El Toro Partido (CLOSED)

Located in Harlem down the hill from City College, El Toro Partido serves up a double dose of cuisines, Southwestern Mexican and Ecuadorian. This storefront restaurant is tiny (seven tables) and the kitchen takes up most of the dining room, which is decorated with white tiles, avocado-green walls and red-and-orange tiled floors. Of the Mexican dishes, silky guacamole comes topped with chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro, and Puebla-style mole rojo—a viscous sauce of ground chiles, sesame seeds, raisins, almonds and chocolate—adorns chicken or pork. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tortas and quesadillas come in numerous variations, as do huaraches—handmade, thick corn tortillas. Chaulafan, which is Chinese fried rice by way of Ecuador, is peppered with pork, chicken, shrimp and lusciously sweet plantain slices. Fluorescent soft drinks and beer complete the fiesta.