Cactus Flower Cafe — Restaurant in Pensacola

Cactus Flower Cafe in East Hill! The owner took our to go order on the phone; she opened this place after moving from California to try to help with the—we’ll say lacking—availability of cultural food in Pensacola. She delivered!

The chicken enchiladas (pictured first) were hands down the best enchiladas I’ve ever had. Order them. The SoCal burrito (pictured second) was fantastic as well as enormous, the picture doesn’t show a good angle but it was about as big as a plate and loaded with steak and potatoes. The refried beans were fresh and not greasy and the lime rice was like a premium version of what you’d get at Chipotle. Not pictured was the guac which was the best I’ve found in Pensacola.

I too moved here from California (a trend?) and this is about as close as it comes as far as freshness and the “west coast flare”. A clear cut above the other Texas-themed Mexican joints around here. I think some of the local trucks adequately hit the CA street food vibe (Tacos Mexicanos, El Asador, etc), but this place had all the comforts of your classic family owned Mexican restaurant in California that uses premium ingregients and homemade recipies. I will be going for a run tomorrow though.

The restaurant is a sweet vibe too with a coffee shop attached to it - all open until 9. Will be back soon on a non-school night to try their fresh squeezed...

Pros great Mexican food best lime vinegrette you’ll ever try great location

Cons having eaten here, in house and takeout, many times over the years, wait times and food freshness is inconsistent (a few occasions where the fish in the fish tacos was straight old).

But what outweighs it all - last night, I ordered a Mexican salad and two 32oz soups. Thirty. Two. Ounces.

What I got was just about 12 ounce soups for each one. Pics below for proof. Now here’s what’s even worse - there are two options when ordering soup (reference Grubhub menu for more proof): 16oz or 32oz.

I specially ordered 32oz and was charged for them. But even if they replied to this review and said “we’re sorry, the order was mistakenly placed for 16oz, not 32oz soups” they would still be proving themselves dishonest, as there wasn’t even close to even 16oz in each cup. That line on the jar in the attached image that the soup doesn’t even hit is the 12oz line.

I can understand sometimes having bad management or inconsistent (though most times delicious) food, but flagrantly shorting orders by more than 50% of what should have been included - inexcusable.

I do hope they fix some of these things, because when it’s done right, they’re food is some of the...

It's been almost 7 hours since I've dined at this location with a friend and I STILL can't stop thinking about the absolutely delicious meal I had for lunch!

I enjoyed everything about my visit today. The ambiance of the restaurant, the food and the serving staff made for a very pleasant experience for this first timer. Although the food is a bit more expensive than your run-of-the-mill Mexican joint, it's absolutely worth it when the flavors explode on your tongue and shoot straight to the pleasure centers of your brain. I chose to get the Cactus Flower Combo for lunch that consisted of: a beef quesadilla with meat that was superbly tender it nearly melted in my mouth, tortilla lime soup with subtle bursts of cilantro and a small green salad with a zippy lime dressing that knocked Caesar down my list of favorite salad dressings.

It's billed as "Authentic California Style Mexican Cuisine" and I love that I didn't have to go all the way to Cali to experience these flavors. They've definitely won themselves a repeat customer because I can't wait to return and try the other tasty items I couldn't...