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Torito
Categories: Restaurants Tapas Bars Restaurants Spanish Tapas Bars, Spanish [Edit]
276 Augusta AveToronto, ON M5T 2L9
Neighbourhood: Kensington Market
(416) 961-7373
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 5 pm - 11 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
25 reviews for Torito
Review Highlights
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"Piquillo peppers stuffed w/ salted cod & tapanade sauce." In 3 reviews -
"The shrimps al ajillo are plump and juicy served in a..." In 3 reviews -
"Patatas bravas and chorizo (10." In 3 reviews
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25 reviews in English
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Review from Jarita L.
Markham, ON
3/30/2012
my favourite restaurant in Toronto. Pretty much have had every dish here. It's a shame they got rid of the tripe though.
The churros are unbelievable, and the ceviche is my staple. I have never ordered a bad dish here. Very consistent and great atmosphere. -
Review from J N.
North York, ON
4/23/2012
Disclaimer: This was my first experience with tapas, so I wouldn't know what a proper ceviche would taste like anyway.
The menu is split into 3 sections: cold dishes, hot dishes and dessert. I had a few dishes from each section. My favorite was the 'bacon wrapped dates", phenomenal. Everything else was good.
Service was good, I didn't experience the exceptionally slow service as some of the previous reviewers.
In terms of beer selection, they have nothing on tap and about 6-7 types in bottles/cans.
The wine selection, on the other hand, is pretty big.
The two stars come from the exceptionally poor value. Dishes range from $8-16 each. If you're coming here for dinner, you would need to order at least 3 dishes per person. So a group of 4 would have to order at least 12 dishes. This would be the equivalent of a really small dinner entree. So its about $40-$50 minimum per person. Factor in drinks and you're looking at pricey night out.
For a $50 entree, there are so many better options.
Note: They add an 18% gratuity on parties of 6 or more. Annoying. -
Review from Nadia N.
Toronto, ON
4/7/2012
Sorry Torito - you missed the mark.
Looked forward to visiting Torito based on Yelp reviews. As others have stated the ambiance is very nice well decorated, with a laid back kind of feel, which is its only saving grace.
The food - we ordered the specials of the day, cheek and tongue tacos ($16) and the chicken sliders ($12).
So lets start with the tacos, I would consider myself an "adventurous eater" as I would not generally shy away from eating tongue BUT and its a big BUT, it needs to be 1. cooked well and 2. have some good ol' flavour going on. Fortunately the meat was pretty melt in your mouth, however tasted like... wait for it.... nothing, A BIG OLD NOTHING!! The corn tortillas had more flavour!
Next chicken sliders!! small bite sized deliciousness in a fresh brioche bun, aioili, haloumi cheese how can you go wrong?? I was imagining 3 beautiful little brioche buns with an glistening egg wash with a wonderfully seasoned chicken patty a piece of grilled haloumi, a wonderful aioili and something for freshness... sorry its nothing like we described, the bread was dark and dry... very dry... the chicken was over cooked, not sure where the haloumi was, maybe ground into the chicken? a wee bit of butter lettuce which didn't add any freshness as the slider was drenched in aioili.... unfortunate... could have been a great slider.
Would never go back based on quality not being able to match up to the price, would much rather hit up the El Trompo down the street for much less. -
Review from Anabel L.
Toronto, ON
8/31/2011
People love Cava. I love Torito. It's a little cheaper and much more hospitable. I marked my first visit of the summer with a pitcher of white sangria. It was the perfect thing to banish the humidity - refreshingly fruity, sweet and tangy. Red or white it's so good you may find yourself on a third or fourth pitcher (shared amongst friends of course).
My buddy, Saltine, accompanied me and we were so excited we ordered a little too much. I would recommend four to five dishes for two people. We had six.
After a couple glasses of sangria I got a little camera happy. Let me walk you through our meal.
