Cannery Row restaurants are, well, you know -- touristy. And tend to be chains. El Torito is a chain too. But it's got fantastic views of the bay. Also, one of the few pluses about being a chain (in my opinion), is they list nutritional facts on their website. And you know how you can consume well over a day's worth of food in a meal at a typical Mexican restaurant -- so that makes it a little easier to avoid the gluttony and Mexicoma that usually follows. I love-love-love the fajita salad (I could rave about this). The Mexican caesar is more of a side salad so I get an a la carte item like a taco or tamale to go with it if I'm making a meal of it. Their chips are hot, crisp, and salty -- nom, nom, I'm hungry just thinking about them. Service tends to be slow (especially for a Mexican restaurant). And the place is a little on the loud side (read: families). But just enjoy your drink, fill up on chips and salsa, and relax to that view. If you're a local, you can sign up for the email club. They have taco Tuesdays and various drink specials to lure you in. As for drinks, the super-charged cadillac margarita is the way to go. Really reasonably priced for a premium drink on Cannery Row too (~$8). read more

El Torito - View from table - Mexican Near Me - Monterey, California

Happy hour prices are awesome but the service is terrible. Queso tasted like cheese whiz.

Took 1 hour to be seated. Took an additional hour to receive food. 2.5 hours total visit was not how I had intended to spend the afternoon. We received apologies for the excessive wait - but no attempt to compensate for the inconvenience. I wanted to leave, but I wanted to eat also. At least the view is good. read more

Whom ever said they were going to DM did not. When trying to correct a customer service issue and making something better, you need to follow through with what you say you are going to do. Won't be back. read more

Not that great tonight. We normally come during the weekend for there buffet. We went for Tacos Tuesday, but no more Unlimited Tacos The service waitress was terrible and hardly attended to us and attended to the Caucasian people next to us five times more .Her name was Maria and she rolled her eyes at my wife when she asked for a refill on her drink . She never picked up the trash until the end. Also my kids were excited about the build your own ice cream and it was already built for them my kids were disappointed about this because it's says build your own ice cream sundae. She then answered didn't have all the supplies so she decided to build it for the kids instead of letting them do it by themselves She was lucky my children didn't have any food allergies.Maria the waitress did not ask my children what they would like on there sundaes and my daughter did not eat it! read more

My husband and I came to this restaurant the weekend of our wedding. The first time was with a large group of extended family. The service was excellent, and a great location right on the water. We loved it so much we decided to come back to end the weekend and watch some football. Kyle and Brooke made sure to accommodate us with a booth that was close to the TV's AND an ocean view. They really went above and beyond to make sure we had the best experience possible. The food is great, service was fast, and our server Jorge was prompt with all of our requests. Thanks to the staff at El Torito for adding an extra special memory to our wedding weekend!! -Chad, Katrina and Caeden :) read more

El Torito - Mexican Near Me - Monterey, California

Dirty slow, not good service and all the young managers were more worried about their looks than running a successful business. Felt sorry for the hard working bus boys. read more

Thee worst service I've ever had. I don't even know where to start. The drinks we received were melted margaritas. We never got 2 entrees of food. My husband and mom didn't get to eat after ordering and waiting for 2 hours. Everyone was mixing plates up with different tables. They had a bowl of soup in two little cup and said we no longer have bowls. On top of giving us a quarter cup of coffee and telling us "That's all we have left". I would have been better off without it. No one knew what the hell they were doing. No manger was on site. I'm pretty sure we could have left without paying it was that bad. Don't waste your time. read more

Some of the worst Mexican food I've had in my life. Terrible service, dirty facilities, and the wait time to get our food was ridiculous. First and last time coming to this restaurant. 2 stars because the beautiful view ! read more

Breakfast was absolutely amazing. They just started serving breakfast and the chef knows a great menu. There were 7 of us and we all absolutely loved our food and we are a hard family to please at times. Must go for breakfast they also have bottomless Mamosa's and bloody Mary's. My suggestion to the owner is to have someone market for them along the strip here and with the hotels advertising breakfast with a 10% off coupon or something of the sort. Amazing place. read more

El Torito - Part of menu - Mexican Near Me - Monterey, California

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Service was terrible very disorganized slow and little attention to detail when it came to the order.

My family booked a table during Labor Day weekend. It was nice they have a parking lot. Too bad we already parked on the street. Eating dinner outside under a tent was nice until it got cold. After that there was no way to warm up. No hot tea (probably should have asked for coffee, hot water or tequila), they wouldn't bring heaters under the tents so a few of us just froze and ate as fast as possible. The service wasn't great. It took a long time to get drinks, chips and silverware, let alone taking our food order. When food arrived, it was okay. Nothing special. Good views. Maybe better to eat here during lunch. read more

Great service our waiter very attentive. But the food was ok. The chicken fajitas have only onion no other veggies. We ordered chicken tacos and we got carnitas smh. But food came out hot. read more

By far the worst Mexican restaurant, like ever. Went there for Sunday brunch and it was beyond terrible. The waiter for our table was actually very nice, but the serving staff behind the food/buffet tables were terribly rude. The food was not good at all. You stood in line for your buffet selections and people would just come up and cut in front of you. There were spider webs in the corners of the windows where we were seated. We will never return to this restaurant and would never recommend it to anyone. They should be closed down. read more

