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Lam Toro
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
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10 reviews for Lam Toro
Tip #1: Expect to have the freshest meats, sweetest juices and ripest plantains you'll ever taste. Africans know how to cook!
Tip #2: Expect to be on APT (African People Time).
Tip #3: Be a G and try the spicy sauce....just make sure you have lots of water by you.
Tip #3: Expect to pay $15 for $30 worth of food.
Tip #4: Bring cash, no CCs accepted.
Tip #5: Go on a Friday night, the best meals are served then and there's a live African band playing. What more could you want???
Delicious! Can't sing enough praises about the quality of food at Lam Toro! I ate at Lam-Toro last Saturday evening and entered what felt like one of my parent's friends' living room. Suave, West African beats played on the radio and the room was adorned with West African paintings and trinkets. My friend and I both had the grilled fish and salad with plantains. Delicious! I would highly recommend Lam Toro to those who are looking for an introduction to West African cuisine!
OMG!!!! This food was SO delicious! My first taste of it wasn't actually in the restaurant, it was at a friends house. She had the leftover grilled fish and I took a little piece off, just to taste it. That food was so damn good, I had to curse in my review of the place!! She told me where she got it from, and I just brushed it off. Just thought to myself 'that was some good fish!"
Well about 2 months later, the same friend tells me we are going to get West African food. I was down to go, so we arrived there. This little shop on Telegraph that looked no different from the other stores except for the little stand up sign outside. We went inside to eat and i Have to say, I saw one of the most gorgeous men I have EVER seen in my life...and he was the WAITER!! Definite hottie...that bumped his tip by $3 automatically!! lol!
Back to the food. That day, I had the lamb yassa. I don't know what the other reviewer is talking about when they said it was dry, that lamb was so good, it just melted off the bone! I had it with couscous and WOW!! It seriously brought tears to my eyes the food was so good. I finished my meal right down to the last little sprinkle of couscous that was on my plate (and it was a big serving too...i just couldn't stop!!).
I went back last week, to pick up 2 of the grilled fish to take to my boyfriend and he tore it down. The prices are great for food that good. You might have to wait a while depending on what time of day you come and what day it is, but believe me when i tell you that its definitely worth the wait. I will continue to go back again and again and enjoy that fish...bones and all!! (by the way, the other reviewer complained about the bones on the fish, probably just used to not eating fish with bones...this fish is just TOO good to just eat around the bones. You got to suck on them and get that meat off!! I just don't think she knew how to eat the fish is all) Try it. SO worth it...and they have nice eye candy working there too! (for the ladies that is!)
West African food? I'm game. I'm game.
Really tasty food. I had the whole fish with the oniony sauce and the couscous and it was great. The service is kind of improvised but friendly. Nice to have an alternative to Korean on Telegraph.
P. S. That relish is beyond hot. Use sparingly. Beware my K-brothers, this is not ssamjang.
My Senegalese buddy treated me & M to dinner at Lam Toro. I had actually wanted to take him there, but he told me it was "his house", and to put away my wallet.
Fair enough! I'm not arguing, especially in these economic times!
What a fun place! It's bright and cheerful, with a somewhat lackadaisical semi-amateurish-feeling decor, and laid-back service. "You're on African time" , my buddy told me. Who am I to argue? He's one of the most mellow guys I know, so I put my east-coast-caffeinated side on hold and went with the flow. (Heck, it turned out the drummers slated for the evening had decided that 10pm was *far* too early to hit the stage, and had opted to go home and unwind before coming out. No worries, although I wish I could have seen them!)
The food is lots of fun. As other reviews have warned, the habernero relish is lethally hot, go easy.
I had the Chicken Yassa, my buddy had the fish version, and M had the PB&L (Peanut Butter and Lamb... ok, it wasn't called that, but I can't remember what it actually was called!)
The chicken and fish were both awesome, and had the same sort of sweet onions slathered over the top as was on one of the apps (which I also can't remember what it was called). Great plaintains as well!
I have to nudge everything down to just four stars, mostly due to the (traditionally, according to my friend) deafening volume inside and the fact that everything in sight was fried, which wasn't really obvious from the menu.
Apparently Friday nights are definitely The Night. Lunchtime is mostly a call-ahead-takeout affair.
I'll be back!
