Cactus Cantina Mexican Grill of Pensacola — Restaurant in Pensacola

This establishment deserves absolutely zero stars!!!

I accompanied a few of my colleagues and supervisor to lunch on 09/30/2022. When I entered the restaurant, there was no one there to welcome/greet you, nor any direction in getting a table. Luckily, my colleagues were already seated so I called and found their table.

Once I was seated, I was there about 5 mins, when I was approached by a waitress, (no greeting but learned her name was Bobbi), asked what I wanted to drink. Before I could get my complete drink order out (water and a sweet tea), she turned her back to walk away. When she returned, she slammed the drinks on the table and threw (literally) the straws on the table. I was taken aback by her demeanor but continue to converse with my colleagues.

Finally, our supervisor joined us and the waitress approached the table again to take her drink order. As she approached the table, I began to explain to her that there was something wrong with the tea, but before I could get it out, she yelled, "Give me a minute to take her order first and then I will get with you." It took us all off guard as we looked at each other totally shocked of her rude tone and disrespectful manner. I then said to her that it was very rude in which she spoke to me and I didn't appreciate it. She replied, "You were about to tell me about the tea. I already know about that. I have already had several complaints about it. (this information wasn't expressed to me when I initially ordered my drinks.) She then apologized, (insincerely) and stated she would get to me in a minute.

After she walked away, I was so stunned but decided to reach out to the manager of the restaurant. This wasn't even a question of quality customer service, but deliberate rudeness and disrespect. I went to the front desk and asked for a manager and a few young ladies pointed to the guy because the counter. I explained to him how the above interaction with his wait staff and he responded by saying, "how was she rude?" and "I can't do anything about it (changing waitstaff), right now... we are busy." I suggested maybe having a coaching session with her regarding customer service and he just nodded his head. I then requested for his name (Don Larson), and he corrected me with his title as General Manager.

I was so disgusted by all that transpired at this restaurant that I just left. And this was also after returning to my table, my colleague and I noticed the waitress sharing some laughs at another table (that didn't look like me).

I will never, ever patronize this establishment again and wish I could communicate this to the...

Might have been poisoned by the water/tea/lemonade. When we sat down for dinner we heard a couple telling someone next to them that the last time they were in there the water tasted like chemicals and their mixed drink did too, possibly due to the ice in their drinks. I didn't think anything of it until I got my drink which was half tea and half lemonade (Arnold Palmer). It tasted like chemicals and I almost threw it up right there. I told the bar tender that something was wrong with the drink and she took a straw and tasted it herself saying that is was bad like I claimed. I explained to her that when I sat down the couple next to us was telling a story about the same thing happening to them when they were there the previous time so this was not the first time this had happened. She blamed it on, "the girl in the back is new"... which obviously wasn't true because it seems to have been happening for some time now. The manager stopped by to check if we were happy and I explained it to him and he seamed eager to fix it but not enough to prevent it from occurring to us since the last time(s). Since this has been evidently going on for some time it appears like either their water supply is contaminated and they can't fix it or they are intentionally putting detergent in their water and Arnold Palmers so people switch to more expensive mixed drinks. I won't go back. This is easy to fix and they are either doing this intentionally to sell alcohol or are so incompetent they can't keep detergent out of the drinks. As a final comment, after possibly poisoning me with their drink, no offer to give me a free drink or compensate us in any way was offered. I don't ask for that but competent, professional, earnest companies recognize dangerous situations and take responsibility for their mistakes and realize that the health department might actually shut them down for these kinds of things. Not even a free drink offered by anyone. Judging by this, it will not be addressed and will continue to happen. Edit: Later in the evening I experienced stomach pain that continued into the...

What in the world has happened to this place? My husband and I have always enjoyed eating here and were very disappointed with our latest visit. It’s been about 6 months since our last visit, we’ve been traveling. We usually visit at least once a week. With that being said, I’m not sure we will start back our weekly visits after last nights visit. The food was great, but the service was horrible. We were seated after a short wait and quickly ordered our drinks and guacamole for our appetizer. Our waitress acted as if we were inconveniencing her by asking why it was taking so long for the guacamole to come out. We placed our food order and again inquired about the guacamole. The guacamole dip finally came out at the same time as our entree’s. When we explained that we had wanted the guacamole dip as our appetizer, the waitress shrugged her shoulders and walked off. We were not given silverware by the hostess upon being seated, so we asked the waitress for silverware. Again she shrugged her shoulders and walked off, returning several minutes later with silverware. I would have to say the worst part of our experience was the extremely load sound of the plates being thrown in the cart of the ladies cleaning off tables. I have never been to a restaurant that had employees push carts of dirty dishes and trash around and stand by the tables and scrap food off of plates and throw the dirty dishes in the cart. The plates are a heavy ceramic type plate and the sound of them banging against each other was over the top loud. I know this practice of cleaning and removing plates and cups in this manner was not taking place when we used to visit here. The ladies cleaning off the tables seemed angry and the way they threw the cups and plates were ridiculous. When I go out to eat I expect to have an enjoyable, relaxing meal. Not to be startled every few moments by the sound of crashing dishes. It such a shame that the customer service has gone downhill at...