El Toro Restaurant — Restaurant in Springfield

I regret coming here. The short version: mediocre food, so-so service, and unresponsive management.

The salsa was basically a tomato puree with scant flecks of cilantro. The pollo loco - one of my favorite dishes at Mexican restaurants - looked unappetizing and had a taste to match. Bland chicken, yet a little greasy, with bland beans and chorizo on top. I have never tasted bland chorizo, but now I can't say that.

The rice wasn't bad - the flavor was ok, but it was dry like it had been sitting around a while. There were no peppers or veggies in it - just rice - which is ok.

All of that might not have prompted me to take the time to write a review. I almost always only post good reviews. I checked their website before I went and saw that the Sunday specials included the dish that I ordered. The restaurant didn't have it as a special and I was told that "they don't update the website.". I was already set on having that meal, so I said I would order it anyway, but asked to talk with the manager He didn't come see me. Instead, he just had the server come back and repeat what she had told me already. I asked to see him again. He did come, but said there was nothing he could do. He said that the special was good at all other locations except two. I said that I was disappointed that they weren't honoring an advertised price, bit moreso that he didn't come talk to me himself in the first place. I asked if there was someone to contact to provide feedback, but he said there wasn't.

He ended up saying he would honor the price. He rang me up personally, and guess what:. he charged full price. I just paid it.

The issue wasn't the $3.00 that I could have saved - it was the poor customer service. It made the food less enjoyable than it...

I'm disappointed to post this review. However, after three poor experiences in a row I am obligated.

This afternoon I picked up two tacos and chips and salsa for my son. The chips were alternately soggy and stale, but worse the tacos did not hold together long enough for a single bite. Because there had been two prior poor experiences, I drove back to the location with the food. I was not mad whatsoever, and frankly I'm happy to have spoken calmly and matter of fact sans any hyperbol or exaggeration.

I chuckle to myself just now, because they did not care about the poor experience; did not do much as offer me replacement chips. The latter says it all and I recommend folks try an alternate.

I mentioned two prior poor experiences. Unfortunately, the second was with my same son who used to love going to El Toro in Springfield. Our server was terrible: rude, dismissive, and way too fast before disappearing for the rest of our meal; the tacos were cold -- reminded me of eating leftover, refrigerated tacos in college - ha. And he never asked how the food we had ordered was.

Again, the fact that they did not care, in either instances, about the food quality or service, and in this latter case did not even offer complimentary chips or ask a single follow up question tells me that this location of El Toro is no longer the good quality it used to be.

Updated:

This review is for the El Toro on 72 in Springfield near I-70 (There is another on Bechtle that might be good). I recommend instead the Mexican restaurant on Fountain, downtown about a mile and a half further north of...

Customer service is a joke. We had been going here once a week (Bechtle location), we have enjoyed the food and had never had any issues before. We came in, the host seated us (outside since it was so nice out), we waited and waited for someone just to take our drink order. Servers passing us left and right. We stopped one of the servers to ask if someone could take our order and all we were told that.. "it's not my table, not my problem". Finally after about 20 mins, someone finally took our drink order. BUT we were told by a manager he didnt know who was covering our table. THEN we kept getting passed over for our food order. When I asked the server at the table next to ours, he was VERY rude and ignored me. I went to ask for a manager, and the guy who took our drink order came out.. I asked for a manager and he said that was him. We explained to him we were upset and bothered that anyone would be treated so poorly and he didn't seem to care. So we asked for our bill and surprisingly he said not to worry about it. Oh and not to mention, other customers sitting out on the patio were smoking. I asked the gentleman nicely is he could not smoke and he ignored me and continued smoking.. we also brought this to the managers attention and nothing was said to the smoking customer. We were only told that no one should be smoking. Needless to say, we went to another Mexican restaurant and were completely happy with the service!! So not going...