I always like to start with something fresh to wake up my taste buds. Ceviche is one of my favourite dishes and Torito makes a classic white bass ceviche - a mishmash of sour, salty, meaty and tart. We covered our vegetable intake by adding a beet and lentil salad. There was a little too much goat cheese for me, but it a great pairing nonetheless.
One of the shining stars of the night was the piquillo peppers stuffed with salted cod and served with an olive tapenade. It was so good I almost ate my friend's share...but then the sausages came...
I'm a huge chorizo fan so I had to order the patatas brava (fingerling potatoes) with chorizo. Good chorizo is like fireworks - an explosion of flavour followed by a slow simmering heat.
We tried the daily special of pork sausage with flat bread. It was a softer and milder meat, which was a good thing because I needed to undo my belt at this point.
Our last dish was the pescado in a basquaise sauce. You can never go wrong with prefectly cooked and well seasoned fish. Theirs is light, flaky, and flavourful.
Finish with some more sangria and cheers to the official start of summer. Tapas on, tapas on. -
Review from Jennifer M.
Toronto, ON
I am going to start this review with the positives. Nice scenery, awesome sangria, friendly waitstaff.
However, over an hour before the bread and olives ($5 and 4 slices of baguette and an ounce of olives) arrives. Longer to order a glass of wine. Having travelled through Spain I understand the slowness, the ease, but this is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
1.5 hours I am starving absolutely famished and discussing going to Burger Bar across the street for eats.
The food arrives, they have been backed up, all is forgiven as me, and my 5 DCs dive in, frantically dividing every bit into sharable portions. Famished. its 10pm. Dinner, in Barcelona dinner IS at 10pm. so, I suppose they get points for authenticity.
The food, itself is good. Tasty. Tapas, yes, but unforgivably tiny portions. $14 for a couple of bits of fish and two ounces of frites. Very tasty, but horrifyingly too expensive and not enough portion wise. Not for the price.
18% autograt on our tasty meal left 5 of the 6 of us hungry and cost us $90 a couple. Can you IMAGINE the meal we could have had anywhere else for this price.
The ceviche was great ok, but with 2 ounces of fish in it and the 75 min wait for $14 SO not worth it.
Do they want to do better? Hire more waitstaff. When you have a full DR via reservations, make sure you have enough staff to cover. And knock the prices down a bit, seriously.
Luckily, I was with my best friends, and the company made the whole night. I had a great, but hungry, time. Possibly would have been a different experience if we came FULL and wanted to have ONE shared plate while drinking. Even then, a mediocre Tempranillo runs $10 a glass. Will not, ever, ever, return. -
Review from M d.
Etobicoke, ON
2/19/2012
Went with my boyfriend a couple of weekends ago and it did not disappoint. The staff was great accomodating us seeing as we walked in with no reservations. Place was full and took on a bit of a Guu style atmosphere.
The menu has changed a bit from that last time I was there but it was still delicious. We had:
- charcutterie plate;
- a salad of beef heart with arugula which was cook perferctly. Not overdone or chewy;
- stuffed peppers (wish it automatically came with bread so soak up the delish sauce);
- paella;
- fried churrros to top it all off.
It's still a great intimate atmosphere that serves us yummy dishes which we thought was perfect as a date place. Depending on who you're sitting beside though - it may be tough to have a conversation but lots of fun regardless.
Definitely planning on going back again. -
Review from Pumpkin E.
Ottawa, ON
6/29/2011
Went with a group of six on a Monday night around 8 p.m. Ended up with a group of five by 9:30, because our first plate (charcuterie board) took nearly an hour to reach our table. We should have left with him, as the entire meal took about three hours. I love a three-hour meal, but only when the dining experience and company are equally fantastic. We only had half of this equation. The service was painfully slow and unapologetic. The food was for the most good, but not remarkable. And the portion sizes were way too small, considering what an $18 tapas plate can get you at other restaurants in the city.
Torito was one of the most disappointing dining experiences I've had in Toronto. -
Review from edwin h.
