El Toro Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

Tonight we dined at El Toro in the old Ol' Charley's building on Memorial. I knew there had been mixed reviews, but some people raved about them, so we thought we'd give it a shot on our way to the kid baseball game. Well, we decided there were too many good Mexican restaurants in this town to go to an okay one again. When we walked in, we were seated and brought chips and salsa immediately, but we were almost done with those chips and salsa by the time someone took our drink order. Dave said say he thinks this is the best salsa out of all the Mexican restaurants we've been to, but I disagree 🤣 we don't agree about salsa at all, though. Between the chips and our drink order, a few people walked by our table including someone who looked like a manager we ordered creamy jalapeno salsa, waters, and margaritas. Our Margaritas came and so did some queso. When she dropped it off, I waited to taste it to make sure I wasn't being rude and it just looked weird ... But it was queso. So I asked for creamy jalapeno salsa again when she came back. We did get it the second time and we're not charged for the queso. I ordered spinach enchiladas, and Dave ordered the mixed fajita taco salad. After the creamy jalapeno salsa mixup, I thought maybe she didn't know the menu... But after the confusion of Dave ordering his salad, if was clear she didn't know the menu. After we got our food, we asked for the waters again and got them quickly. The food itself was alright. Dave said the flavor was good, but he added the creamy jalapeno salsa and the hot sauce on the table to it. He said compared to other restaurants' versions of this dish, it was small and light on the meat. My spinach enchiladas were alright. Nothing to write home about. The bean were great, though. So yeah, there are too many excellent Mexican restaurants in this town for us to visit again, but I am sure they're excellent for some. I wish them luck...

First! Parking. I didn't do the math but I will wager they have more than the minimum required disabled person parking. Add to that, it's a big place - plenty of room.

Next: perfect service. The salsa dish is a little small but I didn't run out - without prompting - reloaded. When you think about it, smaller is better because you can get two and add el Torro sauce to one and leave the other as is if you have 4 people at the booth. Smart!

Also, if you look at my pic you see extra cilantro (I like a little salsa with my cilantro). A simple ask and it was cheerfully provided.

Now, the food. I did come in and order off the lunch menu. The crazy chicken was the order for today. ¡Perfecto!

Oh, and a pet peeve - I'm not a huge fan of restaurants with no ceiling. But what's just as bad is a drupy water-stained ceiling or - either way one that looks like the vents haven't been cleaned since Richard Milhouse Nixon. No problem here. Respect to the Bull for a clean restaurant.

What else small thing - hardware. You get bonified tableware. Yeppers, sturdy enough to cut your crazy chicken into taco sized meat chunks. Yeah it's a little thing - but little things matter.

Please don't be afraid if the parking lot looks a little empty - it's a hard frustrating left turn across Memorial. So, just turn right and circle around.

What else ...? Prices are good, menu selection good, well lit and easy to find: it's just across from Jones Brother's Car wash.

I stuck some menu pics in and while I didn't look, they probably have a web site with it. But you might be able to read the QR code from the cover.

So if you are new in town or simply have not been by in a while - consider giving el Torro a try.

I usually don't give all 5🌟, and in truth the only complaint I could come up with was the boss had a shirt on with an unattractive orange T on. RTR! 😂 (OK, GBO -...

I do not put bad reviews but this one had to be an exception. It was my first time in the restaurant and was recommended. Our waitress took forever to get our drinks, and food, and by the way bad attitude. I understand when it’s full and takes them a while to get orders, but the time I went it was during mid week and just one section of the restaurant had people, and she wasn’t the only waitress. The worst part of all was that I ordered the octopus, the plate cost close to 40 dollars. When my plate arrive I tried it and it was like they put the whole salt bottle in it. I told our waitress about the octopus about being super salty, literally that octopus was the saltiest octopus or plate I have ever ate in a restaurant. She told us she would talk to her manager. She came back and told us that because we had took a bite out of it they won’t take the food that they will at least give us 1/2 discount on it. Literally it was just a bite how would I know how my food taste???!!!!! Well I didn’t want to be a Karen at all so I just decided to try to remove it with napkins, which was unsuccessful, but kept doing it. I would say the beer was good tho. When we ask for the receipt they just discounted 7 dollars off the plate!!!!!!! I wish I had the receipt to attached it but I was told something and they didn’t kept their word. This is the reason I’m doing this review. I had to leave mostly of the octopus there of being super salty. In fact it was the day of the birthday of the manager, hope they recall, and better up there service. I hope as well they tried the octopus I left so they know it was salty. Won’t recommend this place, I would have just not recommend the octopus but the service was awful. Be careful on...