Torero Tapas Bar & Grill

Sat at the bar on a Saturday night around 5pm (their opening time) and there was one other couple at the bar. We sat near them so we had the bartender as our server although it seemed as if he was training with no trainer. My husband and I ordered two cocktails off their «signature» 7 cocktail list and it took the bartender nearly 15 minutes to figure out their basic cocktail recipes… so then we ordered 3 tapas as a precursor for our night ahead and they were okay at best. Calamari is «go» and the empanada was ok but seem basic and reheated from a bulk Costco bag… The 3 meat cured sampler was super overpriced at $ 19 for simply 3 shaved meats (no crustini, honey or even three almonds tossed as a buffer). Sure, I guess the meats are t imported from Spain but this place is basically the Apple Bee’s of «tapas»…would never return.

Food was good, but service was bad to the point of being bizarre, not just from the waiter, but also from the hostess and the person who brought our food to the table. In the aggregate, the errors were almost surreal. It doesn’t matter how good the food is if it takes you over an hour and a half from seating to exit. This, without preliminary drinks or post-​dinner dessert.

We booked our corporate Christmas party here for 180 people. I can not say enough good things about my experience. We first met with Dave and Brad to pick the menu. We had a limited budget and they really worked with us to make sure that we had the best choices available for our budget. Their knowledge and recommendations made this the most pleasurable experience I have ever had throwing a large party. They stayed in contact with us from the time we booked till the day of the party. We had many questions and our emails were responded to very promptly. They literally had thought of everything before we had and were already prepared. It’s the perfect location for a large party because people can eat and socialize upstairs in the restaurant. Once they are ready to let loose and have a good time they can go downstairs to the club/​lounge area. They have couches, coffee tables and high top tables. Not to mention a separate bar as well so you don’t have to go to the upstairs bar when you’re ready for another beverage. They even allowed us to bring in a photo booth that we had rented.
The night of the party when we arrived they had a table of high end meats and cheeses set up for cocktail hour. The presentation looked fantastic not to mention everything tasted great.
Once most of the guest arrived they had servers walk around and pass out lamb chops, scalops, mini crab cakes, and spring rolls. They rotated these coming out of the kitchen for almost the whole night.
Then we had a buffet table for dinner that had thin sliced top round, chicken marsala, cheese ravioli, and potatoes bravos. I can honestly say that everything was prepared to perfection, full of flavor and tasted amazing.
The staff was very friendly, attentive and really on top of everything from bussing tables, refilling drinks, and really just being available for anything we needed.
I didn’t hear one complaint from any of our guests and everyone was raving about the food and atmosphere. They were already asking if we could book for next year. Many guests said they would be returning on their own for dinner.
Thank you Dave and Brad, so much for an amazing night. Very very well done.

Service was a five but the food was just so so. We got the empanada. There was only one it was expensive, dry, sweet and not very tasty. The tomato essence withe the bread was minimal. The hummus was good. Sangria wasn’t that sweet so if you like it sweet you won’t like it.

An excellent job done for restaurant week and one that promises I will return at a later date to sample the rest of the menu. The cocktails –though the list is small– were well-​received, though the sangria was a little heavy on the ice and light on sangria. The roast chicken dish was a particular standout, but the shrimp and grits and the salad course offered were both stunningly well-​done as well and nothing was less than noshable. The desserts were perhaps not done justice, as the portions of earlier courses were more than generous, but they made great leftovers.

This place is OK, We tried the sweet and spicy almonds, the meat plate, which had blood sausage, chorizo, steak and chicken, chorizo stuffed dates, chicken croquettes and the lamb meatballs.
Nothing was so good that I had to drop everything and call my mom. I almost called her to confess that I had a really gross cured meat platter. I mean, cured meat is one thing, but this was so dry it was almost crispy. You definitely need a couple glasses of water to eat this. The chicken croquettes were really mushy and I wasn’t even sure if there was actually chicken in it.
The best thing had to of been the chorizo stuffed dates. But nothing was good enough for me to return and try anything else.

Super bartender. That’s it. Had the brussel sprouts, mussels and croquetts (the only good thing we had). The brussel sprouts had zero flavor. And we waited a good hour for the food. I think because of a private party. I was there a year ago and had the paella, which was great.