1/23/2011 1 Check-in Here
On the coldest evening of the year, I dropped in at Toritos for some tapas with some old colleagues. This is a warm and casual kind of place where you definitely need the benefit of a few friends company to share different things. Like a Spanish dimsum, we ordered a good selection of yummy plates to go with a few pitchers of sangria and shots of Petron.
Having been warned off ordering the beef tongue, we had a good selection of befire us. Each dish was very tasty. I'd give Toritos a slightly higher rating based on the food, the service and the cozy and jovial environs were it not for the high prices $10 - $12 for a small plate of admittedly well prepared food is a bit much. What Toritos lacks in creativity, it does not falter in it's quality. -
Review from Joshua H.
Toronto, ON
6/29/2011
A group of six of us went last night and sat on the patio. Our server broheim was inside most of the time and took quite some time getting our glasses filled, our order taken etc. One friend had to leave because he had a concert an hour after we sat down, when we still hadn't gotten food. We had gotten a pitcher of sangria ($36), which was totally unremarkable. This is a compliment for a bottle of $36 wine but not for $36 sangria.
Our server seemed somewhat surprised that we had not gotten any food yet after an hour. He blamed it on a big group and offered to move us inside. Perhaps he could have spent that time talking to the kitchen and actually getting us some food.
We moved inside, turned down another pitcher of sangria and slowly started to get some food. First came the charcuterie plate, which consisted of 4 melba toasts, a few wedges of cheese, slices of some meat of the day and some sort of "rabbit rillette" that tasted like tuna. Ten minutes later, we got another dish - fries. The wait was to become the norm throughout the course of the night - one small dish every ten minutes. To be fair, the food was reasonably tasty. The chorizo/patatas bravas were great, the quail reasonably juicy, the arugula salad fresh and topped with delicious cheese. The shrimp were notably skippable.
Overall, the slow speed of food delivery/service, our out-to-lunch, or "authentic style service" server and the very small portions really killed it for us. We were getting so hungry (and as a result, cranky at portion sizes) that we had to auction off 1 small nibbet of food/person ie 1 piece of bread, 1 nut, 1 arugula leaf. Entertaining, but not filling. We all left two and a half hours after sitting down, with our pockets $35 lighter (thank god our friend had to leave and we avoided the 18% autograt on parties of 6 or more), and still very, very, very hungry. -
Review from Alicia T.
Toronto, ON
5/29/2011 1 Check-in Here
Restaurant was very loud; we found ourselves yelling at each other. Food was good but did not have the "wow" factor that's required to charge the prices they charge. Staff was nice. Overall, restaurant could be rated as: ok. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
...and it does take reservations. -
Review from Kim L.
Toronto, ON
9/18/2010
Great taps bar in Kensington.
Stand-out dishes:
White bass ceviche with corn & yam
(tender chunks of white bass in insanely good cilantro-citrusy juices...the love only grows stronger)
Shrimps al ajillo
(succulent & saucy... yep, my greatest description yet)
Honourabe mentions:
churros w. dulce de leche
("like beaver tail, but 100 times better!" "wait, like those cinnamon sticks from taco bell but 1,000 better!" - ok, NOT our greatest descriptions)
Piquillo peppers stuffed w/ salted cod & tapanade sauce
(would not have ordered...but ohh, the power of reviews. now, you go & try!)
Grilled flatiron steak, gallega chips & fried egg
(medium rare)
Roasted quail, pomegranate glaze & sweet squash
(too salty for my taste, but mixed w/ glaze & squash and it redeems)
It pains, but easily forgettable:
Crab croquettes w/ parsley aioli
Braised beef tongue & cheek
(tongue & cheek. cute eh? not so much on the tongue action. PASS.
won't even attempt to describe texture. never again.)Listed in: Best ceviche in the city
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Review from susan c.
9/11/2009
I had a dilemma. My foodie friend from NYC was in town and we were meeting up for dinner. I wanted to take him somewhere fun and hip, but not so hip it hurt. I didn't want food that was too precious or fancy; no foams, sous vide, or stuff suspended in gelatin, just honest grub a cut above burgers and fries. And since he was coming from the Big Apple, pizza, Japanese, smoked meat and several other categories of food were out of the running. Ahhhh!
