El Torito Grill - Review #2

Date of Visits: September 10, October 4 and 14, 2006

El Torito Grill 1910 Main St Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 975-1220 Listing on Google Maps Official Site

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My menu selections from my first visit:

Appetizer: Fresh-made tortillas with honey butter and two salsas
Entree: Mesquite-grilled Halibut
Drink: IBC Root Beer
Dessert: "Fresh Fruit Indulgence"

I was trying to hold off on reviewing El Torito Grill in Irvine for a while but felt like I better do it soon once I realized it is very easy for people to confuse it with the El Torito that is just around the corner. (Read our review of El Torito in Irvine.)

To further confuse the matter, this location doesn't appear to show up in the Yahoo! Local or Citysearch listings and appears incorrectly in the Google Maps listings as "El Torito Mexican Grill."

So, just to clarify matters: El Torito is on Macarthur (across the street from John Wayne Airport), while El Torito Grill is on Main St.

To park to eat at this El Torito Grill you will probably have to use the adjacent parking structure. On weekdays you can have your car valet parked or you can self-park and get your ticket validated inside the restaurant. On weekends you can self-park for free. You will see the following sign painted on the wall of the parking structure as you are headed towards the restaurant:

At El Torito Grill, rather than getting the standard chips and salsa you get some freshly made tortillas with honey butter to spread on them and a mild salsa and a spicier salsa. It is easy to eat four or five of these before your entree comes.

There are also intriguing appetizers such as the Chicken and Shrimp Taquitos:

The Romaine Salad comes with pumpkin seeds and Cilantro-Pepita Dressing™ (yes, they have actually trademarked the term "Cilantro-Pepita Dressing™") and is chopped tableside for you by your server:

The Carne Asada Tostada comes with "Grilled marinated steak, romaine, beans, jicama, tomatoes, crispy tortilla strips, cheese, salsa quemada and ranch dressing served on a crispy red chile tortilla," which just so happens to be the same shape as the triangular plate it's served on:

You can order the same item with barbecue chicken in place of the carne asada.

The tortilla soup, according to their menu, is made of "Tender chicken and vegetables in a savory broth with crispy tortilla strips and jack cheese." When it says "vegetables" I think it really means "zucchini" because there was a lot of zucchini in it.

One of the things I like about El Torito Grill is that their specials menu changes more often than the specials menu at the regular El Torito does. I was told by a waiter at El Torito Grill that it changes roughly every two to three weeks. On the first of my three visits for this review I ordered the Mesquite-grilled fresh halibut with "mixed vegetables, tomato-jalapeño salsa and orange-cucumber relish."

Mesquite-grilled Halibut

My friend Chris is a carnitas junkie so he of course ordered their Carnitas Yucatan, "Roasted marinated pork topped with red onions marinated with habañero chiles and lime juice. Served with red and black beans, rice, avocado relish and sweet corn cake."

When my roommate went with me on my second visit he got wild and ordered the fajitas:

A popular entree item at El Torito Grill is the Santa Fe Torte, "Chicken, cheese, and chiles in corn crepes with jalapeño butter and red chile sauces. Served with red and black beans, pineapple-mango salsa, sweet corn cake and crispy plantains."

When I went by myself on the first visit for this review I ordered a dessert from their specials menu called the "Fresh Fruit Indulgence." The official description of this dessert is: "Fresh berries and mangos tossed in Grand Marnier, creamy custard, fresh cream and a peanut tostada crisp. Served with chocolate and cajeta sauces."

Fresh Fruit Indulgence

Since the picture turned out a little blurry I ordered it again on the second visit and this time, instead of coming on a plate, it came in a glass:

I was told by one of the servers that this dessert item was so popular that it will be added to their regular menu soon but I can't say whether it will be flat on a plate or cone-shaped in a glass when you order it.

El Torito Grill earns a four and a half Speedy Gonzales rating:



Here's some photos from subsequent visits:

Cheese Quesadilla

Roasted Vegetable Platter

Coconut Flan

Other El Torito Grill entries:

• El Torito Grill - Review #1 (Mission Viejo)
• El Torito Grill - Review #3 (Anaheim)
• El Torito Grill - Review #4 (Newport Beach/Fashion Island)
• El Torito Grill - Review #5 (Brea)
• El Torito Grill - Review #6 (Rancho Santa Margarita)

Or click on the "el torito grill" label below to read our full El Torito Grill coverage:

La Fogata - Review #1

Date of Visit: October 6, 2006

La Fogata 3025 E Coast Hwy Corona del Mar, CA 92625 (949) 673-2211 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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You can find out about good Mexican restaurants in the darnedest places. La Fogata was recommended to me by a nice couple I struck up a conversation with while at lunch at Taco Rosa. They noticed me taking pictures of my food so I explained what I do. I asked them what their favorite Mexican restaurant was and they quickly answered, "La Fogata in Corona del Mar." I told them I would try to make it there soon and asked them what I should try. Again a quick answer: "The California Grande Burrito."

