I've had "bottomless brunch" on my to-do list for ages. They started popping up around town a couple of years ago and seem to be everywhere now. I love the idea of a long weekend lunch - nibbling on delicious food and having a few lazy cocktails with friends. I hadn't done one since the All-You-Can-Eat (and drink) Yum Cha at the (now defunct) Roving Marrow three-and-a-half years ago, so I was totally overdue for another. I was thrilled when I got an invite to try out the Feed Me Menu with Bottomless Booze at The Black Toro's new location on Chapel street, and used the excuse to have a girls' day out with my buddy April!

The Black Toro

104 Chapel Street

Windsor, VIC 3181

Ph: (03) 9521-3858

Website

The Black Toro is a popular modern-Mexican restaurant in Glen Waverley, and they've just opened a new location on Chapel street in Windsor. The Feed Me menu is $60 per person, with the chef's selection of dishes to share, and on weekend lunches you can upgrade to the "Bottomless" option for an extra $28. This will get you 1.5 hours of bottomless frozen margaritas, mimosas and bloody Marys. Cheers! (For your reference I've listed the menu price of the items in the picture captions; that's how much they would cost if you were to order them à la carte).

We started with a couple of frozen margaritas - mango and pineapple for April, and coconut, lime and jalapeño for me. They were refreshing and sweet (but not too sweet), and I'm always a sucker for tropical flavours. All too easy to drink!

The Black Toro Guacamole - roasted tomatoes, queso fresco, corn chips - $12

The corn chips were great! Made from fried pieces of corn tortillas, they were a step above your regular Doritos or CCs. Super crunchy and fresh and totally compulsive. It was hard to stop picking at these throughout the meal.

Jalapeño & cheese croquette with lime crema - $4.5 each

I don't think you can go wrong with deep fried cheese and jalapeños! Crunchy, hot, melty, spicy happiness on a plate.

Porcini mushroom donuts with whipped crème fraîche - $12

Savoury donuts! These porcini mushroom donuts were crisp on the outside and creamy within, and quite strongly flavoured. Good drinking food!

Salmon sashimi, crispy ginger, coconut & coriander vinaigrette - $19

The salmon sashimi was probably my least favourite dish of the day - although the fish was lovely and fresh, the cold creamy coconut vinaigrette had the flavours of a Thai-style curry, so for me it was a bit incongruous to have those flavours in a cold dish.

Kingfish tostada - crispy tostada, guacamole, toasted peanut slaw - $14

Much more successful were the kingfish tostada - super fresh kingfish slices in a sour citrus dressing, with creamy guac, crunchy peanuts and finely-sliced cabbage, all on a crisp tostada. They were really tasty, and I loved the contrast of textures, but they were a little messy to eat. Definitely not date food! (Although come to think of it, I'd still order these tostadas on a date because deliciousness is deliciousness and would you really want to date someone who'd judge you for eating messily?)

Short rib tacos - hard shell, spicy sauce, radish - $14

These teeny-tiny tacos were super cute and really delicious. They were very simple and really well balanced - just a crisp taco shell, slow cooked short ribs, some spicy mayo and crunchy fresh radish.

Fish tempura tacos - soft corn tortilla, chipotle mayo, cabbage and herb slaw - $16

I can't resist a fish taco, and The Black Toro's version was a winner. I loved the crunchy tempura fish and the smoky chipotle mayo, all wrapped in a warm soft corn tortilla. Classic and perfect.

BBQ beef short rib - aji panca glaze, corn salsa - $36 Baby gem lettuce, manchego, truffle-caper vinaigrette - $10

And finally, out came the main dish! Phew! We had a BBQ beef short rib, with lots of delicious corn, both in kernels and puréed. The beef was tender and had a sweet, kinda char siew vibe. It went well with the fresh corn. Would order again. Also, special shout-out for the side salad, which looked simple but really packed a flavour punch. Crunchy leaves of baby gem lettuce were dressed in a punchy truffle-caper vinaigrette and topped with slivers of Manchego cheese - fabulous!

Peanut butter cheesecake - PB cream, chocolate ice cream & honeycomb - $15

For dessert, we couldn't go past the peanut butter cheesecake. This was a deconstructed dessert - two super-smooth quenelles of peanut butter and cream cheese mousse, one quenelle of chocolate ice-cream, some biscuit crumbs, and super crunchy honeycomb. It was very rich and decadent - perfect for this peanut butter lover!

We really enjoyed lunch at The Black Toro. I was impressed with the food, especially the tacos and tostadas, and the Feed Me menu was a very good feed! I liked the relaxed vibe and would happily go back on my own coin.

The days are slowly getting longer and the weather's getting warmer - I'm predicting (or hoping) for more bottomless brunches in the sun. Do you like bottomless brunches / lunches? Do you have a favourite one? Hit me up in the comments!

Sarah and April dined as guests of The Black Toro