I am contractually obligated to check out anything I see with “cactus” in the name, so let’s talk about Cactus Southwest Kitchen + Bar, a local chain that we’ve eaten at several times before.

Cactus has half a dozen locations in the Seattle metro area, but we always ends up at the one in Kirkland because it’s just a couple minutes walk from LizzyKate. On a nice day we love to go do a tea tasting flight, have an early dinner at Cactus, and then go walk around the Marina Park. When we were recently surprised with a sunny, 55F Saturday in the middle of January, we did just that.

Food and Drink

Cactus does Southwest style Mexican-American food. It’s not quite what you would get in Tucson or Albuquerque, for the most part, but it’s pretty delicious. We’ve found that we consistently get good food and good service at the Kirkland location, so it’s a great place to take guests who are in the mood for something Mexican-ish.

On our most recent visit, Chris and I both ordered the cranberry margarita from the seasonal Feature Menu. It was made with a cranberry-rosemary shrub and garnished with cranberries, a rosemary sprig, and a dried lime wheel. It was delicious and refreshing, and made me want to make my own cranberry-rosemary shrub (we have a HUGE rosemary bush in the front yard of the place we’re currently renting).

We started with the chips and salsa. The salsa here is fine. It’s nothing to get excited about but I have had much worse. It’s very mild. The chips are house-made, delicious, and have just the right amount of salt for me. We often get guacamole, and the guac tends to be really good.

Chris ordered off of the Feature Menu for their entree as well, getting some crispy duck tacos that looked quite tasty.

I had the Brisket Burrita Leñera off of the regular menu, and it was delicious and filling (quite welcome since I had skipped lunch and we took Emma for a 2+ mile walk before this). The brisket was tender and flavorful and I felt like there was a good balance of all of the ingredients, and the tortilla soaked up the various sauces nicely.

Service

Our server was friendly, and a fellow corgi person! All of our food and drink arrived promptly. There was a small mix-up with bills between us and the table next to us, but we were already friendly due to our dogs getting on, so we just swapped bills and figured everything out before our server returned, and she then apologized for the mix-up.

Outdoor Dining

One reason why we go to Cactus so often is that they have a large outdoor sidewalk patio, and during the summer they also have large windows they can open to create that hybrid indoor-outdoor experience for some tables. During the winter, the patio has those vinyl walls and radiant heaters. It was actually warmer on the patio than inside! As someone who is always cold, I really enjoyed how toasty the patio was.

Dog Friendliness

As mentioned before, our server also had a corgi at home, so she was very excited to see Emma. Cactus does appear to have a policy where servers are not supposed to touch/pet guests’ dogs, but they were still very friendly with her. They will also bring you a water bowl for your dog.

The patio is flush with the ground, so wetness may be a concern on rainy days. Also, because the patio is on the sidewalk on a pretty popular street full of restaurants and shops, many other people will be walking by with their dogs, which may get your own dog a little spun up!

The nearby Marina Park is very nice for walking your dog, there’s a little beach, some grass, a paved path, some benches, and lovely views. There are always lots of families and dogs here on a beautiful day!

Make it a Date

As I said, we like to do a tea flight and then dinner. There’s also a wine tasting room or two, some restaurants with cocktail bars if you want another drink, or you can go to Lady Yum for macarons and bubbly. The Kirkland Performance Center is within walking distance, making Cactus a great option for dinner before or after a show. Or plan to spend some time browsing for books at the King County Library. Pro tip: There’s a parking garage at the library with free four-hour parking!