Finally able to get back to Monterey since pandemic. First stop El Torito. It was delicious, they didn't let me down. Sizzling fajitas, bacon wrapped shrimp, Chile verde, bread pudding:). Actually everything tasted even better than before if that's possible. Staff was on point friendly, great service. Drinks were delicious. Love the classic Margarita. Food was hot and fresh and of course the beautiful views of the ocean made it even better! Management is still top notch here. You can tell whoever is running this place, knows what their doing. Can't wait to come back. I highly recommend!!! read more

Over an hour to get our food. An hour! For a quesadilla and side of guac. Waitress keeps coming to our table telling us "it's coming", but that excuse grew old at about 35/40mins. She explained that our food order is stuck behind a large party, but I'm watching other patrons get seated after us and getting served before us. No one offering to make this better. Food finally came out.. dry as a bone. Guac is brown! I'm just so disappointed: so many places to eat in Monterey, and we get this mess... read more

I love to come here and sit overlooking the sea. The food is good. I love the sampler. This is a good spot for taco Tuesdays, or Friday night happy hour. read more

It was my first visit to Monterey and dining options seemed surprisingly limited. Looking for a cute spot on the water, we waited roughly 30 minutes for a table at El Torito on a Saturday evening. Unfortunately, the happy hour drinks were the only enjoyable experience during our meal. Happy hour drinks are only available when ordering from the bar, which seemed strange, but the $5 margaritas and $6 sangria and mojitos were worth the trip back and forth, so I can't complain. I signed up for their e-club via their website and received a free appetizer coupon, which we redeemed for table made guacamole. Underwhelming, but free, so hey. The food arrived, approximately 30-40 minutes after placing our order, and we discover two of the plates are completely incorrect as tacos and fajitas were placed in front of us rather than the enchiladas we ordered. The plates are taken away and five minutes later one correct plate was delivered, and the second plate was still completely incorrect. By the time the final plate arrived, correct, everyone else at the table had finished eating. Overall, the food was extremely bland and overpriced. The bill had extra, mysterious items on it, in addition to the $10 guacamole, which was supposed to be free. The server literally walked away with my iPhone in her hand to have her manager honor the free appetizer e-coupon. Never has someone walked away with my phone for multiple minutes to sort out a coupon. We paid our bill in full, which was extremely hard to swallow, as the service was so poor and it took THREE tries and an hour after ordering to deliver the correct plate. What a disappointment. read more

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Great brunch with delicious tamales and birria. Rose was a very good server- she kept the mimosas flowing

HORRIBLE SERVICE. I had an iced water and I drank the whole thing without noticing that it had BLACK FOOD SPECS in it. If I get sick from this place I'm suing. I should have remembered to take a picture but I forgot. Don't go here unless you want to be served dirty asss water. read more

Worst service ever! Ended up waiting over an hour to get our dinner and we ended up leaving without eating. Spoke to a manager and he apologized and said he would send us a gift card and of course never sent us anything. We will never visit again! read more

Came here for happy hour today. Good price and decent food and drinks for happy hour. What made the experience 5 stars was our server, Francisco "Poncho"! He was very attentive. Brought out chips and salsa refill and water without us even asking. Haven't had good service like he provided for quit sometime. Thanks Poncho for making my experience today so great! read more

Food and service was great. We enjoyed our dinner there.Gabriella was very helpful, courteous, attentive, and was able to get us what we needed. Thank you for the kind service. read more

WAYYY OVER HYPED, I WAITED ALMOST 40 minutes ! I wish I could give no stars but at least my server was trying. The food was NASTY. The steak felt and tastes dry and rubbery, the rice was over cooked and unseasoned. The chicken was over cooked as well. The only good part of the food was the shrimp and the tortillas. I had the fajitas platter with three meats. For my drink I had a strawberry margarita blended.. it definitely disappointed me, and I'm a margarita aficionado to be. It was super thick and tasted only of syrup. My girlfriend had a regular margarita on the rocks, she said it was super lime tasting, yet thick and just nasty that she couldn't even finish it. We had dessert as well. The sopadillas ( not sure if that's what it's called ) and the deep fried ice cream. The first one was super rubbery and tasted old. But, I'm high so I ate it. The fried ice cream had Frosted Flakes on the outside that just tasted old and stale. I'm definitely not going to be back. read more

I never write yelp reviews but this one felt necessary. We waited 30 minutes to be sat for the reservation we made. Our waiter brought us waters then we didn't see him for an hour. We had now been sitting for an hour and 45 minutes with no food. Finally someone (a hostess not even a waiter) brought us our guacamole. We waited an hour after that and still never saw our waiter. Summary: we sat for 2 and a half hours with no food (only one bowl of guac). Ended up leaving cause it felt like our food was never coming. Please don't go here. However, mountain mikes 6 minutes away got us 3 large pizzas in 10 minutes so maybe check them out!!!! read more

What a fantastic place for the familia. On the water and they hand out binoculars for whale watching! Very friendly staff who caters for a lot of specific needs. Bar tender came out after we placed our order for margaritas to inform us a marg tower would be a more cost effective option! I had the Jalisco tacos with beef which were quite good. I've never had these type before; they were coated in adobo and then pan seared. Table side guacamole was standard, fresh ingredients with a subtle kick. There were four wild kids In our group running around and they were still very friendly and courteous Would recommend for families Even international yelp elite Rami Mikati would have an enjoyable meal here. read more

Rose was fabulous! Food was great! The view is wonderful! Mimosas were rolling! Such a good time!

