Cactus Club Cafe

Having been to two CC Cafes recently, I’ve concluded there’s indeed a difference between locations. Both times we arrived late in the evening, ordering from their happy hour menu. The Bellini here looks less impressive (flat on top), while the sunset soda, even though it lacks visual appeal, turned out to be the better drink. The interior is a weird mix of low-​hanging chandeliers, big-​screen TVs and odd-​looking prints, all competing for your attention. Their Kingsway location’s definitely more inviting and less pretentious.

I only get one thing from this location, and that is there blackened chicken creole. I have been to many locations, and this location makes the chicken the best. When I go to other locations, it’s best to be safe, so I usually get the quesadilla…

Was really excited to order the Cajun Chicken here because I really liked it in their Ash St. location, where I have a contrasting review compared to this location.
Walked in here for a Friday night for post-​work dinner and drinks with my colleagues. The hostess had told us that it will be a 20 minute way for my party of 5 people. No biggie we can wait. it’s Friday after all. However after about 60 minutes, yup 1 hour, we were told that the table they were planning to sit us just keeps on ordering so they said we might have to wait much longer.
At that point we just decided to leave because we didn’t want to risk to be told the same thing again in another 30 minutes or 1 hour.
Just disappointed that the front staff relied on only 1 table to sit us through. we did not even mind the bar or a smaller table. Could have at least asked us if we were flexible!
Ended up walking to Earl’s across the street on Burnard and we’re seated fairly quickly. You can read my review of Earl’s Burnard if you look them up.

Total disaster. Phoned ahead and I was told I couldn’t make a reservation. went there in person and put my name down. Waited patiently and saw another couple get in ahead of us. When I explained what happened to the hostess she argued with me. I explained that it was our anniversary and I sat down and it happened again! I told her how long we had been waiting and what had happened and how it was ridiculous. She agreed that it was ridiculous. I left.
UPDATE: After reading my review-​the manager contacted me to let me know that they would be addressing the issues that I experienced therefore I have updated my review to three stars as I appreciate that.

Utilitarian chain food. Although I’m not a vegetarian, I find their veggie burger is usually a good choice. Consistent. But today I decided to try their fish tacos. Big mistake. Worst fish taco ever. Battered cod in a super bland flour (?!) tortilla with stringy cabbage. Side salsa and chips were… meh. Truly uninspired which made me a little sad because I do love a good or even halfway decent fish taco.
**Update: my sincere apologies to the Broadway location. This review was meant for the Yaletown location.

It is never my first choice to go to chain restaurants because food is usually mediocre and there is never good vegan food, service annoying and price tag way too high… But sometimes you have to do what your friends want… I was totally disappointed with Cactus Club. I am gluten free and vegan, which is usually never an issue at veggie restaurants. There, I had to check what sauce they used and how they cooked stuff and blablabla, giving me a headache about ordering anything.
Anyway, one rice bowl with some yucky sauce later, I am $ 18 poorer and certainly not satisfied. I will never go back there by choice that is for sure. Might be a decent place for omnis and I will never know, vegans stay away…

I have been here multiple times. But because its so close to my work place, we usually have lunch here when we have a colleague leaving. Lunch again here is no exception. I like the fast that you can eat and be out of here in about 40 mins. Its quite fast. For super large group, they give you the option of preordering your meal. As well, they have a pretty big party room at the back that can fit about 50 people standing and sitting, maybe 35. Not exactly sure on the numbers. Servers are usually really nice.
Food is always good here. Its Cactus Club what can I say.
Tip. look at the water glass before drinking from it. sometimes the glass has lipstake mark

Always have had the best service at this location (considerably friendlier than Cactus Club Yaletown). Today’s visit was no exception: we had three servers checking in on us (pretty sure one of them was the manager). Top notch from start to finish.
Seems like many people take offence at the décor. Sure it’s dark and looks «dated» — and I’m sure they did that on purpose. Plus they have the comfiest booths — score! Granted the Broadway street traffic can’t compete with the views at English Bay or Canada Place — but this location is also less crowded and the interiors are charming enough. As the closest Cactus to home, this is an easy go-​to when I don’t know what else to eat.
Which is what happened today. Arrived at 3pm, so got a couple appies at happy hour prices. All the food was predictably good, except the wonton soup (should have known better but it was rainy and cold and that was the only soup on offer — don’t do it).
Total came to $ 74 for two, after tax + tip, which is more than I usually spend on lunch, but was well worth it!

The only ‘franchise’ location amongst the rest of corporate stores, as they have more leeway in their marketing but I digress.
One of the largest, nicest and highest ceilings, compared to Fairview.
The layout is great: bar action on the left with spacious counters, patio in full swing, booth seating on right and separate section in back.
Ordered the rocket salad, highlight definitely the chicken, cooked moist and flavourful. Candied pecans, avocado pretty fresh as well.
Easy repeat.

I decided to take myself out to diner today and Cactus Club got the call.
The service was great, it didn’t take long to cook my order and THE FOOD WAS FANTASTIC! I got a medium rare 9oz steak with mashed potatoes, and fried asparagus. A+ I’ll be back.

This is a slightly different review:
I’ve now had several large parties (30 – 50 people) in this locations back atrium.
Both experiences have been phenomenal. The location and the serving staff can not be beat.
Overall, we highly recommend this place for large groups and good food!

