Cactus Restaurants

I love Cactus. It’s nothing super trendy or exciting as far as food, but the entrees are always consistent and the drinks always strong. I’ve always had really great servers at this location, too. Although there’s only limited parking nearby, its an easy walk from most places in downtown Kirkland. My favorite dishes here are the grilled jalapeños and tamales, if they have them featured on the specials menu. Brunch on the weekends is also good here.

Visited another location in Kirkland Washington and the food was excellent. I ordered brunch and was very surprised at my meal. In fact there were 3 or 4 brunch items I would have chosen on this menu. Service was better then the Bellevue location but still could use some help. Overall a better experience.

I went here with some friends for dinner. The place was crowded, but our wait time to be seated was short, and the time it took for the waiter to come to our table was equally short. The staff was super awesome. The food was delicious. I ordered the butternut squash enchiladas, and my friends ordered a chimichanga, and steak burrito. My friend lived their homemade hot sauce so much, that she purchased a bottle at the restaurant.

Wonderful location in the heart of walkable Kirkland. Sometimes hard to get a table, especially in the summer. Spicy poblano potato tacos are ridiculous for the vegetarian eater.

Great food. The waitress Barbi knew the menu. I asked for suggestions off the happy hour menu. We ordered her suggestions and we’re very pleased with the taste of the food and the presentation.
My margarita was perfectly made.
Wait staff was excellent. We ordered more off the happy hour menu because the food was so good.
We had the jalapeño stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped with bacon and the prawns in Diablo sauce with the mango and oinapple sauce.
Then added chips, salsa, case (soelling?) And avacado dip.
Definitely a great dining experience. Every employee we came across was excellent.
Keep up the great job Cactus Kirkland

I have a love hate relationship with this place. I have been a loyal customers for years. Great texmex style food, highly recommended the butternut squash enchilada.
They offer a nifty service of getting in line to check in with the host via an app called nowait. Seems great in theory but a mismanaged front of the house overshadows any conveince this app might offer. After mi Mexico closed next door it seems this places demand can’t be met by the small building and no waiting space.
Check this place out for some great texmex but be prepared to wait an hour plus.

This is one of my finances favorite childhood restaurants in Kirkland, WA.
The food was amazing! I’m a big fajita lover and am pretty critical of Mexican-​American restaurants. I’d probably rank my fajitas here in the top 5, they were amazing! The caramelized onions and salsa sizzles into and marinates the meat so that it just comes to you hot, and flavorful. The Mexican rice is cooked with sunflower seeds, which surprised me and was amazing.
My fiancé had the Sonoran Spa Chicken, which was cooked over a vegetable escabeche and with portobello mushrooms and a lime cimmi cheri sauce. Just amazing, fresh and flavorful.
Only reason I’m giving a 4-​star is because I was a little disappointed with their alcohol. I tried their mojito, which had too much sugar, and not enough mint flavor.
The venue is comfortable, great lighting, staff is very friendly and welcoming, and they keep the Sunday football games on tv, for those Sea Hawks fans.

Really love the ambience of this location — it’s a lot airier and less crowded than Bellevue’s Cactus. Service was pretty attentive. The house chips and salsa were excellent, as was the guacamole (though for $ 7, it’s not much because it comes in the same little plate as the salsa — save your guac & chip craving for Chipotle.).
I ordered the House Chimichanga w/​veggies — a mix of shredded carrots, zucchini, onion, and portobello chunks & served with rice, beans & guacamole, (sans cheese & sour cream). The chimi was freshly fried and the textures of the crunchy fried tortilla and the veggie mix were fun to eat. The flavors were more subtle and less salted. I guess it left room for the taste of the vegs to shine. The only downside of eating this fried dish was that it came piping hot, so I had to wait a little bit for it to cool off and the fried tortilla was getting mushy from all the steam.

Long long wait time… We were told it would take 45 minutes, but it ended up being an-​hour-​long wait, I patiently waited while my friends nibbled on some tortilla and salsa because we had the worst craving for Mexican food.
As soon as we were seated, we were greeted with some tortilla, salsa and guac, don’t know if any of my friends ordered them or not, I felt like they were complimentary, turned out they were not.
Staff is prompt, nice and fast. Having said that, they failed to serve us water and halfway through dinner, I asked someone if we could have some water.
The food: it is good Mexican food, it is a good chipotle or Tex-​Mex!!! I ordered the Burrito and it was super huge, the size of my torso. I still devoured the whole thing because it was simply delicious. A little overpriced I would say. $ 20 for a burrito is towards the expensive side for me. On the plus side, it did not disappoint. The food tasted really good. They happily got us separate checks (a party of 9) which was a huge bonus to me.

