Cactus

My husband and I recently had a date-night dinner at Cactus in Kailua, where the focus is on cuisines of the new Americas and the use of local ingredients.  

We started off with small plates of the following appetizers:

Left: Housemade Argentine Fry Bread with Ewa Pineapple and Manzano Chile Jelly. Top right: Fried Guindilla Peppers with local sea salt, organic Tahitian Lime. Bottom right: Local Squash, Big Island Goat Cheese Croquetas with Roasted Hauula tomato-Chipotle sauce.

For dinner:

Brazilian Mariscada of Local Seafood with Farofa Dumplings: Local day boat fish, Kauai Shrimp, Cedar Shoal's Clams and Penn Cove Mussels simmered in a roasted tomato, coconut milk-infused shellfish broth with Kaffir lime, garlic, and Malagueta chile.

Pan Roasted Jidori Chicken Breast with Cilantro Risotto: Meyer lemon confit, Manzanilla olives, vino blanco, Aji Amarillo

 And of course, we just had to get dessert...

Banana Coyotas: Local apple bananas & Mexican chocolate coyotas served over house-made dulce de leche and a scoop of saffron gelato.

Molten Mexican Chocolate Cake: Chile de Arbol Chocolate Cake topped with Tahitian Vanilla gelato

The food at Cactus was excellent!

My favorite appetizer was the Croquettas, which surprised me because I don't usually care for goat cheese.

My entree - the chicken, was juicy and delicious. Although I couldn't really taste any cilantro in the risotto, the entire dish was flavorful.

As for the desserts - the chocolate cake was really good.  It had a little spicy kick.  However, my husband and I both favored the coyotas.  The saffron gelato by itself was very good too.

Service was amazing at Cactus, and my husband and I both agree that we'd definitely go there again, even with our kids (they do have a Lil' Prickler Menu for kids 10 and under - meals, which include entrees such as bean and cheese burrito, three cheese quesadilla, and masa crusted chicken strips, also come with a drink and a scoop of house gelato for $9).

Cactus
767 Kailua Rd
Kailua, HI 96734
(808) 261-1000