Neon Cactus

Neon Cactus hides behind this dirty orange awning.

Neon Cactus is a sister venue to Jake’s Bar and Oporto, and occupies a small part of the same terrace on Call Lane.

The Mexican theme is immediately apparent: this place stocks about a million different kinds of tequila, and has a decent menu of contemporary Mexican food as well as what appears to be the world’s largest collection of hot sauces.

The bar area, with its crazily huge selection of tequila.

It’s clear that (on a weeknight at least) most people are here for the food, and the food is indeed excellent and quite good value. But we’re not reviewing food, or tequila. We’re here for the beer. So what’s the selection like? You can probably guess: Modelo, Negra Modelo, Sol, XX and uninspiring Tuborg and San Miguel on tap. No sign of nicer Mexican beers like Pacifico or Bohemia.

It’s also really small in here and because everyone’s eating it’s quite hard to get a seat, which is pretty offputting. That said, the atmosphere in here is very pleasant – the music is good and the fashionable décor (including red lighting) isn’t bad, although a constant reminder that you’re definitely on Call Lane, along with the fashionable attire of most of their customers!

Part of the enormous hot sauce collection!

The proprietors probably thought it was ultra-cool to use the Spanish words for “dicks” and “bitches” to label their toilet doors, but we just thought it’s insulting to both English speakers and Spanish speakers alike.

Apart from being cramped and not having great beer, this place was OK. The food was superb and we might be back for more of that. I think if you’re into tequila or hot sauce you’ll probably like this place more than we did!