Restaurant review: Is Sarasota's new waterfront Mexican food spot worth the wait?
As we approach Cinco de Mayo, I can't help but think of all the glorious, tequila- and taco-fueled celebrations that will be taking place at my favorite Mexican restaurants in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
In fact, every April, I like to visit as many local Mexican restaurants as possible ahead of the holiday, at least until my inability to say "no" to chips and salsa refills becomes problematic, and I begin to feel as if I might pop at any moment.
One of my favorite new restaurants of 2023 happened to be the Mexican spot Rocco’s Tacos, which opened at University Town Center and impressed me again during a late April dinner visit. This year, one of the most buzzed-about new restaurant openings has been Agave Bandido, which is located in Lakewood Ranch's upscale Sarasota County neighborhood Waterside Place.
Agave Bandido, which originated with a Pembroke Pines location and is part of the South Florida-based Wolverine Management, opened its Lakewood Ranch spot in March, and I visited twice in mid-April. Both times I left asking myself the same question: "Was that worth the wait?"
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Is the new Agave Bandito restaurant in Lakewood Ranch worth the wait?
Like most middle-aged men (or small children), I'm not a huge fan of long waits and am prone to fits of hangriness. To prevent this from happening, I do my best to visit restaurants at off-hours, such as the middle of a Saturday afternoon, which is when I stopped by Agave Bandido for the first time. The restaurant occupies a two-story building similar in its basic exterior to the rest of the structures in the Waterside Place dining and shopping district, but with a smart, colorful interior featuring the skulls one associates with Mexican Day of the Dead festivities. Agave Bandido offers guests indoor as well as covered outdoor seating overlooking Kingfisher Lake, and there were at least a dozen al fresco tables open when I approached the Bandido host stand at 2:20 p.m. I was greeted with a smile and politely informed that it would be a 45-minute wait.
I hate to be that guy, but after walking around the half-full dining room, which looked to have plenty of servers on the floor, and using the (very clean) restroom, I spotted a manager and couldn't help but ask: What was the reason behind the 45-minute wait for an outside table when I could see a bunch available? The manager told me that the kitchen needed to "catch up."
Well, OK. I received the first text informing me we were on the waitlist at 2:23, and the next one, notifying me our table was ready, at exactly 3 p.m. Fortunately, Agave Bandido has a long bar that serves both the indoor and outdoor area, as well as a service window for folks outside waiting for their table. A cold beer made the nearly 40-minute wait in the warm Florida sun a bit more bearable. Although seeing all of those empty tables overlooking that massive, I believe manmade, lake definitely frustrated me.
Once we were finally seated in a nice comfy booth, covered and with a view of the water, we received excellent service from a young man named Rico. This included his colleague making us some delicious guacamole, which quickly quelled my hangriness. My second beer of the already long afternoon, which arrived promptly, also helped improve my disposition.
There's plenty of food to recommend at Agave Bandido, which I will list here momentarily, although there were nearly as many misses, including easy essentials such as the various tacos I tried. Of course, everything tastes better when you're not in a foul mood from being put on a wait while staring at empty tables. This is exactly what happened when we visited Agave Bandido the following Monday at 5:15 p.m. Despite the abundance of outdoor seating options, we still had to sit tight for about a half-hour before receiving the highly anticipated text that read, "Hi Wade, your table is ready at Agave Bandido Lakewood Ranch. Please head over to the restaurant!"
Neither the food nor the service were quite as good during our second visit to Agave Bandido, but shout-out to the affable and perceptive bartender. When I ordered a couple of beers, I might have grumbled to him about the wait, and he comped them. So, yeah, I did find the wait much more pleasant while sipping free cervezas (I tipped him the only cash I had, $5) than when drinking a bottle of beer that cost, with tip, about $10. However, I don't think Agave Bandido's business plan includes giving away adult beverages, so I would not count on that perk. I would expect to wait for a table, though, regardless of when you visit.
What to order at Agave Bandido in Lakewood Ranch
Table-side guacamole ($15): Don't let the waiter talk you into ordering the less expensive serving of guacamole prepared in the kitchen; you want the table-side experience, especially if, like me, you're particular about your raw onion intake. As I mentioned previously, Agave Bandido serves outstanding guacamole, which is elevated by the fact that the guac-maker offers you a sample before completing the task, allowing you to request adjustments, like a tad more salt, which is what we did.
Grilled avocado ($15): Agave Bandido's avocado game is so good that I'm recommending it two ways: mashed as guacamole and grilled. In fact, if forced to choose between the two, I would probably go with the deftly seasoned and grilled avocado, which is far less common than guacamole, and comes with a delightful mix of grilled corn, chipotle aioli, crema, and grated cotija. For four more dollars, you can add grilled chicken to the dish, which is what we did. Honestly, though, the grilled avocado packed ample flavor on its own without the added protein.
Churrasco chimichurri ($30): Perhaps I'm just not a lucky fellow, but my track record with steaks at local Mexican restaurants is checkered at best. Fortunately, Agave Bandido serves a good steak. It's a hand-cut piece of what I'm guessing is sirloin, stuffed with vegetables. The tender and flavorful meat, along with the soon-to-be-unstuffed veggies, is accompanied by a tangy chimichurri sauce nicely complemented by a cilantro lime purée. In addition to the veggies, the steak is served with yucca fries and a choice of rice: Mexican, cilantro, or white.
Churro ice cream sandwich ($9): The famous Spanish fried dough pastry, akin to a doughnut, serves as a vessel for a scoop of vanilla ice cream, creating a brilliant combination of warm and cold, crunchy and soft, cinnamon and sweetness in every bite.
Did you know?
In addition to its main bar, which you can enjoy from both inside and outside stools, Agave Bandido offers guests a speakeasy-style drinking den upstairs. The entranceway is hidden, and part of the fun is finding it, so no spoilers from me! When I discovered the secret door and realized you had to push instead of pull (or was it the opposite of that?), there was a handwritten sign at the bottom of the stairs indicating that the bar hours are 5-11 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 5-11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Personally, I'd prefer to enjoy a margarita by the water rather than upstairs in a rather dark room, but to each their own. Of course, the speakeasy is a fine option to pass the time while waiting for the kitchen to catch up so you can finally be seated.
If you go
Agave Bandido is at 1550 Lakefront Drive, Sarasota. For more information, call 941-260-8866 or visit agavebandido.com.
Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Restaurant review: Agave Bandido Lakewood Ranch,