When the waiter tells you the dish of relish is "hot"... believe him. And not just in-the-moment hot, but stays-with-you, eyes-nearly-watering hot. Yowza. Fortunately, the tart hibiscus drink ("bissap") cut through it and quenched my thirst.
The fish and lamb entrée I ordered was essentially a stew, and while delicious, the fish definitely overpowered the lamb. I was very pleasantly surprised by the mussels included in it, and I only left any broth behind because I required myself to sample a friend's leftover chicken. Baked with a sesame-like crust, it was also very good. Nearly every entrée on the menu was $11-12, which our group of 6 all found to be very fair.
Service was attentive, friendly, and low-key, fitting the warm atmosphere provided by the flags and trinkets from (presumably) western Africa. A beautiful mural of a tropical beach covers one entire wall, matching the 8x10 photo on the opposite wall.
Even within the diversity of international food options in the Bay Area, Lam Toro is a chance to try something you won't find every day.
Also reviewed in our "Eating up Telegraph" project... http://eatinguptelegra...
We were really intrigued when we realized that our next stop was a new West African restaurant on Telegraph.
My intrigue partially stemmed from the fact that I for some reason thought this was a sushi place. But when we walked in and saw a massive party of African folks (in full regalia - it was a birthday celebration) and the groovy dreadlocked waiter and realized that African music was playing, my uncanny grasp of the obvious led me to realize that Lam-Toro was not Japanese for Something-Fatty Tuna...
So, in we went to experience this new Telegraph haunt. I hear that it's recently been besieged by neighborhood hipsters who go in to drink and hang out after 10 or so, but the Mama Buzz crowd doesn't bother me. I have a Hulk Hogan t-shirt and Vans and I'm not afraid to wear either. (Both are recommended if you actually want service at Mama Buzz...)
But this isn't a Mama Buzz review, because it's not open for dinner (we tried) and we therefore skipped it. We may go back at some point and review it for breakfast (we've eaten there before). I will digress further to note that $10 punk rock haircut night on the first Sunday of the month at Mama Buzz kept me in cheap haircuts for several months, but I'm not sure if they're still doing that - it's under new ownership.
Anyway, back to Lam-Toro.
What we ordered: Roasted chicken with couscous, Lamb with rice, groovy ginger drinks (non-alcoholic)
Service: amazingly friendly and relaxed - our waiter was fantastic
Atmo: festive, fun and really loud (due to the aforementioned African b-day celebration)
Crowd: local African natives and their friends
Spent: $40.00
Overall rating: 3.5 sporks (an extra half spork for service and Atmo)
The best thing about this place may be the service. Our waiter was super nice, explained everything and genuinely wanted us to enjoy ourselves. He apologized for the noise level of the party (this place is small), but we liked the party and had fun watching them dance around the restaurant and clap/sing.
He also told us that our next visit was on the house, because we ordered a special that had been exhausted by the party. We didn't have the heart to tell him that we're working our way down Telegraph and that it may be a damn long time before we return...
The food was interesting, but the meat was a bit dry. The lamb in particular was really dry, and not being familiar with African food we're not sure if this is an African preparation or whether it was just overcooked. We'll probably become more familiar with African food as we work our way down Telegraph.
The chicken was a big hunk o'chicken with bones and all, and somehow this roasted chicken tasted - I swear - like KFC. I suppose it was something about the spice rub, but this chicken was legitimately good and the KFC hints (without all the fat) made it that much better. I'd eat this chicken again; we wouldn't however eat the lamb again.
Like Off the Hook, the food tasted and looked like someone's native grandmother was in the back making dinner for friends. I like this kind of "real" food, so we enjoyed that aspect of the meal.
Though the food wasn't spectacular we really enjoyed ourselves at Lam-Toro. We'd probably go back for a drink and to try a special. As soon as my Hulk Hogan T is out of the wash...
A friend of friend said he was dj'ing there at 10pm on a Friday, so 3 of us showed up around 9pm to get some food first. It's in a random part of Oakland near Koreatown and an adult video store.
The atmosphere inside is nice with a large mural on the wall of the beach. The server was really nice (maybe the son of the owners?) and friendly, and offered to show us pictures and a DVD of Senegal on our next visit.
