El Torito — Restaurant in Redondo Beach

A terrible experience!! Unbelievably bad service!! Bad drinks and poorly prepared food!!

WE WILL NEVER RETURN TO THIS POORLY RUN RESTAURANT!!

We were a party of 4 to have dinner, we put our name on the list for a table and went to the bar for drinks and an appetizer. After a good 5 minutes the waitress finally came by to take our order. We ordered 2 skinny margaritas, a Cadillac Margarita, a soft drink and water for the table.

After what seemed like an eternity, the waitress eventually returned with the skinny margaritas - one at a time and then disappeared. The skinny margaritas were terrible - super sweet - the exact opposite of what they should have been. At $14/ea they were unacceptable. The waitress was nowhere to be found and never returned with the other drinks. I had to bring the drinks to the bar to reject them. The bartender blamed the problem on someone else who made them. I asked to have them re-made properly - without the copious amount of agave syrup.

10 minutes go by before the waitress returned with 2 more - each only half a martini glass - for $14/ea!! How absurd and they also tasted bad - not sweet this time just bad - as if the lime juice they used was old. I asked how they were made and she responded - tequila and lime juice. Hold on!!! A margarita is supposed to have some triple sec in it. She said that would be extra!!

We ordered table side guacamole and bacon wrapped shrimp appetizers and asked for the other drinks and water. She then disappeared again. Another 10+ minutes go by and she returns with the other drinks and proceeds to make the table side guacamole. Still no water. Just as she finished making the guacamole our table was ready.

When we tasted the guacamole it was AWFUL!! It was if an entire salt shaker of salt had been mixed in!! Never have we had such absurdly salty guacamole!! We reported this to the waiter at our table and he dismissed it saying he didn't think there was any salt added to the guacamole! No offer to replace. The waiter delivered the bacon wrapped shrimp and vanished! No cutlery or napkins on the table and nobody to ask.

Eventually the waiter returned to take our dinner order. Still no cutlery or napkins. We ordered our dinner. I ordered the carnitas and shrimp. He asked how I wanted it cooked - "medium rare" I responded. We had to ask him for cutlery and napkins.

After about 20 minutes our food arrived and was served by a runner. I quickly discovered that my carnitas were well done shoe leather. Waiter didn't stop by for another 5 minutes so I just toughed it out and ate what was on my plate. When he did show up everyone was already well into their meal. I informed the waiter and he saw thet the meat was way overcooked and offered to replace my meal but I knew that by the time I got a replacement everyone else would have finished their dinner so I passed on the offer to replace my meal.

The waiter disappeared and even after we all finished our meal - he never returned. No opportunity to order desert or coffee.

He finally showed up and offered the check which did not have any reduction for my bad meal. We just paid and left.

We paid over $200 for a bad meal and terrible experience!!

WE WILL...

I have make a reservation with OpenTable same thing happened no reservation well I have explained to the person what happened and they were so nice they found me a ttablethis is my husband birthday I have been goin to this particular loca every time we have anything important to celebrate always no problem yesterday was Sunday the 25 of September at 5 pm was the horrible experience they founds a table we are sitting waiting and waiting nothing they ignored us we can’t understand we try to get attention nothing finally this girl came her name was Dawn she’s so nice tell me that the person was at lunch she don’t have any idea we were there she apologize she took my order and left they brought the order no silverware no napkins no tortillas my husband is trying to get attention again for his tortilla nothing finally was a manager I get her attention and brought the tortillas she didn’t care what is happening nothing I’m discussed with this situation I have call Dawn finally told her I need to speak to the get supervisor the general in one minute Juana is the general manager for that restaurant she has heard me out all what happened to us she’s very professional and understand what’s going on there she apologized for everything after all are conversations she tells me don’t worry about it everything is taking care I said no I really wants to paid she’s insisted no no no this is on us but the thing I really whant to said Juana was the only person who can see what’s happening my husband was embarrassed about it but finally Dawn make his day we are singing happy birthday in private very nice after all thanks 🙏 Juana general manager and Dawn god...

In order to leave a review I had to rate a minimum of one star, which is quite generous. Went out yesterday afternoon to celebrate 3.14 Pi Day. The Redondo Beach El Torito was one of the locations participating in Pi Day with $3.14 margaritas. Walked into the bar area, no seats at the bar so we sat in a booth within the bar area for over 20 mins, without any waiter bringing waters, chips and/or taking our order (several waiters walked in the bar area). I get up from the booth to make eye contact with the bartender, who gives me a thumbs up. As in to say everything’s okay. No everything’s not okay. I asked, “Can we order?” The bartender says, “I’m not serving tables it just me here.” Mind you there were no available seats at the bar when we came in. I said, “The hostess nor anyone else mentioned that to us and we wanted happy hour. “ He said, “Well you could sit in the restaurant to get happy hour or speak to someone but I’m only serving people at the bar.” He proceeds to pick up several plates. Never apologizes and just walks away. An apology goes a long way, everyone can agree to that. Now if the plan for that day was to only serve people who sit at the bar and not in the bar make sure the hostess and other staff members know, to vocalized that to the customers. Put a sign up. The bartender also can greet those customers and say, “it’s just me tonight, please come up to the bar to place your order.” So many ways this could have been handled. Needless to say we left the establishment and celebrated Pi Day at another El Torito. I hope other customers had a better experience during Happy Hour in the Bar itself and not...