For this meal we went to Cactus Southwest Kitchen and Bar in Bellevue Square in Bellevue, Washington. Bellevue is a roughly 16 minute drive from Seattle on I-90W. Bellevue Square is a shopping center with retail shops, various dining venues, and a comedy club. Cactus Southwest Kitchen and Bar is located on the second level.
Cactus is a Southwest restaurant. Think Tex-Mex. Even on their website they do not claim to be authentic, just themselves.
Appetizer
Chips and Salsa and Guacamole
For the appetizer, we decide to order the salsa and chips, and Guacamole appetizer. The chips and salsa weren’t that bad, but considering you have to pay for the chips and salsa here…I have had better elsewhere. However, the guacamole was delicious. It had the perfect amount of seasoning.
Main Course
Cactus Fajitas – Draper Valley Chicken Breast
One of the dishes we decided to try was the fajitas with chicken. The dish comes on an iron skillet with the grilled chicken, grilled onions, Mexican rice, black beans, top with pico de gallo, pumpkin seeds and a quarter lime.
The presentation is not the best. The picture in the menu looked better. This looked like the pumpkin seeds, pico de Gallo, and chicken were just thrown in there.
The taste though. was good. The pumpkin seeds added texture to the rice. The chicken was moist and had good flavor. There were tortillas on the side that are not shown in the picture. The fajitas made delicious tacos.
Carne Asada
Another dish we ordered was the Carne Asada. They do ask how you want the meat cooked. We said medium. It came out as little too medium rare for our liking.
Again, the presentation is not the best. They could have cleaned it up a bit, but I digress.
The steak was delicious and it cut wonderfully. The beans were beans and the corn had a nice mystique taste. The salsa was not spicy. It had a kick but nothing that will make you immediately grab the nearest drink and chug it down like my father-in-laws salsa….that’s a story for another time. lol.
Dessert
Churros
For dessert we ordered the churros. These came piping hot. You have to wait for these to cool down before you bite into them.
The churros were crispy and sweet. They were not oily which was a plus. The chocolate was absolutely divine. It was a milk chocolate so it was silky smooth. The chocolate paired very nicely with the churros. When you dipped the churro in the chocolate, the chocolate did not compromise the crispiness of the churro.
Recommendation
I do recommend this restaurant if you want tex-mix for lunch or dinner. The presentation of the food could have been better, but the taste of the food over came the short-coming. I highly recommend the churros for dessert, there are perfectly crispy and sweet that fits just right in a full belly.
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