Places in Lagos| Cactus Restaurant

Cactus Restaurant has been around for many years, almost 23 years if you’re counting. For their 20th anniversary, the restaurant was closed for a couple of months in 2018 for renovation. We stopped by in 2019 after they reopened, and noticed the entire space was revamped. It now had different sitting areas, a playground for kids, and a huge sign outside with real cactuses. It became a fave spot again and could compete fairly with all the new guys on the block.

Cactus is great for Sunday brunch, lunch, or dinner. I’ve visited several times with my family over the years, especially for breakfast after Eid-el-Fitr prayers. We always run into many Muslims; it’s always like a reunion of some sort, LOL.

I stopped by Cactus in December 2020 with my friend, Anu for lunch. She resides in the UK and had never been, so I was excited to hear her thoughts.

AMBIENCE
The restaurant has four sitting areas. So there’s the cafe where pastries are sold, the main indoor space, an extension of the main space with a view of the outdoors, then the outdoor space. It’s set up to seat a whole lot of customers, and it’s been busy every time I’ve visited including this day. The outdoor space seemed more inviting and relaxed, so we sat there even though it was a hot Monday afternoon in Lagos.

MENU
The menu is categorized into eight sections with an option for everyone. I didn’t feel like eating my usual breakfast meal this day, so I starred at the menu for sometime before I decided what to have.

WHAT WE ORDERED
We asked for water, a glass of fresh pineapple juice, and Kiwi in Style to kick things off. We skipped starters and ordered our main meals straight. We had both wanted a pasta meal, but the only pasta meal available was Spaghetti Bolognaise 😏, and we didn’t want that. So I chose the Spicy Shredded Chicken meal while Anu asked for the Chicken Wrap.

*Spicy Shredded Chicken & Mushroom sauce with veggies and rice*

It had been a long time I ordered a rice meal at a restaurant, so I honestly didn’t know what to expect. However, when the meal came, I wasn’t disappointed. The serving was HUGE, the sauce was tasty, and it felt good trying something new. Anu’s food was a lot too, and we both knew we would take some of our food back home with us.

SERVICE DELIVERY & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
As I walked in, a waiter approached me, and he guided me to where Anu was waiting. We decided to move outside, and another waiter ushered us to our new seats. We didn’t have to wait long to get served, and our assigned waiter was friendly and offered suggestions when we didn’t know what to order. He also came back while we were eating to check if everything was okay and took photos of us when we asked. He was charming and spent some time with the camera to please us. All the waiters wore masks and gloves and respected the covid-19 protocols.

DAMAGE
Water ~N900
Pineapple juice ~ N1,800
Kiwi in Style ~ N2,800
Chicken Wrap ~ N6,000
Spicy Chicken Mushroom N7,000
Take out Pack ~ N400
The restaurant adds VAT and consumption TAX charges to every bill so our total bill was N21,262.50

Cactus is a family restaurant, and that’s one of the reasons I love it. However, it works for all occasions too.

Out of 10, I rate Cactus 7.

Mariam Shittu

P.S. this is not a sponsored post. All opinions expressed were not influenced.