DC Restaurant Week: Toro Toro Restaurant Takes The Win
The time has come where everything is bleak, grey, and cold. The weather sucks, everybody is sick, and it seems like it’ll never get warm again. However, there is one week that makes everything just a little bit better: restaurant week. Fortunately, winter restaurant week coincided with my first week of classes, so I got to spend my first Friday of the spring semester at Toro Toro, a Pan-Latin tapas restaurant that has become one of my favorites in D.C.
For those that don’t know, tapas are “small plates.” They’re usually pretty unfulfilling—they’re miniscule! But, at Toro Toro, you get unlimited tapas just for $35 during restaurant week (the regular price for unlimited tapas is $55). If you want to add unlimited drinks—which you absolutely should—the price raises to $55. It is so worth it. The drinks menu for restaurant week is spectacular, delicious, and strong, everything you want in a drink. It’s amazing, honestly. You sit at the table, order as much food as you want, drink as much as you want (no driving, though!). Eat, drink, and be merry has never rang truer!
This time around, I sat at the bar instead of sitting at a table. I also opted to get a simple glass of wine instead of the unlimited deal because it was happy hour and I had to work later. It was a great glass of sauvignon blanc nonetheless. I’ll admit, the service was a bit slower than I’m used to here, but most of the servers were so kind, I couldn’t be too mad.
Now let’s get into the food!
The first thing I ordered was “empanadas de lomo saltado.” These empanadas are life changing. Seriously. I could eat these every day and be happy. My waiter ordered me some other things to try—empanadas de choclo (they are corn-filled bites of heaven.) and short rib tacos. Next, I ordered from the anticuchos (Peruvian skewer) menu. This was $10 extra, but I figured I might as well splurge a bit since I wasn’t drinking. I ordered the pulpo, octopus. Again, it was amazing. Next came the tempura mahi mahi tacos. I can’t express how tasty everything is here. The flavors are all extremely well-balanced. You don’t have to reach for the salt and pepper, the flavor is already there and it’s perfect. Following the tacos, I ordered the sweet potato soup. It was creamy but not excessively so. They also blended the sweetness of the potato with some savory elements which worked very well with the soup. Next, I had another anticuchos item, carne. It was, again, extremely flavorful. It was also amazingly tender. There’s nothing worse than chewy beef. Finally, I ended my meal with Peruvian ceviche. Ceviche is a medley of seafood “cooked” with a blend of citruses.
If you’re feeling bummed that you missed out on DC restaurant week, don’t worry! Toro Toro has a great happy hour menu! Summer restaurant week will also come, and you can go all out with the tapas! Whatever you do, you must give Toro Toro a try. Have I ever steered you wrong?