El Torito — Restaurant in Hawthorne

Well starting off this review let me just say that I guess I will not be visiting the el toritos on 11855 s Hawthorne Blvd for a long while . I took my wife to this one today on Valentines Day because we useually love the service and food, but for some reason today was the worst experience I've ever had there. First off our server didn't seem to know the menu. When I asked if there where there any onions in any of the food (Because I'm allergic to them) and ask that there be no onions on any of it . She told me that there were only onions on one item on what we where ordering and that I would be able to brush it off. Other then that the pico de giyo was made with onions in it. Ok so the one item that she said was the only thing that had onions on it was fine my wife likes it so I just wouldn't eat it that problem was solved . (So I thought) When the food came I started eating nachos and casadia. And soon found out it had onions all in them. ..... so I hurried and went into the restroom to get the onions out of my system and after I did I went back and found the manager let her know my issue. ( but still just figuring it was all just a mistake) She made sure to put in another order without onions. ( mind you it's only the sampler appetizer and I didn't even eat what they told me had onions in it) So now I'm drinking water& soda and eating chips to calm my stomach...... trying to have a nice Valentines Day not wanting to spoil it for my wife. Next our food comes and there's grilled onions in the fajitas (don't forget I asked for no onions ) there's onions sprinkled on my rice. So instead of acting like one of the people that I see & dislike always nitpicking and causing a scene asking the server if they know how to take a order . I just scooped off the onions that were on my rice and scraped all the onions from the fajitas and gave them to my Wife . Then started to eat and try to calm my stomach. Well that didn't help cause I ended up have to rush to the restroom again and couldn't keep my food down. Washed up and was on my way back to my seat and halfway there I had to run back in. So ... now the end of the meal. ... stomach still feeling upset . Now light headed from not being able to keep anything down. We ask to have the desert ina Togo box and the server lets us know that it'll be 3 to 5 mins. So I go to the manager and ask if I could get a small discount due to not being able to keep the food down ? That's when she informs me that she already took off the the second order of appitizers (in which I didn't ask for them to remake)and what I thought she was supposed? And I reminded her that I wasn't the one who messed up my order , I told the server I was allergic to onions. So she said she would take off the other order of appetizers to then. I didn't feel like arguing so I said fine. We paid the bill and waited for the desert...... 15 mins pass and nothing..... 5 mins later the server Gos on break ( didn't let me know like the other servers have in the past when they do to say that another server will be helping us) I had to hear it from another costumer so I waved down the manager and ask about our desert , she went back and came with a plate in which my wife had to ask about a to go box. Got it and we where leaving when the manager stoped me to say I still owed them $31.00. ??????? Yes I said excuse me?? She told me I still had a balance of $31.00 and I informed her that I paid the balance in full. So then after speaking to her a lil while she said that the server must have made a mistake. ( all I dealt with is mistakes on this visit for a lunch date with my wife today... and on Valentine Day of all days) .......... And if I didn't mention it in my not so short story yet.... it wasn't even busy yet when me and my wife went in. It was about...

Just left from Father’s Day brunch and let me say it was disappointing. This location has a lot of parking but that was the only thing that excited us. Other locations have small parking lots.

Now to get into the restaurant it itself. As we sat we ordered our drinks which included a beer, a lemonade, a simple glass of water, spent an hour with the water to have yet to be brought to the table no matter how many time it was asked for (never got the glass of water). I ordered a mimosa which are bottomless, only had one glass the entire time we were there. Waiter passed by a couple of times with champagne for other tables but never refilled my glass. The food was either cold and tasted stale. My husband had their arroz con leche and as soon as the first bite hit his stomach he knew it wasn’t going to sit well in his stomach(threw it up). The only thing that was warm (mainly because it was cooked right in front of you) was the omelet and the fresh hand made tortillas.

Now the table service. That was more of the most irritating thing. At other locations, whenever we finished a plate it was picked up before it was even set to the side. At this location, our plates were stacking up and not one person came to pick them up especially our waiter who mind you, passed by our table more than three time to have noticed a stack or plates forming. He decided to come towards the end of our stay to ask if he can remove the plates and I replied with yes you can we are done with all of them and pointed them to him. Only takes about three plates out of the 10 total that were there.

This was a very disappointing experience. We expected more since the other location we have been to have given us more than excellent service.

Make sure if you guys decide to leave a tip, to check your bill before you do. They will add it there without asking. We wanted to leave cash but saw the 20% gratuity on there...

my family and I attended Saturday 11/9, my wife and my stepdaughter entered the restaurant first, they were not greeted, the lady was on the phone never acknowledge us, a waiters ran past my stepdaughter and pushed her into my wife the waitress had some ear piece or cable on her hands SHE NEVER LOOKED BACK NOR APOLOGIZED The waitress than took menues gave us her back never looked at us greeted us and the lady on phone just said follow her, the waitress walked in front sat us in a very small table for 3, . My wife was upset, then we ordered appetizers and waitress never brought us plates, nor napkins. Nor silverware.. We then ordered our food, my wife ordered the new Chile Reyeno .. wow to our surprise IT WAS COLD, RAW, HARD N RICE WAS OLD, HARD N COLD, NO TORTILLAS, we all tasted it to be sure it was really hard n cold. The waitress took the plate ordered another and charged us twice..wt.. really .. my wife then ordered 2 sides of sweet corn, never got it, she advised us it was in our plates, did we really want another?? My wife replied really quickly YES just bring it to us please. We then ordered desert we ordered 2 the cheesecake bananabites and the mudd cake, waitress was shocked and stated are you sure you want all that, the cake is really big .. my wife replied OMG yes just bring us want we want... when we ordered the check she never brought it over just Took our debit changed 116 dollars and wanted us to sign.. my wife said no please bring me the check.. we saw she charged us 2 chile reyenos.. but she clearly stated I gave you guys a discount No girl you charged 2 plates n just took off the 2nd plate bcuz we never ordered 2 you just replaced the plate. If you are not careful it will...