The neon green cacti are what I noticed first, and well over a dozen visits later, they have become a beacon of sorts, reassuring me that paper-thin tortilla chips and strong margaritas aren’t too far away.

In a city overflowing with monuments and memorials, those cacti are a monument in their own right — not to a battle or a president, but to some of the best Tex-Mex food in the D.C. area.

Cactus Cantina opened in 1990, a block from Washington National Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue. It’s been a neighborhood favorite ever since.

“So many years have passed,” restaurant owner Raul Sanchez tells me recently, in between sips of his frozen margarita. “And so many customers.”

Sanchez came to the United States in 1968 from Cuba, where he had fled Fidel Castro’s regime. He was 22 at the time. His first stop was Miami, but he soon settled in the D.C. area, where he got a job as a busboy at the Mayflower Hotel.

He intended to study chemical engineering. Instead, he ended up opening multiple restaurants over the years, two of which are still open: In addition to Cactus Cantina, he owns the iconic-in-its-own-right Lauriol Plaza in Adams Morgan. He also recently added a third that’s rivaling the other two in size: Alfresco Tap and Grill, just a couple of blocks from Lauriol in Adams Morgan.

It isn’t hard for Sanchez to explain why Cactus Cantina has been so successful — why, after over 30 years, it has only gotten more popular.

“Good food and good price,” he says. “You don’t feel like you have to mortgage your house if you want to eat here,” he added. “And our loyal customers come back.”

He also points to the restaurant’s relaxed, down-to-earth atmosphere. Families with toddlers sit next to 20-somethings with mojitos and sangria. All are welcome, and all feel welcome, Sanchez says. “It’s really friendly.”

Cactus Cantina has been frequented by a litany of the country’s political elite — including Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. But the fame of the restaurant’s clientele doesn’t impress Sanchez. “We don’t really care,” he says. “We don’t really make any big deal.” At Cactus Cantina, everyone is treated with the same good service, he adds.

Perhaps the greatest testament to the restaurant’s success is the physical space itself. What started as a relatively small cantina slowly expanded over the years, gradually taking over neighboring restaurant spaces to become the massive, 350-seat restaurant it is today.

Besides that expansion, the restaurant has barely changed over the decades, to the point that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” appears to be the unofficial motto around here.

Some specials have been added, and periodic price increases keep pace with inflation, Sanchez says, but otherwise the menu hasn’t really changed.

When they opened, Sanchez and his business partner Luis Reyes set out to perfect the “border-style” of Tex-Mex cuisine.

One of the popular dishes is the carne asada, according to Cactus Cantina Vice President Jaime Sanchez. It’s made with skirt steak soaked in a special marinade that he declines to share details about.

Fajitas are also among the most ordered dishes, says Jaime, who is also Raul’s son-in-law. Margaritas — frozen and on the rocks — are another go-to for Cactus Cantina’s customers. From Friday through Sunday, the restaurant prepares about 350 gallons of margaritas, Jaime estimates.

They spent more than a decade refining the salsa recipe, recalls Jaime, who started as a waiter when the restaurant opened.

“We kept working on this recipe,” he says. “Do we roast the tomatoes on the open fire or do we roast them on sheets? How much do we burn them? Are the jalapenos better cooked together with the tomatoes or not? We went through all these permutations.” It became a bit of an obsession, he admitted — they tried well over 1,000 recipes.

Cactus Cantina has also sourced their tortilla chips from the same supplier in Texas for decades. Their vendor has perfected the process of making them, Sanchez says, so why bother finding a new supplier. The restaurant also makes its own flour tortillas.

Starting with chips and salsa — all served warm — is central to the Tex-Mex experience, so all the attention paid to both makes sense. On the weekends, they make about 40 25-gallon buckets worth of tortilla chips and 50 gallons of salsa each day.

When asked about the time the Washington Post ranked Cactus Cantina as the best Tex-Mex food in the city in 2017, Raul immediately retorted, “I agree with them.”

Many of the employees have even been working at the restaurant since it opened — even the head chef, Basilio Villegas. The decor hasn’t changed much either.

The red brick matches the salsa. The walls are decorated with old wooden doors and prints showing scenes of men galloping on horseback. Dozens of green plants and multicolored lights hang from the ceiling. Words like “fajitas” and “quesadillas,” “flan” and “sopapillas” are written in cursive on the walls.

Above a Western saddle, and a few steps from the attention-getting flour tortilla maker that quickly spits out tortillas and staff fondly refer to as “El Machino,” the words “Viva Cactus Cantina” are proudly scrawled on a pillar in the middle of the restaurant. Viva Cactus Cantina indeed.

It’s this sense of familiarity that keeps devoted customers like Berrin Ozbilgin coming back. She’s been eating at the restaurant since she was a graduate student at George Washington University about 30 years ago.

“For Tex-Mex food, it’s the best in the area,” she says as she takes bites of carne asada. “Nothing has been as consistently good as Cactus Cantina. We also have great memories here.”

“My husband and I, when we come we always comment on how it still feels the same. It still looks the same,” she adds. “The food is exactly the same.”

Now, Ozbilgin comes with her daughter Dilara. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid,” says Dilara, now a college student, as she digs into a cheese and spinach quesadilla.

“We come and have our margaritas,” the mom said, gesturing at their half-finished drinks. “And it’s great.”

The recent opening of Alfresco Tap and Grill had Raul thinking back to Cactus Cantina’s opening day more than 30 years ago and the anxiety he felt over whether his restaurant would succeed. You just never know in the restaurant industry, he says. But happily, his worries were quickly assuaged.

“Thirty minutes after we opened the doors, there was a line of people to get in,” he said. “And we’ve been busy ever since. Thank god.”