Cactus Jacks’s Tex Mex Cafe

The food is great, and the atmosphere is unique… they have cool activities happening all the time, it’s a pretty cool place. They even have skee ball!

It would be better if they hadn’t serve people’s leftovers. That is such a disappointment. They might as well leave while they still can before the roof falls down without repairing it. And the staff there SUCKS!!!

So divey. So good.
And the deep fried mac and cheese balls are like a full body pleasure experience.
Bartenders are pretty awesome, too.

A. Good, normal, neighborhood bar. Good, cheap food… they are proud of it and trying. Forget atmosphere… it is what it is, but that is good. An authentic place. Good prices, good food.

Burgers are great and the service is friendly. There can be some interesting clientele, but nothing too scary. If I was closer, I’d come more often. Chips and salsa are always good.

I love dive bars. I always have but this is a unique dive bar. Sometimes, the ceiling feels like it could cave in. And yes, sometimes you get crap service. But really, this place feels right. The game room is cute and always open for use, the gambling is tucked into a corner so you don’t feel like you are being watched, and the drinks are strong. If you go during a ducks game they have a raffle of pretty cool Oregon swag. I watched sometime win a TV this weekend, why wouldn’t you go?!

This place has always been a joke. Owner is there always drunk and known to get into fights. Food has made myself and friends very ill before. Don’t even try it.

Oh, Cactus Jack’s.
This place is a riot. I know I only gave it one star but you should probably experience it at least once for yourself. The place is dark, dirty, and not a single f— is given. The tiles are missing out of the ceiling, wiring just hangs exposed, there are several leaks in the roof, some funneled into buckets, the rest left to stain table/​bar tops and patrons’ heads and shoulders.
For these reasons, I enjoyed Cactus Jack’s. Out of the sheer spectacle of it.
Side note, we were there on karaōke night. The girl running it was entertaining as well, for similar reasons. Her tactic was to flirt and make friends with people in an effort to get them to go up and sing. It worked pretty well on the older guys who were a little too blitzed off their Coors to notice her and the bartender groping and canoodling.
Train wreck of an establishment. Don’t buy the food, word is they recently got in trouble for reserving old food/​other people’s leftovers. Buy the cheapest beer you can. Stay just long enough to get your laughs.

As another reviewer said, «what a dive!» I love me a dive bar, and Cactus Jack’s is my new fave. This is an honest to god dive, the bathroom stalls have curtains instead of doors. You’ve been warned so if that ain’t your thing, it ain’t for you.
Service is friendly and competent. Lots of tv’s with sports on, video poker, pool table, megatouch and cornhole. Little covered smoking area outside which is nice for the smokers even though i do not partake. I got the $ 1.50 breakfast, 2 eggs, hashbrowns and toast. As good as breakfast anywhere else and a plenty large portion. Also got biscuits and gravy, it was okay. This beast is more bar than restaurant, so I didn’t expect amazing food. Drinking is the goal at CJ’s and lots of entertainment to enjoy while you do.

I can’t believe what a waste of my life this place is. I went in ordered nachos to go. Thats it. 40 minutes later I had to ask the idiot behind the bar if my nachos were ready. They sure were, ready to be thrown away, soggy nastiness, gross, foul, crap. This place sucks, keep the $ 8. I wouldn’t return to get my money back if my life depended on it. I’d rather be digging my eyeballs out with a rusty fork than waste another moment in this shithole. Jus sayin. 0 stars!

came in after leaving the blitz pearl. this place was much better. the service was attentive and the nachos and buffalo wings were generous and dericious. this place is cheap too.

Most of the food is surprisingly good for a bar and reasonably priced.
Drinks are as good as the best (and numerous) bars we have been in.
Very friendly vibe from the regulars and the bartenders.
Entertaining for a variety of good reasons.
Will definitely go here on a regular basis.

Um, odd. Charged us a dollar more than was quoted, but decent place I guess. Not sure if I will go back.

Watched the Seahawks game there but they wouldn’t turn on the audio till half way through the game because there were 2 Packers fans at the bar, we had a party of 6, wrong market guys– fail! Over priced entrees that are small, 9 bucks for 3 chicken strips? Terrible value. Very slow service due to under staffing. One guy serving the whole place. Do yourself a favor and skip this joint. Seriously, zero redeeming qualities. The ceiling is painted insulation, no joke.

Outdoor music is way too loud. Surprised the neighbors don’t burn the place down.

They show the Chicago Bears games!!!
And Ashley the bartender is serious HOT !!!

The food was delicious… But the service was ABOSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!
My boyfriend and I went on a Tuesday night and got completely ignored for the first 20min before a waitress finally came over to our table. We hardly saw her and when we did she was incredibly rude.
I would definitely suggest getting your food to go.

