Toledo’s new flagship restaurant in Fresno is finally open. Take a tour inside
The Toledo’s Mexican Restaurant in north Fresno is brand new, but there’s loads of history behind it.
Toledo’s restaurants have been around for 34 years. Founder Sam Toledo has been cooking in professional kitchens since he was a teen — about 50 years. And it took four years to get this restaurant off the ground.
A Fresno favorite, locals have been antsy for this central location of Toledo’s to open on Cedar Avenue, about 500 feet north of Nees Avenue. Many have been traveling to its Clovis restaurant on Shaw Avenue, or the one in northwest Fresno near Herndon and Milburn avenues.
For months, banners on the under-construction eatery acknowledged the frustration with sayings such as, “Opening soon ... ish.”
The new spot opened quietly April 4. Its last inspection was signed off at 1:35 p.m. on a Friday. They opened the doors and unveiled the new banner that reads, “Finally open!” Abbreviated below it, it says, “I know right! Imagine how we feel.”
“Within 5 minutes we got our first customer,” said Jesse Toledo, son of the founder and senior vice president of the company. “It just snowballed into something very, very beautiful.”
The restaurant is a blend of modern and familiar.
There are huge glass flowers in the bar that are part sculpture, part light fixture. They call the piece “The Bellaggio” because it’s reminiscent of the ceiling of glass flowers at the Las Vegas casino by artist Dale Chihuly (and Toledo’s piece was designed by a student of his).
But the round tables and booths came from the closed Shaw Avenue and First Street location, and art on the walls came out of storage from older locations.
Why did it take so long?
Typically building a kitchen and a restaurant in a former retail space takes six to eight months, Toledo said. This one took four years.
The family started work on the restaurant, and then COVID-19 hit. So the project got put on the back burner.
When construction restarted two years later, it took a while to get up and running.
“It’s like a train,” Toledo said. “Once it stops, it takes so much energy to get it going again.”
But now it’s done and it’s just the way the Toledo family wanted it. It’s the first restaurant they’ve designed from the ground up.
“It came out beautiful,” said founder Sam Toledo. “I love cooking, so I feel great now I have this restaurant.”
Chile verde, two kitchens and the bar
Some unique details to look for at the restaurant? It has two kitchens.
One is for take-out and delivery orders through its website. Those customers even have their own entrance.
The other kitchen preps food for dine-in customers.
Peek into the kitchen and you may see a something uncommon — a rectangular piece of cooking equipment that can hold 40 gallons of chile verde. That chile verde is one of the dishes Sam Toledo is most proud of (and he’s had plenty of time to perfect it; he’s been cooking professionally since he was 16).
In the center of the dining room a wooden pergola is adorned with colorful chandeliers.
It’s reminiscent of the popular patio with trees growing through the roof at the Blackstone and Minarets avenues location before it was torn down.
But it’s also a way for Jesse Toledo to honor his father-in-law, who died last year, and hosted family gatherings under a pergola covered in grape vines and hung with colorful chandeliers collected by his mother-in-law. Just about every weekend, the big family would get together to celebrate something.
“It just became a part of our life and we loved it,” he said.
So he recreated that at the restaurant, with a big table for large parties under the pergola.
The new restaurant also has a full bar with 20 taps, TVs and an expanded wine selection.
And if you go into the women’s restroom, you might notice the lighting on the mirror is adjustable for the perfect selfie, with glass flowers in the background.
“I wanted the entire restaurant to be Instagram worthy. ... So when you’re taking those photos, they come out really, really nice,” he said.
The menu, hiring and a waitlist
The new Toledo’s has the same menu as its other locations — the same recipes for the popular Toledo’s burrito with sirloin steak and bell peppers, or that sizzling plate of fajitas that gets the dining room’s attention when a server delivers it.
The margaritas are popular, too. They come in more than 30 flavors, from the classic on the rocks to the blended mango margarita with a Tajín-coated rim, all with multiple kinds of tequila available.
For many customers, the familiarity is exactly what they want.
Said Yelp.com reviewer Bruce M. of Fresno: “Upon entering a feeling of delight fell upon me and my thoughts were of the times I visited the Toledo’s in Pinedale years ago ... As the food arrived and the aroma of spices filled the air I couldn’t help but think of the times I visited Toledo’s and felt this very way.”
The new Toledo’s is not ready for its grand opening yet. It’s still hiring and working out the kinks.
One of those kinks is wait times, which often shows up in its reviews.
To avoid long wait times, customers can go the restaurant’s website and join the waitlist online. It will also tell them generally how long the wait is.
Details: The new Toledo’s is at 8020 N. Cedar and open for breakfast lunch and dinner. 559-438-5944.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
