Cactus Club Cafe — Restaurant in Abbotsford

Edit - had a chat with head office. They said the service received is standard since covid :( . The extra Sangria on the bill was supposedly a fat finger mistake of another server who initially put it on the wrong table, and proceeded to move the Sangria to yet another wrong table (mine) which somehow no one noticed out of 2 servers? 1/5 stars for head office too for your lame excuses. This server was sub-par and you should own up to it and train your staff.

DOUBLE CHECK your bill! Had a $10 Sangria added to my bill for a table of two (only 5 things were actually ordered). It was not busy - our orders were simple. I somehow noticed this after I had already paid, and the manager asked if I wanted a gift card to make up the extra charge - like if I have any use for $11 Cactus GC. Manager was overly nervous handling this mess, and as the Sangria had been rung in, the bar should have made it and it should have been run to the table (this part never happened of course). Refunding me somehow took over 10 minutes after I denied the useless GC. I can only assume the bar tender was in on it too - guessing they split the profit of overcharging unsuspecting customers at the end of the shift? I'd watch your bills if you don't want to pay for things you did not consume. Tayline + Justin + Bartender, please do better. That was embarrassing.

As for the actual service - bad. No soy sauce and ramekin came for Tuna Temaki. No fresh cracked pepper for the steak. No steak knife for the table service. None of these things were offered or suggested, I had to ask for them and every time was weirdly met with resistance - saying the sushi does not need soy sauce, and fresh pepper only comes with steak when requested. 40 minute wait between appies and main course on a Monday afternoon. This location needs some training from corporate ASAP.

Insert generic copy pasted response from Cactus below because that's about all I'd expect...

I never go to cactus but thought I would give it a try, big mistake, that dish was over-priced and unsatisfactory. Server was really nice and did an awesome job. But, my word, I ordered the rigatoni bolognese for $25 before tax / tip. I was blown away when they brought the dish and there was like 0.75 pieces of pasta total, with 0.01 grams of beef sprinkled over top, and a pinch of cheese. They didn't bother to give me a full slice of garlic bread, i was given two quarters of garlic bread. I finished my food in 3 minutes. If i was going to some fine dining restaurant and the food tasted heavenly regardless of the laughable portion size, fine that works for me. But this tasted like something i would make when I was 10 years old first learning to cook pasta. Not terrible, but definitely coulda whipped this up for $1.50 in 5 minutes at home working with half of a braincell after polishing off a few bong rips and a couple beers. Tipped my server well because it isn't her fault the food was brutal, she was really cool and service was great. Guess I'll stick to The Keg, or Earls. Love those places, clearly Cactus Club can't compare in terms of value and taste.

I was so unsatisfied with my rigatoni, that I went to the store the next day and bought a bunch of ingredients to make my own rigatoni. My rigatoni is absolutely fire. Here's the recipe if you guys want to figure out something better than that abomination you served me (see second picture for my rigatoni):

Pink sauce Rigatoni with clams and basa fish 340g clams 540g basa fillet Bunch of mushrooms 750g rigatoni 42g Alfredo sauce mix 1 jar Roasted garlic marinara sauce Hunk of butter Big hunk of havarti cheese Italian seasoning Parsley Minced onion Oregano

Cook the basa and clam together with 2 caps of lime juice and olive oil

Cook the pasta

Cook everything else...

Trendy. Good food and decent portions. A few craft brews and good wine selection. Can be hard to find parking, DO NOT park in the McD's parking lot, you WILL be ticketed. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable, comfort level is good. Enjoyable lunches here.

July 2025 (Still 4 stars)

We made reservations for two for 5:45pm and let the restaurant know it was our 28th anniversary. Upon arrival, we were sat almost immediately and congratulated on our special day. Once seated, drink orders were taken and served in a timely fashion. The place was busy, but not crazy and we were able to easily have conversation and hear each other. We were seated in a cozy booth in the dining room which I think offered some intimacy to our dining and blocked some of the hub bub going on around us. We ordered an appetizer of sweet potato fries with garlic aioli and ordered our main at the same time. The appetizer was served after about 15 minutes, but it took almost 45 minutes after that to get our mains. We both had the Creole steak and prawns. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of mine, however it was a little spicy for the boss. Her Sunset soda cooled the heat while my parallel 49 epic IPA slaked my thirst. We were both disappointed that no one other than the greeter congratulated us on our 28th anniversary, and how little anyone asked us how our meal was going or offered us more libations. We were asked once, almost at the end of the meal, how everything was going, and I had to point at my long empty glass and suggest I may want another drink. All in all it was a good meal, if somewhat expensive, for the size of the portion received, but the lack of attentive servers really was noticeable and detracted from the whole experience. Needless to say, we tip accordingly. This easily could have been a $30-$35 tip, alas, it...