Toros Tapas and Bar, Spanish, Darling Harbour

Toros Tapas and Bar

Harbourside, Darling Harbour

9280 0706

My ideal start to a lazy Sunday morning is having breakfast along the harbour. Initially our plan was to breakfast at the Mecca Espresso in Ultimo but upon arriving.. it was closed! How disappointing since D had researched it and it was supposed to be open 8am-3pm on Sundays.

Anyways so our second choice was one of the cafes around Darling Harbour. We walked along the promenade and most of the cafes/restaurants were offering similar choices- big breakfasts, eggs benedict etc w/coffee or juice for around $12-$13- which is quite cheap. Toros caught our eye because it served 'canadian style breakfast'- that is pancakes with eggs and bacon. Sounds weird right?

We each started off with coffee.. 2 soy cappucinos and 2 skim cappucinos.

They sort of all look the same so I've just uploaded one photo instead of four. At first D & I were accidentally served the soy caps- which made me go 'this coffee tastes really strange'. But thankfully the waitress correctly it quickly after so we just swapped coffees.. Kind of awkward eating all the froth and then giving your coffee to someone else..

Big Breakfast - Bacon and poached eggs served with toast, tomatoes and mushrooms

The big breakfast is normally supposed to have lamb and rosemary chipolatas but I changed that to mushrooms- which was nice of the restaurant because I know some places are really strict when it comes to altering the 'specials'.

I enjoyed this. The poached eggs were great and runny. Bacon was nice and crispy. Serving size was fantastic, I could'nt finish it and had quite a bit left.

Canadian Breakfast- Pancakes with maple syrup served with bacon and fried egg

Voila! Looks intense huh? The three other girls ordered this and they all seemed to enjoy it. I think the sweetness of the maple syrup goes well with the saltiness of the bacon.

The verdict

I'll start by saying that the food was good, the coffee was good and generally overall it was good. When we asked for the bill I was surprised to see a $2.50 per head surcharge. Now this was unexpected. When we were deciding on which cafe to eat at there was no mention of a Sunday surcharge or any surcharge whatsoever on Toro's menu. It was misleading because if we had known about the surcharge we would have gone to one of the other cafes. I also think that surcharges (At least % surcharges) for Sunday may be illegal?

For us it was more that we weren't expecting a surcharge rather than the cost of the surcharge itself. $2.50 isnt much but its always unpleasant when you are hit with an extra cost that you didn't expect. I understand that the cafe may have higher staff costs on Sundays but there should have been a bigger sign or something.. The breakfast specials were advertised as $12 for the big breakfast with coffee and $13 for the canadian breakfast with coffee.. it didnt mention any surcharge. Anyways I'm not too fussed by the surcharge because $15 for breakfast and coffee is actually quite cheap and we we rent ripped off. But it would have been nice to know about the surcharge before we sat down.. And what if we had just gotten a $3.50 coffee? Does that mean my coffee becomes $6? Now that gets a bit ridiculous.

What do you guys think? Would you also feel annoyed by a surcharge?