El Torito — Restaurant in Irvine

9/2/2022 Update!! We came back for another try and were delighted. Service was fantastic again. Food quality great. Tuesday taco night is saved!

Sadly, this is my husband's favorite place to go on Tuesday night for the taco bar. We go most every Tuesday night. Sadly because I am frustrated with the food quality and the service has been poor the last few visits. The taco meat is beginning to go downhill and I have noticed that the carnitas have been very oily the last two times I ordered them.

Seating happens within 5 minutes which is good, but the last time we went (Tuesday 8/17/21) we sat at a table where no one helped us until I finally stood up and flagged someone down. We were given chips right away, but no drinks, no place settings. We had been sitting there for over 15 minutes watching staff walk right by our table. I understood that they had two large tables, but these tables were static. Orders had already been taken and were either being made or had been served.

We sat, watching a few serving staff and one person who was passing out chips and salsa walk back and forth past our table. No one made eye contact. No one.

I finally stood up and was going to walk back to the hostess station to ask for a server to be sent over. I was honestly ready to simply drop $5 and leave but I know how much my husband looks forward to taco Tuesday. As I was walking towards the front, I saw an employee walking towards the back. I politely asked him to please help find our server. He said he could serve us. He did.

We ordered tacos. He did come back to check on us when we were almost done, but he did come back. We had flagged down the man who was carrying chips to ask for place settings. We received napkins only, so we used chips to eat our beans and corn bread. It worked fine.

My husband asked me at lunch time if I wanted to go to El Torito for taco night tonight. I declined, making an excuse. I don't want to break his heart but I really don't want to go eat there for a few weeks to give them time to hopefully get the bugs worked out. I have faith that they can fix the problems.

I suspect that Chris who helped us was not a server but perhaps a manager or assistant manager. We noted that after he arrived on the scene that the wait staff seemed to become much more coordinated. Before he arrived, they seemed a bit frantic and out of step. In any event, he saved the night by being willing to take our order.

I do want to note that we were both very polite and not complaining other than asking for a server to be found. It was strange to feel as if we were invisible because this staff is normally so...

This review is not to negatively undermine the incredibly hardworking servers and cooks who delivered our group an amazing dinner experience. This review however is to warn others of the manager Estelle and the general manager who were rude and put blame on our group for a mistake they made in which they repeatedly changed their story and continually lied to us. We had reservations to celebrate our lovely coworkers birthday. We had a bakery deliver two cakes amounting to $200 to el torito, we have receipts and confirmation of said delivery. As we finished our dinner we of course asked if they could bring the cakes out. Somehow they were nowhere to be found. After speaking to every employee we then spoke to this locations manager Estelle. She proceeded to blame our group for their inability to find it and we were told various excuses without any intention to mediate the problem.

“We trashed the cakes” “We served the cakes to another group with the same name” “We never received cakes” “We don’t have cameras to check what happened to the cakes” “I’m the manager and I don’t have access to the camera footage” (This was a lie as we discovered when an employee confided in us to tell us their manager was lying).

The story changed countless other times as well. As you can imagine this was not only frustrating but it put a damper on our night that was supposed to be a celebratory birthday dinner. They offered no solution until they saw we were visibly upset (over an hour if not longer) in which they then brought out dessert in order to “make up” for whatever it is they did with the cakes. To rub salt in the womb they forced the employees sing to us. Please refer to the pictures of the undercooked cake and flans they threw together. We were practically begging for them to fix this and trying to work with the manager Estelle, she however kept shrugging, saying it’s our and the bakery’s fault and when confronted about how she was placing blame on us she went silent. She never apologized and she told us there was nothing they could do. I would never step place in this establishment after the way we were treated. We all work in retail and we know how important customer service is and how important it is to listen and provide solutions with customers so this was...

This review is mainly about the service, which was absolutely atrocious. My friend and I visited yesterday as we wanted a nice sit-down experience before our dance event. We experienced numerous issues with our waiter, which I will list under the following.

1. When we sat down, he came by our table to introduce himself on 3 separate occasions in the space of 10 mins.

2. When he asked if we were ready to order, we stated yes, and he immediately left the table. He then went around the restaurant helping other tables. I then asked another waiter if he could grab our waiter so we could order our food. Our waiter was then alerted by the other waiter, came to our table, then stated, "I'll be with you in 30 seconds," and then left again.

3. We ordered two simple dishes (enchiladas) and a side of sour cream. He forgot the sour cream when he brought our enchiladas. I then asked for said sour cream. He said okay. Then he didn't come back. I then asked another waiter for the sour cream, and that waiter didn't come back. I then talked to a 3rd waiter who told our original waiter about the sour cream before he came to our table with it. We were halfway through our meal before this side was delivered to us

He came by and said, "Thank you for coming." We then pointed out that we needed our check. He somehow assumed that we had paid already.

The bill was around $36-$37. My friend and I put our cards down, and the waiter said "50/50?" Both my friend and I stated,"Yes. We want to split it 50/50 across our cards." This waiter then charges both cards the full amount!!

I have never had such horrible service, and I honestly feel that that waiter is dangerous to have on staff without more training. Our orders were simple, and we had way too much patience. I can not imagine what would happen if we told him about a food allergy. He was that unaware.

What I will say in terms of a positive review is this: the manager, Aidea, was incredibly professional. She apologized for the waiter, although it was not her fault that he was providing poor service and comped our meal. She was definitely a highlight of our meal, which is sad and frustrating.

I can't in good conscience recommend this place. The service was so bad that it...