Cactus Rose

First time here and came for Easter brunch after previewing the menu on Facebook. Despite making a reservation in advance and calling the night before to confirm, they still had our name wrong and there was a wait to be seated. Even when I corrected them, they still called us by the wrong name. But then again the host/​manager was taking direction from a waitress and a busser, so go figure. The staff was very overwhelmed but as the day progressed you could sense their stress lift a tad. Maybe they were sipping the bottomless mimosas. What do I care as long as you keep filing mine up. Clearly, the restaurant does not do the volume. We had to rearrange our table to make room for my parents and our two children. As we did the waitress was huffing and puffing and did not try to hide her disapproval.
The airline chicken with a tarragon sauce was a flop but the tri-​tip with the chimichurri and horseradish cream was divine. It was so good that I bypassed the traditional Easter ham with chutney. The chef working the carving station was also very pleasant and did not give me judgey eyes when I wolfed down five slices. Shrimp cocktail was enjoyed by everyone except for me as I am a land lover. The brie en croute was a hit! Especially after a nine month pregnancy not allowing for soft cheeses. I ate about a wheel of brie proudly. The tamale pie with poblano and chorizo gravy was good. The beet salad with goat cheese was great. Deserts were pretty lame and disappointing. No crème brûlée– bah humbug. Fruit was non existent except for the garnish on the brie. I felt scandalous taking it off of every platter of brie they put out so I could give it to my hungry daughter. Skipped the omelet station but was tempted to take the bacon to the omelet chef so they could finish cooking it. The bacon being all limp and undercooked was very disappointing– as quite honestly I wanted to do some damage and get my bacon on.
Hacienda del Sol, Loewes, the Hilton it was not. But for the price and shorter drive it was fine. I would even come back for another go around.

4 is a slight bit strong, but three would be too little. I’ve been eating here for years (because I’ve been staying here for years on business). There have been a lot of ups and downs on food (mostly the downs are from the Javalina Cantina) and lots of changes over the years.
I had the prime rib tonight and it was delicious! And I’m pretty bitchy on meat. And you can’t beat the price. Maria provided outstanding service and a sweet personality. The service at the Desert Rose has always been good as the staff has been here for years and are very gracious and friendly.
Chef Alan came out to say hello and I love his enthusiasm. He really has a passion for this and his desire to accommodate is wonderful. He isn’t a stuck-​up «I know better then you» chef.
If he has it prepared, I can not recommend the beer cheese soup more. It is simply amazing! He gets what cheese is and what goes well together. I am from Wisconsin and I approve this message!
I will continue to dine here and this is actually incentive to stay at the Doubletree!

Came here with some work friends. The food was very good, I got the Tuscan pasta and it was delicious.
The menu selection is small the portion sizes don’t seem to be consistent (I got a mountain of pasta that I couldn’t finish whereas my friend got a small amount of pasta with small piece of chicken and was still hungry after finishing it)
Deserts were good, service was great.
Better than I expected after reading the previous reviews.

The two stars is really stretching it for me, but since i’ve read through the other reviews, I will pretend that I’m missing something special here.
Service staff was friendly enough, though it did take more than 10 minutes for someone to come to the front desk to greet and seat me. I am not very patient about things like that.
Finally was seated only to open the menu to find that i really had no options. Menu has about 10 meal items, none of them salads. That was disappointing. Even worse was the pasta recommendation. Very bland, yet heavy. I really tried my best to eat it since it was «one of the best,» but i ended up taking most of it «to go.» Hoping to find a stray dog on my way back.
The bottled beer was good. I definitely recommend the bottled beer. But then again, Circle K is down the street and you can get a case of it there, so no need to come here for the bottled beer.
I better hit «send» before i change my mind and give it only one star.

We are staying at the Doubletree Reid Park and have eaten at the Cactus Rose a couple of times for dinner and three times for breakfast. The food is terrific — with a new menu. The service is very, very good. The food is excellent. I am not usually a fan of a hotel restaurant but this one is quite good. They need to seriously work on the house wine and improve the wine list to give more options for good wines. This restaurant is a nice surprise.

