Casa De Bandini at The Forum

If i could give it 0 stars i would… from the start to the middle, didn’t get an end… horrible service from all over. was told our wait would be an hour, instead waiting over 2. was sitting up front waiting and the host didn’t realize we were apart of the party she started talking about and proceeded to tell other the other hosts how “the party of 12 was supposed to be sat a while ago and we had a table ready for them but then other guests pulled one of their tables over to make more space for them” and instead of saying anything to us, we sat there and waited for over 2 hours… then we had Nancy as our server. Took over 10 mins for her to greet us and another 5+ to bring our drinks. She was triple sat including our table so I gave her grace there but it didn’t last long. She then ignored us for over 20 mins and then when she started to take our order, i went first and asked if there were peppers and onions in the chicken taquitos (there are) and i asked her to come back to me as i now needed to figure out what I was going to eat instead. she proceeded to take the rest of the tables order and then left our table and took 3 other tables orders…. not ever coming back to me to take my order until i flagged her down… fast forward we waited over 30 mins for our food, all her other tables that she took the orders for after ours, had already received their food and was done with it by the time we got ours. we also sat with empty drinks those 30 mins as well. she did stop by the other end of our table to ask if they wanted refills on their margaritas (trying to upsell our ticket) but ran off before our end could flag her down…. then the food comes out and i had ordered a basic cheese quesadilla… and low and behold, there’s huge slices of bell peppers throughout the entire thing (remember how i didn’t order the chicken because it had peppers and onions in it) and when i flagged her down 5 mins after our food being dropped off, and i showed her that my cheese quesadilla was full of peppers, nancy says “that’s how it comes”….. and i told her i didn’t want it and to take it off the check and that also our half of the table needed refills, she stormed off in the middle of us talking to her and only brought my refill back, not the 4 we needed….. Ended up leaving the rest of our party due to it being 9pm and having waited for 3 hours and still had not eaten. oh and during all of that, a server who was rolling silverware knocked a stack of napkins on the floor and another server picked all of them up and put them back on the counter for the first server to keep using them. yummy. awful service. aw. ful. will not ever be back.

The food and service is always good, I was wondering what is their signature dish? And has the restaurant had a food critics review? I love you read it! See you soon Casa de Bandini!

Had dinner with out of town guests. The service was very good. Large menu. Quality food. Enough to take some home.

Parking: Large lot shared with other retailers.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Fresh Tortillas, Traditional Margaritas 27oz, Carnitas a La Michoacán, Chile Verde

This place has it all! Great ambience food and service. There is a reason that this place is packed every night!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Being from Houston, it's definitely strange to go to a Mexican restaurant because we're used to a very specific taste of Tex-Mex. With that said, this restaurant has beautiful ambiance, the server Jose Luna was friendly, knowledgeable and an expert of providing outstanding service. I ordered the enchiladas del Mar which is shrimp and fish enchiladas. It had a lot more cheese that I'm used to having on top of it and I wish there was a little bit more fish. There was a decent amount of shrimp. Huge portions and quite mild in flavor. We were there with a group of eight and we got seated outside but they had heat lamps so the temperature was great. You feel like you're transported to a different world between the multicolor lights, mosaic fireplace, music, laughter and eating... Truly magical.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

The last time I dined here was almost 20 years ago. And it still has the same great food, service, cocktails and atmosphere! The fresh tortillas are best! ?

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Always dependable very good Mexican food. Oooey, gooyee, cheesy fun.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

It was noisy but a lot of energy in the restaurant. Mariachis were great and the food was amazing. I’m from Santa Clarita but next time I am in San Diego I will definitely be going back.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Traditional Margaritas 27oz, Burrito

Gerardo was excellent!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Traditional Margaritas 27oz

Mediocre Mexican food. The HH is an okay deal. Taquito plate was fairly small and the queso was literally just melted cheese not like a dip so it got hard in 30 seconds. Good service but won’t return.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 5

I looooved the atmosphere, the food was amazing and soooo fresh, and the service was so friendly

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Really a top flight place. Definitely would recommend.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This is the best Mexican food I have had, and having grown up in southern California speaks volumes. I was throughly impressed with all aspects of the resteraunt, but what really stood out was the service. My server, Nancy made me feel like I was part of the family, making sure I had everything I needed. If I could rate 10 stars, I would. That was how superb the service was. If you haven't tried this resteraunt, you are truly missing out on a wonderful dining experience!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great food, good friends, great service.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

A favorite when in the San Diego area.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Traditional Margaritas 27oz, Carnitas Plate, Chimichanga