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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Travis - Taco Tour stop #43 - Cactus Cantina - 2802 S Hydraulic

*insert a few sentences about our lack of planning here*. Okay, now that I've got that out of the way, we ended up at Cactus Cantina on S Hydraulic today thanks to a recommendation that Chris seems to think we had to go here.  This visit is best summed up with: some good, some bad.

So let's get into it.  Firstly, the location sucks - at least for me. It's not convenient to get to at all and I'm never in this area.  So the tacos would have to be exceptional for me to make a point to drive down here to get them...

Today I decided I would arrive on Shon time (which is about 15 minutes late) - and ironically, we pulled into the parking lot at same time.  I sat down at the table and the first thing I noticed was a sauce bowl that was dirty.  It had some leftover dried food in it, so I set it to the side and grabbed another....and IT had some leftover dried food in it.  Also, this place is dark inside. It's a sit down restaurant, so maybe that's the atmosphere they're going for - but I wasn't feeling it today.  The waiter was polite (and confident) and took our orders.  The chips were very crunchy - and slightly stale.  The sauce was pretty good though - the hot sauce definitely had a kick to it that many would find uncomfortable.

They have a few classic street tacos and some "Americanized" tacos as well - and on the a la carte, the tacos are $2/ea IIRC.  I opted for one of each of the street tacos (al pastor, carne asada, & chicken) which come on only one tortilla but with the expected onion and cilantro.  I also asked for a ground beef taco on a fried flour shell.

Our food seemed to take some time to arrive.  I'm not entirely sure why because the place was pretty quiet. For a sit down restaurant with plenty of seating, only 3 or 4 tables were in use (including ours).  But the waiter made a point to say how good their street tacos were and how some places you go it's rubbery - but not theirs.  Nothing wrong with being confident, but you better back it up.  When our food did finally arrive, everything looked (mostly) in order.  I unwrapped my real silverware from a real cloth napkin but seemed to be missing a fork (or I dropped it unknowingly).  Chris gave me his unused one - which I later discovered had dried food on it also.

I started with the beef fried flour taco. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special.  It seemed to be a little skimpy on meat - which was a bit surprising.  The shell was fresh and the meat had a decent flavor. Not too bland, but nothing exciting and definitely nothing memorable.  Maybe I just don't care for these kinds of tacos...

The chicken street taco was next. It had a pretty good flavor and it was tender.  It wasn't dry, but it wasn't necessarily moist or juicy either. Overall it was an acceptable chicken taco, but it was light on meat.  It probably could have used about twice as much as it had - I might have rated it a little better if it did.  The taste was acceptable.

The al pastor was next and I actually kind of liked this one.  It had a bold flavor.  The meat was a little chewy (even though the waiter made a point to say their meat wouldn't be).  There was plenty of meat on it and I enjoyed every bite.  If I come back, I'll definitely have this one again - and I'd recommend to you to have it if you make it here.

Carne asada was last and it had plenty of meat on it as well.  It wasn't very hot (temperature-wise) - but it was the last taco I ate and it had been sitting open-face the whole time.  So I'm not really going to blame anyone for that.  The steak flavor was subtle but good.  It would be hard to say it was tender but I wouldn't call it chewy... It just took a little extra effort to chew it if that makes sense. It's probably slightly above average for the asada tacos we've had on the tour.

Overall, 2 good tacos, and 2 acceptable (but skimpy) ones including a yummy but slightly chewy al pastor (when he told us it wouldn't be).  If you're going to make a point about telling us why your food is good, it better live up to what you say.  Be confident - but be right.  Even though the service was polite, he didn't back up his confidence and they were a little slow.  The slightly stale chips, dirty bowls and silverware, and the bad location just brings this place down.  I understand occasionally one dirty item might sneak through - but not 3 items on one table.  It had me looking at everything.  I honestly can't think of any reason to go back.

Out of 5 tacos, here are my ratings:

Food Taste:
Value:
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return:

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