The Mad Cactus

Sad to see the tex-​mex restaurant close today. they had karaōke on tues and sunday nights, and many people enjoyed it. I generally stuck to safe food choices (their chicken tenders are delicious!!) but ive gone with others that had their Mexican dishes and had no complaints. The margaritas are amazing. Ive driven past Mad Cactus everyday for years and itll be bittersweet to say goodbye.

This was probably the worst Mexican food I have ever had, really gross tasting and and even worse looking. The fried ice cream was very «unique» but tasted ok, but that was about it. The waitress and staff were really pleasant, and the karaōke was entertaining, it is a shame their food is not better :/

I have stayed away for quite some time, dh talked me into going tonight… never, never will I dine here again.

I think he should have HIRED a GM. What a mess. Food is back to the old crap. What a waste of time for Resturant impossible. The should have listened. Sell the place.

I started going to the mad cactus during the summer of 2012 and now I try to make it in at least once a month.
Best time to go is on a saturday or sunday afternoon when it’s not too busy.
Good prices on beer.
The salsa bar is such a good idea, probably my favorite thing about the place. Food is pretty good too. I always get the chimichanga and it meets my expectations every time. My girl friend always gets the hungry Julio and she is never disappointed. Some day we’ll need to try something else. I hear the burgers are pretty good.
If they keep their beer prices low and the salsa bar I’ll be a fan for a long time!

Ick. Just ick. Way back in the 90s or so, my mom and her friends used to go here, but it really just went downhill. I saw the Restaurant Impossible show on it, and wanted to give it another chance, so my mom and I took my 3 year old to lunch there today. The décor is really nice, but the nice ends there. (except the chips, those were actually pretty good.). The fresco was ok, but everything else was just weird. I got the texas burrito and it was pretty much a flavorless glob. It is supposedly one of Robert Irvine’s recipes, but there is NO WAY they are following his recipe. The braised beef was fatty and chewy and the black beans had no flavor. I want to say it was disgusting, but that seems to harsh. It was just yucky. I ate about a ¼ of it, and when the waitress asked if I wanted it boxed, at first I said no thank you, but then I thought «my husband is never going to believe this food» so I brought it home for him to try. My daughter got a taco, and she took one bite, and decided to focus on the chips instead. The ground beef was, again, just flavorless and weird. It looks like the guy who owns the place know better than Robert Irvine though, because he obviously went back to his old ways. On the good side, the restaurant has some pretty nice décor, so when this place folds, someone will have a decent place to work with when they buy it.

Kinda skeptable after my visit to Maria’s Cantina, but this place was enjoyable, and the service was attentive. I enjoyed the fejatias emensely.

Sickening! How can you get tacos so wrong? I don’t even know what half of the stuff was that was in it. The grease soaked mess they tried to serve me was… just ugh! I took two bits and I left! Do not ever consider this place. not even for dog food!

Well I am sad to write this review because we just had a really awful meal at the Mad Cactus. I ordered the combo plate (beef) taco, enchilada, burrito, beans & rice. The food came covered in about one inch of cheese, nothing seemed fresh, I have had better refried out of a can. My husband ordered two carnitas, they were very dry and flavorless. Overall the food did not seem fresh. The salsa bar seems like a good idea but you really should serve some top quality salsa’s, Costco has a much better selection of salsa’s. The service was very good but can not make up for the poor food quality.

Never have been a big fan of this place… the drinks are always top notch, but the food is always a giant disappointment save the puffy fish tacos. Those are amazing.
Anyway, we ordered nacho’s. Normally nachos come stacked up on a plate right? I am not kidding you. There were exactly TWELVE chips. 12! We got the combo for $ 10, and got 12 chips.
Never again.

We went to Mad Cactus about a week ago. Lets just say never ever again! We saw them on Restaurant Impossible and thought it would be kind of cool to go try them afterwards. On the show it showed them and how they premake everything and that they don’t really cook anything. The guy that was running the show put a stop to it and taught them how to actually cook things. Well apparently they didn’t stick to that way… I ordered the Grande Burrito and my boyfriend ordered the trio platter. All our meat was old and disgusting. The salsa bar was pretty cool but somewhat old also. The chips were good and the fried cheesecake was good also. That was about it. The décor inside was still new looking though. I will never go back there again. We were quite sick afterwards. I warn everyone I see to never go there unless they want really old precooked meat and to be sick.

I am so over this place! Three strikes and your out! Nothing has changed. The service was lousy, the food was lousy… lousy lousy lousy. I thought with the changes thing’s would be different! Nope! The worst Mexican/​Tex Mex ever! :-(The Howard Johnson’s that used to be there served better food!

