First Bites: El Toro Tacos & Tortillas at the Patio
A half-flight of Toro Tacos in Lettuce Cups: Crispy Sushi Grade Yellowfin Tuna, Wild Mushroom and Asparagus, Grilled Flank Steak "Fajita Style" and Niman Ranch "all natural" Pork Carnitas
For the first time in recent memory, Vero has a new restaurant that is truly different. El Toro Tacos & Tortillas at the Patio (a name that in a matter of hours seems to have been shortened by popular demand to El Toro) features cuisine that might best be described as nouvelle Mexican.
For fans of the old Patio, which has been something of a Vero landmark forever, Waldo Sexton’s historic building at first glance doesn’t look dramatically different. But those who liked the Patio’s traditional fare (yes, there were some) will quickly discover this is a totally new restaurant – a Mexican restaurant — in what otherwise seems a familiar setting.
This is not the old Patio! Gone are the flatbread pizzas. Gone is the Sunday brunch buffet. Gone is smoking with dinner on the outside patio.
The future is El Toro — a hip restaurant that brings Vero a fusion of Mexican-inspired tastes with the attention to fresh food and service long a trademark of the Ocean Grill.
Headline news: Our first sampling of dishes from a very diverse menu suggests that El Toro is going to be a winner for Vero diners and Vero’s expanded Replogle family. This is not a full-fledged review. In “First Bites,” we provide a taste of recently opened restaurants. A full review of El Toro will follow a few months down the road.
Look & Feel: While the building housing El Toro, which like the Ocean Grill was built by Waldo Sexton more than a half-century ago, remains essentially unchanged, new lighting gives it a somewhat more open feel, and colorful new chairs and tables make the outdoor patio a more inviting dining space as well.
Food: One of the great features of the menu at El Toro is that small plates provide a perfect opportunity to sample a variety of the available choices.
For appetizers, we ordered the guacamole and house-made chips ($7), the smoked fish tostada ($4.50), and the shrimp and jumbo lump crab ceviche cocktail ($8). The guacamole was clearly made fresh, with chunks of avocado, the smoked fish – served on a tostada with cabbage slaw, chipotle crema fresca and avocado – was extremely tasty, and the ceviche with pico degallo and lime juice had just a hint of tang.
Then for entrees, my husband and I had El Toro’s taco flight ($25) – eight different styles of tacos – while our companion had the Ocean Grill’s jumbo lump crab cake ($15). The crab cakes, on a bed of shaved fennel, arugula, fresh herbs, and citrus salad, were – if possible – even tastier than the version served at the Ocean Grill. The sauce was superb.
In addition to the crab cakes, El Toro offers a variety of other entrees – some with a strong Mexican orientation like the shrimp enchiladas, others that owe more to the Ocean Grill such as the grilled fish or carmelized sea scallops.
But we opted on this visit for the taco flight, which gave us a taste of the many possibilities awaiting you at El Toro.
For starters, you can order each of the nine types of tacos on the menu with either a soft corn or flour shell, or a lettuce cup. Then the available varieties include:
□ A crispy sushi grade yellowfin tuna taco with a pineapple cucumber salsa (recommended);
□ A grilled flank steak “fajita style” taco with pico de gallo (recommended);
□ A Niman Ranch “all natural” pork carnitas taco – slow roasted pork shoulder that falls apart on your fork with a roasted tomatillo salsa (highly recommended);
□ A fried local catch of the day taco, which you can also – as we did – order grilled, served with a crunch mango slaw (highly recommended);
□ An amber grilled and braised short ribs taco, served with roasted tomato and guajillo salsa and queso fresco (very highly recommended);
□ A grilled achiote marinated shrimp taco, with mango and black bean salsa (good, but the shrimp were chewy);
□ A wild mushroom and asparagus taco, with queso fresco and crema fresca (recommended);
□ And a grilled “all natural” chicken breast taco, with chile de arbol and roasted tomato salsa (highly recommended).
We accompanied all this with side orders of Mexican white rice ($2) and black beans with crema fresco and queso fresco ($2), which were delicious. For dessert, we enjoyed a light and not overly sweet flan — one of the best we have encountered in a long time.
Drink: While we did not try any of the special drinks, which include a “cheap ass margarita” for $6 and a “big ass margarita” for $12, the wine list features a variety of attractively priced Argentine and Chilean wines as well as the usual suspects. Beers tend to run from $3.50 to $5.50.
Service: On the night we visited, with the restaurant trying to cope with a flood of those eager to try the new place in town, the service was amazingly good.
Prices: With only one menu item, the grilled New York strip “fajita style,” priced above $15, and drinking a glass or two of wine or beer, a party of two ought to be able to dine well for under $70, not including tip.
Initial impressions: In a town with too few good Latin restaurants, our guess is El Toro will be a highly successful addition to the Vero Beach dining scene.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
Monday through Saturday, 5 pm to 9 pm
Bar
Full Bar
Address (MAP)
1103 21st Street, Vero Beach, FL, Telephone: (772) 563-2844
