Toro Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in San Antonio

This isn’t going to be a pleasant review, so you might want to move along and read a positive review about this place. I was here for a Friday happy hour recently, and although the food was good, the service flatout sucked - and I don’t use that word in many reviews, trust me on that.

There were probably a dozen of us there around 5:30pm and the waitress made her way around half of the table for drink and food orders and then stopped and disappeared. I waited for 5 minutes and finally decided to walk up to the bar and order my Estrella - I got it quick and came right back to the table. The server finally asked for my order about 10 minutes later. Our food orders came out pretty quick and the food was good, but flagging our server down for refills or for additional food was tough.

I ordered something simple - the Papas Bravas. It was very good and very spicy - but I like spicy. It also came with a side of some sort of garlic/mayo sauce that was good. I also sampled someone else’s Huevos Rotos - fried potatoes with a fried egg on top. It was good, but make sure you tell them how you want the egg cooked, because they don’t ask.

Someone else had the octopus and I warned them it might be gritty based on a prior review, but they said it was really good.

The place is not very large, it’s LOUD, and very cramped. It’s hard for the servers and the customers to get in and out of the table areas.

Happy Hour is ok. They have $6 “select tapas” but you have no idea which ones since it’s not listed on the menu, and good luck asking the server, because you can’t hear anything in here. They seem very short staffed, so the servers don’t have much time to answer questions.

They have three draft beers for $4 for happy hour. One is a Spanish beer - Estrella – the other two were Stella Artois and I THINK a Mexican beer, but I can’t swear to that – it might have been Michelob Ultra for all I know.

Final note: the Tacos de Cochinita Pibil (marinated pork) peaked the interest of someone in our group but it was going to take 1.5 hours before it was ready – I understand this takes a long time to cook, but it was 6pm – shouldn’t they have it ready to go?

In summary, good food, poor service, very loud, and cramped seating arrangements. Even for...

Happy Hour Bait and Switch

I have eaten in many Spanish restaurants in Spain and here in the US and I know that they aren't cheap.  When I go to a Spanish restaurant I am not expecting it to be a particularly good value, but I am also not expecting to be totally ripped off.

Toro has a list of $6 happy hour tapas, but when we requested a couple of those we were told they were out of potatoes and that the Bacon-Wrapped Dates are their most popular tapas item.  So we said okay and ordered it.  I knew that it was $11, but expected something more than 3 tiny bacon-wrapped dates for $11.

The small Toro Paella (for 1-2 people) was good and authentic and a somewhat more reasonable value for $24 (by the standards of prices of Spanish restaurants in the US and compared to the absolutely ludicrous price of the Bacon Wrapped Dates). The fried Calamari from the happy hour menu were very good.  They were cooked just right and the portion was reasonable.

They were also surprisingly stingy with the bread compared to most Spanish restaurants. This place gave us 4 tiny slivers of bread (approx 1"x2"x1/4”) with the $24 paella. It was the least bread we have ever had included with our order in any Spanish restaurant anywhere.  Also, the paellera that they used was a very cheap aluminum one that leached a weird flavor into the crispy bottom part of the Paella that they promote as being special (which it is when it isn't tainted by a nasty metallic flavor from a cheap, uncured paellera).

The main thing that stuck with us though was the feeling of being massively ripped off by the order of 3 tiny bacon-wrapped dates for $11.  This was one of the biggest rip offs I've ever experienced in any restaurant, anywhere. What a...

Needs improvement in the front of the house and back of the house. They gave us a small table for 4 couples, had to ask for an extra table. The tapas were great but the paella not too good. My rabbit was incredibly rubbery, couldn't even cut it. I haven't tasted the rubber from a tire but, that can be my comparison. We asked for ice to three different servers after the bill was paid. Our server disappeared and we started talking and we were going to order more wine because we were enjoying the conversation but again no server so we decided to leave. We liked the atmosphere but needs a lot of management work from the whole house. Chef Jose Luis Hernandez

Good day,

This is a response to the reply from my previous review. Thank you for your response and apology. In your reply you mention that you recommend that we make a reservation prior and we did. We made it 48 hours in advance. We were not a walkin and we were still seated in two patio tables to accomadate 8 people and without mentioning we were given two smaller uncomfortable chairs to try to fit us that we have to ask to be changed. In regards to the rabbit, I know it is a very difficult meat to cook if you don't have the experience because of how lean it is. I know it is difficult to get it to a tender texture but I am not exagerating when I tell you that it was chewy and even difficult to cut with a knife. Plus our whole party attempted to try a piece and they all agreed. I will accept your invite because we did enjoy the atmosphere and the tapas but I still think there needs to be an improvement in guest relationship. The little details are the ones that make an experience to remember.

Chef Jose...