This was my first visit to the Mad Cactus, ever, and after seeing it on Restaurant Impossible I was certainly interested to check it out.
One thing I don’t understand about the other reviews would have to be the comments about the menu not being all Mexican food. Was I the only one who noticed that they were a tex mex restaurant? Hmm… I admit, you might expect a full Mexican menu, but you have the let go of their past image and judge them from who they are now. Besides, all their signage (and menus) clearly state they’ve gone tex mex.
Anyways, I thought the menu was pretty interesting and tasty, the little I tried, at least. The chips were fresh and warm, the salsas were made in house. Although, I’d rather them offer a salsa sampler served to the table instead of an AYCE salsa bar. Something tells me not as much would be wasted, they could control costs better and – well, I just hate restaurant buffets in any form. Regardless, the salsas were really good.
I wasn’t super hungry so my boyfriend and I decided to split a chicken quesadilla. You might think it wouldn’t be hard to mess up a toasted tortilla stuffed with cheese and chicken, but I’ve seen restaurants miserably fail at this simple task before. Mad Cactus, on the other hand, did a darn good job and kept it simple, clean, fresh and yummy. You could tell the chicken was right off the grill and they used fresh tomatoes, peppers and spices inside. No burnt ’tilla, just toasted, melty goodness – simply and appropriately done.
I will say that only some items on the children’s menu might be frozen, like the mini corn dogs. But their fries are all fresh cut and they offer lots of non-​frozen kiddie options, like ribs! Apparently they’re award winning.
Now, on to the margs. You can’t beat spending under $ 3 for a rocks margarita that will kick you in the ass. Yep, just $ 2.75. We I first saw our server walking over with my little glass I thought, «Man…no wonder they’re so cheap.» Then, I took a swig and was more than pleasantly surprised. It seemed like your typical marg mixture, but it was strong and for two bucks and some change, I wasn’t complaining.
Overall, the décor is vastly improved, they have great deals on drinks and food made with fresh ingredients – me likey.

I’m just going to quote myself, «Not delicious!»

Save your money$$$

The Puffy Tacos are excellent!

I always liked the old Mad Cactus, but after hearing about the revamp, I had to give the New Mad Cactus a try. Came here on a Friday night and had about a 35 minute wait.
My first impression when I walked through the door was wow, is this the same restaurant? The new décor is great, definitely a big improvement over before. I was also impressed by the new menu, who would of thought you could get grilled mahi– mahi at the Mad Cactus. All meals come with the complimentary salsa bar, but if you want chips, you have to pay extra. I loved the salsa bar, everything I tried was great, especially the fruit salsa. I also like the margaritas, great as always. While I liked the salsa bar and margaritas, I didn’t like that you have to pay for the chips, chips should be complimentary! I also didn’t like the new higher prices, but if the food is quality, I am willing to pay a higher price.
So after sitting down and looking at the menu, I ordered the mahi-​mahi puffy tacos, the chips and salsa bar, a classic lime margarita, and fried ice cream for dessert. After waiting for over a half hour, the waitress came up to our table and said she forgot what we had ordered, and asked to retake our order, promising that she would put it in right away. This is inexcusable in my opinion, how do you forget somebodies order? So after waiting another ten minutes, our food finally arrived.
When the food arrived, it looked quite good, but that is where it ended. The shell on my puffy tacos was inedible, and not fried properly. This theme continued with the fried ice cream, also not fried properly and inedible. After complaining to the manager, he didn’t even offer to fix it, he just said that we hope you give us another try, and walked away.
So unfortunately, I won’t be going back to The Mad Cactus! While I liked the new décor, salsa bar, and the margaritas, that doesn’t make up for the high prices, the poor service, and the mediocre food. Do not recommend!
Overall Rating
Service ¹⁄₅
Food ²⁄₅
Décor ⁴⁄₅
Cleanliness ²⁄₅
Wait Time ¹⁄₅
Management ¹⁄₅
Overall ²⁄₅

Took the family and my mom to The Mad Cactus on our way home from the mall in Strongsville. My wife really wanted some Mexican food and we were driving up Pearl, so I suggested The Mad Cactus because it was on a recent TV restaurant makeover show.
After waiting for a few minutes to be seated, the kind waitress took our drink orders and recommended the salsa bar. We quickly abliged and visited the salsa bar. The salsas were fresh and there were at least six to choose from. Then, my wife and I ordered fajitas, my mom a burrito, and the kids, each a cheese quesadilla.
The kids’ quesadillas were served with potato chips, which I thought was odd. Also, there were several non-​Mexican dishes on the menu. Also, I didn’t see one Mexican in the place. Things that make you go, «Hmmmm».
Anyway, the food was below average. Our fajitas were just okay and the toppings were lacking.
I won’t go back when there are Cozumels all over. Don’t waste your time here. Go to Cozumel.

Go there for drinks, not the food. My strawberry banana margarita was tasty — and strong! Everything else, sucked. I got the taco salad… because how hard is it to screw up a taco salad? The chicken in the salad was horrible. It was oily or wet somehow… I know people want their chicken moist, but not in this way. I ended up just eating the tasty shell of the taco salad instead and left the heaping pile of uneaten salad for them to take away. Another friend got some seriously funky looking guacamole as well. I’ll never go back. Our server was also rather slow…

Not impressed at all. bad chips, watery nasty salsa, and the margaritas are the smallest I have ever seen.