After much research and hair-pulling, I decided on Torito. I remember liking the vibe there during a stop on the Yelp Sangria Crawl, and I'd heard good things about their tapas. It's also in a cool neighborhood. (And on a selfish note, I'd much rather sample a bunch of small plates than stick to the conventional 1 app + 1 entree formula.) So the S.O., foodie friend and I went, and got a table on the backyard patio--bonus!
The food was quite good, much better than you'd expect from such a casual restaurant. Did it knock my socks off? No.* But the service was unobtrusive and we had an awesome time noshing and drinking from their excellent wine list.
FAVES
Pintxos of olives and boquerones (white anchovies)** (10)
Smoked trout, potato salad w/ chive mayonnaise (9)
Flying fish filets with orange aioli** (12)
Patatas bravas and chorizo (10)
Merguez, crispy polenta and tomatoes (12)
GOOD (BUT DISAPPOINTING CONSIDERING ALL THE RAVES***)
Piquillo peppers stuffed w/ salted cod and tapenade (10)
Roasted quail, pomegranate glaze, squash (13)
Braised beef tongue and cheek (12)
_________________________________
* I wasn't wearing socks.
** These were specials that night and not on the regular menu.
*** As seen on that OTHER site (that rhymes with powpound)Listed in: Less Hippie, More Zippy, Good for Groups
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Review from Nikhil S.
Toronto, ON
9/27/2010
Great date location. Tucked away in Kensington, this restaurant offers a great offering of Spanish tapas. Sat in the back patio on a beautiful summer day. The date unfortunately didn't eat red meat, so our choices were kind of limited.
Beverage:
Coke & Red Wine: A spanish favourite, tried it for the first time and found it to be not as weird as expected. Don't know if it was the alcohol but the 2nd glass tasted a lot better!
Thumbs up:
Roasted quail , pomegranate glaze and sweet squash
Beets,black lentils,goat cheese and frisse salad w/ red wine vinaigrette
Shrimps al ajillo
Thumbs down:
Crab croquettes w/parsley aioli (crab did not taste fresh)
Andalusian spinach and chickpeas stew (Did not excite the tastebuds)
This place is a little overpriced and there are definitely better tapas restaurants in the city (I'm looking at you Mezzeta). But it was an enjoyable experience, great service and the food was pretty good. So I will definitely give it another shot avec meat eater. -
Review from Angela L.
10/4/2009
Spanish tapas can be a tricky one for us pescetarians. I used to adore Torito for all of it's heavily meaty offerings, but figured that there was no longer anything there for me now. How could I have forgotten that Spanish cooking does seafood oh so right?
Flavourful dishes such as iced melon ball soup with fragrant spicy oil, plump and juicy on the inside crab cakes, garlic oil shrimp with charred garlicky bread, ceviche with fried corn kernals and yam, and warm churros served with dulce de leche did just the job to remind me that I'm still very welcome at Torito.
During warmer weather, the more intimate white canopied back patio with lime green walls provides a fresher dimension to the warm boite and small sidewalk patio seating options. -
Review from Samantha F.
York, ON
4/3/2009
My foodie friend took me here for my birthday recently, and it was a great introduction to Tapas for me. Sure, I'm slightly behind the times. I hope you'll forgive me.
We were lucky and got there before most people, around 7 pm on a Thursday. (Still lots of tables at this time, but it packed up completely at 8). Making conversation with the chef / owner, we decided to have him present us with his best choices for dinner. He took great care at asking my dislikes / allergies so that he could bring out food that we would enjoy.
Started with the beet salad (yum), bread & cheese (always yum), fish ceviche (my first time eating uncooked, cooked fish - surprisingly amazing, despite the coriander), and a duck pate with apple compote. The waitress was a sweetheart, and brought us some YUMMY sangria (and I'm a bit of a sangria nazi, having mastered about 5 variations myself). After the first round, they brought out some chorizo and potatoes (slurp!), and I think we ended with the chickpeas .... mmm. There may or may not have been something else, don't recall.
