Scott Lefton

Review of Toro Restaurant

From start to finish, the dinner at Toro was a mis...

From start to finish, the dinner at Toro was a miserable disappointment.

We were seated outdoors, since that was the only available seating after a 45 minute wait and we d been told that seating indoors would be another 30 to 45 minutes. It was cold, but the hostess promised that hot beverages would be available. When the server eventually appeared, we asked what her estimate would be for how long it would take for small plates to start coming out once we ordered, and were treated to an eye roll. When we asked her about hot drinks, she said they could make a hot toddy. That took 20 minutes to appear, and was more of a warm toddy than anything actually hot, and was completely generic in flavor.

We had six of the small plates offerings. We ordered all of them at the beginning, since the kitchen was going to stop taking new orders shortly.

First was the Hamachi Crudo, which was probably the best of the six except that the portion was so small that we could only get a slight sense of what it was like. Our feeling was that even if the portion size had been adequate, it still wouldn t have risen to the level of Oh wow .

Second was the Jamon Blanco, which was way too salty and the flavors really didn t mesh well. My companion described it as like being punched in the mouth with salt .

Third was the Foie Gras a la Plancha, which had been prepared in such a way as to be missing most of that richness that one expects, and was also the smallest bit of foie gras that I ve ever seen offered. It was served with what are best described as soggy toast scraps.

Fourth was the Empanada de Cabra, which was very small but adequate in flavor, and would have made a perfectly decent street vendor empanada for about a quarter the price.

After this fourth disappointing course, my companion wondered if we should cancel the two remaining small plates and just settle up and leave. I wanted to see if either of the remaining courses were any better. I asked the server for a hot tea, and requested that it be brought quickly. To her credit she did bring it quickly, but never bothered to ask if lemon, sugar, or cream were wanted with it, and vanished too fast for me to ask.

The fifth plate was the Asado de Huesos, which was an adequate preparation of roast bone marrow. However, with that plate it became clear that any time they were having a failure of imagination for garnish, it would be thin slices of radish.

The sixth and final plate was the Pato con Membrillo, which were supposed to be duck legs but were actually charred gristle and bone coated with the sort of sticky-sweet sauce that one might find on the baby back ribs special at a third-rate chain restaurant. They were the worst duck legs that I ve ever had.

We settled up and fled. There s plenty of good small plates offerings to be had in Boston, but certainly not here.