved because of those little extra things and all of that disappeared this trip) and our bill. We left with our anniversary celebration ruined and we have lost our favorite place to celebrate. I hope this doesn't all sound like unnecessary complaining and I understand that the problem centered around a food allergy, but going to places with allergies can be discouraging and Toro Toro had always made it easy. They always made us feel special and not like a burden. This trip we felt like everyone wanted to dismiss any concerns. We are not able to afford $100+ meals often, so our anniversary was supposed to be special, and instead we paid a good chunk of change to leave sad, on the verge of tears. We are now on the search for a new restaurant to celebrate milestones and enjoy the experience, so if you know of anywhere, feel free to comment and let us know.

P.S. the food is always amazing though. The people in the kitchen always make incredible food that has...

(SEE PICS) As a reviewer with over 35+ million views, I feel it’s my responsibility to inform others when a restaurant doesn’t take responsibility or handle an obvious error correctly. Read their other negative reviews to see that the bartenders’ continue to provide poor service at the guests’ expense. I’ve never felt so humiliated asking for help with a meal as I did the last time we ate there! Bartenders were whispering and trying to make us feel like jerks for asking for fresh, unburned Plantains so we could actually eat our expensive food. The Plantains ARE the vessel to eat the appetizers. The ceviche alone was $20.00, but how do you eat it without a vessel or chip? Same with the $12.00 guacamole…

We’re regulars who come 3-5 times a month and always order the same thing - ceviche and guacamole for appetizers plus meals. We specifically come here for the plantains that are the vessels for both of these appetizers. We were a bit shocked when our server brought dark brown burned Plantains with our appetizer orders. After trying to eat a few of the overcooked Plantains, we asked for fresh Plantains since they are needed to eat both appetizers. The server brought another “batch” of Plantains that were equally burned and dark brown. After a few minutes of going back and forth about why they were burned and learning that they aren’t made to order, but rather fried in big batches in the morning and served throughout the day, we asked to speak with a manager. When the manager arrived, the first thing he said was that the Plantains WERE burned and DID taste horrible - he ate one before coming to meet with us. They refused to fry a fresh batch of Plantains in the kitchen which would’ve been the common sense correction in this situation. They admitted to having fresh Plantains in the kitchen as well as a chef, but they wouldn’t do it. The manager apologized and told us he’d “take care of their mistake on our bill.” We went to pay the bill only to find that the manager decided a 10% credit, less than $5.00 off our entire bill, was sufficient for our ruined evening, the inedible food and $35.00 worth of appetizers that went in the trash because there was nothing to eat them with.

This was handled unprofessionally for a restaurant of this caliber! We were made to feel humiliated for asking for help when we were CLEARLY not at fault. I got in the car with trembling hands and tears falling down my cheeks as we drove away! We work too hard for our money and date nights to pay anyone to treat us this way. This used to be our go-to restaurant, but I’ve never felt more humiliation or shock than we experienced the last time we were there. We can’t recommend this establishment anymore and we won’t be returning. My husband reached out to a general manager who responded to our email with the promise to get back to us soon and that never happened, either. Shameful service! We’ve spent thousands of dollars eating here over the last couple of years, but will...

TLDR Good food but very disappointing experience for the prices they charge.

First Disappointment: We arrived 15-mins early for our reservation and were told we would be sat promptly at the time of our reservation. We sat at the bar directly across from the host stand and ordered drinks while we waited. A walk-in arrived and was sat at one of the many empty tables right away then 5 minutes after our reservation time another table arrived and was sat right away. I reminded the host we were there for our reservation and we were taken to our table soon after.

Second Disappointment: The atmosphere was a far cry from what I would expect from a place with this menu. Crowded bar area right next to the tables, an elevator ride to reach the nearest bathroom, and a lengthy battle with gnats hovering through the tables. All of this was particularly rough because it took an hour to get our food.

Third Disappointment: I asked our server about the tomahawks because we were there celebrating and willing to pay the premium. They were already sold out of the smaller cut for two people but he really sold the presentation so we decided to go for the larger cut. After the 1-hr wait for our food, the tomahawk was wheeled out on a special cart with a shot of mezcal. Our server poured the mezcal on it, aimed the torch, and - nothing happened. The torch was out of gas. A customer at the table next to us offered him a lighter from his pocket and our server tried to light the mezcal he’d poured on our $155 tomahawk with this random lighter. He apologized then took the torch to the manager while our steak soaked up the mezcal on the cart by our table. After a few minutes, the manager came to the table with our server, successfully lit the torch, then handed it back to the server and told us “sorry about that” and walked off. Server torched the steak but at this point the mezcal was already soaked in and nothing happened. All of this was finished off with the server cutting our Medium Rare tomahawk off the bone, remarking on how the outer edge was WELL DONE, then plated it on our table.

Bright Spot: Despite everything, the food was pretty good. The center of the tomahawk was Medium and the absorbed mezcal added an interesting flavor to it so not a total loss?

Last disappointment: The cherry on top is that the manager obviously could not care less. His quick swing by the table to hand off the refueled torch was the only acknowledgment we got. He came back later after we had finished eating to bus the table and enthusiastically asked how everything was. We told him the food was good but the torch failing was a huge bummer. He kind of said “ah, yeah..” then quickly finished bussing the table and left. If this was a real restaurant, the manager would have made it right or at least acknowledged it more or actually apologized. We had planned to stay for another round of drinks and dessert but after being blown off like that we just...