Banditos Tacos & Tequila is no longer listed as an active restaurant at 1301 S. Joyce Street in Pentagon City: its Google listing says temporarily closed, and the location has disappeared from the company’s website. The exact date it stopped serving customers remains unclear.
ARLnow reported the apparent closure, noting that the Pentagon City location was still listed on Banditos’ website on Monday, November 9, but was gone by the morning of November 10. The restaurant did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment. Banditos opened the location in 2022; its remaining restaurants are in Columbia, Towson and White Marsh, Maryland, according to ARLnow.
Other Banditos locations have also closed
The Fairfax location near George Mason University closed in March after three years at 10621 Braddock Road in University Mall, according to FFXnow. It opened in March 2023 as Banditos Tacos & Tequila and was conceived more as a sports bar than a traditional Mexican restaurant. The report gave no explicit reason for the closure, quoting the business as saying the decision “was not made lightly.”
A Maple Lawn location also closed in 2025, according to ARLnow. The timeline for the chain’s original Federal Hill flagship is less clear: ARLnow’s report says it closed in 2024, while CBS Baltimore had earlier reported that the restaurant planned to cease operations at its Federal Hill location on March 16, 2025, after 14 years in business. CBS Baltimore also reported that the Federal Hill location would be sold and GameOn Bar+Arcade would move into the space. The reports give different closure dates, and the available information does not resolve the discrepancy.
Vacancies along Pentagon City’s restaurant stretch
Banditos’ closure comes amid other restaurant departures in the area. El Mercat Bar de Tapas closed its Westpost at National Landing location in September, after a year in business. In comments reported by ARLnow, the restaurant cited economic challenges, unexpected construction costs, opening delays and slower-than-anticipated sales. The same retail bay had previously been occupied by Asia Bistro for 22 years, until it closed in November 2024.
Other nearby spaces have also changed hands or remained vacant. Mattie and Eddie’s closed its Pentagon City location in July 2024, and Ember has reportedly been working for more than a year to open in the former space, according to ARLnow. Banditos’ storefront is between two empty storefronts along the same shopping stretch.
Another reported Westpost vacancy
ARLnow separately reported that a Walgreens pharmacy, a different Westpost tenant, closed on May 5, according to signage at the storefront. The report adds another documented tenant departure in the shopping center, but does not establish a broader redevelopment or leasing plan.
