Agave Bandido: The Loud Room, the Big Patio and the Hidden Tiki Bar
The brand's largest location opened in Hamlin in June 2025 — a Mexican kitchen and tequila bar with a 4,000-square-foot patio and Maya SpeakTiki hidden inside.
3 minute read
Hamlin’s dining row needed a loud room — a place with energy, a serious bar and a patio built for Florida evenings. It got one on June 5, 2025, when Agave Bandido opened at 5365 Hamlin Groves Trail, in what the brand announced as its largest location to date and its first in the Orlando area, following South Florida locations in Pembroke Pines and Lakewood Ranch.
The concept is a Mexican kitchen and tequila bar, high-energy by design. The Hamlin room was built big: a sprawling covered patio of about 4,000 square feet for year-round outdoor dining, a lively open-air bar, and Day of the Dead-inspired art including a street-side mural by artist Ruben Ubiera, rendered in spray paint. Inside, the design leans into the theme with LED skull lighting and a roaming margarita cart bringing the bar tableside. This is not a quiet cantina, and it does not try to be.
The bar is the headline
Agave Bandido’s opening materials describe one of the largest tequila and mezcal selections in the region — over 200 tequila options — plus margarita flights built on fresh tropical flavors such as mango, coconut and guava. Whether or not you test the depth of that list, its existence shapes the room: this is the Hamlin restaurant where the drinks program is a reason to come, not an accompaniment. Happy hour on weekday afternoons and Taco Tuesday — the restaurant promotes half-off taco platters on Tuesdays — give the week two reliable excuses.
Hidden inside is the detail everyone asks about: Maya SpeakTiki, an Aztec- and Mayan-inspired speakeasy-style tiki bar exclusive to this location, serving specialty tapas and tiki cocktails behind the main restaurant’s energy. It gives Agave Bandido a second, smaller room with a different mood — the move for a later drink after dinner, rather than another round in the main bar’s buzz.
What to order
The menu is contemporary Mexican built for sharing and for groups: tacos and taco platters, homemade guacamole, empanadas, fajitas, burritos and chimichangas all appear across the restaurant’s own listings and menu coverage. The pattern to follow is the room’s own logic — start with guacamole and empanadas for the table, order tacos in variety rather than in bulk, and let the margarita flight do the exploring. Families are genuinely served here too, with a kids’ menu in the mix; the energy reads festive rather than adults-only, at least at family dinner hours. As the night gets later, the balance tips toward the bar, which is the honest time to hand the table over.
Hours follow the room’s ambitions: the restaurant lists lunch through late evening daily, staying open latest on Friday and Saturday nights. Confirm the current schedule on its own site before a late visit, and book ahead for weekend dinners — tables can be reserved online, and local coverage of the opening recommended reservations for a reason.
Where Agave fits in Hamlin
Agave Bandido sits on Hamlin Groves Trail beside Ford’s Garage and a short hop from PopStroke, which makes it the natural dinner in the putt-then-eat sequence in our PopStroke guide, and the liveliest stop in our Hamlin date-night itinerary. In the wider Hamlin dining roundup it plays a specific role: the celebration dinner, the birthday table, the night the group wants a scene. Bosphorous is where Hamlin goes for a composed dinner; Agave is where it goes to make some noise.
One caution, offered plainly: a high-energy room at peak hour is loud, busy and unhurried in the way popular places are. Go on a weeknight for the calmer version, go early with kids, and go late — to Maya SpeakTiki — when the kids are home. Used that way, Agave Bandido is exactly what a young town center needs: proof that Hamlin can support a restaurant with a point of view, a serious bar and a patio full of people who chose it over staying home.
Find it via the Hamlin hub and the Orlando Top Spots Map.
Orlando Citizen by email
The weekly edition, in your inbox
One email, every Saturday: the week’s edition of Orlando Citizen — the week’s stories, rankings and winners, gathered in one place. Free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Related Stories
Editor’s Picks
Spotted an error? Tell us — corrections · How we rank