Post #22713 by donhonyc on Tue, Feb 11, 2003 10:40 PM

I'm afraid Boutiki's asessment of Waikiki Wally's is more or less on the money. Even as a New Yorker I found the place to be a bit of a let down, trust me...I WANTED it to be as cool as your legendary Tiki place should be. For starters, like you boutiki, I was also a bit irked by the chips in the Tiki mugs. When I had my first drink I noticed it and kinda let it go, but then my girlfriend and I ordered a Scorpion Bowl after that and that was cracked too! Yuck! It's also kinda creepy that, according to your review boutiki, the 'cracked tiki mug' is becoming somewhat of a tradition at WW. Maybe they wannbe famous for their 'cracked tikis'. Actually sounds kinda cool and oh-so neurotically New York. My food wasn't that bad, but when we first walked in the place had a stench that was reminiscent of ,oh...a wet dirty rag? That soon dissapated, and like I said I really wanted to give the place a chance. Long story short, I didn't have that bad a time. However, I wouldn't recommend WW as a kick-ass traditional Tiki adventure. Maybe for a goof I'll check in there again. Being in Ft. Lauderdale the week before for the holidays and making my usual vist to the legendary AMAZING, COLOSSAL Mai-Kai also didn't help this virgin voyage to WW since that latest visit to Mai-Kai was so fresh in my head. I have the somewhat same opinion of Otto's Shrunken Head (14th St.) also. The last time I was in there...I don't know it just wasn't fun. It was alright. Probably had something to do with the sound system. Now here's a place, a Tiki bar for that matter, that can get away with playing loud music, but their sound system SUCKED, and the DJ was also playing tons of retro country (Hank Williams, Johnny Cash) which is ok, but for god sakes if your gonna spin retro stuff, throw some Elvis/Blue Hawaii or even Ventures/Hawaii Five-o in the mix to make the environment make some kinda sense. Otto' s is alright but instead of being a really fun Tiki bar it's just another East Village bar with a tiki design occupied by either affected E. Village types and/or frat guys and girls that could give a good rat's booty about how the place is decorated. Now if you want to check out a really cool tiki bar, I would highly recommend The Zombie Hut in Brooklyn. That place is very cool! Atmosphere, drinks, music, etc...very good. And the night I was there last ,the bartender made me a REAL Mai-Tai-no pineapple juice. This place definitely had their sh*t together. So if you live in NYC or are just coming to visit I would suggest going there. Otherwise, in the NY Metro area, your money is best spent at Chan's Dragon Inn in Ridgefield, NJ. And from what I understand Jade Island on Staten Island is also very cool. That's next on my list. 'til then......
:drink: Aloha!!

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-02-11 22:56 ]