El Toro De Don Jose Mexican Restaurant

El Toro Mexican restaurant is located on Ft.
Campbell Blvd in Clarksville Tennessee.
There are so many Mexican restaurants, so it is hard for a restaurant to differentiate itself from the mass of others.
El Toro does not do that as it once did. Prior to Covid, El Toro featured a Mexican buffet.
While the food on the buffet was not always the absolute greatest, the variety of Mexican fare and novelty of a Mexican buffet more than made up for a few less than stellar offerings.
Imagine my disappointment to find out the El Toro buffet is gone. With the buffet gone, El Toro is like the other thousands of Mexican restaurants in Clarksville Tennessee.
Personally, I feel like the quality and taste of food from El Toro is better than most other Mexican restaurants.
The ground beef in the tacos had an actual flavor, unlike the bland offerings of others.
The salsa had a spicy flavor.
Unlike the no taste salsa of other Mexican restaurants.
I have lamented before of the bland Americanized flavors of local Mexican restaurants.
El Toro features more authentic Mexican flavors and spices than you will find elsewhere. While I liked the food, the service was atrocious.
Perhaps the particular employee was having an off day.
It happens.
Just be cognizant of the issue of poor service. One other negative aspect of El Toro was the gas quality of the restrooms.
It was bad.
While you don't eat in the bathroom, how clean and sanitary are the employees/food prep areas if the bathrooms are in this condition. While I found the food to be excellent at El Toro Mexican restaurant, without the buffet, it shall remain a pass to me.

*updated review from 5 stars* After years of being faithful regulars Adrian the "General manager" who then corrected himself as an assistant manager when I addressed his lack of professionalism both snickered, and sarcastically handled me calling with a couple order issues. We will absolutely not be coming back, and have ordered our same meal for several years to have it not only $22 dollars more tonight but entirely wrong. He challenged me, he cut me off, he said "like I said" and "well it's not wrong" so many times I lost count. We had an extra entre added that we did not order, we had a missing order and was not given side of cheese for nachos but a Pico cup of it. He was rude, unprofessional, and when asked to speak to the general manager laughing while telling me he was all I had.
The general manager "had a baby a few months ago and comes and goes and has no schedule, so if you have an issue you can talk to me." I asked several times for a time frame and eventually he said I might catch her calling back on a weekend. The order had no quality check, or quality to it. We are disappointed as this has been our go to once a week. He said best he could do was refund the entre that was "accidentally" added.
When I told him that wasn't taking care of our entire $70 order he had the audacity to laugh and say well. That's how he responded, ended his sentence and phone call. Looks like we will need to find a new place, because this is entirely too much to excuse for a mere refund of something we never ordered and just eat the remaining $60 in food that was poor. Including pictures of the cheese given for the nachos, while the nachos look good in theory, what are they with enough cheese for 3 chips. The side of beans was rudely said to be included inside the entre, as seen this wasn't even the normal amount given. Also the side of chicken that was ordered was not seasoned as usual, not a big deal nor even mentioned but still disappointed. Would like an actual manager with customer service to respond, thanks.

Owner response

El Toro is a great restaurant, one of the best.
The staff is polite and service is good.
The food is stellar.
My wife and I have gone there three times, different food every time and we loved it.
The music is not too loud, and the fried ice cream is delicious.