Excellent service — server helped us decide on our wine instead of just getting anything. Good was amazing, will definitely come back soon. Try the bacon wrapped dates !!! Delicious !!!

Came here for dinner. The service was excellent, but the review is for the food. The food however was mediocre. I had the bacon wrapped dates, Brussels sprouts, and the seafood paella. my favorite thing was the bacon wrapped dates. The paella was terrible. The mussels did not taste fresh at all and the whole dish tasted like old mussels.

Stopped in here late one night, and the staff were very accommodating. Everything we ordered was fantastic. I will definitely return to Torero, and highly recommend it.

Visiting from out of town. Not a lot of Tapas places where we are from, so we gave it a shot. Extremely impressed with the service and the food and drink. We saw the reviews that mentioned sangria, so we ordered a carafe of the red and enjoyed it. We had the stuffed dates with cheese and found those extremely enjoyable. Wife had the trout, I the steak and we shared the papas. All was fabulous, well prepared and full of flavor. We especially enjoyed the desserts, both the flan and the tres leches. Highly recommend trying. Remember that portion sizes are small, by design, just perfect for us.

Had a reservation for Easter and was planning on their regular menu as advertised on Open Table and on their site.
Showed up and they were not serving their regular brunch menu but a make shift buffet for $ 35 a head. Little to say, we did not stay and not one even approached us to ask as we were leaving.

Wow wow wow.
Sangria was yummy. Check.
Seafood paella was on point (huge portion size too). Check.
All the appetizers I tried were flavorful and delicious. Check.
Service was excellent. Bonus check.
Even the potatoes in the lamb chops with chimichurri sauce was flavorful and seasoned to perfection. Oxtail empanada was really good too.
If I lived in the area, I would def. return!

** 3.5 STAR REVIEW **
This place has been on my bookmarks for a few months and what really intrigued me initially is that it is tapas (small dishes) style which I highly enjoy. Tapas style makes it easy for everyone to get a little bit of everything and share your experience with your dining companion or the whole table.
It is best to just park across the street in the parking deck; Don’t waste your time looking for street parking or other parking lots for which you have to pay. You can get your pass validated so make sure to bring in your ticket!
All that talk about tapas you would think I got like 3 or 4 plates just for me but I didn’t. prices varied from about $ 5 to $ 12 per tapas dish so my bill would have been out of my budget. Instead, I got the Seafood Paella– Spanish rice dish with shrimp,​mussels, calamari, tomatoes, peppers, onions for $ 18.
My waitress did inform me that if you got the larger portion of the Paella the wait could be upwards of 45 minutes but nothing about my personal entrée portion. I ended up waiting about 25 minutes for my dish to come to the table. it took a little longer than I had anticipated and she was so nice enough to offer 20% off my check! Now that’s some good service! My dish was good, but not great. The rice was cooked perfectly, the proteins were cooked perfectly as well. Although I am 100% sure there was no calamari in my dish which is the most expensive protein of them all. The taste of the overall dish was slightly tart and could use just a little bit more seasoning. Not sure what kind of ingredients makes this dish «Spanish» but I was hoping for more bold flavors.
I would definitely come back to try their tapas dishes next time I am in the area.

The food is a tremendous improvement over Europa’s. Torero’s tapas are simple, made well, with fresh ingredients whose distinct flavors shine through. As a vegetarian who recently subsisted for a month in Spain on tortilla espanola, I found Torero’s potato omelet to be a credible rendition, the smoked paprika cream to be a nice complement. The sopa del dia was tomato bisque, served with toasted Spanish bread with a little olive oil. Simple dish, small portion, satisfying combination.
Other members of our party had the bacon-​wrapped chorizo-​stuffed dates, artichokes with jamon, stuffed piquillos, shrimp fritters, and absolutely no complaints about the food.
However, this place has the most convoluted pricing structure ever. First, we ordered sangrias because they were advertised on the website as being half price on Thursdays, but when the check came we learned that special has been discontinued. But guess what we picked up in the entryway on our way out? Business cards advertising Sangria Night.
As for all that delicious food, this place needs to simplify its pricing. Our poor waitress repeated the rules about ordering off only one side of the menu to qualify for the 50% off special on tapas, or 20% off more elaborate items on the other side. In addition, you have to tell your server your intentions in advance if you’re keeping to one side of the menu for the special. This Monty Pythonesque secret-​handshake specials business helps no one.
Our server was a trooper. She was attentive while not at all being obtrusive. Plus, she recited and repeated the rules to that silly specials scheme as if she had done so many times before.
Good service + fresh, well-​prepared, tasty food should be a winner. Torero almost is.

