Read reviews about Contrabando here! All reviews have been written by Quandoo users that have already booked and eaten at Contrabando. We try to be as transparent as possible by providing you with real guest experiences. Find out what other diners are saying about Contrabando.
Loved it. Glad I had booked as it was very busy.
Loved it! What a fantastic venue for a work lunch
Second time dining here and loved every aspects of it. Delicious foods and great service - what more do you want? Thanks Contrabando.
Great food. Fish tacos are to die for! Service decent too
Food was great. Table was ready when we got there. You have to fight for the attention of servers otherwise they will forget your beers and your orders (it makes sense because it is busy but still makes you nervous). You have only 2 hours for the table but they should remind the group 20-30 mins before the time is up so that everyone can order a final round of beers and food. They lost a good chunk of orders from us because they told us 10 mins before that we have to leave soon. If they had told us earlier, we would have order at least 6 more beers and more food. But overall good experience and will come back.
Overall I had a great experience but the service was a let down. A friend of mine is allergic to avocado so she asked for no guac on her tacos - it was $3 taco night but they told her she wasn't able to get the special deal if revisions were made to the tacos. Given she's allergic and that adding guac to meals normally increases the $ value (and therefore removing it should not!), this was pretty disappointing. Even more disappointing was to see that it wasn't really a plentiful serving of guac on my tacos - it was the lightest drizzle of watery avocado on top. It would have been extremely simple to have left his off but when we asked about it, the waiters were rude and unhelpful and my friend was charged the full price. Disappointing however the food and ambience were fabulous despite the service.
If you are wanting the old Contrabando experience give this new place a miss. Tacos are still great however all the old basement charm, Mexican beers and proper chili salsa are missing - Just not the same Contrabando of old. Service also very flat in comparison to the lively engaging service in the past. Also a 1hr 15min sitting for lunch without notifying us at the time of booking so we were promptly shuffled off our table and out of the restaurant prior to being ready. Such a shame as this place used to be a favorite for the team!
We picked a great day as a customer as it wasn't so busy. We had speedy service and it was certainly quiet enough to chat and hear one another. Love love the fish tacos at Contrabando. Could live off these alone! Will be back again.
The banquet is outstanding value for only $40pp. They very helpfully have an entirely GF set menu option and happily accommodated a dietary requirement to leave avo/guac out of some dishes. Delicious So Cal themed food. Whilst there was plenty to be had on the set menu option it was filling because of its volume rather than being very meat/carb heavy, or overly greasy as can often happen with this style of food. Lovely staff and excellent margaritas (with quality tequila). Highly recommended.
I went with friends last week, so I asked my wife to come on Taco Tuesday this week for dinner. She came from quite a distance and she tried the gluten free. She was able to down 6 varieties of tacos. I could only do 5. The corn tortillas are less filling, but the flour tortillas are tastier. She enjoyed it and we'll go again. We love the fish and the pork the best, but the prawns are our 3rd favorite. Beef is 4th. Each one has its own taste with the various sauces they use on them. Terrific.