Post #222022 by donhonyc on Mon, Mar 20, 2006 5:34 PM

Just put my vote in. Is that countdown of the best places from this year or last year? Number 7? Doesn't sound right.

As a person who grew up in South Florida, I know exactly why some of the locals look down their noses at the Mai Kai. Two words: 'tourist trap'. Quite frankly if I was older when I moved down there, I probably would've checked it out sooner, but according to my family it was a no-go because of the said 'trap' factor. And to be fair there are alot of 'tourist traps' all over Florida. Anything that has a theme to it could be fairly or unfairly classified as such. I still get funny looks from my Dad when I go back home and tell them I'm going to the Mai Kai for dinner or drinks.

I avoided the Mai Kai during high school for the obvious reasons. When your're that age, and you have the largest ever Spring Break crowd around you (early 80s) you don't care about something like the Mai Kai, not to mention that it's too expensive for a teenager unless your family has money to burn. Teen years are beer years anyway. After I left Ft. Lauderdale and got a little more education in Kitsch and cocktail mixology among other things, I REALLY appreciated and continue to appreciate the Mai Kai. What I don't get are the reviews that said the place was 'dirty' and the drinks were 'watered down'. What?? I mean cleanliness is relative, even though I don't see it as dirty at all! But to say that the drinks are watered down? Either that person has got an extremely high tolerance for alcohol or they're just a career alcoholic themselves. And the whole 'overpriced' thing. What decent restaurant, that has a dinner show no less, is not overpriced? There are plenty of other 'overpriced' restaurants in that area that aren't nearly as much fun. And not to offend anybody here, but those reviews just sounded like a bunch of rednecks. As stated in an earlier post here, 'South Floridians don't seem to like anything older than themselves'. You got that right! That was one thing I couldn't stand about living there as a teen. That area at least at that time had, in my opinion,no future and definitely no past. History? What history?

The other thing I don't understand is how Tropical Acres was voted number one. Someone in my family who is a Florida native was always telling me about that place and how retro it was. A few years back, we had a family birthday party there, and maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I didn't see much in terms of retro value at all. The food was as I recall, okay. Nothing good, nothing bad. But I kinda walked outta there thinking that that person in my family had a different idea about what I thought was South Florida retro. It was definitely an old place but totally modernized and renovated, uncharacteristically I might add. I didn't see one damn intriguing thing about it. "To each his own' I guess. Hopefully the Mai Kai can be number one this year as it should be!