A better than average Mexican restaurant. Unlike the typical Mexican place, Cactus serves significantly upgraded food. Although you will find some familiar names on the menu (tacos, enchiladas, etc) the preparations are much more interesting and sophisticated than average. The dishes we enjoyed were prepared with real attention to the details of seasoning and flavor.
We enjoyed a lunch for four starting with some tasty guacamole and very thin corn chips. For entrees we had the holiday special Christmas tamales (one with green sauce and chicken, the other with red sauce and brisket), the chile relleno, the popular butternut squash enchilada, and the carnitas yucatecas. The tamales were tasty and well flavored. The accompaniment of pickled carrots and vegetables was particularly good. My wife enjoyed her chile relleno enough that she wouldn’t share any of it! The butternut squash enchilada was well seasoned with a nice flavor from the goat cheese. Our friend who had the carnitas found the sauce much to sweet and complained that it overwhelmed the quite delicious flavor of the meat.
As first time guests we were treated to a three milk flan to share!
The service was prompt, helpful, and courteous. Our only quibble was that the music from the speaker directly over our table was loud enough to make conversation difficult even. Upon request the volume turned down slightly, but we were told that they could not reduce it further due to company policy. Perhaps they should have offered to relocate us?
Good food and service worth another visit.

I love Cactus. Mexican food isn’t my favourite type of food, but Cactus’ food never disappoints. I have only been to this location; it’s in a really cute area and has a good amount of seating, which is good since they don’t take reservations past a certain time.
I can always rely on Cactus to just be good, and have good food and a great atmosphere. It is more on the pricey side, but the quality of what they serve is worth it. Everything just tastes so fresh, which is a surprise when eating Mexican food. I so far have had the seafood enchilada and the grilled prawn fajitas and both were excellent. Everyone I went with also really liked their food and had enough for great leftovers the next day!
The drinks are also delicious!

Generally cactus is good for bunch, but sometimes when it is busy on the weekend, service can fall short.
One of my favorite things to eat at brunch is the biscuits and gravy, but unfortunately that isn’t on the menu anymore. Another favorite, the blue corn pancakes, is also no longer on the menu. Oh well. There are other things I can order.
There are some pretty tasty drinks, like the mango agua fresca, although sometimes the order can get mixed up with the mango and tectate drink so be careful to point it out on the menu when ordering.
The food is pretty tasty, and the biscuits with the honey butter are delicious. The serves are relatively large (especially the migas) so you’ll either have some to take home or you will be very full. Either way it’s a good outcome.
Service is patchy; sometimes it is great and the staff are attentive. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not. Today we were seated and after 20 minutes we first got approached by our server, who literally took half of our drink order and walked away! When he came back to take food orders, we had to do the rest of our drink order then. Then of course half of our group had their drinks and had to wait awkwardly until the rest got their drinks. Likewise, food came out without all the condiments and we had to flag down three different servers to get it.
It’s disappointing but there aren’t a lot of other places in downtown Kirkland for brunch so this will still be a backup. There’s decent parking up the street.

Went for an office lunch on Monday — 7 people. Our waitress was excellent, although I didn’t catch her name (darn it!)
This was my second visit here, and I ordered the skirt steak fajitas both times! Excellent food, good portions!

I’m a longtime fan of Cactus. I was a fan of their first restaurant in Madison Park, and have visited each of their locations throughout Puget Sound. Over the years, Cactus has consistently done a good job, but as with any longtime relationship they’ve also had their problems. But before I get to the merits and challenges of Cactus, I’m going to go on a bit of a tirade. If you’re more interested in my review you can skip to the end. Otherwise, hang on with me while I setup my point.
I love Mexican food. It’s one of my favorite regional cuisines. So I visit a lot of Mexican restaurants, and have eaten a lot of Mexican food. Food from various part of Mexico and across The United States. From the truly authentic to that which only bears a passing resemblance to something vaguely Mexican. And in my travels I have become intimately familiar with the arguments about the differences and merits of authentic Mexican and Tex-​Mex. And honestly, I find few topics in food to be more irritating. Many people use the term Tex-​Mex as a disparaging remark. The implication is that the food is bad because it isn’t authentic. Or more commonly, people describe all bad Mexican food as Tex-​Mex. Neither characterization is true of course and both reveal the ignorance of the critic.
Tex-​Mex is nothing more than fusion cuisine. A hybrid that has existed for more than two centuries and has made a strong influence on both sides of the border. It is a legitimate and authentic style that represents much of the Mexican food most people outside Mexico (and even some inside) experience today. And while it is possible to find original Mexican food that lacks the influence of the southern U.S., this food isn’t always good or better just because it’s authentic. Furthermore, just because someone comes from Mexico doesn’t mean they know how to cook good food, or run a restaurant for that matter. I come across a lot of Mexican restaurants that serve authentic food, but it’s prepared poorly and tastes terrible. Just because Menudo or Pozole is on the menu doesn’t mean it’s any good.
I say all of this to acknowledge that Cactus is a Tex-​Mex restaurant, and it’s a good one. Cactus has good food that tastes great. They feature many flourishes of authentic cuisine that pay tribute to both sides of the border with quality ingredients, good preparation and, flavors that are typically vibrant and alive. The menu offers a wonderful variety. And of course, anyone who makes scratch margaritas has a leg up on the competition.
Cactus also provides service that is friendly and efficient, but they’ve been known to have their problems as well. Their restaurants can get crowded. I mean very crowded; with wait times up to an hour on popular evenings. And when they’re busy, and/​or the kitchen is in the weeds, their execution can fail them. To me though, none of these things matter because Cactus usually bounces back. Some of there locations are better than others, but ultimately they serves some of the best Mexican food in the area. And thats more than just my opinion. But one thats supported by thousands of people who have made Cactus a popular and growing Seattle institution. If you’ve had a bad experience, give it another chance. If you don’t like the food, well that’s a matter of opinion, but let’s not pretend it’s bad just because you don’t like it.

