Post #215330 by hanford_lemoore on Fri, Feb 17, 2006 2:45 PM

Just visted there yesterday.

The "remodel" was minimal.

The bar has not been touched as far as I can tell. The new Mai Tai Lounge is beyond the bar in the old right-hand dining room (the one furthest from the entrance). What they've done is sectioned off part of that dining room with a wooden divider, held in place by some guide wires. They painted that part of the ceiling a dark red and moved both booths from the Bar into the new area, as well as some tables. There's a giant tiki in the corner. We didn't recognize any new Tikis per se, it looks like just painting and rearranging of existing furniture and tikis took place.

The bar area looks exactly the same except the booths are missing. The booth closest to the entrance has been replaced with a table, while the booth farthest from the entrance is left empty, so a band can set up there. They were just setting up as we left. When the band is not scheduled to play I bet they move a table there.

So what did they achieve? It is better than the old bar, for sure. The lounge is darker and moodier thanks to the darkened ceiling. The huge tiki that is in the corner is a great one (humu got photos). The booths are better served in their new place, but the rest of the lounge just had regular table and chairs. And while it was too cold for them to do this today, the glass walls in that section can be opened completely to have it merge with the patio, so in the summer at night it could be really, really nice. We weren't there while the music was playing, but my guess is the lounge will be much quieter than the bar without it being silent, since the band sets up on the other side of the wall that divides the lounge from the bar.

Compared to other Trader Vic's, Palo Alto is still ranked pretty low in my book, but this new lounge makes it a bit better. It is now the preferred place to hang out at in this Vics.

Trip update:
The service, on the other hand, was disappointing.

We first ordered the happy hour MaiTais. They tasted wrong, for sure. They weren't weak, but they did not have the right amount of lime, and I think they were using poor quality rum.

The next time the waitress came around, we ordered two appetizers: the duck and the shrimp rolls. 20 minutes later, we still hadn't gotten them. When the waitress finally came around, I had already finished my Mai Tai. She informed us that they were out of the duck. I quizzed her about why it took her as long as it did to let us know that they were out of duck, and she said "they just found out". She then brought the shrimp rolls. Frankly, her answer made no sense.

The bar menu was the cheapest-looking menu I've ever seen in a Vics, quality-wise. It was sprinted with Microsoft Word fonts and assembled shoddily.

When we left around 7:30, every table in the bar and lounge was filled. I guess they're doing good business.

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore 2006-02-17 14:49 ]