Banditos — Restaurant in Ottawa

Took my fam here, we where quickly seated, drinks order taken and then promptly ordered food. About 45 min passed with no food... The food order finally arrived after 50 minutes. I had ordered three tacos one fish taco one pulled pork taco one chicken taco. The fish taco was good and so was the chicken, however pulled pork taco was dry as a grass. All three tacos however had too much cilantro and all other flavors were overpowered by its taste.

We also ordered deep fried cheese curds those were fantastic. I do think however if you're going to have deep fried cheese curds which is Canadian then I would just maybe having gravy as a dip not marinara sauce because then you just have cheese sticks essentially.

My kids ordered macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese with fries.

The kids menu was very simple which is great not too many choices The issue that I have with the kids menu is that every meal is $9 but not every meal is made equally, so the mac and cheese on its own was $9, yet the grilled cheese with fries was also $9. one thing that I noticed I forgot to ask to the waitress was that there was three triangles of grilled cheese And if I remember correctly when you cut bread into triangles you usually get four triangles. Where did that fourth one go don't know.

Atmosphere is good music was current but didn't really fit in with the establishment as it is a Mexicana type food fare. The other issue that I have with the atmosphere was that it was extremely hot in a restaurant they had corner fans on but no air conditioning not sure if they have air conditioning but when it's plus 35 out probably best to have it. They could have also dropped all the blinds in the restaurant to reduce the heat as the sun was beating right through it.

After we finished our meals it took about 20 minutes before we got our bill. During that wait a couple that was seated behind us had ordered about 20 minutes after we did, they had ordered a salad or two salads not sure but when the gentleman went to go ask the bartender what was going on the bartender responded with that's just the way it is it's a busy night it takes longer to do salads And that was it. There was no apology no have some more drinks on us just that's the way it is and you're just going to have to wait for a salad. 60 min for a salad... Really...

There were several occasions where I witnessed the waitresses walking around not doing much now they could be waiting on the kitchen to make the food, that's fair enough but they could at least go back to the tables and check in on them see how they're doing asking how the food was or if they needed any more napkins drinks whatever it is.

At one point while the couple was waiting, a waitress was behind the counter at the bar and was snacking on something directly in front of the client who was waiting for food I found that very rude and inconsiderate. If you're going to have a snack of some sort eat it where you can't be seen either in the kitchen lunch room break room whatever it is you have.

I will definitely give Banditos a second shot.

I will say however that if I'm given the option between Felina's and Banditos I will more than likely...

A bad "vibe". Owner has since posted, deleted, and then revised their response to this review. My review stands as written.

Just a terrible experience. There really isn't anything on this menu that I would call "good value" or "wow that's sort of interesting". It's a short menu with Tacos that are all overpriced for what they seem to be, and a few sharable bites.

The restaurant is a clash between a Mexican grill and a Best Buy LED lighting section, really interesting choices... There's a bar and TVs. Patio seems to be their bread and butter but in the winter that's a no-go.

So we ordered nachos to split and a taco each, not your typical order but I knew immediately that we wouldn't be full leaving. I was caught staring at the Popeyes chicken restaurant across the way that I knew we were destined for given the portion sizes. We ordered the Gordita and the Street pork taco. I think you'd probably have to spend upwards of $30 each to be full leaving here, maybe even more to be honest. There's nothing on the menu that looked filling.

After a short time we received the nachos. The nachos were adequate, unique and fairly tasty with the provided sauce. A sliced radish doesn't get you brownie points though, sorry.

After finishing the nachos, we waited a bit longer and then we received the Brisket and the Jerk Chicken taco. Wait, what? How did you get both wrong? Genuinely impressed. Like I get one, honest mistake, but 0/2 on flavours? Yikes. Just entirely confused at the whole situation.

It's a tough dilemma to be in as a guest. Do I ask for both of these to be remade given two tacos took longer than the nachos to cook and eat? Or do I cut my losses, eat the tacos they gave me and leave, I'm hungry after all. So we ate the two bite tacos for $3 a bite and left.

For what it's worth, the Jerk Chicken taco was awful. I didn't order it, and I didn't like it, particularly didn't care any more because my mouth was watering at the prospect of Popeye's chicken, realizing that's where we should have went in the first place.

This is not a place I would...

Went with friends because they thought it would be a good place for me to eat lunch, I was excited to have some fresh veggie tacos!

We got the menus and it turned out the vegetarian dishes are denoted with a vegan symbol and were not that easy to make vegan, apparently. According to our mediocore waitress -who really couldn't care less about helping to find something I could eat- said: -The two deep fried avocado options were egged washed. -She wasn't sure of the ingredients in the refried beans. -Suggested the corn, with out butter or cream sauce (so 9$ for corn with nothing on it...)

I asked if they can make anything like with cauliflower or something. She said no, that was the lunch special and they just ran out (It was maybe 2:30pm at this point). I would of had the one thing that was actually edible, the beyond burger, but I was literally making them at home for dinner that night. So, with little help from the server, I gave up and went with the guacamole and chips....Which came with a hair sitting right in the guacamole. She took it and came back with a new one and said the cook said it was a hair...No "sorry about that", nothing... So with no appetite left, I ate maybe 5 chips and a table spoon of the guacamole and pushed it aside.

The whole time there were wasps constantly at our table going after food and drinks, so not wanting to get stung, I got my exercise having to get up and walk around the table to get away from them. We eventually moved tables, which didnt resolve the issue. Only sort of the restaurant's fault I guess, like if they are nesting under the deck or on the property and not being taken care of...

Overall, the drinks were good! I had two watermelon margaritas, they were consistent in taste. And I had a Blue Sangria (it was actually green hahaa), which was also tasty. So they can thank the bartender for getting any stars for this review.

I was a bit irritated by my bill, not because the drinks were expensive, I was expecting that, but because they charged me for the guacamole...