About Us

Cactus opened in 1990 with an idea that didn’t fit any existing category — bold flavors drawn from the American Southwest and Mexico, dishes invented in-house that you won’t find anywhere else, and a bar program built around the conviction that a great margarita deserves serious attention. Thirty-five years later, it still doesn’t fit a category. That’s the point.

What we’ve learned in those 35 years is that the restaurants people love most aren’t built for occasions — they’re present for all of them. The first date, the proposal, their parents’ table — now theirs, someday their kids’. Wednesday nights that didn’t need a reason.

The menu is seasonal, built around local ingredients, and shaped by what our guests actually want — not what a regional cuisine demands or a trend requires. More than 3,000 dishes invented since 1990. The ones that earn a permanent place do so because guests won’t let us take them off. The bar starts with the margarita — that’s the star, and we take it seriously — with a full agave program behind it built around mezcal and tequila done with real intention.

Twice named to The Seattle Times Top 10 Restaurants of the Year. Best of Western Washington in 2012, and again in 2025 — the distance between those two wins is the part that means something to us. 425 Magazine readers have named us Best Mexican Restaurant for 13 consecutive years, which we always say with a smile, because that’s not quite what we are. Best Margarita, Seattle Times, 2023. The bar program is not an afterthought.

Cactus has six locations across the Puget Sound — Downtown Kirkland, Alki Beach, Madison Park, Bellevue Square, South Lake Union, and Tacoma’s Proctor District — with our first out-of-state location opening in Boise, Idaho in fall 2026, and a new location at The Harvest Yard in Woodinville in spring 2027.