bandolero restaurant and tequila bar

Have I lamented before about the lack of serviceable Mexican food in Seattle?  Good, well let me tell you about another bleh experience.  Bandolero.

In typical fashion, my wife and I were starving.  We hadn't really eaten all day, had been gone from home for hours, and were stuck in that sort of upper U District, not quite Wallingford area of town.  We happenellinon ad artle f toter &nbsesta hapts. d upp;We lite tuclus awaof restaurants.  We were turned away at Kisaku, and then went to Bandolero.

We were d event to go to in just 45 short minutes, and knew we needed to eat in 40.  Well, telling the wait staff we were in a hurry did nothing for our service.  We waited 27 minutes for chips and salsa.  We waited tens of minutes at a clip to see anyone, and our drinks stayed relatively empty.

Starving, we ordered a little smattering of what they had to offer, sopas, ceviche, carne asada tacos, and their sort of signature chicken mole enchiladas.  I recognize it is unwise to order apps and an entree when you are in a hurry, but we told the staff to bring out anything they had ready when it was up and that we would take everything out on the table at the same time if possible.  No dice.




Who even knows how long we waited on our real food.  Did I say that we waited 27 minutes for chips and salsa?  Does that give you an idea?  The traditional salsa, by the way, was pretty devoid of spice and flavor.  The carne asada meat came out cold.  The ceviche was ok, but just ok.  The mole was ok, but thin and tasked burnt (not smokey).  It had the potential to be very good even, but the I just couldn't shake this burnt flavor.


So, did I mention the wait staff screwed up our order?  They did.  Carne asada tacos.  Out comes a carne asada nachos.  "We ordered carne asada tacos."  "Let me go check on that."  Out comes out waitress again, "I had here that you ordered carne asada nachos."  My wife "I ordered the tacos."  Waitress "Oh, well that's not what I had."  She held the food out and said, "I had nachos, is this ok?"  We had to leave 5 minutes before it even came.  My wife looks at me, sad.  I say "Whatever, can you at least bring out some tortillas?"  The waitress says, "Sure."


Ten minutes later, the already cool meat got colder, still no tortillas.  We wave someone down, ask again, and another 5 minutes later they arrive.  Three.  Wouldn't want to give out more than three.  The girl almost looks mad at giving them.  Getting the bill was a process I also don't wish to discuss, but let's just say that "in a hurry" didn't seem to signify either leaving the bill with our dinner, or coming by with the bill, or coming by at all after delivery or when delivering others' checks.  Get the picture?

Epic fail.

The place does appear to be more "saloon" in feel then restaurant, along with accumulated cob webs under the table.  For bar food, it was ok.  For a restaurant, it was terrible.  In review, not-tasty salsa, burnt mole, cold meat, wrong order, terrible service, no hurry.  And no restitution.  My wife left feeling bad, she wrote on the bill "less than average service, less than average tip" and left 5%.  I said, "Good job."

carne asada "tacos"

Bandolero
2253 North 56th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
206-633-5828
1.5 of 5 (only because the mole had potential)


UPDATE:  Apparently my wife and I weren't the only ones that had a terrible experience.  This restaurant's website is down, and appears to be closed.  They had over 3 stars on Yelp, yet another sign of the apocalypse   

casa d's taqueria

One day for lunch I swung by this place, Casa D's Taqueria.  Why not, there isn't much good Mexican food in the Seattle area.  The best restaurant that I've tried, in terms of Mexican (tex-mex) flavors and price is La Cocina de Puerco.  I must admit though that I've not tried all the places, so don't be too upset if you think it's only average.  It is.  I maintain that most Mexican food in Seattle is average at best.

Anyway, I ordered the mini tacos.  All the better to try their different meats.  They give you four tacos for about six bucks.  The white guy who seemed to run the joint informed me that the mini tacos came with choice of meat, onions, and cilantro.  They also throw in a few chips and salsa.  I asked about cabbage.  They didn't have it.  I asked about lettuce.  It is extra.  Extra?  Extra!  The white man then informed me that the traditional way for the tacos to be served was meat, onions, and cilantro, and any deviation would cost.  Thanks white man for that newsflash, I guess all the Mexican people I know who serve them with cabbage, or... heavens forbid, tomatoes, really must not be Mexicans at all.  I'm glad he cleared that up, my operating assumption is now that they're all Salvadorans, possibly even M-13 gang members.

In all seriousness, I had this flashback to Vietnam.  Everyone there charges you extra for everything.  Again, I attribute this to whiteness.  That's neither here nor there though.  Looking around, they had signs, written on paper plates, extra meat with a $.  Jalapeños (they looked grilled), $ .30.  Everything was extra.

I was happy he didn't charge me for napkins.  I took my tacos, and escaped to eat before he charged me for using the door.  They were, in a word, average.  The tortillas were the corn numbers that are bought in massive packs.  The steak was tremendously underseasoned.  I could see why when I saw him put them on, out of a pack from the supermarket, onto the grill.  No seasoning that I could see.  The chorizo, and shredded beef were good.  Maybe the Mexican lady who had dished up my food was allowed to spice them up.  The carnitas were average.  Frankly, I prefer Chipotle's carnitas, but I can't complain about anything in particular - I can only say that they are forgettable.

Casa D's Taqueria
102 Bellevue Way NE # B
Bellevue, WA 98004-5974
(425) 462-8410
2.5 of 5