Torito Danvers

Torito Mexican Restaurant in Danvers opened about three months ago on Rte 1 SB. If you are coming from the south, I would recommend taking 95 instead of Rte 1 to get here. Everything on Rte 1 is always on the other side. Strange, isn't it? Torito is part of a nationwide chain, but its menu is a bit different from the corporate menu. Unfortunately, they have no Taco Tuesday specials, but who needs them with such reasonable lunch and dinner prices.

Plenty of parking. Yes, this was formerly a Chili's, and anything moving in had to be an improvement. There is a big area to the right that is ready for outdoor dining.

The interior is pleasant and divided into sections like this one. Comfortable bar seating in the middle.

Excellent chips and pretty boring tomato salsa. However, a restaurant that gives me refried beans with my chips promptly gets on my good side. If you are given a dinner menu at lunch and have to ask for the lunch menu, you promptly get on my bad side.

You can add soup to your lunch for $3.75, so I went with the CHICKEN ENCHILADA SOUP. "Creamy, rich, slightly spicy chicken broth topped with chunks of chicken breast, queso fresco, and pico de gallo $5.99". Creamy it was not. I was going to complain about the raw onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos that were dumped cold into the soup until I reread the menu. I took the leftover soup home, and after cooking it for 5 minutes, the soup was very agreeable. The promised chunks of chicken had been replaced with thinly shredded chicken. The soup itself was very savory.

Lunch CHILE VERDE ($10.99). "Tender pork simmered in a mild tomatillo sauce. Served with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, and warm tortillas". The corn tortillas arrived later but were fresh and tasty. The Chile Verde was excellent, tart from the tomatillos, and properly seasoned with tender pork. The rice needed seasoning, and so did the refried beans. The refried beans did have a nice texture. It was a really ginormous serving for a lunch portion, and it turns out that all lunch portions are very substantial.

If you call yourself a Mexican Restaurant and don't have Chile Verde on the menu, are you really a Mexican Restaurant?

They have FIESTA COMBOS on both the lunch menu and the dinner menu and the prices are the same. Again I had to ask for the lunch menu. All fiesta combos are served with rice and refried beans Choose from the following: Enchilada Tostada Burrito Taco Tamale Chile Relleno Acapulco (Choice of 1) $9.99 Cancún (Choice of 2) $10.99 Cozumel (Choice of 3) $12.99.

The choice of one Chile Relleno for $9.99 or two for $10.99 wasn't really a choice at all! I'm not sure if they read my post on IG, but this time the salsa was very palatable, and both the rice and the beans were seasoned. The poblanos were cleaned properly, and not a seed was present. The batter was very light, and this is as good as this dish can be. I also got lucky and got one spicy poblano. You never know what you will get, and you mostly get mild ones. Frying something crispy, then putting sauce on top doesn't make any sense to me 😡.

Lunch CHILE COLORADO ($10.99). "Tender chunks of skirt steak simmered in Colorado sauce and served with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, avocado, and warm tortillas" The tortillas didn't make it. The beans were still tasty, as was the rice. The Chile Colorado was fantastic! I have only had this dish once before, and it was just beef in a tomato sauce. That was a bit surprising since that restaurant has an excellent Chile Verde. This dish had a skirt steak that was tender and tasty, and the sauce was excellent, rich and almost spicy. The two avocado slices were soft and ripe. What an excellent dish this was. This time I got a lunch menu with the dinner menu.

I have always wondered where the name comes from. I mean, what has Colorado to do with Mexican cuisine? Turns out that the name derives from the Spanish word colorado, which means colored red, and so named because of the deep red color of the sauce. It's crazy delicious, and it's all about the chili peppers.

It's Cinco de Mayo, so it seemed appropriate to visit again for my lunch. I'm working my way down the lunch menu, and today it was time to try the FAJITAS ($11.29) from the lunch menu that I again had to ask for. "Your choice of grilled steak or chicken, flour tortillas, beans, rice. Garnished with lettuce, sour cream, cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, guacamole, and warm tortillas". Grilled steak, of course. Everything advertised was present. I forgot the "Hold the sour cream". I usually stay away from this dish since you often get overcooked and dry steak. The steak was tender but overcooked. The warm tortillas were fresh. The blob of guacamole was sitting on a mound of lettuce, but that's kind of expected. I wonder how much bigger the dinner version is for $16.99?

Their Margaritas are gigantic, 25 oz for $14.49.

The service has always been excellent and very friendly.

They have several burritos on the lunch menu, but I will not review them. I can't appreciate the mess that's served. I like to choose what I put in my mouth. I will agree that the burrito is convenient when eating on the go, but it's not for me.

Be aware that if you are heading back towards Rte 128, this green arrow at the intersection is kind of lying. The traffic coming from the left also has a green light. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having lights? It really should be a blinking orange light here.

Address: 10 Newbury St, Danvers, MA 01923 Phone: (978) 304-1203

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