Bandidas Taqueria

Hey everyone!

Last week, during spring break (!), Mom, Seline and I went downtown to shop at Sel’s favourite store – Victoria Secret Pink. That is seriously NOT my idea of a good time, so our compromise was that I get to choose a restaurant. 🙂

So after some careful researching – I usually google things I’m looking for, like “healthy”, “vegetarian”, or “Mexican”. This place suited all of the above – and we ended up going to this lovely little place on Commercial Drive. It’s called Bandidas Taqueria, and it’s a meatless restaurant perfect for brunch.

The decor was super hipster, and since it was about 10:30 by the time we got there, the lighting was fab. It wasn’t as big as I had expected, but it wasn’t crowded either. The whole place was so typical “Vancouver-hip”, kind of like the Rumpus Room downtown.

Seline noted that everything looked kind of “slouchy” and the tables were scratched, but I think that added to the whole bohemian atmosphere. By the way, Seline will be in Ottawa until Saturday. Check out her first Ottawa Girl Eats post – there are lots more to come 🙂

The waitress gave us this salsa-looking thing, which I found out later is super spicy habanero sauce. HOLY, I had no idea salsa could be so spicy until I loaded this stuff onto my plate. Whew!

We waited… and then our food came and I freaked out! 😀

I ordered the SHERMAN’S BENNY, with creamy goat cheese and caramelized onions. Can you believe this plate was only $12? It was huge – honestly, it could’ve fed two people heartily!

 

According to the site, these are “not your traditional benny! Our bennys are topped with your choice of salsa verde or a roasted red tomato salsa. Instead of English muffins, we use our house-made cornbread muffins. All benny’s are served with pinto beans, roasted yams & potatoes, and red cabbage.”

I asked for half salsa verde and half roasted red tomato salsa. They tasted kind of similar, so I would recommend either one 🙂 The beans tasted sort of like they came out of a can, which they probably did, but I loved them nonetheless. The best part? The bennies came on cornbread! It was perfectly buttery, sweet, but not too sweet, and crispy on the edges. Everything on this plate tasted amazing with everything else – does that make sense? Oh – and the roasted sweet potatoes were seriously better than candy.

Mom had the LEONA GAYLE: Smoky-sweet chipotle tofu (organic), pinto beans, cheese, roasted red salsa, romaine lettuce & sour cream.  This burrito was ginormous. We cut it in half right away, knowing it would definitely NOT be finished. I must say that the beans + chipotle tofu were heavenly. The tofu didn’t really mimic ground beef to a tee, but it was really close and I enjoyed it a lot. There was also rice in there – I LOVE soggy, flavourful rice 🙂

It doesn’t look that big, but believe me, it was HUGE. Oh – and get these baked! You can have them “dry” or covered in sauce and cheese and then broiled. Seriously, choose the second. You won’t regret it!

While I devoured my poached egg-topped cornbread muffins, Seline enjoyed a massive plate of nachos. I was a little disappointed because we asked for “no corn”, but and the waitress told us that would not be possible. Seline doesn’t like corn on anything, and especially not nachos, but this was tolerable.

She couldn’t finish her plate either! This, by the way, was the PASCALE MARK: Cheese, onions, sweet peppers, corn, and jalapenos, on yellow corn tortilla chips. It looks – and was – super big, but we actually ordered a small. I can’t imagine how big the large plate of nachos would be – I doubt it would fit on the table along with the other plates!

My heavenly egg yolks were demolished and savoured with these yummy beans and crusty cornbread. I would come back to Bandidas just for that cornbread – and to try the famous honey butter!

 

Here is the Leona Gayle burrito. Check out how much stuffing there was! Seline tried the chipotle tofu after I claimed it tasted pretty meaty, but she knew right away that it wasn’t meat. Apparently it doesn’t taste right, but I thought the flavour and texture were close enough. If you’re a tofu lover or if you eat vegan, you’ll adore this. Over half was packed up in a glass container that we brought.

 

We were 100% stuffed when we left, and we definitely didn’t need lunch after this! This is one of my favourite restaurants to date – so creative and yummy.

By the way, my Eating Out page has been updated with all of the restaurants I’ve been wanting to share with you since starting the blog. Take a look by clicking HERE – there are so many reviews on my fave places, including Thomas Haas, Thai food in New West, and The Sandbar!

Dinner, after shopping + volunteering at the hospital, was leftover curried eggplant with rice and steamed broccolette.

The curry was made with soy sauce, light brown sugar (it was a little sweet), Thai green curry paste, coconut milk, and chopped eggplant. I love mushy food and the eggplant was just perfect. Super flavourful – zingy with the ginger, sweet from the brown sugar, and savoury with the soy sauce. This made the eggplants really tender, too. They were basically pillows of sauce! The broccolette was boring – plain and steamed.

The next day, Seline and I went to see a show! We I had leftover burrito, microwaved, with roasted potatoes and zucchini.

It was fantastic the next day and I had way more than this – I almost had twice what you see here. It’s just too good and I’m actually craving it right now.

Alrighty that’s all I have to show you for now – I’ve got a physics test to study for and lots of AP Chemistry homework to finish. Will keep you posted on Seline’s adventures in Ottawa and stay tuned for a super cool post about my new favourite ingredient 😉