Bandido Hideout Mexican Food – Not So Hidden!
Bandido Hideout Mexican Food is “hidden” in plain sight across from the University of New Mexico. This has been a student favorite for years and continues to attract tourists who are taking a stroll while visiting the shops nearby. On most days you’ll also find a Luchador (a mexican wrestler often wearing a mask) waving people in from the median.
2128 Central SE Albuquerque, NM 87106
Overall Bites:
Value: Bandido Hideout offers a lunch special that’s hard to beat. You can have your choice of 3 Tacos, 3 Gorditas, 1 Burrito or 1 Torta for just shy of $6! That also includes chips and salsa! I had a fresh made lemonade for a few bucks more and had a filling lunch for under $10!
Taste: Authentic Mexican food and it was great! I’ll share more on this later.
Presentation: I liked the two limes on my lemonade…or maybe it was a limeade. Either way, it looked great. The food was presented very well and it looked very fresh. I do have to admit, the Gorditas my co-worker ordered looked more appetizing than my tacos. I’ll remember that for my next visit.
Vibe: We went about lunch time and there wasn’t too much of a crowd. This could be due to all the ART (Albuquerque Rapid Transit) construction.
Accessibility: Right now it’s a little difficult because of ART but this should change as the project draws to a close. It’s across from the University on Central between Yale and Buena Vista.
Review – Bandido Hideout Mexican Food
My co-workers and I had a rough morning on counting inventory that seemed to never end. We couldn’t wait to for lunch time as we had started counting early that morning. We didn’t want to go too far so we decided to take a short walk to Bandido Hideout Mexican Food. The decor features brightly painted chairs surrounding tables covered with a table cover featuring the Bandido logo. There is a bar on the east side displaying a wide variety of liquors.
We each had the lunch special which is just under $6 and you get your choice of 3 Tacos, 3 Gorditas, 1 Burrito or 1 Torta. You can also choose the filling inside. I decided on the Carne Asada since it’s my go to (as you’ve probably guessed from my other reviews). I also decided to pair it with a lemonade since it’s the homemade kind and not the pink stuff you get out of the machine.
The chips and salsa were brought to the table as soon as we were seated and our drinks followed shortly after. The salsa for the chips was spicy! It doesn’t look like much, and it really didn’t look as good as other places, but if you like a kick in your salsa then you need to try Bandido’s. I like to taste my food when I eat spicy things so I don’t care for too much spice. For reference, I like Blake’s Lotaburger green chile and it’s just about right. Now, Bob’s Taco Burger…yeah, that’s a bit too much for me. Bandido’s salsa was in between Blake’s and Bob’s.
The lemonade was amazing! It was a tall glass, with plenty of ice so it was super cold, and it went down super smooth on that hot day.
The tacos (excuse the picture above since it’s a bit blurry) were authentic. What do I mean by that? Taco stands in Mexico will serve tacos with two small tortillas…check! They will also serve Asada tacos with a pico (tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapenos)…check! They will also serve you limes (you don’t have to ask for them)….check once again! If you’re lacking the limes then it’s not authentic. Lacking cilantro it’s probably not authentic. If your tacos are served on a crunchy shell like Taco Bell…they are not authentic. Dorados (a tortilla fried into a shell) are a different story and I’ll save that for another review.
But what about the taste you ask? The meat was seasoned well, not chewy or fatty, and once you added the lime and salt they were very well done! I could have easily devoured another plate but with the chips, and the lemonade refills (3 of them!) I was more than satisfied.
Bandido’s gets 4.5 Bites! I loved the food and the service. The decor was also bright and festive. One thing that did throw me off was the Mona Lisa pictures along the South wall. If this was an Italian restaurant it would make sense but in a Mexican restaurant it seemed odd. Now, if you were to draw a sombrero on her that would be a different story!
Go check them out for yourself and give them a Like on Facebook!