Cactus Flower Café - Navarre — Restaurant in Navarre

I've only traveled to California a handful of times but had Mexican food there, so I guess this low review comes more from the higher expectations I had before going in. My husband and I stopped as first-timers for a late lunch and were seated promptly due to not many people being there thankfully. We were served complimentary chips and salsa, but the chips were obviously store-bought and not fresh made. And it's not hard or time consuming to freshly make corn tortilla chips. He ordered the mahi tacos and I wanted to try the shredded beef tamales as well as the El jefe burrito with chicken. The food came out fairly quickly and was just okay for my taste. The beef for the tamales was really dry without much seasoning, black beans had an off taste without much seasoning, but the rice was nice and flavorful. The mahi tacos had a large amount of shredded cabbage on them which I thought would overpower the fish. Husband said the fish was good and was not too heavily seasoned with the blackening season like most places do, and the vegetables in the taco were fresh so he enjoyed his meal. I took the burrito togo for dinner later. It was very large but lacking in flavor also. I can say that the prices were good for the portion sizes. As we were eating our meal and noticing the makeup of the staff, I joked that there were no actual Mexican's working at this restaurant so that would probably explain the lack of flavor in the food. One issue we had with our order was that our waitress rang up our food at the lunch prices although we had been given dinner menus to order from. We didn't know this until she came back to our table to ask us which menus we got. We looked at each other questioningly, because how were we supposed to know? Especially if the menu did not state which meal period it was for. So she explained that the dinner prices were higher and because of that we agreed we'd probably been given the dinner menu. And that was no big deal because we definitely did not mind paying those prices, but I don't think that situation was handled well. She was a very nice waitress and did a great job, but the approach to that should have came from a different angle. Maybe telling us "I apologize, but you will see an extra charge for your meal as an adjustment for me inputting lunch prices instead of dinner prices from the menu we gave you." So we made no complaints about this and even tipped 20% but I would definitely choose a different eatery if you want more authentic...

I'm not even sure how to start off this review. If I could give no stars I would. We came here for dinner on a Monday night based off the Google reviews of others which now I'm wondering how in the world anyone would give this place a 4.5 out of 5. Upon waiting to be seated we noticed how the restaurant looked. Tables are covered in brown paper and things did not seem very welcoming. The salsa is scooped out of a bowl behind the host stand and chips are served out of bag that is kept in a cardboard box under the host stand. Our server was very kind and upbeat. We wanted to order queso to go with our chips but they claimed they were out of queso. How does a Mexican restaurant not have a staple on hand? She brought our drinks, chips and salsa and we noticed the chips resembled tostitos that you can buy from your local grocery store. The salsa was very bland and the guacamole had no flavor as well and very so chunky it was hard to scoop. My husband even asked for salt and pepper to try to save the salsa and gauc. We ordered queso bites as an app. We thought the concept was great but again lacked flavor and no jalapenos were present inside them as explained on the menu. The saving grace was the spicy ranch that was served with with them. I ordered the mahi mahi tacos because everyone else that left previous reviews thought they were great. My mahi mahi was way over fried and oil temps had to be to high since the fish was so dry. The "corn tortillas" are mission yellow corn shells from a restaurant supplier. They are not homemade and texture was off for what I expected out of good tacos. The rice was mushy and over cooked and tasted like instant Spanish rice. Where is the love here? Flavor? Passion? This restaurant was a huge letdown. This does not resemble any food mexican I've ever had. Save yourself the $100 dining bill and go to taco bell. At least there they actually throw their pre-made chips in a fryer to warm them up. I would not recommend...

To start off when we first walked in the vibe was weird. I think I'm just not a fan of how their dining room is set up. We started off with the guacamole bc they advertise it as freshly made. It is indeed freshly made but it has no taste. There’s no hint of lime, onion or anything really. It’s also extremely chunky. I felt like they didn’t even mix it up. It tasted bland and it was very disappointing. I ordered the steak street tacos and my husband got the pork carnita ones. The steak was very good quality but they put guacamole on the bottom of the taco which isn’t what I wanted. I think the menu was a little misleading about them having that on the bottom of the tortilla. Overall the steak tacos were just okay, but the carnitas were terrible. They tasted like burnt charcoal and were absolutely disgusting. I took two bites of one of my husbands and said absolutely not. He said his first taco didn’t taste like that but then the other two did. I wish he would’ve told me because I would’ve said something (he doesn’t like me saying anything bc it makes him feel bad lol) aka why I’m writing this review instead. Pinto smash beans and rice were overall just alright. The service was okay. Hostess was nice and even ran my husband’s card back out to him when he left it in the restaurant. Jake was nice and did a good job. Nothing above and beyond but it’s not like we expect that either. He could’ve paid more attention to us because we sat for a few minutes waiting on the check while he talked with the hostess, but not a big issue at all. Probably...