We’ve only been here for breakfast buffet, compliments of the business package on my room.
But the food was AMAZING. Even though it’s a buffet, you still get some wait service, so be prepared to tip a few bucks before you leave. The service is fantastic.
Tonight, I had room service dinner — NY steak with shrimp and rice pilaf. Rather generous serving, good food. I hear the food for room service and this restaurant have the same kitchen and share menu, so I think this is applicable for this place.

Excellent prime rib. The corn chowder is also very good. Superb service.

A pleasant surprise! We enjoyed the lunch salad and soup bar and, contrary to most of our experiences with higher tier hotel restaurants, it was very good. Included was two types of soup (corn chowder and southwestern chicken,) marinated southwestern bay shrimp, fresh clams and artichokes, a penne dish, and several other entrees. On the salad side were two bowls of different types of nice fresh greens and a high quality selection of accompaniments including homemade croutons and fresh chopped bacon bits. The fresh raspberry/​blueberry/​blackberry/​pineapple and melon dish was a great dessert. Cactus Rose has a very pleasant upscale atmosphere, no blaring TVs or music, outside seating, and the service was quite good.
We would like to try their huge Sunday champagne brunch as well as the Prime Rib special on Friday nights: two glasses of wine, two prime rib dinners, and a dessert to share for $ 34.95.

A $ 35 steak and a salad bar? The porter house served was not that great. We got a buy one get one free voucher for this restaurant and it still wasn’t worth it. Our only mistake was we didn’t look on Unilocal before we went there. At the time it was convenient because we were staying at the hotel.

Food was great, I had ordered an Angus burger with fries. I felt bad, as they only had one waitress covering the whole restaurant during lunchtime (1230). If you have plenty of time, cactus rose might not be a bad place. I was attending a seminar there and my group had to leave due to scheduling issues, but during a break, they were fine with us settling the bill.

