El Torito Taqueria y Mas — Restaurant in Lakewood

This was our first go at this new Lakewood option for Mexican fare. We are always willing to try places closer than our standard-setting Taquiera Mi Pueblo in Denver.

I had the jumbo sized salvaje with carnitas burrito. It was not the best choice for being on a flavor exploration. It's basically a burrito plate with the would-be sides of rice, beans and sour cream on the inside of the burrito. The exploration yielded rice, bean and sour cream flavor punctuated with excellent carnitas that were excellently lost in the sides inside.

My wife tried the barbacoa plate. She describes it as "alright". I won't try to read or write really anything more into her comment.

I DO want to go back, to try the tacos in particular. The menu has combos with tacos and soft drink but soft drinks are wasted on me (I observe an unwritten and unbreakable cultural law from my growing up roots of ELA of no Mexican food without Mexican beer - the shame!) and was told there could be NO substitute (come on man! A scoop of guac maybe! ).

I like the salsa bar A LOT! The salsa brava made my eye sockets sweat, a sure way to my heart and instant respect for having salsa that's not white washed for west Lakewood.

All in all, I say this is a good addition to our little restaurant row and I hope...

Today I called today to place an order. I was told it would be ready in 20 minutes. I arrived in 15 minutes. I was handed my order. Once I got to my car and checked. The woman in front had given tacos instead of the torta I ordered. I went back and told her. She admitted she placed my order in another customer's bag who had just left. Then she said, she would have the cook do the torta again. I said that was fine. I waited another 20 minutes went back inside and asked for the torta. I heard her ask the cook where was the torta? The cook replied what Torta? Sadly this shows that the woman taking the orders doesn't have good communication with the cook, she doesn't pay attention to what she is doing and mostly of she lacks customer service. This the second time that women gets something wrong in my order. After I heard she failed to tell the cook to redo my order. I told her I was leaving, she tried to give me discount but that is not the issue, The issue is she doesn't pay attention to what she is doing, waiting 1 hour for my torta is seriously uncalled for. I am rating this place with 1 star due to horrible customer service I experienced from this one woman. She seriously needs to be re-train. She needs learn to focus on what...

Arturo might be the single best waitperson I’ve encountered in my long life. From his welcoming “sit wherever you like” to the way he effortlessly handled six almost simultaneous tables (one featuring the woman no one can please), he alone was enough to make this a repeat destination for me.

I came in already knowing what I wanted. Arturo was friendly and efficient, bringing my margarita within minutes and my suiza enchiladas shortly after. He dropped off my food and asked if I needed anything else. I asked for salsa and he asked whether I prefer it hotter or milder…as though my heat preference actually mattered!

Meanwhile a woman at an adjacent table was just rude in how she rejected the food she’d ordered. Arturo was incredibly patient and accommodating with her, despite having other tables to tend to…just a perfect representative for his business.

My drink was decent…perhaps a tad sweet for my taste, but I’m unusually picky about margaritas and it was better than most. My suizas enchiladas with rice and beans were very good, especially with the yummy side of salsa. And it was the perfect amount of food.

All in all, a terrific...