Toro Bravo

This was my first time in Portland and I visited here with two other people. We all ordered the $45/person "sampler" and it was excellent! The waitstaff is great and they give you a brief background of each dish that is served; each person gets 12 separate dishes. The restaurant is located within a quiet neighborhood so it's actually a nice walk if you have to park a block or so away (parking was no problem when I visited). Highly recommend this place and I will def visit again!

This is a quaint little place - great ambience and lighting and the food was amazing. The prices are a little on the pricier side but let me tell you - it is worth every cent. It is really hard to find a great tapas place there days, believe me or not. This one checks out all the boxes. There is always a wait so be prepared to wait. Finding parking is a little hard because it's in a crowded residential area, so street parking is your best bet. Their menu is extensive and they have a huge variety. The lamp bun was really good and so fast the tapas with seafood. They have a nice drink collection going all the way up to the top end selections. Great for a romantic date as well as groups. They have a bar area, a general seating area, a few tables for waiting and a separated seating that looks like a room. Definitely would recommend.

After coming here on a Sunday night with friends I understand why people wait hours to eat here! It was raining and snowing and overall a pretty bad day in Portland so we didn’t have to wait at all to be led to a tapas table and then 10 minutes later seated at our seats. Food: We got a couple of things! -Toro Kiss : really interesting combo of bacon and sweet dates! Honestly melted nicely in my mouth and was a delightful but small experience! - Tortilla Con Amore : Deliciousness! Very simple and small though. - Squid Ink Pasta : Kind of bland for my tastes but had a good mix of ingredients and good textures. - Corbetta Steak : Truly a highlight! I loved the food and the savory flavor of the steak. - Flatbread : Surprisingly tasty even though it was so simple! - Burnt Cheesecake : Definitely get this! It was so delectable and not super sweet! - Fried Angel Cake : Really crunchy and super sweet! Service: I had read a lot about how this place had great service. I would even dare to say they are too nice here and almost to the point of seeming like actors in a play. Super great staff. Ambiance: This place has a great ambiance! It’s super intimate and great for a date night! Overall, super solid Spanish food and super great vibes!

The menu and plating were beautiful, and the drink recommendations were perfect. We had a little bit of a wait outside, even for an early unreserved dinner, but they were able to accommodate and seat us inside after serving us drinks and appetizers outside. Experiment with the menu. You can't go wrong.

If I could give this place 6 stars, I would. I already have people in mind I want to take and share this experience with. I'm typically not impressed/underwhelmed with the ones I have been besides actually going to Spain. Toro Bravo changed my mind. I loved watching kids eat green olives and squid, in other words I love the people and family it draws in. The Wait staff were so attentive. Even the chefs I talked to acknowledged need when I talked to them and gave me a warm smile. They were all so beautiful and you can tell they really had this passion for their craft. I went with my family. We decided to go with the Chef's choice for 45$ and a pitcher of sangria. This is the wonderful array if fabulous dishes and my notes about each one. 1)Spanish Kiss, Spherical Olive This was a deconstructed then restructured olive An absolute burst of intense flavor. This was Molecular gastronomy at it's finest. 2)Bacon Wrapped Date in Honey A classic favorite tapa of mine. Crunch, sweet, smokey, salty with honey to complement both the bacon and the date. 3)Duck Liver Mousse Terrine Distinctly wonderful. Morel mushrooms, house made pickles, brown seedy mustard, soft fresh bread, crunchy crisp for more textures. Mousse was some if the best, creamy, absolutely satisfying. 4)Radicchio Salad with Manchego Vinaigrette Probably one of my favorite dishes. I was baffled on how good radicchio can taste. I like radicchio but I'd never seen it out. It was the first time my sister even liked radicchio. This salad was fresh and savory. The mix if the green olives tapenade, manchego vinaigrette and radicchio was just so yummy. I'm going to try my best to do something like this at home. This would go perfectly in a steak. 5)Calamari a la Plancha -with green harissa mayo and pocha beens Squid was perfectly cooked. I would definitely order this again just for that. This was rich and smokey in flavor, the pocha beans were creamy. This was just, "right." 6)Harissa Stewed Butternut Squash My family couldn't stop talking about this dish especially with the sweet and tangy sheep cheese. Everyone was scraping their plate. My sister said this would be great with some roasted, salted pepitas. 7)Jamon Croquette Crusty salty coating around, flavorful potatoes and rich Jamon. I could have eaten the whole plate on my own. Another one of my favorites. I get it when Action Bronson says "F@#$, that's delicious." It just makes sense. That's exactly how I felt with this. 8)Fried Turnips with Mojo Pecans Crusty on the outside. A great way to have turnips. This was probably my least favorite but it was still a wonderful transitional dish, for the variety of the tasty tapas we had. 9)Kalletes- it's own awesome veggie. A brussel and kale hybrid grown locally. The best of both words. Great greens, mixed with manchego and coriander sauce. 10)Seared Scallops These perfectly cooked scallops we're paired with a fennel slaw, romesco, and a fantastic sauce. *Notice my description are decreasing. I started to get full. I love quality food I hate when people talk about portions and not the vast flavors. I found this to be the opposite here. This place has the perfect bites. 11)House Smoked Coppa Steak Carmelized onion and confit potatoes Cracked olives and salbitxada This steak was savory wonderful, buttery and rare. The potatoes, onion and sauce just went so well with the steak. The flavor lingered when I was done. I was tempted to over eat. I just have to cone back. Last but not least we got these salty, chocolate covered almonds in powder sugar. They were not too sweet the were stacked with such great flavors. I can't wait to come back next time I visit Portland!