Tis Me Michelle

A new spot for the suburbs outside of Orlando. I love the Hamlin area. More and more spots have been opening up in this area. My friend has been counting down the days, and we made it there opening week!

The Parking: The area right outside of the restaurant got a bit hectic. With the rush of opening week, the restaurant was packed, and so was the parking area. However, there is plenty of parking, especially when you cross over to the Cineoplis parking lot. Everything is close together,r so it’s not much of a walk at all to get to the restaurant, even if you park at the movie theater.

The Atmosphere: It’s a nice, open indoor/outdoor concept. There’s a large bar area where I believe you can get happy hour drinks and food. Only the drinks are available on happy hour at regular seating. The dining area is nice, and the booths are colorful and look cozy. We got seated at a table and were jealous of the booths, but that’s no biggie. It was packed. There’s also a fun skull theme throughout. Super cool skull light fixtures, loved it. Could have been the opening week rush, it was a bit too loud because the people and the music, but otherwise I enjoyed this spot.

The Drinks: My friends came with a mission. We kicked things off with…. Flaming churro shots. I mean, it does sound amazing, doesn’t it? These came with a lil show. They sprinkled cinnamon and lit it on fire, and sparks flew. I somehow got the one with extra cinnamon. It was almost like I had a cinnamon challenge experience. Somehow we ended up ordering…. All the available shots on the menu. I truly don’t know how I survived. We tried the Mexican Candy, Pineapple-Ancho, and the Espresso shots. My ranking would be Espresso, Mexican Candy, Churro, and then Pineapple-Ancho. I thought the last would be a fruity good time, but there was something in there that didn’t land with me. The espresso shots were surprisingly smooth.

It should come as no surprise that Agave Bandido has an extensive tequila-based cocktail menu. I ordered the Orlae off the happy hour menu, which is half tequila and half mezcal. If you don’t like the smoky mezcal flavor, this isn’t for you. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard marg. With all those shots in my system, I nursed the Orale the rest of the night.

The Food: Started off with the complimentary chips and salsa and added the guac flight. The guac flight came with an Esquite-chipotle, Spicy Chili and Pineapple Bacon. I was most excited for the Esquite but enjoyed the pineapple bacon the most – it had that sweet and savory component. I love that combo. Honestly, I really enjoyed the salsa, it was kind of creamy, gave me a vodka sauce vibe, which I enjoyed more than the guac. So I would recommend sticking with the salsa or trying the Queso Fundido. We had that with the beef and it may have been my favorite bite of the night. The last app we tried were the Churrasco empanada, which my friends loved, and I thought was okay.

For the main course I got the blackened mahi-mahi tacos which I was happy with. Cooked well and had good flavor. To be honest with all the shots and apps I was pretty full, so I took most of it home. But of course we still ordered dessert. We got the tequila cake and churro ice cream sandwich. They were both okay. I liked the strawberries and cream on the tequila cake. The cake itself was not my favorite, it was somehow not moist or dry. Just uninteresting. The churro ice cream sandwich had potential, but is incredible difficult and messy to eat alone, let alone share. Can’t go wrong with ice cream and the churro flavor was good. The texture had gotten to hard with the ice cream though. Ultimately, I wouldn’t get either of these again.

Overall: Definitely a great addition in the Hamlin area. It’s a good spot to grab drinks or have a solid dinner. Happy to see more spots open up outside of the main downtown Orlando and Mills area. I could totally see myself coming here for a casual hang again.

Rating: 8.3/10

Address: 5365 Hamlin Groves Tr, Winter Garden, FL 34787