Banditas Taqueria, Vancouver BC

From Vegan Gastrobot

The last stop on our first evening of eating in Vancouver was Bandidas Taqueria. We were quite full by the time we got there, but wanted to try a few of the tacos. All could be made vegan by request. When we walked in I instantly loved it – this was the kind of place that if I lived here I would visit often. The atmosphere was comfortable, they are all trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible (they try to buy local organic items, reuse things, make you bring your own take out cup for coffee, etc) and the people were friendly, though the lady who greeted us was odd as she didn’t say anything just made odd gestures with her head. We recieved chipas and salsa as we were seated - I really liked the salsa, but could not eat very much of it sinc eI was so full already.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We tried 3 different tacos. First was the Ronny Russell which had roasted yams and onions, fresh guacamole, black beans, green salsa, purple cabbage and toasted pumpkin seeds (pictured bottom left). This had a light mellow flavor of yam and was good.

We also tried the Leona Gayle – smoky-sweet chipotle tofu with pinto beans, cheese, roasted red salsa, romaine lettuce and sour cream (pictured bottom right). I was very excited to try this one as I love smoky things – but like in DC the smoky tofu disappointed. I’m not sure why people cannot get the smoky tofu right – it is not that hard to make I do it all the time. This taco was alright it just didn’t have as much flavor as I thought based on what was in it. The salsa was very good however.

And lastly we tried Connie’s taco – walnuts ground, apple salsa, cheese and roasted red pepper sauce (pictured top). This was amazing! Definitely my favorite of the three..I could have eaten a few more of them. The walnuts lent a very delicious flavor to the taco and made it meaty, the roasted red pepper sauce was amazing, everything about it was so good. I would highly recommend this taco.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also tried to get the small vegan chocolate cake but they were out so we got the two bite brownies instead. These were super dense and fudgy and good, but not what I was expecting for brownies.

Overall – I loved the atmosphere in here and if we had wanted drinks we could have hung out a long time. The tacos were overall pretty good, the chips and salsa was delicious, and I would definitely go back here again.