Cactus Club Cafe

Went to this Cactus Club location on a Thursday night. It was fairly busy, but was seated after 10 – 15 minutes of waiting. We ordered the Blackened Creole Chicken that comes with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus as well as the Grilled Tuna Club that comes with fries. The tuna club was underwhelming and kept falling apart midway through. Joey’s tuna club is much better. As for the Blackened Creole Chicken, the chicken was overcooked but the sides were good.
The service here was not bad, and the prices are what you’d expect for Cactus, Earls, Joeys and so on (higher than the actual quality).

The spaghetti wasn’t that good at all. The other foods that we tried was the salmon/​Salads and it’s not that good too. The water are tap waters
It wasn’t busy since we came around 4pm. The server never refilled our waters automatically. She expect us to give a big tip when she done so poorly. They got 2 stars instead of 1 is because waitress are beautiful but will I go back? No I will not go back

Delicious food and lovely staff, our meals were very appealing visually with good sized portions. A bit pricey for the mains but the quality and the meals themselves are easily worth the cost! I had the blackened creole chicken and we had potato skins to start, and the fish tacos were delicious and fresh. Will definitely go again and try a few more dishes.

I would give negative stars if it were possible.
Customer service is terrible, especially Shelby– very rude, condescending, and judgmental. We complained to the manager Sian but she was just as rude!!! She did not apologize for Shelby’s behavior nor acknowledge it!!! In the end we walked out without even getting our food. Head office will hear from me for sure!

Good. Will come back. Lol love the chocolate bar dessert. A bit pricy but very delicious

Never liked cactus food before but this time it was really good. Had a Ravioli + prawn trio and calamari for our appetizers, and the spaghetti + kobe style meatballs to share. They tasted really good especially the ravioli. Truffle butter sauce went well with the butternut squash and mascarpone ravioli :)

The ambience is much like Joeys, Earls or Moxies. Overall the food is good — as good as it can be for a chain restaurant. My favourite dish there is their Butternut Squash Ravioli with Prawns (you can read my full review at
).
Great place to go for some drinks with friends.

This gotta be the tiniest cactus in town! Four seats at the bar? Cozy. Arrived 11-​ish on a Saturday night and the place was quiet so we’re seated promptly. Wasn’t that hungry at all so we just ordered from the happy hour menu, which includes the usual suspects like yam fries and dry ribs etc. HH drinks are a steal at $ 4 each. Left sleepy but satisfied.

Food 3.5÷5, Service 2/​5, Ambience ⁴⁄₅
As always, I had Jambalaya which is my favourite dish and it was good (although it was odd that they gave me chopsticks, not a spoon, because it’s a Louisiana dish not asian).
However the whole time, I felt rushed because we weren’t done eating yet the server was asking us repeatedly if we were done and trying to take away our dishes. I would have understood if there was a line up or our sitting time was extremely long. However it was only into maybe 40min or so… Service is rated as ²⁄₅.

So honestly if it wasn’t for being ‘greeted’ by two pre-​pubescent hostesses on a power trip after we walked in the door of this restaurant late on a Saturday night I most likely would have rated this experience as four stars… But unfortunately being ignored, pushed into a corner, rudely told it would be a 40 minute wait (which we were ok with, the wait not the rudeness) and then watching a bunch of their friends turn up and state ‘oh we were just shopping in the area and are now hungry but don’t have a reservation’ and immediately be seated while all the people on the wait list looked on, tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
But once seated the experience definitely started to get better! seated and served this place was good… Definitely try the calamari

Had lunch here with my sister and the food was awesome! The server was really nice will definitely come back here with friends.

I’m not sure what to say about the Cactus Club on Kingsway but that everything was fine. The food was fine. The drinks were fine. The service was pretty good and the décor is really nice. Would I go out of my way to eat here? Probably not and not only because there’s a Cactus Club (or two) in pretty much every city in the Lower Mainland. But because everything was basically just fine. They’re trying a lot of different fusion styles but there are so many fusion options around that have a little more spice and flavour to the food.

They have a nice variety of original house cocktails and martinis. A great way to start! We had the salmon and the ravioli. The prawns were a bit small but both dishes were unique and had great flavor. Service was great even though the place was packed — on a Tuesday.
Pricing was appropriate for the quality of food and level of service.

A Class Act!
Got treated to a lovely dessert by this wonderful establishment at this location — lovely male employee behind the bar area who witnessed a transformative moment in my life after asking me why I decided to suddenly opt for a dessert out of the blue midday, and decidedly treated me after hearing my honest explanation. Thank you for the good memories which replaced the now distant negative one that related to my private life. Thank you!