I just got to Portland a couple of weeks ago so at this point I’m up for trying anything, even if that means a bar that seems like it would be more in place in a suburb. But hey, this is only a couple miles from Beaverton, so we’re almost there, right?
There are some good things about Cactus Jacks. I was there on a Friday night, and that means is was karaōke night. The only downside is that the crowd wasn’t too original in their music selections. Ke$ha for karaōke? Seriously? I heard this song three times on the radio just on the drive over.
The staff at Cactus Jacks is super friendly. I think the head honcho there is a lady named Stacy who seemed to know everyone personally. Loyal customers are the sign of a good establishment. At one point the server (who also had a good report with the friends I was with) admitted to making a mistake on the bill and cut us a free drink. So yeah, big props for that. The beers aren’t too expensive to begin with. We even got a deal on some IPA they were trying to unload for $ 2 a glass. We were there for about three hours and at the end our bill ended up being $ 31 for the three of us, which is not bad at all.
The clientele is a mix of young professional and middle-​aged working class. Definitely not the hipster vibe you’d find in most bars around here. Well… except for the hipster KJ with the handlebar stache. And you know what, that’s all good with me. I can adapt to a kaleidescope of crowds. Although, we could have really done without the dudes who still seemed trapped and clinging to the early 2000’s korn, disturbed, eminem style. Just let it go, gents. Let it go. I’d give it four stars if not for one of the tv’s being fixed to fox news. But I guess this is a Texas themed bar so I should have expected it.

We wanted to get some happy hour food but got there an hour early. Ah well. I had dinner a couple hours before so I just got some quesadillas. The chicken was good but this was no gourmet place. It’s bar food, basically. Tex-​Mex menu, macros on tap, NASCAR on TV (well, it was a NASCAR cooking show, believe it or not), middle-​aged patrons.
Sure, the chips come with nacho sauce, but it’s a decent enough place and is open late. I totally want to go back when they’re having happy hour since the prices are so cheap.

Legend has it that cougars dwelling in the region along the US/​Mexico border between Texas and Chihuahua are reclusive and elusive. Deep in the wildlands of this southwest region, where tumbleweeds and sage dominate, nary a big cat track can be found. Tall tales abound, however, of a tex-​mex stronghold deep in the Pacific Northwest wilderness where the urban cougars brazenly roam free.
Those tall tales became reality for me last night, as I entered the surreal world of Cactus Jack’s Tex Mex café. As I joined some fellow adventurers on a trek to the badlands of SW Portland, the nether-​region between the suburban sprawl and the urban core, we came upon a den of cougar activity not seen in many years by any of my seasoned troupe. In search of a jam band open mic (at which a co-adventurer’s friend was performing), we ventured into this world-​between-​worlds only to find a twilight zone of sorts.
It was suburban but not chain. The crowd was drunk but not Young (or hip, in any way). They had a ton of beers on tap, most of which were macros (Busch, Tecate, Dos Equis, etc). The closest thing they had to a micro was the Mudshark. I found myself, at 32, to be the youngest person in the whole joint.
The Cougs were out in force. upper-30’s to upper-40’s women attracting lots of attention to themselves. All seemingly drunk. Most ready to party. Lots of random dudes, same age, eating it up. Numerous older regulars sat at the bar, drunk, taking it all in. Yeah toto, we’re pretty goddamn far from Kansas right now.
I heard numerous mating/​party calls throughout the night («WOOOOOOO!») punctuated by either jumping, smacking, making out, or straight up straddling. This wasn’t you usual cougar convention, though. No dolled up or dressed up women. These aren’t the cream of the young-​male-​hunting-​crop. Those vixens are downtown stalking the jacked-​up, popped collar D. Bags. No no, these are much more casual. Almost stealth predators. Someone’s mom, down at the local watering hole, getting her drink on, making eyes at the washed out local football team captain who still lives in his mom’s basement.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time, and the random open mic jam band music was entertaining. The crowd slowly progressed from the 40-​something drunks to upper-​20-​something drunks as the clock ticked later into the evening. By my 11pm departure I was solidly in the middle of the age range in the place. There were still plenty of «WOOT WOO!‘s» trumpeting through the air, overwhelming the Dead covers emanating from the band’s corner.
All I could do was survey the scene in sheer awe. This is a crowd I have never seen all together at once in a Portland bar. Not dive patrons, not fake, conservative suburbanites, not urban metros… just… uh… how do I say it? I don’t know. It’s like someone at the PTA meeting said «After party at Cactus Jacks!» Or, quite possibly, this is how the local bar looks in a little one-​bar town.
Numerous inexpensive pints of Tecate and a small plate of «Presidente Nachos» later, I decided (along with my now war worn troupe) that enough was enough. As the crowd was degenerating into those too unmotivated to cross the bridge/​endure the tunnel to get to the downtown watering holes began to take over, my desire to remain grew thin.
Inexpensive mainstream beers, cocktails, and a menu so cluttered it’[s impossible to read, all support the steady stream of lost souls as they get wasted drunk at this little netherworld watering hole.
1 bonus star for fresh guacamole.