One person in my group ordered the lamb and fish stew, sad to find out that there wasn't actually any fish in it - just a lot of mussels (which he doesn't like and wouldn't have ordered if he had known). Another person ordered the whole grilled fish with plantains. She said it was really good, just not a lot of meat on the fish and you have to make your way through the bones. I wasn't that hungry so I ordered the fish pastelles, which came with an interesting salad with sun dried tomatoes, which was a deal for $5. I also got a Lam Toro cocktail, mistakenly thinking there was alcohol in it, but no worries. It's a sweet concoction of hibiscus, ginger, and mango.
At 10pm, the diners start clearing out and we're getting a little antsy waiting for the music and worried that no one else will be there. There isn't a sign outside saying they have music at night and the place isn't set up like a bar. Then at 10:20, a big group of hipsters stroll in, who apparently all know each other and I guess hang out at Lam Toro. It was a strange shift from interacting with the Senegalese waiter and listening to reggae on their jukebox to be in a room with all white people listening to italo disco and funk.
We left shortly afterwards. Most of the 3 stars are for the really nice waiter. The food is so-so and the hipsters really threw me. I'd go back and try another dish, though, since it's the only Senegalese restaurant I know of in Oakland.
Recently my friend who has spent time in Cote D'Ivoire and her Senegalese husband moved to Berkeley. Of course I told them they should try Taxi Brousse or Bissap Baobob to tell me if it was legit or not. That's when they told me about a more authentic place in Oakland that I had to try. We made lunch plans for later in the weekend b/c I can not resist the temptation of a new, spicy, and unique dining experience.
Lam Toro inhabits an airy space on a stretch of Telegraph that also houses an assortment of Korean and African businesses and eateries (there's also an adult movie store on the block if you need to pick up a little something extra). Tropical scenes and bright azure waters dominate the murals on the walls and lend character to the dining room. The menu is somewhat limited with certain dishes available every day and other rotating daily specials. Two of us went with the Sunday special of thiebou djen and the other two went with the chicken yassa. Fiery habaneros, onions, lemon, and dijon mustard provided the base for the yassa sauce that covered a quarter chicken (bone-in leg meat) and an enormous mound of rice. I admit that I selected the thiebou djen but found my fork dipping into the manfriend's chicken yassa often. The thiebou djen is a savory fish stew with chunks of cassava, cabbage, and other vegetables served over another enormous mound of rice, this time red rice. The yassa was one dish who's spice level satisfied my spicy cravings whereas the thiebou djen was improved by tiny dollops of an extremely spicy house-made chile sauce that our native Senegalese speaker asked for. We also wanted to try the aloko (fried plantains) but the kitchen forgot to send them out. Bissap is actually a hibiscus drink that Lam Toro offers (I had always wondered when it meant) and they also offer a ginger drink that they were unfortunately out of during our visit.
Service is laid back and has a very West African feel to it. I enjoyed listening to our dining companion talk to some of the waitstaff in Wolof (a West African language) and French, it's nice to get a feeling of community there. Business of somewhat slow when we were there and the restaurant is still very new. 3.5 stars until I return to try some of the other specials.
After reading the other reviews we were thrilled to try some sweet eats on short notice before a concert at the Fox Theater. Sadly tough the dining experience was not entirely what we had hoped for. The place itself is fine except for the large TV over the doorway blasting the Food Network. I suppose if I didn't want to actually talk to my husband this might be a good thing but since I still actually like the guy I was sad to have been drowned out by Rachel Ray. We were seated and handed two menus and then left to ponder for about 20 min. Since there was only one other couple there dining I was a bit surprised, but since we were not in too big of a hurry it wasn't that big of a deal. When she finally did appear again though she came over to take our order and then when I asked for the plaintains she informed us that they were out of them. Ok no big deal except for not only were they out of the plantains they were out of EVERYTHING except for the chicken and one lamb stew dish, oh yea...and no drinks too except for coke and diet coke. So now I had to ask myself.....the point of the menu and 20 min wait was???? Then the food comes and I have no idea how you can make an iceburg salad spicy but these people managed to do it. The entrees had good taste but again....so damn hot it was hard to really get a sense for the true depth of the dish. Refills on the water? Good luck... I couldn't finish my dinner out of fear of a fire mouth and no relief in sight. I would have to say if you are not in a big hurry and in the mood for out of this world hot this place might be worth a try. But if not, I would probably skip it.
Bring cash, they don't take credit cards.
