Black Toro, Windsor

Black Toro has opened a new branch at Windsor! The original restaurant in Glen Waverley on Kingsway served fabulous food which captured my taste buds and hearts so I just had to check out the new restaurant in Windsor. 

The restaurant feels a bit more casual, perhaps because we went for lunch and not dinner when we visited the Glen Waverley restaurant. There were only one waitperson that day, and when we arrived, there was a staff who was still cleaning the windows. Menu wise, I don't think there is much difference if any between the two. 

We ordered the porcini doughnut ($12 for 4) as entree. The use of the term doughnut in the name of the dish threw me off a little, because it was not at all fluffy as a doughnut is. Yes, there is a nice fragrance of porcini mushrooms but it resembled an arancini ball which is dense and gooey in the inside but without the crispy skin. The outside of the doughnut is spiced, looked dark and burnt (but is not burnt), which I didn't like. This is probably a dish I could have skipped ordering. 

Gaz ordered the jalapeno and cheese croquette ($9 for 2) as entree. Boy, they certainly did not skimp on the jalapeno! It was very spicy, much too spicy for me. The lime crema provides some sort of relief but ultimately the margarita we ordered did the trick. The outside of the croquette is crispy, but it smells like it was fried by the same oil used to fry the doughnut, in that they both tasted a little similar on the outside.

A deconstructed fish tempura taco ($16 for 2). The fish tasted like battered basa fish, with cabbage slaw and sriracha mayo. This dish was good, but I wished they had used another type of white fish like rockling because it is tastier and better quality.

For main, we ordered Lamb Barbacoa ($42) which is lamb slow cooked in banana leaf, pickles, salsa and tortilla. The idea is to pull apart the lamb, which is oh so tender and tasty, gather a little daikon, ginger and carrot pickles, pile them on a tortilla and put some salsa sauce before eating. The lamb was tender and not too fatty. The banana leaf adds a subtle fragrance to the lamb. This was probably the best dish of the day.

Overall I think there were some hit and misses this time as I didn't particularly enjoy the first two dishes, found the third dish to be average and enjoyed the last dish most.