Almost two months later I finally made it to La Fogata. I went with a date, Marissa, who, like me, has fairly periodic hankerings for good Mexican food. La Fogata is located in the Albertson's shopping center off of PCH between Iris and Jasmine. Parking is tight down that way, but what else is new? They are famous for their rotisserie chicken (in fact, I believe their full name is "La Fogata Healthy Mexican Grill and Rotisserie Chicken") and you can see a big rotisserie spinning over a huge flame as you walk up to their entrance.

Usually I can spend forever and a day perusing a restaurant's menu and then, and only then, finally make a choice out of desperation so as not to hold up everyone else in the party. This time, however, I knew I'd be ordering the California Grande Burrito. This is a huge flour tortilla with rotisserie chicken, fresh onions, fresh zucchini, shredded lettuce, cheese, rice, black or pinto beans, guacamole, sour cream, and your choice of an extra meat (steak or fish). I don't know if fish blends well with chicken or steak so I went with the chicken/steak combo. It ends up being an enormous burrito, the likes of which I am sure only Andre the Giant could get his mouth around. It's served with half-slices of orange and tomato and a huge dollop of sour cream.

Marissa ordered a taco combo plate, with one chicken and one steak taco. It turned out to be a less messy version of what I had ordered. Each taco came in one blue and one white corn tortilla. She called attention to the fact that they actually use jasmine rice here; I guess that's a little Indian fusion going on.

I have to add that La Fogata has the highest quality takeout menus I have ever seen. Even after they told me I could take one I still felt a little guilty about it. For filling us up without weighing us down, La Fogata earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:

Pedro's Tacos - Review #1

Date of Visit: October 3, 2006

Pedro's Tacos 31721 Camino Capistrano San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 (949) 489-7752 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch No known official website

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(UPDATE: Pedro's has closed and has been taken over by a place called Mission Grill.) Starting to make my way down towards the South County restaurants. First stop: Pedro's Tacos in San Juan Capistrano. Pedro's is directly across the street from the famous San Juan Capistrano Mission founded in the 1700's by Father Junipero Serra. Legend has it that he ate at Pedro's Tacos every day after he got off work feeding the swallows. I know all this because when I was in 4th grade everyone had to pick an old Californian mission to report on and mine was the San Juan Capistrano Mission. I even made a model of it out of sugar cubes dyed brown.

The recommendation to try out Pedro's Tacos was made to me while on my trip to Utah last June by a Huntington Beach resident who happened to be in Utah at the same time as me. Finally, four months later I'm following up on the recommendation.

Just to the east of Pedro's

Just to the south of Pedro's

Pedro's is simply a walk-up window take-out restaurant with a few tables for outside seating. They have a fairly extensive menu with a little gringo section at the end featuring hamburgers and French fries. They also have an extensive selection of Jarritos brand soda, and they had a bottle of each flavor all lined up in one of their windows so you knew just what you could order.

Being a sucker for chile rellenos but knowing Pedro's is famous for its tacos I ordered a chile relleno/beef taco combo that's not even on the menu. They accommodated my request with a small but tasty chile relleno covered in salsa verde and a shredded beef taco wrapped in two corn tortillas filled with salsa and guacamole. The standard rice and beans filled the remainder of the styrofoam plate. Everything went down well and it's easy to see why there's a constant stream of customers walking up to that little window to order some real authentic Mexican food.

When you leave and you're trying to turn from Camino Capistrano back on to Ortega Highway the left turn signal either doesn't work or is incredibly hard to see. I sat through a cycle of lights and made my turn at what seemed like a logical moment but it could very well be that others saw me running a red. So be aware of the dubious traffic signal.

Pedro's Tacos earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:

Mexican Food in Today's Paper

The Orange County Register has at least two mentions of Mexican food today. The first is all about tortas though it doesn't mention any actual place in Orange County to get them from. The second is an article about "delicious and homey desserts" which highlights two items from Kantina's dessert menu.

My next review here will be about a restaurant in an Orange County city I haven't yet covered.