A friend and I came to SouthBound after hearing that a new SoCal Mexican Street food restaurant had opened in hip Southend.
Positives: the restaurant's decor is cute and inspired and the patio is wonderful with the open air concept. Really great for a nice day.
Negatives: although the the food came out fast...it was almost TOO fast. Like did we get someone else's order or were the ingredients made this morning and been sitting in a warmer waiting for some unsuspecting diner to order?? Our waitress was relatively attentive at first but after receiving our order she all but disappeared. We saw her helping other tables but she never came back to us. For context, my friend even had to get up and go ask the manger for a refill on her drink and I had to settle our bill with some random waitress that happened to walk by our table!! There was a table of diners who had chosen to bring their dog with them to the restaurant to eat on the patio (that's a whole separate issue), and our waiter as well as the hostess thought it appropriate to pet and touch the dog. Soooo...that's disgusting! You're handling food, menus, drinks etc. no bueno! And even if there is a slim chance that you went to the back and washed your hands (that didn't happen I'm sure), the optics are that all the diners just saw you petting an animal and then go right back to serving food!!! That HAS TO violate some sort of health code statute. Lastly the food was edible (it wasn't gross) but it was flavorless and bland at best. Definitely nothing to write home about and definitely not compelling enough to warrant a second visit.
All and all, on a nice day, the patio would be sufficient to grab drinks and chips & dip with friends...don't both with the food. That is, unless the waitress' are playing with animals that day and in that case I'd just recommend avoiding the place altogether.