I can’t rave enough how awesome this experience was. Came in around 8:45pm on a Tuesday evening– in Richmond for a business trip. Right away, I’m offered to sample some red wines because I can’t decide what wine I’ll be drinking. They ended up bringing out four different wines for me to taste.
We ordered the cheese plate, the pepper dip, stuffed mushrooms, garlic shrimp and the lamb meatballs. Everything was fantastic and timed perfectly in delivery. Then they brought out a complimentary tapas for us to try, plantains wrapped in a prosciutto and had a lemon aioli drizzled on top. Amazing. The food was perfect– absolutely no complaints.
We were the last ones in the restaurant and our waiter asked us if we would like to a complimentary shot. Heck yes we did! Awesome experience from the wine to the food to the customer service.
I have marked this as a go to in Richmond and will provide the highest recommendation to anyone who visits here. Will be back for sure and plan to bring my clients here on my next business trip.

«Yay! You did it! We went on a double date Friday, 10−03−14, with our friends Tony & Shannon who are also Unilocalers and you impressed us. I tried a cornucopia of new tapas and was impressed. However, the MORCILLA stole the show! Do not change suppliers. Whoever makes this for you GETS IT! We enjoyed both gazpacho offerings. Although our first order of chicken croquettes arrived a bit cold in the center, you DID THE RIGHT THING. You quickly refired and comp’d the order. Our server couldn’t have been more accommodating and helpful. Overall a great time and great meal. Thank you!» –Yelp Elite reviewer David J.
Tony Angel here reporting for duty! It’s hard to put into words how wonderful this double date was on November 3^rd. Shannon and I have never tried tapas and were pretty excited. Before I go into details let me just say our night was perfect. We started off with a carafe of sangria and it went UPHILL from there. I can’t recall each and every tapas we had but I do recall trying the cheese platter, chicken croquettes, baby lamb chops, potato omelet, and Morcilla Iberica.
For me the All-​Star of the show was the Morcilla Iberica (Spanish blood sausage). My goodness that is some bold flavor and I would absolutely order this every time I visit Torero. My second favorite was the chicken croquettes, and rounding third the potato omelet. I can’t say enough good things about those dishes.
In the spirit of fairness I have to point out the dismal chimichurri sauce. Now I fully understand that other countries have variations of the sauce. I understand this. However, that doesn’t matter because the only way to make this sauce is the way they do it in Argentina. All other countries have it wrong. This is a fact.
I was pretty euphoric from the Sangria and I know we were a pretty loud table. I recall a snob lady looking over the whole time. I’m sorry, but our table was representing five ethnicities (Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, and Scottish.) there was NO WAY we were using our library voices. It didn’t really matter because this was our night — complete with complimentary tres leches cake and coupons when we left. A+
Thank you Torrero for rolling out the red carpet!

3 things:
1) they just started offering brunch until 3:00
2) best tapas chef I’ve ever had, and I’m from NYC
3) impeccable service and plating without outrageous cost
4) every dish the table had was incredible in terms of creativeness and flavor!
Okay that was 4 things! Can you tell I’ll be going back!

I like this place! The atmosphere is great. It was pretty quiet when I went Thursday night. I enjoyed it being peaceful and good for a date! I enjoyed the shrimp fritters (seriously, you must order them) and the seafood paella. If you visit, make time to stay awhile, it’s not really a rush type restaurant. I look forward to going again!

Yay! You did it!
We went on a double date Friday, 10−03−14, with our friends Tony & Shannon who are also Unilocalers and you impressed us. I tried a cornucopia of new tapas and was impressed. However, the MORCILLA stole the show! Do not change suppliers. Whoever makes this for you GETS IT!
We enjoyed both gaspacho offerings. Although our first order of chicken croquettes arrived a bit cold in the center, you DID THE RIGHT THING. You quickly refired and comp’d the order.
Our server couldn’t have been more accommodating and helpful. Overall a great time and great meal. Thank you!