Been here only once and the food is alright, although a bit pricey and oily. Good place for group dinners but overall, it is similar to a chain restaurant but higher end. Got the jambalaya rice bowl and was stuffed after about half mostly because it was oily.

Been coming here for lunch. I love that they will tailor any meal to your liking. The staff is super-​friendly and the food is delicious. I have a bunch of food restrictions and they are so accommodating!
I love their Rainforest Salad and I get just olive oil and lemon juice as dressing. I also ask them to hold the pecans and feta but add tomatoes.
The portions are large so don’t get caught up ordering too much. I made the mistake of having «eyes bigger than my stomach» and ordered appetizer and meal and it was too much.
Great fresca’s too!

This is another place with pretty girls in tight dresses but, who’s complaining? Lots of Roy Lichtenstein type of art on the walls with trendy music. Our server, Brittany R was attentive and helpful. I had the veggie burger, which was crispy and might have been char-​broiled, with hot stuff condiments. Terrific! My wife had the chicken fingers and was disappointed. Not a bad place but not outstanding.

I think it’s the location that makes this place less desirable than other locations I’ve been to. For starters, I made reservations on Jan 1^st at around 2:30 pm over the phone for dinner for myself and 2 girlfriends on Friday Jan 2^nd. When we arrived 10 mins earlier than our reservation, I gave the hostess my name and told her it was a reso for 3 but didn’t tell her the time it was for — the hostess immediately told me that they didn’t have a record of the reservation. She then turned to another server/​hostess and told her we were there for a reservation (it was pretty busy and chaotic when we arrived) and then the second girl went somewhere and came right back and asked me if it was for 7 pm. I said yes that’s the one so I assumed they found the reservation.
The weirdest thing was that they went back to their original story that the reservation never got logged and then she even asked me if I had shown up to the right location of where I reserved. She made me doubt myself so I checked my phone call history to see what number I had dialed just to make sure and it matched the phone number on the business card so I knew 100% that I made the reso at the right location.
This totally turned me off that someone on their end made the mistake but I was the one being questioned… They eventually seated us and apologized for the confusion but I wasn’t impressed.
Our server was much better, I think her name was Laura — she was very attentive and checked on us frequently. I had the chicken quesadilla and we shared the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Food was mediocre, quesadilla wasn’t that warm when I got it, dessert was good but nothing spectacular. I remember now why I never choose this Cactus location.

When I’m in suburban strip-​mall territory I feel strangely comforted by the Cactus Clubs of the world. It’s like an oasis of downtown amongst the Tim Hortons, Boston Pizzas, White Spots and other such depressing huge suburban eateries of this world.
Toto were not in Gastown anymore.
So while the location may suck bal*s (if you haven’t guessed it’s in a strip mall, close to a big and tall ladies clothes store), you can at least come to a bar that reminds you of non strip-​mall life.
And for that, thank god for this Cactus Club!

Cactus club is your typical upscale bar/​dinner place. It has sightly overpriced food, often with an «ethnic fusion» (read: not very well done Asian food), and questionable hiring practices. The waitresses are all young, pretty types, but the food is passable, and they usually have the popular beer on tap. You know what you get here.
We came and had a few rounds of beers (a local hefeweizen on special), shared a few appetizers (calamari and yam fries), and had some more solid food to round out our meals. I had the chicken quesadilla, and my friends had the jambalaya and the chicken fingers.
As I said, the food was good. The tzatziki was fresh, and the calamari came with an extra sauce that had some kick. I’m always partial to spicy! My chicken quesadilla was solid, but I live in California so it wasn’t really life-​changing, you know? Now the chicken fingers — those were amazing. I had massive food envy. Overall for food: solid, with some nice surprises.
As for the beer and everything else, it was exactly as it should be. Refreshing and unassuming. The local beer was good, and not so expensive I felt bad for drinking more. The ambience was slightly dark, but there were families nearby so it wasn’t seedy or anything. The prices are a bit high for what it is, but you expect that at a place like this. My opinion is that it’s neither ridiculously cheap nor exceptionally expensive. As an infamous man once said in this city, «It is what it is.»
The oddest moment of the night came when our waitress gave us each pairs of chopsticks. I wasn’t sure why, but we joked that it was because we were all Asian. Of course, it did make the calamari easier to eat, but we also had forks and other cutlery already. I’m going to assume it was for the appetizers, but it did seem oddly assuming.
Overall? It’s an «A-​OK» kind of place. Try the calamari, order the chicken fingers, and don’t take yourself too seriously.