Pau Hana Patrol: Torito’s serves affordable drinks, eats

Pau Hana Patrol: Torito’s serves affordable drinks, eats

Bartender Mike Emperado pours a Li Hing Margarita at the bar at Torito’s Mexican Food in Market City Shopping Center. “Margarita Thursdays” feature standard margaritas for $5.50 and flavored margaritas for $6.50. (Star-Advertiser photo by Bruce Asato)

Thirsty Mondays? Margarita Thursdays?

The days and specials might be a little mixed up, but that hardly matters at Torito’s Mexican Food in the Market City Shopping Center. Walk into this casual neighborhood restaurant any day of the week and you will find a bevy of daily drink specials to go along with many tasty, sharable dishes perfect for a pau hana stop.

While I had a difficult time deciding which day to go, I settled on Margarita Thursday, when drink specials include standard margaritas for $5.50 and flavored margaritas for $6.50.

Our party ordered standard, strawberry and li hing mui margaritas, all of which were fairly generous in size. While I was a little disappointed with my blended strawberry margarita (it was rather watery), I have to assume it was an aberration, because the other two drinks were outstanding. The standard margarita, served on the rocks, tasted wonderful — not overly strong and not too sour. Meanwhile, the blended li hing mui margarita was perfect for someone who likes sweet drinks (“Like li hing mui ice cake,” my friend said).

Margarita Thursdays also include margarita pitchers — in my opinion, far too few local places offer mixed-drink pitchers — for $24 ($28 flavored).

Here’s a quick rundown of the restaurant’s other daily bar specials: Thirsty Mondays ($10 domestic pitchers, $4 1800, $6 Peligroso), Tequila Tuesdays ($14 premium pitchers, $2 well tequila, $3 Kona Longboard, $5 Patron and Cazadores), Wild Wednesdays ($3 Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Amber Bock, Jack and Coke, Crown and Coke), Island Fridays ($3 Kona Longboard, Primo, Kona Big Wave and Fire Rock drafts, $8 dangerous margaritas) and Saturday steals ($4 Stella and Heineken, $6 Peligroso shot, $10 Primo and Peligroso/Corona and Peligroso).

A Mexican Pizza at Torito’s consists of a crispy tortilla topped with your choice of meat, mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes, chives, onions and red, green and yellow peppers. (Star-Advertiser photo by Bruce Asato)

Food isn’t discounted for happy hour here, but appetizers on Torito’s regular menu are reasonably priced and ideal for sharing.

Since this is a Mexican restaurant, we ordered nachos. Torito’s has six topping options — cheese, super (bean), chicken, shredded beef, ground beef and chili. With a vegetarian in our group, we opted for the Cheese Nachos ($9.50). It was good, with crispy and fresh chips smothered with melted cheese and topped with tomatoes, olives, chives, guacamole and sour cream.

The same chips, by the way, are served free with an order, with a delicious spicy salsa.

We also tried the Mexican Pizza ($9.50), which consists of a deep-fried tortilla topped with a choice of meat (I opted for shredded beef), melted cheese, bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, olives and chives.

While I liked the nachos, the pizza was to die for! That was due to the incredibly tasty shredded beef.

Torito’s should expect me back soon, this time for a dinner consisting of a gigantic burrito filled with that heavenly stuff.

Because it’s one of my favorite desserts, we had a little fun and ordered the deep-fried ice cream ($5.50): vanilla ice cream rolled in cornflakes, fried and topped with a thick blanket of whipped cream. Unfortunately, the cornflakes were stale. But it sure tasted good — it was very sweet, with a taste of honey.

I know lots of people bemoan the idea that Hawaii doesn’t have any good, authentic Mexican food. I don’t know about that, but I do know what I like — that includes Torito’s.