A Bit Prickly

Marilyn loves Mexican food, but she found the vast array of potential choices to be daunting. Should she order the traditional fajitas? A combo platter? One of the oddball items, such as the Baja BLT or the Desert Bowtie Pasta? Our server talked her into a combo platter with a cheese-and-spinach enchilada, a chicken taco and a feta-cheese tostada. Nothing like a little Mediterranean accent on a standard Tex-Mex creation.

I ordered the pork carnitas, and the kitchen knew how to do them right: braised and simmered with green chiles and tomatoes. The burrito filled with that tender pork was excellent, smothered in a punchy chile verde and jalapeño cream cheese.

"We have fried ice cream," our server announced as she cleared away the plates. Marilyn rolled her eyes as if saying, "To hell with that idea." After such a heavy meal, one really needs to be in the right frame of mind to contemplate a deep-fried dessert.

But at least this server mentioned dessert, unlike that harried waiter on my third visit to the Cactus Grill.

That night, Bob overheard the same server describe that night's dinner special to two tables with this caveat: "I don't really like it myself."

It wasn't the best sales technique, but I kind of admired his honesty. Bob, also an ex-waiter, disagreed. "If he feels that way, why mention it at all?"

Cactus Grill has its eccentricities, I guess, in its waitstaff and on its menu. For dinner, I ordered the VooDoo Tuna Tostada, which turned out to be one of the weirdest things I'd ever tasted. This hunk of pillowy, chewy, deep-fried "Navajo" bread, topped with a grilled hunk of tuna and heaped with bits of red cabbage, yellow corn, tomato and feta cheese, then doused with "gazpacho crema," works better as a modern art piece than as a meal. Bob made a better choice with another house specialty, the Creamy Steak Enchiladas. They were heavy on the crema, all right: jalapeño cream cheese inside the tortilla and chipotle cream sauce and sour cream on top.

It's one of the top-selling dinners here, which suggests that the Cactus Grill has found its niche selling rich food to rich people at a modest price. Who needs dessert?