Banditos Bar & Kitchen Pentagon City — Restaurant in Arlington

I went here with some co workers (6 people total) and the service definitely confirmed to me that I will not be returning anytime soon. Several things: First....they are advertising that if you order from the lunch menu and don't receive your meal in 15 minutes it's free. There were no hidden words, restrictions, etc on the posted table flyer and the website about how many people, etc. Of course we received our meal about 22 min after so I asked the server about it. He got an instant attitude by telling me that it our food is coming out now. No....the food was supposed to be out by the 15 minute mark. He went to talk to his supervisor and came back telling me that they don't honor that when you have more than 1 or 2 people. So I guess if you go eat lunch by yourself, you'll get your food within the timeframe. That statement doesn't even make sense. If that's a restriction then that needs to be advertised so that everyone is aware. Second....when I did receive my food, it wasn't even luke warm...which tells me that while they were cooking everyone else's food, mine just sat. I returned it and asked for a new plate, again after much attitude from the server (which i did receive). The food was very sub par and had been better in the past. Third...one of my co workers asked to substitute something for another and was told no problem. When her food came, they came with what she specifically DID NOT request. They brought her the substituted item but when it was time to pay, made her pay for the original plus the substitute as separate...INSANE! Fourth...another co worker ordered the steak and shrimp fajitas. He received the steak and was not given the shrimp. Because it took so long for him to get his food.....he said forget the shrimp. Overall, the service was terrible, the food was sub par and the supervisor did nothing that would convince...

We went on August 13th in the evening. After taking our order, our waiter disappeared. We finished our meal and still hadn't seen him again. We had to go to the bar to ask someone about getting our check. They told us they would look for him. After waiting for another 10 minutes or so without seeing him we went back to the bar to ask again. They seemed surprised he hadn't shown up and went looking for him again. He did eventually arrive, allowing us to finally pay and leave.

While this poor service was frustrating, I wouldn't be writing a review months after the fact if that was all there was to it. In addition to those issues, they charged my credit card for significantly more than the price of the meal. I kept my receipt so I was able to compare the charge to the price directly. I contacted my credit card company about it as soon as I realized. They just got back to me saying there was nothing they could do about it.

That is why I am now writing a review. I don't want anyone else to go through the experience we had.

UPDATE: I reached out to the restaurant at the email listed in their response below on 12/8. They initially said (on 12/10) that it might be possible to fix the issue and asked for my receipt. I sent them the receipt on 12/11. There was no response. I sent a follow up email on 12/16 to ask if they had received my last email and if they needed anything else from me. Still nothing. As of today (12/20) I have not heard from them since their initial emails 10 days ago.

UPDATE 2: A few hours after I made the update above, I received a reply to my previous email. They said they would refund the overcharged amount. The refund for the overcharge has...

I love Mexican food. Like SO much. But finding good Mexican in the DMV area feels impossible sometimes. This place cannot be considered Mexican food. I left feeling gross, and the food was a sad attempt at an imitation of an imitation of Mexican food. (Because don't get me wrong, I love Tex-Mex, too)

The salsa had decent flavor, but was very runny. The chips were fine. I ordered the chicken tinga enchiladas. I saw they had queso Blanco on them on the menu, and I got excited. I should not have been 🤪. The enchiladas were tightly rolled with very very shredded and weirdly floral spiced chicken in the middle. The queso was not flavorful, and got cold quickly, leaving the enchiladas heavy and uninspired, with too much corn tortilla per bite because they were so tightly rolled.

The Mexican rice was awful. Like SO bad that I took one bite and then didn't touch them again.

The beans were fine. I like beans and they're hard to mess up. (I would have said the same for rice though, but here we are.)

My friends each got a salad and a burrito bowl, and they said they were alright ("I've had worse.") so maybe consider those. At least over the enchiladas.

Food quality is most important to me, but just for kicks, our server was off the cuff. He got our orders without writing them down, and then bragged about it when our food came out. He only got us refills when our cups were entirely empty and we asked for refills specifically. I don't actually care that much, but I thought...