South Mississippi has a new restaurant on Beach Boulevard. Loving tacos, we gave it a try

Biloxi’s newest taco joint is hidden and unassuming, but worth the find.

Cactus Burritos and Tacos opened in August at 1888 Beach Boulevard next door to Woody’s. It’s a cozy diner with a few tables, purple and gold and green accents around the doors and serenaded by music from south of the border.

This restaurant isn’t here to blow you away with aesthetic. It’s not meant to capture you with atmosphere. Where they get you is what comes out of the kitchen — which shares the room with the dining area.

The menu is versatile and highly customizable. Tacos are a la carte with specials on Taco Wednesday. Burritos and bowls can be handcrafted with a dozen different proteins and even more fillings to choose from.

The taco salad, nachos and quesadillas also come with your choice of protein. Those include asada, barbacoa, birria and carnitas. There’s even an Honduran “catracho” menu with unique delights like deep fried yucca, zambo chips and tilapia served with green banana, cabbage, pickles onions and casamiento.

I had two tacos — one asada street taco with birria sauce and a shrimp taco with salsa verde. They were both fantastic and surprisingly filling.

Which was troublesome, because I still had my flautas ahogadas left. The flautas are a taquito dish. I ordered them because the best day in high school was always taquito day. These put the cafeteria taquitos to shame.

They come as a trio and are thick with shredded chicken. They came served with lettuce and guacamole. The taquitos were great with the complimentary salsa, excellent with the birria sauce and best with the guacamole. If I lived in the apartments behind the restaurant, they would easily run my pockets.

My wife had a grilled chicken bowl. The chicken was incredibly flavorful similar to the proteins with my meal.

And it was all classically washed down with a glass bottle mandarin Jarritos.

All in all, the taco joint was highly impressive for the quality of food and should quickly become your go-to taco spot.

Cactus also has a breakfast menu with breakfast burritos, quesadillas and plates. There’s a dessert and snack menu with tamales, wings, flan and triple looche cake.

They can do dine-in or to-go orders and are available on DoorDash. They’re open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to midnight on Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

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