This restaurant is located in the Doubletree Hotel on Alvernon just a short distance south of Broadway. I have eaten in this restaurant through the years but it had been a long while since I had been there. We wanted to see what they had up their sleeve in the dining room!
It was a quiet night in the hotel when my «dining trio» (my mom, Gary-​husband, and I) arrived. We had just finished an appointment in the area, and had an Entertainment Book card. This restaurant was an option, and we were eager to try it again.
We found the dining room itself quite empty, but we did not pass judgment because hotels have unpredictable traffic, especially at this time of year (in between Thanksgiving and Christmas). One thing I love about Tucson is the access to resorts, hotels and their restaurants, on top of access to the usual stand-​alone restaurant. Sometimes there are gems hiding in those hotels.
And we found a gem on this night!
I noticed that the hotel had redecorated the dining room and it looked very inviting. To my delight, the large salad bar was still there – a large center piece in this relatively small restaurant.
We were seated comfortably, near the salad bar. Entrees come with unlimited soup and salad, which we found made the cost of the meal a very reasonable proposition. Our friendly server, Jeffrey, was the main server weekday nights. He was perfect in his timing and sense of assistance, also listing the specials of the day and their prices (sometimes servers leave off the prices, which bugs some diners). Mom and I chose the shrimp skewers with sides. We had an option to add 5 more shrimp to a plate for $ 4.00 more but didn’t opt for that. Gary chose the BBQ ribs.
The verdict? YUM x 3!
First, the salad bar… lots of great choices. The only downside was that the generous bowls of lettuce (plain Romaine or the mixed greens-​nice choices) were just very slightly wilted. I would’ve served smaller portions of lettuce and turned them over more often, or sprayed some misted water on them to keep them perfectly crisp. The dressings were excellent, too. This salad bar even had some dried fruits and chopped pecans, classy additions. A basket of rolls (decent; nothing special about them) was also on the salad bar, along with butter.
They offered two soups as part of the salad bar: tonight it was cream of broccoli (very good but slightly too salty) and a to-​die-​for corn chowder soup. It even LOOKED inviting, with little pieces of I think red pepper in it along with corn kernels, to create a festive yellow-​red dish. I must admit: I usually don’t eat much corn (starch food) but I «snuk» in 3 partially filled cups of the stuff throughout my meal, including as my «dessert.» It was thick and definitely sweet, but perfectly prepared and was simmering at a perfect temperature.
Everything was perfectly prepared, for real. Not ONE complaint about the entrees at all although I looked hard. Mom’s and my skewered shrimp (6 medium-​sized ones) arrived, beautifully plated and inviting. The shrimp were perfectly prepared – really! I mean great texture and flavor, and not dripping with the usual butter or over-​seasoned. Nor were they dry. The skewers lay on a mountain of mashed potatoes (another treat for me!), with pieces of potato hiding within the mashed. Great texture and flavor, again. The asparagus and carrots (the special-​sized carrot that you don’t see too often) were also done exactly right. A truly perfect meal.
Gary’s ribs arrived, a full rack, and boy, were they meaty! I took a taste and I found the sauce very tasty, and the texture of the meat really great (soft inside, a slightly almost caramelized crunch to the outside). It was a very generous plateful of ribs! Gary said the ribs had very little fat, which makes them a fab value. He had half a rack still uneaten when we asked for the take-​home boxes. His entrée also came with ranch beans complete with red and green peppers and onions with a slight hint (not overpowering) of bacon or a smoked flavor. Gary called them «just right.» His dish also came with a classy corn muffin.
Gary tasted my shrimp and he called both the shrimp and ribs very well prepared, some of the best he’s had. In summary, I think Tucsonans may be missing a very good treat if they don’t try this restaurant. They are eager to please, the ambiance was pleasant, and the food was outstanding, a great value when you add in the soup and salad bar. I think they specialize in some excellent beef cuts, which we did not try but I would encourage you to do so, if you go. The desserts also sounded inviting (and reasonable in price-​ranging from $ 2.25 to $ 4.00 to $ 5.95). IF we had been hungry, we probably would’ve gone for the Granny Smith Hot Apple Crisp (comes with ice cream) or the Flourless Kahlua Chocolate Cake, or the… or the… OK, I wish I had tried the dessert. Next time. I got my fill. They were so courteous and pleasant that we really look forward to our next visit.

Ate here with the family while attending a family reunion. Those of us who did not live in the area were staying at the DoubleTree, so we decided this would be the most convenient bet for the first night in Tucson. There were about 20 of us, so and the staff did their best to set us up a section that would fit all of us.
Overall the staff was friendly. Our 2 waiters were very considerate, and did what they could to make our dinner pleasant. They had a great attitude towards us and had a great sense of humor (We are not a very serious bunch). The cooks obviously did not try as hard.
A few of the family members ordered steak, which tended to be under-​cooked from what they had requested. The food for the young children (microwaved corn dogs and french fries) were not even warm. I’m not a kid person, and so the fact that the cooks upset the children even upset me… because children cry and whine :). The waiter had to take all of the children’s food back to put back into the microwave again.
My pasta was not very satisfying, and also not what I expected when I read the description on the menu. The misinterpretation I can deal with, because everybody has their own interpretation of a dish, but the fact that it was bland, and the noodles seemed under-​cooked was unacceptable.
All in all, not a very satisfying dinner, and I think most of the family felt the same. I will never be eating here again if I stay at the DoubleTree again. I would much rather go to the mini-​mart on the corner and eat something from there.

Breakfast buffet was a bit disappointing. Mom said eggs were gross and didn’t eat them. Fruit was super fresh. Bacon was ok. No service pretty much. Potatoes had no flavor. Go somewhere else for your breakfast instead.

Lunch was boring. In all ways — ambiance, taste, service. Blah.
Try dinner. It’s supposed to be really decent.
Nice hotel tho’.
Sorry, wont see me there, darlings.