A CUT ABOVE: Toro Toro has exclusively designed interiors with a great ambience. Right: Richard Sandoval, the owner of Toro Toro, holding one of his two bulls by the horns at the restaurant entrance. Photos by Umer Nangiana
By Umer Nangiana
Toro Toro, the popular and much awaited Pan Latin American restaurant by celebrity chef Richard Sandoval, has opened its doors in Qatar. Located in the gardens of Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl-Doha, the new hotspot is an exciting concept in Doha’s booming culinary scene, priding itself on offering guests a contemporary take on tastes from the Latin America region including, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.
“The first Toro Toro was opened in Dubai five years ago and it was all based around the Brazilian churrascaria, which is a concept where you will have a buffet -- you come in, you serve yourself from the buffet and then you know there is a limited cut that comes from the Churassco grills and the swords,” Sandoval tells Community in a chat recently at the pre-opening press review dinner.
The Latin American food is more than a meal, it is an event. Toro Toro embraces this concept offering new flavours on a diverse menu encouraging diners to sample a range of exotic and delicious dishes, each bursting with exciting flavours, says the owner of the restaurant. Toro Toro is the first restaurant of its kind in Qatar. As one of the most successful and growing concepts of the internationally renowned Chef Richard Sandoval, a refined take on the traditional churrasco grill is at the heart of the Toro Toro menu featuring only the finest meats, poultry and seafood.
Highly skilled passadores prepare premium cuts of meat at the table before perfectly slicing the meat onto sizzling hot plates, ready to enjoy. “As we open our doors to guests we are confident it will become the chosen foodie destination in Qatar offering a vibrant atmosphere and full Latin experience,” says Sandoval.
The meat is served in a way that there is a card at your table, if it is green they keep bringing you meat and if turns red, they will stop. You can eat as much meat as you want. “We wanted to take this idea and kind of modernise it a little bit. I wanted to make Toro Toro a little female-friendly. Steak houses, for me, have always been male driven especially in the US. So I built the menu from all of South and Central America,” adds Sandoval.
“If you come here, it is not that you are only coming here for steak, you will have ceviche, catalpas, salads; and you will have a nice variety of dishes from all of South and Central America and you can order a steak and share it and we have a skewer for two people it has chicken, lamb and beef and much else.”
Sandoval says that for him it is all about sharing. And it is also important that people taste the foods from other countries in South and Central America that people know very little about. “Everybody knows Mexican, Peruvian and that is it. So this is about introducing people to food from other parts as well,” says the owner of the restaurant.
The unique venue offers phenomenal views over Qanat Quartier and the Arabian Gulf with inside and outside dining on the terraces. The sultry interior pays homage to the fires of the traditional churrasco grill with accents of burnt orange on dark charcoal walls and animal motifs, textured natural sculptures and leather furniture running throughout.
Doha’s newest hotspot offers 156 seating in the ground floor restaurant and 185 in the upstairs lounge, including the outdoor seating. Sandoval says he got it exclusively designed. “First I hired a great designer and then I told him what my vision is. If you walk in, you would see some similarities between this one and the one in Dubai but they are very different from each other. We do not like copy and paste and that is why I have 40 restaurants around the world with 9 different brands,” says Sandoval.
Bojan Petrovic has been appointed Executive Chef and will oversee operations in Toro Toro Doha. Petrovic has several years’ experience at Sandoval’s Toro Gastro Latin Bar in Belgrade, Serbia. Doha is the fourth city to welcome a Toro Toro restaurant following Dubai, Miami and Washington, DC.
