Five questions with Los Banditos

Los Banditos is everything you want from a Wellington eatery. The boutique Mexican restaurant’s atmosphere is always buzzing, – with their neon lights, vibrant artwork and unique design elements only adding to that. Don’t even get us started about the food – try their quesadillas and it might be all you think about the following week…

If you’re looking for a spot for your next work function, look no further. With mouth-watering food and delicious cocktails, you couldn’t really ask for more. We went there as a team before the Wellington Felix Awards, and if it hadn’t been for the awards, we would have stayed there all night.

Keen to know more about what makes this place so fabulous? We had a chat with owner Jordan Mills.

Question one: Tell us a little bit about Los Banditos?

The biggest thing we like to push with Los Banditos is that the resources we use are all-natural. For instance, the whole bar top was remade using the athletic park old bleachers, that they had there years ago. We repurposed and fit them to be a bar – it still has some of the numbers and rows which is really cool. It’s all built around sustainability really.

In terms of the food, we believe it is authentic Mexican, coupled with really good cocktails. Simple ingredients but done well. One of the most popular has to be our frozen margarita rosebuds.

Question two: It’s been a tough year, what has helped Los Banditos through it the most?

It’s definitely been a tough year but we’ve had amazing regulars who supported us through it all, especially when we reopened in level three just for takeaways. It wasn’t crazy busy like a normal period but we found that a lot of people were coming to support which was really good to have, especially being reasonably new. We are only about 18 months open - from April 2019 - so that support from the local community was great. 

Question three: What drew you into the hospitality industry?

We’re a family business. It’s myself, my parents and my brother. We all have different arms that we take care of but we do it together really. It’s been a long time, my dad’s been doing it for 40 years. We’ve got different styles of venues, from cafes and restaurants to pubs, bars and night clubs, there’s a little bit of everything. It’s what we enjoy, it’s what we love doing. 

Question four: What would be your top recommendation on the menu?

For a starter, I would say the fried chicken - I’m a big fan of fried chicken, especially at Los Banditos. For a main, I’m a meat-eater so definitely the chicken tacos, but we also have vegan jackfruit tacos which are pretty popular. 

Question: Why did you jump on the receipt-free revolution?

One part of it is having no paper receipts come through, they go straight from the scanner – but the other thing is supporting local. It’s a Wellington start-up that’s doing really well, so we wanted to be a part of that as a Wellington hospitality group.