Cactus Bistro, Bar, and Grill - East Haddam, Connecticut

Kat C

5 STARS for multiple reasons!!
First time at this restaurant & will not be my last.
Lots of parking & welcoming entryway.
An extensive menu with lots of amazing drinks, appetizers, salads, entrées & desserts.
Our waitress, Kathryn was very friendly, polite, inviting, informative & attentive. Very hospitable & hope to have her again when we return!
On the house garlic knots were definitely homemade with a very light, tasty olive oil sauce. Not overbearing at all.
Drink of choice, peach raspberry margarita (best I have ever had)!!
For my app I chose the BBQ wings which were a great price, large in size & amazing taste.
Dinner - Tortellini Carbonaro, this was the tastiest I have ever had & I've had this dish many times before in other establishments.
The pasta to sauce ratio was absolutely perfection.
The small cut up pieces of bacon were heavenly.
I would get this dish again, hands down!
Hubby's dinner - Carne Asada.
Was a great portion size, steak was perfectly cooked at medium temperature.
The rice & refried beans were amazing & the guacamole on the side, fantastic!
As for the restaurant itself, very clean, family friendly, bar area, tvs, beautiful decor & windows throughout.

Mike D

First time here, live locally. I’d say it was just ok. Ordered the steak fajitas (32.00) and it had less than 5 pieces of steak altogether, lots of veggies, soaked in oil, lots of oil. Was most surprised by the sour cream, guacamole and salsa - not fresh or made in house. I thought this was supposed to be a somewhat of a restaurant so the Heinz products kind of surprised me especially for what I paid for the meal. Also, not a single cactus in the place, looks more like a funeral home than it does restaurant. Maybe I’ll come back and try something else, but not for a while…

Kathryn Hnat

I didn’t know what to expect. I felt like I underdressed but then I again I thought it was Mexican with the name. The menu is all over the place. Italian, American, Mexican. The bread knots didn’t have much flavor. I thought at first they were garlic knots but they were plain bread sitting in a bowl of olive oil (?). I got the chicken bacon wrap and it was delicious. My family split the fajitas which were accompanied with packaged sour cream, salsa and guacamole. We asked for more cheese as the cheese they provided melted into the beans that my husband said tasted canned. Seems a lot of their food is prepackaged as opposed to freshly made.

David Ripper

The menu was a confused mix of offerings and everything seems cooked from frozen.

The atmosphere an odd mix of quick pizza takeout and a seeming attempt at fine dining all at once.

Service was lack luster, meant well but lacked coordination and clear direction with a poorly timed kitchen

anthony p

Had lunch here yesterday, it was our first time, we'll definitely be back. Highly recommended. Food was excellent with large portions, service was great, and price was very reasonable, large bowl of bread to start, then an appetizer, 2 sandwich platters, and a coke for $44, I'll take that deal all day long!

Erica Watters

Went there when it opened and got a couple cocktails. The waitress was offputting and confused that we just wanted drinks. We got a plate of garlic knots that tasted like shrimp for some reason. We got our weak cocktails and our shrimp knots, then had to soak in the atmosphere. I told my friend it looks like somebody built a restaurant and chose the default option for furniture, paint, decorations, etc. Incredibly boring, so slow it made us sleepy. We didn’t order food, but the variety of cuisine was concerning. They clearly have a freezer of food in the back; also the garlic knots are the same ones they serve at Morina in Haddam (those are shrimp free though).
People have been opening and closing restaurants at that lot for my entire life. Maybe if the owners made some bold choices with the decor and put more effort into the menu, they would have more luck. Can’t wait to see what boring restaurant moves in here next!

Vienna Whalen

Recently went to Cactus Bistro with my family; I was honestly expecting a Mexican restaurant just based on the name! But their food was good and our server was friendly and attentive. We sat outside and seemed to be the only ones there, it was a pretty generic patio atmosphere. I had the calamari which was very good! And their Limoncello cake was to die for 🙂

Stephen Zulli

We were very happily surprised! Table cloths, cloth napkins, candles…very nice. The menu looks a little ambitious but everything we ordered was quite good. I had the scallops over risotto, very good.

We will be back!