This is my favorite place for a quick food. The Wonton soup is amazing. So is everything else at this popular gathering. The new location by the bay has an amazing view. Check it out…

I’ve been to this location about 4 years ago and I came back a few nights ago.
I have to say it’s a nice and pretty location.
I was having my staff Christmas dinner here. We ordered 2 appetizers to share (calamari and tuna tataki) and I had a Cheddar Bacon Burger with a side of Cesar salad. yummy. Though my burger was a bit too saucy and that went the same with my coworkers tuna sandwich. My salad didn’t have enough dressing and I could still taste the water that they use to wash the lettuce with. Though I was too lazy to get the server to ask for a new one cause she looked really busy even though the place wasn’t full (couldn’t really spot her out half the time).
I end up taking half my burger to go and it tasted a lot better the next day after heating it up in a microwave oven.
Overall, this place is pretty nice. If you plan on driving to get to this location be prepare to pay for parking but the bus is fairly easy to access. I would recommend this place to others especially when they plan on going on a date.

Was walking along Broadway looking for somewhere to eat before heading off to the fireworks… so not going here again. Maybe I am being a bit harsh but I expected a little more. I have always liked the Cactus Club and have never had a complaint until now.
The food was… edible, nothing special. The service was poor, we were left in a section of about 8 tables/​booths way at the back when there were plenty of tables nearer the front. It seemed so far away from everything it felt like we were in a different restaurant altogether.
Much happier with the North Vancouver Cactus Club.

Surprisingly, this Cactus Club location isn’t busy around lunch time but it was hard to find parking on Broadway.
I had their burger with Angus beef burger with sauteed mushrooms, cheddar, smoked bacon and red pepper relish. The bacon was crispy and tasty … the red pepper relish was a bit sweet for my taste. Luckily I had the relish on the side. Overall this was a ⁸⁄₁₀ burger. The sea salted fries were great … if only they gave me more.

I believe the server I had was named Alex and he did an outstanding the job.
Now onto the food! The beef carpaccio was amazing as usual — no complaints here. I have never tried the tuna tataki before but I’m so glad I did today! It was delicious. The entire dish worked well together minus the pine nuts (but that’s just my personal dislike of them). My complaint was the chef wasn’t paying attention to the avocados as they had already gone bad. I removed every piece from my plate.
The reason for the 3 stars and not a 4 – 5 stars is because of the unforgivable chicken tenders. The panko was nice and crunchy and the chicken was tender… but there was NO FLAVOR. It tasted like nothing! My friend, who has never seen me use salt in a restaurant, just stared as I poured a waterfall of salt. That only made it taste like salty nothing. The freakin’ honey mustard wasn’t even helping! I’ll never order this dish again.
I have no qualms about coming back. I’ll just avoid the chicken tenders from now on!

Quit it! This is amazing!!! I don’t even like squash, but this butternut squash ravioli with prawns is freaking awesome!!! The calamari is great! It has red peppers and jalepenos mix into the batter, making it heavenly. It comes with 2 dipping sauces. Try the flirtini too, it’s super yummy

There are three reasons I don’t frequent chains: average food, high price and meh service.
We picked this spot for a before holiday team lunch and boy should I say I’m not going back.
The ambience is cool, all the paintings, nice chandeliers make this place look like a 60’s style high end steak house in Chicago; but that’s where the fun ends!
I ordered the chicken tenders as that was one of the cheaper items on the menu and needless to say it wasn’t anything special. The mustard accompanying the food was French’s which is not what you expect from a diner, most make their own, let alone a rather higher end chain. The fries were over salted and overall the food was below average.
The service was quite slow even though they charged us an extra %20 as we had a large table.
Save your money and go to any other place even in this rather expensive neighbourhood and you’ll get better food and service!

I’ve always known Cactus Club as being consistent with their good service while providing decent quality food at fairly reasonable prices. Recently, I came here for a workplace Christmas dinner with a group of eleven people. It has been a while since the last time I’ve been to this location, but I noticed that there has been a renovation in the back section which tries to make it more upscale and rustic. It did look nice and the seating was comfortable.
The celeriac soup with aged cheddar tasted no better than canned Campbell’s cream style soups (salty and thick), and I couldn’t imagine myself going out to have canned style cream soups which works better for recipes. The breadstick that came with the dish was greasy and charred and I couldn’t finish it. This stuff reminded me of cafeteria soup in elementary school, minus the soda crackers.
I also had the raincoast greens salad with avocado, feta, pecans, berries, egg and grilled chicken breast. Initially, I thought the salad was good, until I started eating the chicken breast which was cold and dry! The chicken didn’t taste like it was freshly made, but more like it’s been cooked a week or more ago.
My coworkers who had burgers and the burgers looked like they had zero toppings — sad looking burgers.
Service was disappointing as the server didn’t ask anyone at our table if we enjoyed our food. I even had water spilled onto my chair and lap when the server tried to refill water.
I also found out that Cactus Club has a new policy that they charge a 17 percent service charge for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re by yourself, group of two or ten. One of my coworkers didn’t know about it and she even double tipped the server, but the server didn’t even let her know about it.

After a less than stellar first review, Cactus Club was kind enough to send me a gift card and invite me to give them another try. Glad to see that their management are on top of their customer service game.
I popped in again on a Saturday afternoon around 3. Sangria was on special again so of course I indulged in a large glass! Once again, it was YUM! This time I split the sliders and tuna tataki with my lunch date. Sliders were quite tasty… there were 3 of them and we were literally fighting over the third one. Apparently tuna is really not their thing though, as the tuna tataki left a lot to be desired. It was lacking in the flavour department (could have definitely used some spices on the sear) and not the freshest I’ve had. It was by no means terrible, I would just stick to land dwelling food here in the future.
Food wise the experience was definitely a step up from my last visit, however the service lacked once again. The waitress was friendly enough, but again nobody came to check on the table after the food had been delivered to make sure everything was okay. Am I wrong in expecting this basic level of service? I mean if it was busy I could excuse them, but this has happened twice now when the restaurant was not even ¼ full.