El Toreo — Restaurant in Ocala

My parents and I went to El Toreo to celebrate my birthday this year. It was my 1st time dining there (parents have been several times now).

I'll first say..

The food was absolutely delicious, which, tbch, was pleasantly surprising to me, since I've lived in Arizona for a number of years and [obvi] the Mexican cuisine there is quite authentic.

I ordered a combo for dinner, which included a chicken burrito, enchilada & a taco.

While the enchilada and the taco were very tasty, the chicken burrito far exceeded the 2 -- it was, quite literally, the best burrito I've ever eaten.

..and the chicken -- juicy, soft, shredded and packed with just the right flavors -- may, very well, have been the most scrumptious chicken, in general, that I've ever eaten, as well. Period.

I mean, even the chips that [I believe, but unsure, b/c dinner was a bday gift] were "on the house"/free (and dropped at our table immediately when we arrived) were served toasty warm, along with the awesome salsa that accompanied them, were incredible, too!

We drank some margaritas with dinner (and possibly after dinner, too..lol).

They, too, were amazing -- delicious, refreshing and [speaking as a former bartender] so perfectly balanced (not too sweet, not too sour; liquor pours were extremely precise).

Just the way a fantastic margarita should taste.

And just the way I wanted to spend my birthday 😎

Food: A++

Drinks: A++

Thank you so much for the awesome experience.

We truly enjoyed ourselves.

So looking forward to dining here again!

If I HAD to comment and provide some constructive feedback, the only thing I could say would simply be to dim the lights a bit to create a better ambiance/atmosphere.

But I totally understand after having worked in the restaurant industry that:

1.) A restaurant should never create an atmosphere that's "too chill" b/c guests will never want to get up/leave, resulting in servers not being able to turn their tables, and, therefore, leaves them, and the restaurant, both broke.

2.) Once you start messing around with things like the lighting, TVs, etc, it becomes literally impossible to please every guest -- simply b/c, while dim may be the perfect lighting for me, other guests may find it to be too dark and will complain they can't read the menu or something of that nature, lol.

Anyhow,

Please stay put, El Toreo!

& to the entire staff at El Toreo..

Keep up the great...

If I could give a zero I would!!! Never in my life have I ever not left a tip! NEVER! This was my first and it was absolutely necessary. Let me start from the entrance. My 17 yr old daughter went in to get a table for 7 of us while we parked. As we walked in to sit with her (as she texted us we were being seated right away) she was walking back up to the front and said they decided to give the table to someone else. (Who turned out to be someone's baby mama that works there) Rude and weird but ok, so after finally being seated with 5 place settings even though we said 7, we waited for about 7 minutes before anyone greeted us. So she comes to get our drink order, which had to be repeated multiple times because she barely paid attention and couldn't hear. We ordered sangria and margaritas. The margaritas took 20 minutes to recieve and she had to be reminded. When we ordered our food, she was rude and had an attitude towards all of us. We ordered 2 queso and got them with no chips. 15 minutes later after asking TWICE, we finally got chips. So I asked her if we could get new queso since it had now solidified. She said she would microwave them for us. To which I responded, no, I would like fresh ones like I ordered. She said she would ask a manager if she could. WHAT?! Anyway, our food finally comes out and our son who asked for beans and cheese only with NOTHInG else came out with red sauce all over it. When we said to her we asked for it with nothing else, she actually sat and argued with me about how that's only on the inside and they always make it that way! So after arguing with this woman for 2 minutes about it, my husband says, just please get us another one made the way we asked. She brought it out once we were all completely done eating except our son, and charged us for it!! I will NEVER be back and I will tell everyone I know to never eat...

Just had our 3rd and Last Bad Experience Here! Things have progressively gone down hill. from good to BAD here. We have a list of 6 other Mexican Restaurants that have been referred to us so we will go elsewhere. First of all...We KNOW WHAT CHILI RELENOS LOOKS LIKE. IT is a BIG PEPPER WITH A STEM with batter around it filled with ground beef or cheese. What you brought us was NOT any Meat and No Ground Beef and No Large Pepper in sight. That gruel looked like Brown Beef Baby food melted with some cheese! Discusting! There was NO Sizeable Green Or Poblano PEPPER On The Plate To be FOUND!! One tiny sliver of some kind of pepper laying inside hidden in a horrible dough ball! If you were OUT..JUST SAY SO! This looked like something the dog would eat or a child just getting his teeth in and it was SLOP to the tune of $11.99!! How do you bring this kind of WRONG DISH to a Customer? But you did and you came to the table and said that the slop that looked like beans or baby food was ground beef??...WHO WERE YOU FOOLING? But yourself. Terrible Customer Service here once again. That plate should have been removed and the amount taken OFF OUR BILL AND YOU KNOW IT! My Chicken Burrito meat was SO TOUGH I could not chew it and I had to SPIT IT OUT! The Worst over done chicken meat ever! Had to send it back for a replacement of a pulled beef burrito...which appeared fresh. The chips here are so horrible and tasteless. Buying their chips from some cheap factory. We will be looking for those who make their own...fresh in their restaurant. We have seen other restaurants who DO...Make Their Own Chips and are delicious according to Reviews. What Customer has THIS MUCH TIME TO BE TREATED POORLY ON 3 OCASSIONS AND OVER CHARGED?? We...