Cactus Jack's Grill & Watering Hole — Restaurant in Laconia

Sunday, February 10th was a very difficult day. I had lost an amazing friend the week before and was still having trouble processing the enormity of it all. Things had gotten even worse when my car broke down that Saturday and I was forced to miss his funeral. So on Sunday afternoon another friend had driven me the hour and a half to his house to deliver a gift for his wife, who wasn’t going to be there but had instructed me to leave it in their kitchen. Standing there in the still of his quiet home, eyeing his tools on the kitchen floor and his boots beside the door, brought me to an entirely new level of grief. After spending several hours in tears, me and a couple friends made our way into Cactus Jack’s, absolutely heart broken and despondent. When the waitress, Nicolette, approached, I felt compelled with the need to explain our dishevelled and exhausted appearance. She was not only understanding but also sincere and empathetic as she graciously got us our drinks and helped us place our food orders. It wasn’t easy to decide what to eat when my heart and mind were lost in thoughts about anything other than food...Nicolette patiently helped us decide things and reaffirmed our food choices with gentle encouragement. Near the end of our meal, Nicolette said that she had something to tell us. She had spoken to her manager and explained a little of the distress that we were experiencing and they were going to comp our entire food bill, simply out of the kindness of their hearts and as part of a program run by Cactus Jack’s that is a Pay-it-Forward way to help people who were experiencing situations similar to ours. This was completely unexpected and my immediate reaction was tears. What an amazing way to show that as a business they truly care about PEOPLE. I could tell that Nicolette was moved by my reaction and was close to tears herself. What an incredible and heartfelt young woman that you have representing your company. She is a true asset in her ability to provide customer service with such genuity. I cannot fully express the gratitude that me and my friends all felt when a stranger helped fill a very tragic time in our lives with such a heartwarming moment and act of kindness. Thank you Cactus Jack’s and thank...

Was extremely disappointed in my experience today. We planned to stop by for a late lunch and have a couple drinks before going to our couples massage at the resort we’re staying at. We have had great experiences at other Cactus Jack’s locations, but this franchise location is lacking in proper and up to date procedures.

Upon ordering our drinks we were carded to make sure we are of age. Awesome! That’s what they’re supposed to do. “Absolutely” was our reply.

The server took our ID’s and okayed them.

5 minutes later they came back and informed us that because we were out of state, they needed to take our ID’s in the back so their manager could review them. A little strange but, sure no problem. We actually commented on how this a good idea given this is a highly attended tourist town.

20 minutes later, a manager came back with our ID’s. The manager informed us that my girlfriend, who is 22 has an ID that doesn’t match the state of RI.

Upon what we could gather, this location has a binder in the back that they use to verify ID’s. A binder lol.

So we were refused service. Over something from an outdated binder. What a complete embarrassment that this happened in a full restaurant and we had to get up and leave because of this.

How embarrassing that this location hasn’t thought to get an identification scanning system. This could be something the staff or the owner would greatly benefit from, not to mention the poor potential customers that get kicked out with their tails between their legs and accused of having a fake ID.

Upon suggesting that maybe the book was wrong, the manager replied “the book is never wrong” in such a passive aggressive tone. “I would go to the DMV in Rhode Island and ask why they gave you that!”

Great advice lady. You definitely gave us a memorable experience. We went to T Bones instead which is literally in the same building. They happily took our money and had awesome service.

The glasses of water they gave us while we waited a half an hour only to be denied service were pretty good though I can’t lie.

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I normally only leave positive reviews in order to share good news with other diners. However, after dining at Cactus Jack’s in Laconia, I believe that the owners and managers of this establishment need to take a hard look at the quality of drinks, food and service. Here are the top areas that need to be addressed:

Cocktails

I ordered a classic margarita. What I received tasted like reconstituted frozen orange juice concentrate with cheap powdered mix. Absolutely no taste of lime nor tequila for that matter. It was undrinkable. The waitress confirmed that it was made with OJ. She kindly offered me a replacement; I ordered a G&T which tasted exactly like tonic water - not even a hint of gin. She also didn’t remove the charge for the nasty margarita from the bill. Wouldn’t be surprised if this was company policy.

Service

In a word: SLOW. Cactus Jack’s is a large restaurant with a lot of seating at bars and tables. It was obvious that the bartenders, cooks and servers were totally in the weeds. Both rounds of drinks took over 20 minutes to be served. Dinner took well over an hour.

Menu & Food Quality

As a supposedly Tex-Mex restaurant, Cactus Jack’s menu was all over the place. Probably less than 1/3 of the menu items could be considered Tex-Mex. You would think a place like this would go out of their way to serve outstanding tortilla chips and salsa. No. The salsa was bland, grossly under-seasoned and had zero chile taste. Total tomato bomb. The tortilla chips tasted stale and the serving was very small. Shameful.

The management company that runs Cactus Jack’s is called “Great NH Restaurants.” They should consider rebranding to something more truthful, such as “Tourist Traps with Expensive Mediocre Food...