Restaurant Review: Fat Cactus Grill and Bar

Pic taken from Fat Cactus Facebook page

A week ago, I went out with some gal pals from high school to check out a mexican restaurant located in San Ramon, CA called the Fat Cactus Grill and Bar. This place was literally like a minute away from my house yet I had never tried it before. We all went on Tuesday because we were drawn in by the awesome price of $2.00 tacos! (After 5:00 pm)

Once we all went in we found it was packed with people. The hostess asked us if we would like to wait for a table or sit outside. We asked how long of a wait it would be and she said 30 mins... Really? To seat 5 people inside it was a 30 minute wait?? We didn't see anyone else waiting so we said we'd sit outside. Luckily, she found us a table right in front of the door (going outside onto the patio) where we could all fit. Yay, for air conditioning!!

Outdoor patio at Fat Cactus (taken from Fat Cactus Facebook page)

So we sit down and start perusing the taco menu which has 4 tacos listed at $2 and about 15 tacos listed as $3.50, but these were specialty tacos so I was willing to pay a bit more. As soon as our waitress comes to the table and takes our drink orders, she ended up returning shortly to tell us that they didn't have any clean water glasses and were currently washing some for us, so it would be about 10 minutes until we could get water.

..... after a moments hesitation, we all simply nodded and said "ok!" When she left we kind of gave each other a look like, "They don't have ANY clean water glasses??" The place wasn't even full! I wonder what they use when it is...

We expected some chips and salsa because we saw some at the table next to us, but we had to pay $2.50 for that too. After getting our clean water finally, we ordered. Me, being the more adventurous one, decided to try the Alligator Taco and the Kangaroo Taco. Here are the results:

The lighter meat is the alligator and the dark meat on the right is kangaroo.

Alligator: A bit tough for my liking. The texture was kind of like hard, chewy, fat and the taste was a little sweet. Hard to explain, but not my favorite. The meat was almost clear looking, very strange.

Kangaroo: I did really enjoy this one. Not as tough as the alligator, it had more flavor and tenderness.

Both had a strawberry salsa on top and some lettuce. Really? No cheese, or sour cream or avocado or anything?? Nope, these were just the bare bones tacos. Meat, some salsa, and lettuce. I thought this made them extremely dry but maybe that's just me.  I ended up just eating the meat and not the tortilla, it was too dry.

Overall, the service was bad, and the food wasn't good. It was bland and dry. So not worth the trip there. I've heard their brunch is ok, but I've never tried it myself. After the tacos, I'm not sure I want to go back. If you're looking to try variety meats though, they do have a wide range. Everything from Buffalo and Ostrich, to Shark tacos were on the menu. I'm willing to bet that you could find better somewhere else however.

Stephanie, WWT