Cactus Mexican Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in Iowa City

This is in regards to Cactus 3. My first one star review of a restaurant, here we go..

Long island was at least half pepsi, waitress said they make them differently there, we moved past it, never ordered a long island from a Mexican place, so maybe that was on me. Although i really can't see any reason a restaurant downtown can't make a long island correctly, its not that uncommon of a drink.

Got our food, tacos were fine, Chicken tortilla soup came out prob about 15 mins after the tacos. Legit the worst chicken tortilla soup ever, zero flavor, literally tasted like dishwater, she agreed to take it off. It's fine I get it, sometimes kitchens have an off day, you don't make the food, still going to tip at least 20%, no biggie.

Waitress comes back and is visibly annoyed and flustered and slams the check down and says "HERE YA GO!" In a super rude tone, like I'm an idiot and can't understand an aggressive sarcastic tone. Why take it out on me? Go yell at your kitchen/bartender don't take it out on me...

If the management is remotely competent, they should fire this person(Don't think I name name her on here), I doubt this is going to be a one time deal for them.

First time I havn't tipped in over a decade...Plenty of Mexican places in the Iowa City area, avoid...

Let’s get a few things out of the way. This place has an Iowa City reputation of cheap and strong drinks. This place delivers. I had the “gala-rita” on a Thursday night for a special, and it was 6.67. It had a good amount of alcohol, and it tasted amazing. The presentation was high quality as the shooter had its own clip. Now, let’s get to the negatives. First - there is a strong odor of natural gas. I mean, this place is known for their strong drinks but I think people are getting woozy off the natural gas. If you feel nauseated and have a headache, it might not be the liquor. I urge Cactus to investigate this leak. Next, the service is subpar. I didn’t know there was a limit on the free chips and salsa. I went with a pretty big group, and the waiter gave us a warning that we had asked for a chip refill one too many times. To me, this seemed super stingy. Also, the salsa really wasn’t good. I’m not sure why it was so much worse than Cactus 3’s salsa. It tasted blander and was thinner. Last, their service is unreliable as I didn’t get my credit card back after paying and I had to go up to the front and ask. Overall, I would check this place out for a cost-effective way to drink, but it is not a quality...

Good service, solid food, great Friday deal on Mexican draft beer pints ($3/pint).

Visited around 8pm on a Friday in July and had a solid time hanging out here with a party of 10. Ended up ordering a negra modelo (great deal at $3, cold, served in a solid pint glass, happy to have a darker beer after all that domestic stuff), and two enchiladas (chicken + beef, decent, okay deal at $5 total).

Music was a lot of fun, good TVs too (about 6 total, spaced well).

The service was the best though, as there were plenty of staff.

Two things to note though: the lady servers here can sometimes wear pants that are quite short - this can either be a turn on or off (distracting or a feature, up to you). the menu is very hard to navigate. you might need some help as the text is small and the options all seem the same. also the prices for a meal are all around $10, so that was a tough call for me. ended up ordering a la carte. the Friday special is fajitas for $11, but I didn't know what that meant for this place as there was no further description. Probably could have asked for help - service was great - but didn't want to with such a...