Cactus Club Cafe — Restaurant in Victoria

Why I waited so long to visit this place, I'll never know: I liked it!

Perhaps because it just seemed like your typical 'gussied-up' social mixer joint, prominently placed on the busiest street corner in Victoria? Or because it looks to have the most uncomfortable patio in the city, with traffic and pedestrians right in your face as you try to eat your meal?

Well, I visited on a winter's evening, and much to my surprise, wasn't blasted out the door again by the music( I'm looking at you, Brown's! )or feeling like I was being buried alive inside a dark cave of a space.

The lighting and decor are, for lack of a better word, restrained. Other places in Victoria are just DARK, but this restaurant has a great balance of low-key lighting and decor that work together just the right way to say "Hey, this is a classy place, but it looks like everyone's relaxed about it."

With that in mind, I really enjoyed my meal here with a friend, who was a professional chef for a decade and who kept praising his steak AND mashed potatoes all the way through his meal - what does THAT say to you? I also enjoyed my chicken burger, which was quite flavourful, just the right size to leave me feeling full and satisfied. The fries were okay, but those aren't all that hard to get right.

The staff here are some of the better-looking people I've seen in a Victoria restaurant, men and women both, and they move about their jobs with a purpose. They all seemed focused, attentive and eager to please their guests, ensuring that our meal was most pleasant without being constantly interrupted for water top-ups or unnecessary questions.

I have to say, I will be back to try another meal, probably during daylight hours, though you couldn't pay me to eat on that patio: diesel exhaust and dining don't mix, in my books. Which is too bad, as it's probably a great people-watching place... but I'd rather do that from more than...

Cactus club has long been a favorite place of mine. The food is good and the service is great. Usually if a night out is in order I always suggest cactus club.

But recently I had a night at Cactus club that did not turn out well. My friend and I went there and ordered off their Sunday special menu.

After staying there for a while and having a switch of servers along the way, it was time to pay. Neither me nor my friend are stingy but we did both check our bill. My friend found out that not one but two of her orders had been overcharged. A drink that was supposed to be $5 on their special menu rang in at $8, and another drink was charged several dollars over what was stated on the menu. This also meant the liquor tax was affected too

We brought that to the attention of our server and she immediately blamed the previous server for the mistake- stating that she was not the one who rang those items in. This server then called over her manager, who said she was going to take care of those "couple dollars" for us, and saying something to the effect of "just so you know- this drink is this price now". Basically implying that we should have known and that the menu was wrong. Also making it feel like it was an inconvenience that they were changing the price

I am writing this review not because of the "couple dollars" that we were overcharged (and anyway- a couple dollars to one person is not a couple dollars to another), but because it was so easy for them to mess up on two items in one order. Both me and my friend had to ask-How many other people have been overcharged without realizing? Cactus club is already quite expensive, and when we go out to eat, we want...

I visited Cactus club tonight in a party of 6 and felt that the service by Khara was very disappointing. For starters, two of my party members had their steaks overcooked and asked for it to be remade. She seemed very annoyed by this request which is understandable but also left a bad taste in our mouths for the remainder of our visit. When the server took it back to have them remade, the entire plate was taken back which I found odd because normally at restaurants you send back the steak on a side plate but leave the sides, so the guest isn’t left without food for upwards of 30 minutes. The remakes didn’t seem to be a priority, and the service felt slow considering the restaurant wasn’t busy. Once the food was dropped off, no quality checks were done. One of the steaks was cooked correctly but the second one was undercooked. Had the server done a quality check, we would have mentioned it to her. Additionally, no apology was offered by the server for the errors and a manager never came by either which should be standard practice when a table has an issue with their food. At the minimum there should have been some kind of discount offered for the two party members to address the issue with their food, however no other attempts were made to remedy the situation. When we asked to speak to a manager at the end, we were told the manager had left for the night and were given a business card instead. A restaurant should be prepared at all times to address a table’s complaints and being given a business card instead felt dismissive. Overall, we were all very disappointed with the experience we had tonight and felt the service was rude and...