El Toreador

El Toreador El Toreador is a family mexican restaurant located in the heart of Redmond. A family owned establishment that has been in business for 44 years.
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Great food, drinks and value. We are a Cheers type of place with lots of regular customers at all times.

04/27/2026

Recipe drop
Coleslaw
White cabbage (green} very firm.
1 green bell pepper. Small
3 celery stalks. Sliced
1 small carrot. Use a potato peeler and add to taste. More carrot sweeter flavor.
Add almost nothing or no red cabbage. It tints the cabbage. Presentation is better with.
Add white vinegar and vegetable oil, and salt to taste.
That's it.
By all means experiment, Olive oil, garlic, Tajin all add flavor. Please share.

04/26/2026

Recipe drop.
Table hot sauce.
Campbells tomato juice 32 oz
1 tsp garlic powder or granulated garlic
1/2 tsp of Mexican oregano placed in the palm of your hands and ground up rubbing your hands together. Adds flavor.
1/2 tsp of salt, to taste.
Bring to a full boil and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Add 1 tbsp of white vinegar or a bit less to start.
here is the tricky part, crushed red pepper.
All brands are different so when you find the one you like remember it. We would buy 25 pounds in bulk. No name brand.
You could buy 3 brands and add to 3 seperate batches to see the differance.
Start out with a !/4 cup and whisk in and let sit for flavor to adjust.
You will have to tweak this to your liking. Store in glass after it cools. It should keep for 3 weeks because of the vinegar. A friend had his own batch of dried peppers and the salsa was so good.
Thanks Scott.
Hoping this puts a smile on someone's face. People have asked for this recipe so here we go.

06/26/2025

Well, it's finally here, the end of an era. Thank you to everyone who ever came into our establishment our mom started 45 years ago. You all will hold a dear place in our hearts forever, we will miss you. Last night we served our last meal to Simona, our long time bartender and friend. She drove out from Poulsbo just to have her last meal here. Unfortunately, we could not give notice due to the accident Matt had as we were understaffed and slammed every day as it was.

Words can never express the gratitude for the friendships, the celebrations, the tears for those no longer with us, we cherish all the memories. Thank you for making us feel so special. Thank you Redmond for embracing us from day one and to the community for always standing by us. It has truly been an honor.

We will be updating this page in the future if we decide to put together a cook book and possible El T's swag.

Forever in our hearts,
El T's crew!
Wayne, Erik, Mark

Hello everyone, I started a fundraiser on GoFundMe for our friend and coworker, Matt and would appreciate your support.
06/09/2025

Hello everyone, I started a fundraiser on GoFundMe for our friend and coworker, Matt and would appreciate your support.

I am posting this for our coworker and friend. Matt is the tall server most of you kn… Mark Mahan needs your support for Support Matt's Recovery After Surgery

05/03/2025

No final date yet but we’re still here.
The good news: we're not closed just yet.
The not so good news: we will be closed this Cinco de Mayo.
We’ve now been closed on Mondays for the past 10 weeks, and some of our amazing team members have since picked up other jobs on those days. So, in keeping with that rhythm, we’ll be taking May 5th off.

When the time does come to close for good, we have a feeling every day will feel a little like Cinco de Mayo, bittersweet, full of memories, and a celebration of all we’ve shared with you.
To everyone who’s left heartfelt messages: thank you. Truly. It’s our loss to say goodbye to such a loyal, loving community.
We’ve been so blessed with your support, and we know our mother, Esther, would be incredibly proud. RIP, Madre.

Wishing you all a joyful Cinco de Mayo, wherever you choose to celebrate.

This will be our first one closed.

Send a message to learn more

04/07/2025

Update: We have no idea when our last day is, we do have some time. This is something new for us so please be patient, we have the keys to the car. We say when our last day is and there is a lot of moving parts to this. This weekend we saw faces that are very familiar to us, some of them from a long time ago. The smiles, caring glances and a little bit of panic are all part of this. The hardest part of this is You! We can't just turn it off. There are customers that knew our mother and helped build this Restaurant.
The people are what kept us here. Some are not with us any more but we had the honor of knowing them. They will never be forgotten.
Once we have an idea of dates we will post it.

Send a message to learn more

04/03/2025

Well, it's official, our building is up for sale, this icludes the detached parking lot. Our mother opened the restaurant in 1980,
mom always said she didn't want us to work for anyone else. Well mom, we may have worked harder for ourselves. We are truly honored to have been embraced by the community. Over the years we have made special bonds with people and many friends and family.
With all the smiles and special moments we have shared I would start this all over again. All the generations that have walked through our door, WOW! 45 years is enough for us.
Quality of life is what's more important to us now. After losing our younger sister a couple of years ago to cancer and our other beautiful sister who has been fighting cancer for over 10 years, we feel it is time to do what's important for us. If you feel you want to bring this up at the restaurant, please bring some tissues for everyone.

Thank you Redmond!

02/18/2025

Starting February 17th Mondays will be closed. Business is slow. Sorry for this inconvenience.

02/09/2025

Closed for Super Bowl Sunday.
Eagles fan for a day.

02/06/2025

We are closing today due to the weather. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Be safe.

02/05/2025

We are closing down early today. Very slow and not worth trying to stay open.

Address

7845 Leary Way NE
Redmond, WA
98052

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 8:30pm
Tuesday 11am - 8:30pm
Wednesday 11am - 8:30pm
Thursday 11am - 8:30pm
Friday 11am - 9pm
Saturday 11:30am - 9pm
Sunday 12am - 8:30pm

Telephone

+14258837570

Alerts

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