Cactus Club Cafe — Restaurant in Calgary

I wouldn't usually write a review for a place but this experience is one that I cannot believe happened and I wouldn't want someone to have to experience this either. In June, my friends and I were at Cactus Stephen Ave celebrating a graduation. My friend and I decided to share the carpaccio but let the server know that there could not be any dairy due to a dairy allergy. Everything was going great and it wasn't until my friend and I were around half way done our carpaccio that we noticed pieces of cheese on the plate. I was confused and decided to ask our server if what I was seeing on the meat was chunks of cheese. The server told us it was not cheese (the pieces at this point were small), and that if it were cheese it would be bigger chunks. Further into eating the carpaccio, I started to notice these "big" chunks of cheese coming from under the remaining pieces of meat. Due to already talking to the server, and because we are talking about an allergy here, I requested to speak to the manager that was on at the time. The manager let me know that because it was rang in as a "preferrance," that they cannot really do anything about it. I expressed to her that this was not a preferrance, it's a dairy allergy, one that I would hope would be taken seriously. The manager was argumentative about the difference between a "preference" and "allergy," something I found completely unprofessional. Our carpaccio was eventually compted, but the overall experience was not one I would ever want to go through again, I'll probably just stick to other Cactus...

I brought an out-of-town guest here, and left embarrassed and disappointed. Drinks alone took 20 minutes to arrive. When we inquired and brought this to the attention of our server, she merely told us there were many “Tickets” ahead of us as they were busy. My guest’s entrée did come quickly, and then his main (only) came along too - well within the time the server assured us it would. Then I awkwardly sat waiting for my own main to arrive at least another 10 minutes longer—only to receive it cold. I left the table briefly to compose myself due to everything that had led up to this. To my amazement an option was oddly offered and expressed to my guest while I was away and not to me. The offer was to remake my order and wait once again, which was unreasonable since my guest had already finished his.

After I was able to express myself to our server that we would not wait again for it to be remade, she then stopped checking on us, and when we were finally able to flag her down again to inquire about the bill, she explained (to my guest, not at all looking at me) that our bill would be waived. While the manager did come and apologize further for the delays and cold food, this lack of attentiveness left a very poor impression. Waiving the bill doesn’t erase an evening that fell far short of any acceptable standards. It’s very doubtful I would ever consider returning to this location. Perhaps some cross training with your location at English Bay, Vancouver may be helpful with proper timing and assertiveness in all with...

I am a former employee and have been coming here I’m regularly over the last few years. I also worked in the service industry for several years. Tonight I had an incredibly dissapointing dining experience. Our server Drew did not even greet our table for over ten minutes. Once she did, she did not offer waters and even when I tried to order water she had walked away before I even had the chance. She had no knowledge of allergens on the menu and was innattentive to empty drinks on the table. At one point I had sat with an empty glass for a long period of time with no acknowledgement from the server or her even stopping by to check in. When she finally did, she saw my friends empty glass and offered her another drink and walked away before I could even ask if I could order another. I had two friends with allergies at the table, the two managers who ran their dishes were unfriendly when delivering their food, it took several more minutes before any other dishes were brought to the table and when they were, they were brought by someone who was always quite unfriendly and unpolite. The entire experience was so dissapointing especially considering how many times I have dined here and that I know the standards of this restaurant chain. Even the bathrooms were poorly cared for. It seems like the attention to quality has gone down quite a bit. This is not an experience I would pay for again. Everyone at our table was super unhappy and...