Cactus Club Cafe
1125 Douglas St.
250-361-3233
http://www.cactusclubcafe.com
Cactus Club is central for party-goers or for watching the game up at the bar. A few friends suggested we meet up for drinks at Cactus, seemed like a good idea. The drink specials at Cactus are worth the trip, for example the night that we went, sleeves of beer were only $3.75. My company enjoyed their drinks( martini’s and margaritas). The decor is done very tastefully, with modern and comfortable furnishings.The bathrooms are cool and I like the mood lighting.
Food: My friend C ordered the spinach artichoke dip with chicken which was delicious. I got the Jambalaya Rice Bowl($15). The dish itself contained a kaleidoscope of colours, and it tasted about the same. There was a lot going on taste-wise, leaving much to discern. The corn and peas seemed an afterthought. The major problems I had with it were the sauce and the shrimp. The sauce didn’t have a lot of depth, which is characteristic of a good jambalaya. The shrimp had a somewhat fishy aftertaste, and a noticed a few of them still had the poop-chute intact which put me off a bit. The sausage and chicken were well cooked, and the scallions added a pleasurable texture. Overall though, I wouldn’t pay 15 dollars for it again. The majority of the menu is expensive ( steaks and seafood), perhaps because of the extravagance of the decor or maybe the location lends itself to a higher priced menu.
Service: This place is notorious for blonde hair extensions, high heels on hostesses, the yuppie mecca before a night-out, and decently attractive staff who know how to push the booze and schmooze. Our server was a bit cut and dry, and hot and cold . When we ordered drinks she smiled, if we said no, stone-face. The bar-tender seemed lazy, even though we were sitting close to it( at times I could have just grabbed the drinks off the bar faster than they got to us).
Overall: Would I go back here? I’ve had decent meals here in the past, but I don’t think the food justifies the price at all. I might go back for drinks if I don’t mind how long they take to come to the table. Overall, fun atmosphere, but schmeh for everything else.
I agree with the general thrust of your review, but I would have been a bit tougher, my adjectives a bit more salty.
I actually love one thing at the Cactus Club – the peppercorn steak. But the yuppie environment I’m forced to eat it in, well, you read what I said about Brown’s Social House….
An interesting tidbit about Cactus Club — in 2008 Rob Feenie joined Cactus Club Cafe as a Food Concept Architect. By the way what the hell kind of fancy euphemism is this? He’s a high-paid consultant. Anyway, Feenie is actually one of Canada’s brightest chef stars, and he owns the distinction of being the only Canadian (from Burnaby) to win an Iron Chef battle.
The cynic in me suspects Cactus Club is less interested in Feenie’s culinary consulting abilities, and much more interested in having their restaurant associated with fame and Iron Chef marketability. But I digress yet again…..
PS: What we call a ‘sleeve’ of beer is actually an American pint (16oz), and I still think anything more than $3.25 for a phony pint is too much. I did want to mention that I stopped one night for a quick beer at Cactus Club and was pleasantly surprised that they had expanded their tap beer list to include the excellent local micro, Driftwood. One can only hope that Cactus Club’s bastard child, Brown’s Social House, learns a lesson from this.