Restaurant Review: Torero's Mexican Family Restaurant

Torero's Mexican Family Restaurant, located in Cottage Grove, Oregon, has been a local's favorite since they opened. In fact, my husband's family is known by name when they walk in the door.

Located just steps from our local bowling alley and with in a quarter of a mile of our speedway, this restaurant is a favorite place to feed our hungry locals after many of their favorite pastimes.

They are a great family-oriented with restaurant with colored, traditionally Mexican decorations. While they have many tables in the front portion of their restaurant, there is also a back room to accommodate large parties.

The menu is reasonably priced with dinner plates ranging between $10 and $20, depending on the ingredients. Every dinner is served with beans, rice and all the fixings, that are of course if you have room for them after their home-made chips, salsa and Pico de Gallo.

The service in always perfect and you are treating like family when you go there. One customer, Aubree Carter, mother of three and local travel agent, had this to say, "The have great food and are very welcoming to children. (The) staff is always friendly." Her favorite dish on the menu is the Pollo Asada with one Tamale.

Another frequent customer, Tara Hamilton, mother of two and Weyerhaeuser employee, recommends the Enchilada Del Mar, but says to stay away from their hamburgers, which is fine because you should always eat the specialty food when at a themed restaurant.

The restaurant is very clean and always busy. There is plenty of parking and ordering to go orders is a great option for a night in with your favorite Mexican food. While, I like most of their dishes as much as the next person, I usually order mine without the beans and rice.

I do this for two reasons, I am on a diet and who needs all the extra stuff when the portions are so huge anyway. Of course, you can always take home the left-over's and have a great late night treat. This works especially well with the deconstructed dishes, because you can keep the vegetables, meat and tortillas separate until you eat them. This makes for better heating and taste later on.

The other reason is that the beans and rice are pretty dry. I don't know if it is because of the heated plates or if they sit in a warmer for awhile before they are served, I am just not a fan and that's alright, they don't mind at all.

So, my family and many others in town give this local favorite two forks up and will continue to dine there for generations to come. If you are ever in the area, stop on by and see why we love it so much.