Taco Bandido — Restaurant in Courtenay

“Family favourite turned huge disappointment.” I rarely leave negative reviews, but this was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. We tried calling hours in advance to reserve a table for our large group, but their phone number was out of service. When we first walked in and asked for a table of six, the server flat-out told us, “Sorry, we don’t have one.” We noticed other tables had reserved signs, so clearly reservations were possible — but for some reason, we were denied.

We were first seated at the bar, then moved to a table that wasn’t even big enough for six people, and only after about half an hour were we finally seated at an actual table. Altogether, it took over two hours before our group was properly accommodated.

Once we finally sat down, no one came over to take our order for a long time. When the food eventually arrived, several plates were wrong, and instead of fixing it quickly, the service was slow and dismissive. One server in a blue Hawaiian shirt was an absolute meanie — rude and unhelpful the entire time. Another server at least acknowledged that we had waited way too long and seemed to care, but admitted there was nothing he could do to speed up the kitchen or comp anything.

When it came time to pay, we explained that after hours of waiting, wrong food, and poor service, we didn’t feel we should pay more than half the bill. One server told us that because we ate our food, we were expected to pay the full amount — regardless of the mistakes and terrible service. On top of that, we were told we had to wait for the owner to approve anything, which added another 30+ minutes just to get the bill settled. In the end, we wound up paying the entire bill and were handed a gift card as “compensation” — which means absolutely nothing since we’re not even local to the city and will never be back.

So disappointing, because our family has always raved about this place — but our service was absolutely terrible. By the time we finally left, we had wasted hours dealing with disorganization, mistakes, rudeness, and no accountability. There are plenty of restaurants that respect your time, money, and experience. Sadly, this is not...

I was a little list getting here as google maps directions had it one block too soon.

Now to my visit, they were very busy (which I later learned is unusual for that time if day), when I day busy I mean more slammed. The kitchen staff were put up orders and ringing the bell consistently, I will add the two serving staff were swamped amd one had to literally run to the washroom and the kitchen staff just kept putting up food and ringing the bell. Given the level of service the front staff provided ot would have been nice to see the kitchen staff help out and run food, the two ladies were doing their best which was more than 110%.

That being said the service was wonderful, it is one of those places where you order the food and they bring it to your seat of choice. The lady on cash was spectacular, letting mr choose my number for my order was a great touch. I said id be happy to buy a bottle of water as I like to support small businesses but she got me a free glass which was very kind. I order my food she asked if I knew I was getting three taco per choice which I thought it was one large taco, I said I essnt planning on it and she went and changed my order to single tacos but o decided to buy the total 6, at this point I wanted to spend money here whether or not I needed 6 tacos.

The food was amazing, the kitchen staff did an excellent job, lots of complex flavors overtaking my taste buds.

While eating the other front of house lady asked me what kinda hot sauce I wanted and I told her I like it to have good spice but to have flavour too, she brought me there mango something hot sauce. It was delicious but not it big globs.

Overall I was so happy with everything I decided to put in some work and make this review.

I still would have liked to see one of the three BOH employees help run food though that wont stop me from...

Not worth the money!! I ordered pollo salsa verde tacos and churros to go. What I got was half a head of cabbage that wasn’t in the tacos, 2 out of 3 tortillas were stale and hard, even after sitting with the chicken on it for 15 minutes. The churros could not be eaten as after trying 2 and finding that they were raw in the middle, checked the rest and just tossed them. This isn’t the first time I’ve eaten here either, sad to say the quality went down hill after becoming a brick and mortar location. Was good as a food truck.

Food was ordered in person around 5:30-6pm, told it would take 10-15 minutes, came out in about 8. Seemed fast as the phone was going off with orders and seemed pretty busy considering the 8 other people in the restaurant. When the waitress delivered my bagged food, I was sitting second table from the register against the wall. I couldn’t hear her over the mariachi band music but she was Adam it on saying something before letting me...