Once it filled up, it got pretty loud, making it a bit tough to hear each other (or was that the sangria talking?), but the atmosphere, people, staff and of course food made it a-ok.
Going back for sure! -
Review from TOFoodReviews n.
Toronto, ON
12/4/2010
I am not one who is opposed to going out and dining alone, but this is one place where you definitely want to bring a friend along. Offering a tapas-style menu full of Spanish dishes, with a hint of Latin American flare, Torito (Spanish for "little bull") gives you the opportunity to sample a variety of dishes and flavours, and provides a great atmosphere for sharing with friends.
Torito's dining room is quite small, but has a great look and feel. Spanish pop culture images tastefully adorn the back wall and it has an intimate atmosphere and décor modeled after a traditional Barcelona Tapas bar - having never been, I will have to take their word on that.
At first glance, two things stood out about the menu; they had so many options for beverages that the wine and drinks section made up for half of their selection (no complaints here), and I did not know what most of the items were - Patatas Whatas?. Thankfully, the knowledgeable staff were more than happy to explain the menu to me.
Always an advocate for ordering the specials, I began with the Picos and Jamon, thin prosciutto-like ham wrapped around crispy breadsticks, and the Huevos Escoceses, boiled quail eggs battered and fried - quite good! Following that were the Crab Croquettes and, with the server's recommendation, the Patatas Bravas and Chorizo, or potatoes and spicy sausage. The Crab Croquettes were perhaps a bit soft for my liking as I do enjoy a bit of crunch, but they were seasoned and plated nicely. The Patatas Bravas were my kind of "meat n' potatoes" - simply delicious!
The food is flavourful, fresh and clean, and is not hidden behind a barrage of spices and sauces. Most importantly, it is served in a timely manner. Torito offers hot and cold tapas, and instead of everything coming out at once to litter the table, it is brought out in a staggered sequence; the cold remain cold, and hot remain hot.
On my next visit--and I will make my way back--I am definitely ordering the Ceviche. When it arrived to my neighbouring table, it looked fantastic! If I can recommend something I did not actually taste, it would be that. If you have tried it, please comment and let me know the verdict!
A few cautionary items to draw your attention to: the restaurant is open only from 5:00p.m. - 11:00p.m., so it is not a late-night-bite place; there is an 18% gratuity (before tax) applied to parties of six or more (not unusual, but watch out for it); and Torito's spread is not for bargain eaters. For my party of two, with only one single-serving alcoholic drink each, and a dinner of 4 appetizer-sized plates, it was just over $65 before tip. That said, there is a difference between dining and eating; and Torito is a dining experience that I am happy I had.
Torito is a "little bull" of a restaurant that packs a punch! -
Review from Jill M.
Toronto, ON
3/27/2011
Went to Torito lately with a group of 10 of us for a birthday party. Definitely not somewhere to go on a budget but I really enjoyed everything I tried, and we tried A LOT!!
A few great things about the restaurant and management: First, we had ordered a bottle of sparkling wine only to discover it tasted like ice wine as it was so sweet. They took it back, free of charge which I thought was pretty nice of them. Second, the manager came around with a tray of shots for our party, also on the house.
I honestly cannot say enough about the food, I loved everything. I gave 4 stars only because of the price.
Best things on the menu for me:
Ceviche - amazing!!! I've tried a lot of ceviche, this is the best so far!
Smoked trout - not a huge fan of smoked fish but I loved this
Any of the sausage dishes
Crab cakes
Steak with egg
Next best things...
Tongue and cheek - really tasty, I just couldn't get past the appearance of tongue
Rabbit - also super tasty, more of a mindset thing I think
All in all, a great night! -
Review from Miriam C.
Toronto, ON
8/24/2011
I came here recently for dinner with two of my book club friends. We had a reservation and got a nice table out on the very cute back patio - much nicer than the small patio on the street. The patio was packed with people, but we never had a hard time getting the servers attention.
