Cactus Grille — Restaurant in Loveland

My friends and family have really liked this place in the past, but I've always gotten a bit dragged along when they wanted to go. The reason is that although the margaritas are good, the overall experience for me is almost always a bit of a bummer. You need to eat with a margarita and the food at this place is just NOT great, for anyone, I'd argue. The salsa, guac and queso are all bland and generic, the fried foods can taste good but leave you feeling heavy and gross, like fried foods always do. The menu is meaty and heavy and emphasizes huge plates of fatty, carb-y foods. It does complicate things a bit that I'm vegetarian, but honestly that's not a big issue at most Mexican places, there are always some choices - something you can get a la carte, maybe, or a taco salad that doesn't have chicken included in the price (I don't like paying for animal proteins that I don't want). Something that really tastes good and doesn't make you regret having had it an hour later, as in, "Man, those nachos were just too greasy, I shouldn't have ordered those."

Anyway, despite my reservations I've been a customer for a long time. I remember the previous location, that's how long, and during the pandemic somehow Cactus became the place I ended up at most, because it had a patio, and because the people I was with wanted that margarita and didn't care about the bland salsa. So I've been there a lot in the last year, and I guess the feeling that I was uncomfortable with the choices just built up and up, because I started trying to tell the people what I needed. I wasn't mean about it or anything, I wasn't raising my voice, but I guess I wanted someone to look at me and say "I hear you, maybe there's something we can do." It IS partially my fault for not dropping it sooner. The girl would look away and shrug, and since I wasn't feeling heard I wanted to explain again, and I shouldn't have.

The upshot is that the owner came over to my trouble-making table, affirmed to me that the place "is not a vegetarian restaurant," which I guess means they don't want to have vegetarian customers because no one thought they were vegetarian in any other sense. He then invited me not to come back in the future, and I have this overall sense of relief. Good. This place was always a bad habit for people I knew, drawn in by that care-free, fun Mexican ideal, and they often didn't even realize that we weren't even having much fun there, that the music was too loud to talk, or the food was lousy, or the margaritas on this trip weren't very good (they are usually good but do vary and you can get stuck with ones that are very average). Now I can just flat out tell them that I don't go to that place anymore. Done. We can find some new favorites.

The other real issue for me on this last trip was that there was just NOT enough social distancing for people to be safe. The servers were not wearing masks at all, the tables are too close together, and people congregating on the street were behaving like were were totally out of the Covid woods. We're not -- another 100K people are going to die here in the US. We can still have fun and be together, but need to take care of each other by being sensible. Someone could literally die.

As a last note to the people who talked to me there: Look, you don't always get your ideal customers, and sometimes your ideal customer has a girlfriend or family member or whatever who isn't your ideal. If you can't offer that person anything, you lose the whole group. That's life, people are different, and by the way vegetarianism and people who want to be a bit healthier are pretty mainstream right now. You don't have to change your business model to accommodate someone like this, you can offer a smaller portion of something, have a salad that doesn't come with beef or shrimp, make some small exceptions so more people can be comfortable. It doesn't cost you a...

Not impressed. You have to get your own salsa, water, refills and condiments. There is no salt on the table. Because the waitress doesn't have to do anything for the patron except take their order, they don't check on the patron. So why pay them a tip?

Prices on the menu have jumped $3-4 per item. Alcohol has gone up too...A Mushroom and Swiss burger was $9.50 before the shutdown now is $12.25. I asked for it without the bun or cheese as I have an allergy. So what came was a patty, mushrooms, limp old lettuce, tomato and pickles, a side of beans under seasoned & rice. Does that price point make sense? No!

We were seated in the front, there was a sign posted to the front door to direct them to enter the restaurant from the alley , they propped the front door open to not have to open and close it when we were seated but that action hid the sign. So then patrons were not finding their way to the alley. I flagged a waitress down to move the sign to help their guests and stop needing us to direct them. Everyone on the sidewalk walked right past us, definitely not 6 feet to socially distance from us. We had no control but to be exposed to every person walking by...not safe for us at all.

They had tables in the alley and the Wicked Tequila Room also did, definitely not 6 feet from each other. Elbows away. Unsafe.

They have reusable menus but disposable water cups.

The wait staff did not wear masks. All it would take is one staff to get sick thete and they would get A LOT of people sick.

Why pay more for getting less? Why tip?

The burger tasted good as did the mushrooms hence...

We've been here twice. The first time we absolutely loved everything about it, and built up enough goodwill for me to give 5 stars in spite of a few nitpicks from our second visit. Thirsty Thursdays are awesome IF you order a regular-size margarita (I recommend Suffering Bastard). On our second visit, we ordered shaker-size margaritas that our waitress said "cost about 50% more" and were "a better deal", but that wasn't true - for maybe 50% more drink, the cost went from $7 to $16! So stick with regular-size margaritas; they're big and STRONG, and a great deal.

We have yet to order an entree, because the two appetizers we've had (Border Dip with Fry Bread, and Jalapeno Bottle Cap Nachos) were so big that the two of us had our hunger satisfied from sharing one appetizer. I highly recommend the Fry Bread - never had anything quite like it before, and it's really good with dip! The nachos were good too, but they didn't make them quite right - ours had a sour cream drizzle instead of poblano, and as a result they weren't as good as they could have been.

It's legal to add a credit card surcharge, but customers don't have to like it, and I don't. I also don't like it when the waiter brings you a credit card scanner, then stands there and stares at you while you decide what to tip. You know how there are usually about 3 or 4 choices for what to tip? Of the 4 choices, the LOWEST was 20%. Some servers deserve that and more, but some do not!

Nitpicks aside, Cactus Grille is now on a very short list of our favorite restaurants...