Horrible experience, they have NO heaters in the tents for outside dining and we froze, the service was worse than horrible, we sat for 25 mins with no attention to us what so ever. Finally she came by got our drink order wrong, didn't bring chips and salsa with any speed, our drinks came with salt on the rim when we ordered no salt, our meals arrived and we still didn't have eating utensils, the sizzling chicken enchiladas were horrendous, mostly soggy peppers with very little tasteless chicken. The enchiladas rancheras were slightly better. Overall a huge fail on the desire to attract customers outside, suggest staying away. read more

Why is this place such a huge joke in Monterey..?? The service, the food, the cleanliness of the restaurant and your employees are all problems. Hey Managers... fix this place or we'll never return. Yes, we will tell our friends. read more

Had a good late lunch and ET never disappoints. We were doing the touristy thing and wandered down Cannery Row and always try to stop for a bite and margaritas at ET. Since we don't have an ET back home anymore, we HAD to stop. Drinks and appetizers were good. read more

El Torito - Early happy hour with Babe and Baby Girl... - Mexican Near Me - Monterey, California

Staff was nice, but management had some serious issues. They were out of carnitas, salsa, guacamole, beer batter, ranch dressing, and I'm sure more. Everyone looked stressed and our food took an hour and a half to arrive. Tasted mid. read more

Food: not bad, not great. But not bad. A small group of us went here for a lunch before visiting the Monterrey Bay Aquarium (easy 5 minute walk away). While the food was good (again, not great, but good), the service was ok. Why go here? The view is really lovely. If you can score a window seat, enjoy the ocean. Really, it is quite special just for the view. read more

Really wanted El Torito and we were in the area so decided to stop by, should have known it was going to go sour when the host was not even pretending to be friendly. The service was horrible and they seemed to be out of a lot of items in the kitchen. Disappointed we decided to dine here instead of something else down the street. read more

Yuck, yuck, yuck...all of it. The front of the restaurant is in need of some major repairs. The pillars are almost falling down and the bill in the front is missing it's paint. The smell inside is disgusting, the only thing I can compare it to is the smell of a club at 2:00 am when all the spilled liquor is on the floor and everybody's sweaty and there's a hint of a puke smell. () it took forever for somebody to come to our table but when they did they informed us they had no chips. (An el Torito with no chips...say what) we then went to order and my son requested the kids chicken strips with corn on the cob. We were told "sorry we're out of corn on the cob". So, out of chips, out of corn surely that would be the end of it right? Nope. My son then said how excited he was to order a sundae after his meal which was followed up by "we're out of that". holy cow. After looking around we decided to only order an appetizer and let our kiddo do a kids meal, but we certainly were not going to spend a dime more than we had to here. While we were eating a table was sat behind us and nobody ever came to greet them, so 20 minutes later they finally left. I can't say that the lack of customer service was due to being short staffed because there were plenty of servers at the bar arguing over stuff the entire time. So, bottom line, skip it and eat literally anywhere else, McDonald's would ever be better. read more

Beyond flavorless. My goodness. I cannot believe how bad this food tastes. What did you do? Point a flavor gun at this food and take ever positive taste our of the chicken, steak and shrimp? How did you do that? I am honestly impressed, but in a bad way. Did you try to make it bad? If so, how? How did you get solid cuts of meat and make them so worthless? Please chiefs, quit what you are doing and find some different profession, this is not your purpose in life. read more

The new revamp looks beautiful! And let's talk about the new hires. WOW! Whoever hired Tyler, pat yourself on the back AND SOME. Service was always pretty rough there on a "not busy night," and the other day, we came in when it was REALLY busy. We almost left to be honest. But let me tell you... I probably had MORE service on this busy night, than what you could get on a slow night in the past. I used to be a regular, and it just got so bad that I took El Torito off the restaurant option list. Believe me when I say, Tyler made me a believer again. Tyler if you're reading this, just know that my girlfriend, my mother and I who ate about 10 boats of chips appreciate you. Not to mention me who drank 2 double shot mango strawberry margaritas! They were DELICIOUS read more

Great good & staff !!! Will be back for brunch with family !! Love this place amazing drinks !!!

They didn't have a lot of food options which is wrong especially considering it is a restaurant... the service is not good either. The bartender is super slow and the food is average not good and not bad. Honestly I wouldn't dine here at all neither would I recommend it. read more

The worst! My wife chose this place for her birthday supper. Over an hour for food to arrive and it was all congealed and cold.

Endless mimosas are so delicious for only $12 per person, with indulging food and amazing view! can't go wrong with breakfast, lunch or dinner! read more