Located at
122 South Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough (with an additional location on
Franklin Street in Chapel Hill), Bandido’s Mexican Café offers Tex-Mex cuisine
for lunch and dinner. There is a full bar, food specials rotate monthly, and
catering is available. The restaurant will also award a T-shirt to anyone who
can successfully eat the “El Gigante” burrito in one sitting.
Faced with
a stereotyped view of Mexican cuisine, some Mexican eateries will do everything
they can to give gringo patrons a reality check and introduce them to life beyond
burritos and tacos. Bandido’s is not one of those places. That isn’t to say
that the food is uninspired but rather that the restaurant, at least to some
extent, appears to embrace the cliché. If the giant bandito statue by the front
window doesn’t convince you, the sombrero-wearing chili pepper on the menu will.
Ironically, this kitsch makes Bandido’s stand out. It and the vibrantly colored
interior give the restaurant an identity that stands apart from the Tarheel
State’s myriad faux-cantinas.
Bandito’s
menu has a lot of familiar favorites as well as a few unexpected surprises. Burritos,
enchiladas, and fajitas can all be found here, but so can a cheeseburger with
quesadillas in place of buns and ice cream in a tortilla bowl with raspberry-habanero
sauce. I opted for a shrimp chimichanga during my first visit and was not let
down. While the seasoning could have been more robust, they didn’t skimp on the
shrimp, and the crunchy-cheesy combination satisfied in a guilty pleasure sort
of way.
Neither
pricing nor service left much room for complaint. My chimichanga – with lettuce,
tomato, guacamole, rice, and beans – came out to $13, a fair price given the
amount of food on the plate. Our server was welcoming and attentive without
being overbearing.
Colorful
and comforting, Bandito’s has the makings of a reliably good Mexican
restaurant. The food leans more toward solid than spectacular, but if you’re in
the Hillsborough area, ven aca.
7.75/10
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