Order the Zanahorias: Review of Toro Boston

Our third dinner in Boston was at Toro, a Spanish tapas restaurant in the South End. Spanish/Latin American food has quickly become one of my favourite cuisines, and this restaurant had high ratings across every site I looked at. So, we decided to check it out.

Toro Boston Food

At the time we ate there, the restaurant was still using QR code menus, so I’ve linked to the website menu here.

We started with the Tortilla Española, which was basically a thick and fluffy potato omelet. I don’t normally love egg dishes, but this had a really interesting (in a good way) texture and flavour. The creativity of the dish was impressive, as some thought was clearly put into the details. My only comment would be that it fell apart really easily, despite us cutting it carefully.

Next up was the Pan con Tomate, consisting of toasted bread and a tomato spread. It was very similar to bruschetta, but in my opinion, slightly better. I loved the crunch of the seeds in the spread.

My dad then had the Croquetas de Bacalao, which were salt cod croquettes with fried lemon. Since I’m vegetarian, I couldn’t sample these, but my dad really liked the addition of the lemon and thought they were great overall.

We also ordered the Maíz Asado – essentially grilled corn. It was topped with alioli, lime, and aged cheese, which combined perfectly to add a kick to the dish. I couldn’t stop eating the toppings, they were that good.

Our final dish was the Zanahorias – the restaurant had obviously saved the best for last. I had seen everyone raving about these online, and had personally received recommendations to order them. After taking just one bite, I could no longer question if this is the restaurant’s most impressive dish. The berbere spice was delicious and I loved the tahini ranch dipping sauce. This dish was a combination of all the best flavours. If nothing else, I would suggest coming to Toro just to eat these. It was most certainly the standout of all my meals in Boston.

Toro Boston Drinks

We both had off menu non-alcoholic drinks, which were pretty good. My dad thoroughly enjoyed both of them, however I found mine a little too strong for my liking. I don’t tend to love strong drinks though, so that was more my tastes than the drink being bad.

Toro Boston Dessert

For dessert we ordered the churros, as both of the other choices contained nuts. I liked them, although the chocolate was far too sweet for me, so I couldn’t dip the churros in it. It’s definitely meant to be eaten with the chocolate, so they tasted a little boring without it, but it was overall a good dessert.

Toro Boston Ambience

My one true complaint about Toro would be the ambience. My dad and I were sitting across from each other, three feet apart at the same table. I had to pull down my mask and scream in order to be heard by him, and vice versa. It was insanely loud inside.

Also, I didn’t appreciate the lack of spacing or outdoor dining right in the peak of the Omicron surge, but as I saw throughout my entire trip, Boston got over COVID protocol a little too early on.

Toro Boston Service

The service was very friendly, and I genuinely felt as though the staff wanted to make a good impression to all of their customers. The sole mishap was when I was randomly brought a glass of wine which I quite obviously didn’t order, but we got a waiter’s attention and they fixed it right away.

Final Thoughts

While the meal wasn’t 100% perfect, the highlights were so incredibly good that I would have no hesitations returning to the restaurant, even if just for the Zanahorias. If you decide to dine at Toro, I would absolutely recommending ordering those, along with the Maíz Asado.

If you are interested, I reviewed Ilona and Stoked Pizza Co on the same trip, both of which were also excellent meals.