There's nothing bullish about the bland food at El Toro

What people need to remember is that Mexican food, like Italian food, differs from region to region. Not all Mexican food is spicy. I like it all, spicy or not, and El Loro is a favorite of mine.

Bland food- maybe- but most mexican food is not spicy.
Hopefully this will be the wake-up call for the place to spice things up,(at least- season,) without you killing all their business.

Excellent food!
They also are previous winners of City Pages, best mexican food!

at either of these restaurants, so Kathie won't go back....

I've eaten at El Loro in Crystal, and would never go back there. As the reviewer said, bland food. Worst mexican in town. But the El Toro in Robbinsdale isn't as bad. I think it depends on the cooks. But overall, it's a chain of bland restaurants.

I have to disagree with Secant, this is not excellent food. It's not spicy, but that's not my complaint about it. It's that it has no flavor. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't know if you were eating a bad taco or a bad sloppy joe. There is lots of good Mexican food in this town, but this isn't it.

Grand Pizza is truly grand.

To say that Grand Pizza & Grill's pizza tastes like a commercial crust misses the point. While not a Neapolitan-style place like Pizza Nea or Punch, Grand Pizza offers some tantalizing gourmet combos, like their outstanding Shrimp Pesto and Chicken Alfredo pizzas that are a cut above standard pizza fare. Even their pepperoni has a nice sharper bite to it than most pizza joints. When I can't make it into Mpls for Black Sheep Pizza, Grand is by far the best pizza place east of St. Paul.

El Loro/Toro - don't confuse not "spicy" with being bland.
Excellent recipes just not anything that will make you sweat when you eat it. It's good just not hot and good.
One of the few Mexican restaurants I enjoy on a semi-regular basis.

Most "Mexican" food in Mexico is bland, people are to use sauces to spice them up.
Spicier Mexican food is usually considered "Tex Mex"

Stillwaterrunsdeep wrote:

Grand Pizza is truly grand.
To say that Grand Pizza & Grill's pizza tastes like a commercial crust misses the point. While not a Neapolitan-style place like Pizza Nea or Punch, Grand Pizza offers some tantalizing gourmet combos, like their outstanding Shrimp Pesto and Chicken Alfredo pizzas that are a cut above standard pizza fare. Even their pepperoni has a nice sharper bite to it than most pizza joints. When I can't make it into Mpls for Black Sheep Pizza, Grand is by far the best pizza place east of St. Paul.

Those pizza selections sound great! I'm supposed to meet friends there one night and can't find decent directions to the place, and are there two of them?

There are so many wonderful places on the west side with authentic Mexican food - why go to El Toro? Drive a few more blocks and eat the real stuff!

Mrs M wrote:

Most "Mexican" food in Mexico is bland, people are to use sauces to spice them up.
Spicier Mexican food is usually considered "Tex Mex"

Not spicy and bland are not the same things. Not spicy things can still have wonderful flavor. El Toro/El Loro does not.

me in st paul wrote:

There are so many wonderful places on the west side with authentic Mexican food - why go to El Toro? Drive a few more blocks and eat the real stuff!

Any one of the little cantinas on Concord can beat out a chain restaurant. That includes the king of bland, Boca Chica.