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reviewed on May 16, 2008

Anyone who knows me understands that I bristle when I hear the word “authentic” applied to food. It’s usually used when referring to ethnic fare, such as “authentic Italian,” totally ignoring the fact that most ethnic food in this country has been Americanized to the point that it barely resembles the original dish. So, I was naturally suspect when we paid a visit to Toro Bronco this week, a restaurant that boasts “real” Mexican food.

Even before you get to the food, Toro Bronco piques your curiosity. For the last six years it’s been located in an obscure strip center off the southeast corner of Monaco and Evans. The outside of the building is non-descript adobe-colored brick with a big sign that declares simply “Mexican Food.” The front door leads you into a colorful, tile-floored waiting area with a variety of video games. To the right is a large party room, while the spacious main dining room with stuccoed dividing walls of a pale green color sits to the left. The booths and tables are clothless, varnished wood. The chairs are wooden, heavy, rustic. The air is filled with guitar music. It’s exactly what you would expect if you were in a small-town restaurant somewhere south of the border.

The first page of the menu, labeled “American Favorites,” is a carbon copy of what you’ll find in any stateside Mexican restaurant. There are enchiladas, chimichangas, tacos, huevos rancheros, and even a few burgers. It isn’t until you get to the appetizers on page two that you realize things here might truly be different. There are fresh oysters served with shrimp and jalapeños. There are deep-fried fish cubes. And there are stuffed, grilled jalapeño peppers. “How hot are the jalapeños?” we ask our waiter who shrugs and says you never know. When you’re dealing with fresh jalapeños, some are hotter than others. We glance at each other and decide to take a chance with the Chiles Toro—three large, grilled jalapeños filled with shrimp and melted jack cheese and served with a chipotle mayonnaise. We cautiously each try one. Very tasty. Heat level’s not bad at all. Then we split the second one, take a bite, both gasp and reach for our margaritas. Hot, but I have to tell you, not so hot that we didn’t wipe the plate clean.

The specialty of the house is the parrillada. Served family style, it’s a large metal serving dish with your choice of grilled steak, marinated pork, shrimp, chicken or carnitas, along with grilled green onions, jalapeños, beans, and baked potatoes. It can be ordered for two, three or four. We saw quite a few of these come out of the kitchen during our visit, and it’s a real eye-popper.

But the parrillada is just the beginning of intriguing dishes on this menu. There are things like the Filete Arizona—layers of steak, shrimp and bacon served with potatoes, the Pechuga Sinaloa of grilled chicken and shredded poblano pepper in a corn-cream sauce, and the Camarones Fiesta—fried shrimp stuffed with jack cheese and wrapped in bacon. The Felete al Vapor was a large mahi mahi filet that had been wrapped in foil and then allowed to rest on the griddle so that it steamed in its own juices. It came with a baked potato, a mound of white rice, and vegetables. If that sounds like a lot of food, it is. You won’t leave Toro Bronco hungry.

Our second entrée choice was Chendo’s Special. I have no idea who Chendo is (or was), but we just had to try this intriguing dish which is prepared by melting jack cheese on a grill until it begins to crisp up, then using the flattened disc just as you would a tortilla to wrap around a filling of pico de gallo, shrimp and bits of steak.

So, the question remains, is this “real” Mexican food? All I can tell you is that it’s greatly different from what you’ll find in just about any other Mexican eatery in the city, and according to the manager, their clientele is ninety percent Hispanic, which has to count for something. Besides, in the final analysis, I guess it doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as it’s tasty and reasonably priced.

Toro Bronco
2200 S. Monaco Parkway (south of the Sears store at Monaco and Evans)
303-782-0200