Bandit's Grill and Bar

“If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.”
---James Beard

BANDIT’S GRILL AND BAR

1980 Ventura Blvd.

Camarillo, CA 93010

805-455-4742

11:00 AM to 9:00 PM                      Sunday through Thursday

11:00 AM to 10:00 PM                    Friday and Saturday

banditsbbq.com

 

The report from someone Sharon knows was glowing. .They have their own sauce, he said.  Bandit’s is great.  Everything was good from the Tri-tip Nachos to the ribs, so naturally, we had to check it out for ourselves.  We had been intending to get together with a couple who live in Oxnard and they were invited to meet us there at 6:00 on a Sunday evening.  They arrived along with their four-year-old son.

Bandit’s is on a street corner in Old Town Camarillo a nicely revitalized area of a town that was bisected by the 101 freeway.   The exterior and interior décor of this location is Southwestern Cantina.  I have not seen the other locations in Thousand Oaks or the one in Park City, Utah.  The bar is attached but has a separate outside entrance and a closed, connecting door to the restaurant.  This makes it extremely easy to keep the family oriented side of the restaurant separated. There were only two big screen televisions visible in the restaurant area still tuned to the inevitable sports channel.   Although the restaurant had not filled up for the dinner hour it was evident that it could use a larger waiting area.  After a brief wait we were seated at a wooden booth that was large enough for a child and four adults that act like children.

Our server was prompt and cheery and answered the questions about menu items with authority.  The menu is not just barbecue.  There is an assortment of appetizers, soups and chili, appetizer salads, entrée salads, steaks, prime rib, seafood, burgers, tacos, and wraps and somewhere in the middle is the barbecue.  This gave us pause, but we determined to give them the benefit of the doubt and ordered anyway.  The four-year-old was the easiest to order for since he was excited to get an order of the appetizer Cheeseburger Sliders.   The barbecue combo on the menu is a two-meat, two side combo.  We ordered three of them to split between the four of us with a Barbecued Half Chicken, Tri-tip, Pulled Pork, Beef Ribs, Baby Back Ribs, and a Spicy Beef Link.  Since you can add a Skewer of Shrimp to any entrée we had shrimp with that.    The sides were Ranch Beans, Homemade Potato Chips, Corn Off the Cob, Creamy Coleslaw, Homemade Mac and Cheese, and Yams.  All this arrived promptly and nothing was cold that wasn’t supposed to be cold.  After the dinner we shared dessert, Leilani’s Mud Pie, Fresh Strawberry Shortcake and the four-year-old had a Kid’s Sundae.

Cheeseburger Sliders

The sliders were quite large enough that the four-year-old was quite satisfied with one of them.  He was into sharing and passed the rest of them around.  They turned out to be very good cheeseburgers with very good meat that was not overdone.

Corn off the Cob

The white corn was locally grown, fresh and sweet, but unfortunately, still had a lot of the silk in it to get caught in your teeth and gag you.  If the silks had been cleaned out by more careful preparation this would have been very good.

Ranch Beans

Not beans out of the can, but bland, these beans were simply mediocre.  And that’s about all we could say about them without being rude.

Homemade Potato Chips

Homemade style potato chips are usually a little thick and tough compared to almost transparently thin bagged chips.  These were no exception, if fact, they were a bit tougher than most but still tasty.  They went well with the cheeseburger sliders.

Creamy Coleslaw

Should have been a good mix of ingredients for a competent slaw, but it was a little too wet, something that particularly annoys me, and just bland.  While the pulled pork was not that flavorful I still don’t think that the coleslaw would have complemented it in a sandwich.

Homemade Mac and Cheese

The pasta was al dente, but if there was cheese on it you couldn’t find it.  Allegedly, it was supposed to have a white cheese sauce on it, but you just couldn’t find it.  Seriously, the macaroni would have been better off tossed with butter and herbs.  As mac and cheese it was bland and not worth ordering.

Yams

The yams were actually quite tasty.  They were savory without being too sweet and had a nice texture.

Barbecued Chicken

The chicken was done through and tender, but didn’t really taste as though it had spent any time in a smoker.  If you want grilled chicken it’s good, and there’s really nothing wrong with a good grilled chicken, just don’t call it barbecue or claim that it was smoked.  Real barbeque aficionados can tell the difference!

Tri-tip

The tri-tip was not sliced too thin, and had a noticeable smoke ring, but didn’t have the rich meaty flavor that you expect from barbecued tri-tip.  Again, it made us question their method of smoking the meat.  It certainly did not taste like it was done slow and low like most well done flavorful tri-tip.

Beef Ribs

These ribs were meaty enough, but a bit overdone, crispy and chewy.  To add insult to injury, they lacked flavor.  So all in all, they had no redeeming social value.

Pulled Pork

If you have had really good pulled pork, this isn’t it.  It was a bit stringy and while there was a smoky flavor it was barely there.  Again, leading us to question their assertion that the meat was actually smoked in the traditional fashion of low and slow.   The sauce was a bit too much for it and way too sweet.  I didn’t think it was worth taking home to test as a leftover sandwich.

Baby Back Ribs

These ribs were meaty enough and smoked, but the flavor was just not there.  If the meat had a rub on it before cooking, it was impossible to identify.   Or taste.   Soooo disappointing!

Spicy Beef Link

Presented sliced longitudinally like pickle spears, this was an excellent hot link.  It had a good combination of spices and just enough of an after bite so that you were sure that you were getting a hot link.  It was a bit too much for Sharon, but everyone else enjoyed it.

Leilani’s Mud Pie

Sharon tells me that the mud pie was rich and chocolaty, and better than similar mud pie presentations at other restaurants in the area.  I really cannot comment on this since it did not make it to my end of the table.

Fresh Strawberry Short Cake

Camarillo is on the edge of strawberry growing country.  Here, you would expect to have shortcake piled high with fresh strawberries.  Not so.  This is not, necessarily, a bad thing.  The presentation was of a light puff pastry split and stuffed with crème fresh with strawberries around it.  It was very light and tasty with some of the freshest strawberries you would ever want.

I can’t comment on the Kid’s Sundae, since that was not shared…thankfully.  However, it disappeared into the child with alacrity. 

We had fun, more from the company than the food, and it was obvious to us that Bandit’s is trying a little too hard to be all things to all diners.  Maybe they were having a bad day with the smoker, but the feeling we got was that the que is not their main emphasis.  Considering the buildup we had we thought we was robbed.  For the que it rated six and a half.  And that is being incredibly generous