We were there for about 3 hours in total, during which we received our various plates at well-staggered times throughout the evening. The food was really delicious, and i was really impressed with the frites. I know, just french fries, but there were thin, shoestring-esque frites with some sort of smoky powder on them, and they were just divine! One of us is vegetarian, and she had several dishes to choose from, as opposed to just a salad.
We wanted to order a dish with chorizo, but were told that the chorizo delivery never arrived that day.
Between the three of us, we ordered 6 plates and a pitcher of sangria, and it came to $55 each with tax and tip, so not outrageously pricey. I will definitely be back. -
Review from Deanna W.
9/20/2009
Dear lord, I think I've found yet another place in the T-dot worthy of repeat visits. As if there weren't enough places in Toronto to catch my tummy's fancy-another one has now been added to the list. Torito the tapas bar in Kensington market has become a triple threat in my books: food, service and drink it hits the mark in all three areas.
Let's start with the food because they do it very well here and so effortlessly too. Now, hailing from a small hick town in B.C. most ethnic cuisines escaped my senses till I left home including Spanish tapas. And so it is that with the 'enabling' of a friend, we set out to Torito one evening to open a new chapter in my gourmet journey. The restaurant consists of a small narrow room with a tiny bar and marble and picnic style tables along the perimeter for couples and groups. It's dimly lit inside with spanish film posters on the walls for decoration and the bouncy music adds to the charged, easy going atmosphere already present. We take seats at the bar and start off with their fantastic sangria, light and refreshing and white too! One of the handsome fellas working the kitchen gives us a wink and a nod as a greeting. Caliente!! Borrowing from Susan C's thoughtful recommendations we order the smoked trout potato salad, the patatas bravas and chorizo, a spinach chickpea stew and the shrimps al Ajillo. A small taste of everything as we were not raving hungry. The smoked trout salad is delicious and light, the trout is moist and tender and smoked lightly. Our patatas bravas dish and the shrimps al Ajillo are the standouts of the night. The patatas bravas consists of chunks of a wonderful chorizo sided with fingerling potatoes and a rich, concentrated tomato sauce. It's brillant-sweet, smokey and spicy accents all in one dish. The shrimps al ajillo are plump and juicy served in a delicious hearty sauce I could have again and again. We really ordered the chickpea stew as an attempt to 'healthify' our dinner but that was tasty too-cooked chickpeas and spinach in a simple cream sauce. To finish we enjoy or rather quickly pick apart some churros served with jam and dulce de leche.
The drinks list features a number of latin inspired drinks and wines, we enjoy some of their refreshing white sangria and a couple glasses of malbec each. Although the place was packed and noisy, our server was friendly and charming and after noticing that we had been waiting a little while for our food, she graced us with a plate of bread, cheese and olives-normally $4 on the menu. How thoughtful! Our water glasses were always refilled and almost every server checked in on us once to see how we were doing.
So bring a lover, friend or your own personal entourage-you're bound to have a lovely time in this boisterous bar. Haute cuisine it ain't but if you're in search of a fun time and a variety of tastes this is the place. I'll be back hopefully soon, this place looks perfect for a FARC outing! After all there's a pomegranate and lychee cava on the drink list that has my foodie in arms Christine's name all over it!! -
Review from Michael O.
Toronto, ON
11/7/2010
Decent food but at crazy prices: sadly, this place fits the "small plates = large cheque and empty stomach" tapas stereotype.
My girlfriend and I spent just over a hundred dollars for a several (three or four?) plates, two deserts, and four (total) glasses of wine--for that price, I expect a meal, not a snack...particularly in Kensington Market.
The food was reasonably tasty, but nothing aside from the churros and chorizo was particularly spectacular. Yes, the restaurant is cute and the service was decent enough (though the sole waitress seemed a bit overwhelmed), but the portions were insultingly small. For example, we ordered homemade breadsticks wrapped with jamon serano and manchego. The jamon serano was maybe a quarter of a usual slice, and it took me a few seconds to recognize the tiny, paper-thin slices of manchego as cheese.