Terrible over priced food with terrible service.
I’ve ate at several other locations and the consensus is: I hate the food. It’s overpriced. And this location specifically has poor customer service.

Just mehh. For a «fancy-​ish» place, all the food was mediocre at best. If you want restaurant Mexican food, you’re better off going to Seattle and going to a place like Fogón Cocina Mexicana.
If you’re desperate and in downtown Kirkland, then this place is okay.

Made it here on HH with my co workers. Their happy hour on weekdays are between 3 to 6pm. They have an outdoor patio which was nice. Server was attentive and very polite — he literally came to check on us at perfect times — as if there was telepathy action going on. He just knew when to come by. Salsa was flavorful and chips tasted fresh. A bit disappointed that salsa and chips arent free — prepare to pay $ 2. The skirt steak salad was decent, but my mango mojito was superb! I’ll be back for drinks.

Stopped in for lunch with a large-​ish group of seven, and no reservations, which didn’t seem to be a problem, since there were quite obviously a lot of open tables. They got a table ready for us without difficulty.
The waitress was very attentive, checking in several times for appetizer and drink orders (we weren’t ready the first couple of times), making sure drinks were filled and refilled. The food was very good: I had a rhubarb strawberry margarita that was just perfect, and everyone at my table ordered the same steak salad, which was fresh and flavorful and the steak cooked just right. The chips and salsa were very good as well.
Unfortunately, the food took a very long time to arrive, so much so that we inquired about it, and were told that the kitchen was a little behind, because they were «only prepared for the tables that had reserved ahead.» This was followed up, when the check arrived, with business cards handed to each of the adults at the table letting us know that if we want to, we can call ahead and reserve tables ahead next time. Yes, got it.
Was lunch good? Yes. Was it pleasant? Yes. But if you are going to seat a group that doesn’t have reservations, you should not then chastise them (no matter how politely) for failing to make reservations. If your restaurant is only prepared to handle a certain number, then it is your responsibility to know what that number is and manage it appropriately. If seating them is a problem, that’s fine — send them to one of the dozens of other restaurants in the area.

They have the best skirt steak I’ve ever tasted in whole Seattle and suburb area. Couple years ago their skirt steak dish used to come with delicious smashed potatoes, nowadays they changed it and the dish now is called carne asada and comes with rice, beans and tortillas. It is still pretty good, but I miss the option with the smashed potatoes too! :)
The seafood enchilada is also very tasty, but if you wanna have one of their great appetizer and desserts, the seafood enchilada may make you feel full quickly.
Love also the desserts. Three milk and banana dulce are my favorites! Cactus used to have an amazing mexican hot chocolate but they removed from the menu. Cactus, please, put it back! :D
I almost forgot: they have a great mexican lemonade with jalapeño. For those who dont have problem with spicy things, it is a good choice.
The staff is always great and there is cactus in so many places… I can’t complain about this restaurant at all!

I came to Cactus for lunch on a weekday, and it was packed. We felt lucky to get seated right away. The staffing was a bit confusing, as someone took our drink order, and as I opened my mouth to order an appetizer, the server abruptly walked away. A few minutes later, another server came and to take our food order. Regardless, the service was well paced and efficient after the initial confusion.
The restaurant is a small space compared to the Cactus in Bellevue. So, tables are situated quite close to one another. Our small two-​top got pretty crowded with our margaritas, chips and salsa/​guac, hot sauces and our entrees. My toddler was also with us in a high chair, so it was definitely cozy.
As for the drinks and food, we were fairly happy with both. My Sonora Spa Chicken was delicious and packed with flavor. My husband enjoyed his Carnitas Tamales, but I think he’ll try something different next time around, as he found it short on the filling. I very much enjoyed my cucumber margarita, which was neither too limey nor too sweet.