My spouse and I dined at Toro for late dinner on a Friday
evening in mid-July 2016. Toro, which opened in September 2013, serves dinner
daily. The restaurant accepts reservations by telephone or via the Open Table
system. Chef/owners Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette operate Toro in Manhattan
as well as the original location in Boston (which opened circa 2005).
Toro is located at the corner of 11th Avenue and 15th Street
in the Chelsea/Meatpacking District in the former National Biscuit Company
(Nabisco) factory. (Restaurants Del Posto and Colicchio & Sons occupy two
of the other corners of the building.) A steep set of stairs leads from the
street level to the Toro restaurant entrance. (We did not see an entrance for
handicap access, but there must be one.)
The 120-seat dining room is lively and features both
industrial and refined elements. You can sit at a regular table, at a high-top
table, at the (drinks) bar, or at the plancha bar (where you can watch the
chefs at work). The mix of high and low tables gives it a friendly feel. The
loft-like space features high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and expansive
18-foot windows. One part of a wall features wooden blocks, pots of succulents,
and a large bull’s head, while another wall features wooden latticework strewn
with ivy. Groups of 8 to 16 people can reserve the chef’s table, which enjoys a
somewhat secluded perch near the open kitchen. Lighting is dark and dim, and
the music is loud, so this is not the place for a romantic meal.
Toro offers Spanish cuisine reminiscent of a Barcelona-style
tapas bar. The menu, which encourages sharing, is split into six sections:
Pinchos (smaller snacks), Tapas Frias y Jamones (cold tapas and hams), A la
Parilla (grilled dishes), Tapas Calientes (warm tapas), Tapas a la Plancha
(tapas from the grill), and Paellas and Platos. The restaurant recommends that
each guest order two to three dishes, so we ordered six dishes to share. We
started with the Spanish tortilla (with egg, potato, onion, and aioli), which
was tasty but was (surprisingly) served cold. We also ordered the bocadillo de
erizos (a sea urchin grilled sandwich with miso butter and pickled mustard
seeds), which is reportedly a crowd favorite but did not taste right to us,
almost as if the uni was not fresh. The corazon (sliced smoked beef heart piled
atop toasted bread with romesco [a nutty red pepper sauce]) was our least
favorite dish of the evening. We also tried the panza de cerdo (crispy pork
belly fennel slaw) and the croquettas de bacalao (salt cod fritters [no filler]
with tempura lemon rings and aioli), both of which we loved. However, our
favorite dish that night was the pate (with pickled watermelon rind), even
though it arrived without any bread accompaniment. We were disappointed that
the restaurant offered only two desserts, neither of which held appeal.
Service was good after we finally managed to attract
someone’s attention. After the hostess seated us at the chef’s bar (at our
request), we waited for about 15 minutes without any acknowledgement by the
servers or chefs. We were preparing to leave and dine elsewhere when someone
finally ambled over and greeted us. Although we were excited to sit at the
plancha bar, the chefs were idle much of the time (we dined after 9:30 pm on a
Friday evening), and they did not attempt to interact with us. Our experience
with staff at other chef’s counters, including recently at Spanish tapas bar
Boqueria on the Upper East Side, has always been engaging, so we were surprised
that no one spoke to us or made eye contact. Choosing to dine at the plancha
bar negatively affected our meal.
We have wanted to dine at Toro since it opened, when we
received earmarked money from a family member who lives in Boston and likes the
Toro location there to dine at the Manhattan location. We are glad to have
dined at Toro, but our experience was disappointing, especially when we compare
it to a recent successfully dinner at another Manhattan tapas bar. We hope that
it was just an “off” night for the Toro restaurant and its staff.
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