Save your money and go somewhere else, though for Spanish tapas in Toronto, you may not have many other choices...perhaps that's why they charge what they charge? Sad. -
Review from Melanie H.
Toronto, ON
1/25/2010
I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars here. I give it a 2.5.
The service was friendly and their timing was good, which can be difficult in a tapas bar. The food was only OK. We tried a beet salad and the beets were canned, which I thought was a shame since beets are one of the few seasonal items in January in Canada. The beet salad tasted fine, but it could have been less boring, or we should not have ordered it. The Spanish tortillas were ok but a little bland until you dunked them into their spicy mayo which made them better. The pickerel special was slightly overcooked and I had to work hard with my fork to break it up. It was served on a "gazpacho" salad, which grossed me out because I hate tomatoes in January they taste like water, and when I see cucumber with the skin on it makes me angry. Its not hard to peel a cucumber...who likes to eat waxy green stuff anyway? The smoked trout salad is excellent, probably the best dish of the evening. One BIG trouble on the water though: we ordered the Patatas Bravas, which is potatoes and chorizo. The potatoes were too hard and undercooked, and the chorizo was also raw. It had not been cooked long enough, so it was impossible to slice or chew. We sent it back to the kitchen. I hate doing that. The kitchen said it was "supposed to be like this" but cooked it more, and the Chef (super-cute by the way) served us the dish himself with an apology. This time it was delicious, and I refuse to believe that its "supposed to be served undercooked". We were offered some mole chocolate ice cream with a spiced chocolate ganache, excellent idea actually. For two of us the bill was over $100 and we just had 3 alcoholic beverages. A little on the expensive side considering the dishes weren't executed properly, but I would still go back for my yearly visit to this place, because its a fun vibe, and it has so much potential. AND where else can you go for tapas in this city anyhow? -
Review from Jasmine L.
North York, ON
9/15/2010
I've had better tapas. This place is overpriced for the quality of the tapas. Seriously, $12 for some broth with mushrooms floating in it??? They have the traditional spanish tortilla, and the garlic shrimp. I thought poblanos were Mexican, not Spanish. The best tapas dish was the patatas and chorizo -delicious! The desserts weren't bad either. I liked the service better than the food. Overall, this was tapas amateur style. Afterthought: I ordered the Piscola as a cocktail, and it was fantastic! Pisco is a strong alcohol from Chile reminiscent of Tequila. Mixed with coca cola (hence, piscola), it's a great alcoholic drink :-)
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Review from Brian S.
Toronto, ON
12/12/2009
Earlier this week I met a good friend and restaurant owner for a family dinner at one of the very few somewhat authentic spanish tapas places in Toronto. There really aren't that many, considering that tapas and small dishes are quite popular.
The service at Torito was good, and did everything from offering to take my coat right when I arrived in the place (apart from the high-end places in the city, that's not a thing to do any more). They were always around when we needed them. When ordering tapas it's generally more of a free-wheeling thing so the servers don't have as much of a sense of timing of meals, so they have to be paying more attention to the tables, and that they did.
Among the table we ordered about every dish on the menu and while there weren't really any great superstars, what I like about Torito is that there really aren't any losers either. Everything from the ceviche, to the various sardine dishes, to the salads were well prepared and good, and sharable around the table.
It's one of my old stand-bys in the city, and there's no reason I won't keep going back. -
Review from Medhat S.
Toronto, ON
11/8/2008
I've enjoyed my eating experiences here a great deal, but not my waiting experiences, nor the anxiety of wondering if I should even bother trying to get in. I wish these guys took reservations. Great food - fun busy atmosphere.
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Review from Fiona L.
Toronto, ON
10/18/2009
Despite the casual decor, I was very impressed with the food at Torito. The ceviche in particular was our favourite as were the churros we had for dessert. Yummy sangria and good wine list. Overall bill came to $140 for two of us including drinks which wasn't cheap, but we had a great time.
