When I read that there was a Tex-Mex place in Dublin that served authentic Mexican cuisine and had Tapas, I was excited. Having lived in the states and experienced such culinary delights first hand I was anxious to find some of those dishes here in Ireland. I must be honest though, Cactus Jacks failed to impress. Lets start though by talking about what I did enjoy. The location is brilliant, right off the Luas at Jervis and the interior is beautiful. The same aesthetics have been applied to the menus, which come in their own carved wood covers, and the rest of the decor throughout. I was pretty impressed upon arrival with the look and feel of the place - it's got the trappings of a nice up scale eatery. The staff were very accommodating. They were polite and attentive. The drinks were also very good. We had a pitcher of frozen margaritas and they were done to perfection as you would find in a good, authentic Mexican restaurant. What let the place down though was the food. Don't get me wrong - much like the restaurant itself the food looked amazing. It was presented on the plate in such a way it was a mix between Spanish food and the culinary delights one would find at a nice café in Paris. Thats where the pleasing part ended, unfortunately. The food flavours were dreadful and they missed the mark on many of the dishes. I had the guacamole and tortilla chips. I make my own guacamole at home from scratch. I learned from a mate of mine from Mexico how to prepare it years ago. The two things that I noticed right away - first you can tell how fresh it is by the colour. The darker the colour the longer it has been in the fridge. My guacamole had been there a couple days at least. It also lacked one of the main ingredients, which is tomato chunks. It's a major ingredient and one that was also omitted from the ingredient list on the menu. They may be doing their own take on guacamole, but the reality is without tomato and onion chunks it comes off a bit flavourless. Then there were the tortilla chips. Tex-Mex tortillas use corn, not flour. Flour seems to be all you can find here in Ireland though. You want proper corn tortilla chips, not the crap you find in a bag, but ones you make by hand from white corn and then deep fry yourself. They appeared to use flour tortilla chips they had bought, cut, and deep fried. Nothing could be farther from what that dish was supposed to taste like. I then had the burrito for my main course. It too looked amazing on my plate, but left much to be desired. It was basically chili con carne wrapped up in a flour tortilla. Granted, a normal burrito is not much more than this, but it is the subtle differences which made it quite a let down. They are supposed to be full of flavour, with cheese dripping out and served with a bit of tomato, lettuce, and sour cream. They had a side salad with a dressing that was good but not a good fit. The filling needed to be more beef, less beans, and the mince was not flavoured enough and was not minced small enough. It came off bland and just plain wrong. Maybe it's just me, since I have eaten classic Tex-Mex and Mexican food for many years in places like Mexico, Texas, and of course Los Angeles, but I felt the whole meal was just missing the textures and flavours a proper meal of this type should have. read more