tahiti joe's las vegas - Tiki Travel

M mrsmiley Tiki Socialite Las Vegas, NV Joined: Apr 03, 2002 Posts: 3197	M mrsmiley Posted posted on Thu, Aug 23, 2007 7:06 PM A basic review in the Las Vegas Weekly- http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/content/nc/news/single-story/article/authentic-hokum/ Authentic hokum August 23, 2007 by Max Jacobson Tahiti Joe's is fake but fun If you remember the ’60s, you probably remember faux-Polynesian restaurants like Don the Beachcomber, bastions of silly rum punches topped with umbrellas, charbroiled pork ribs and waitresses in grass skirts. The point was never really the food, although Trader Vic’s did bring the dishes crab Rangoon, potage Billi-Bi (a creamy mussel soup) and huli-huli chicken into the American consciousness. Well, the Polynesian restaurant is being revived, with Trader Vic’s soon to open at Miracle Mile Shops, and Tahiti Joe’s already open in the Hawaiian Village complex just north of Warm Springs Road on the lower Strip. Oddly enough, Vegas has almost a dozen authentic Hawaiian restaurants, where transplants from the islands can find the dishes they grew up with: spam musubi, lomi lomi salmon, loco moco (rice topped with a hamburger patty and a fried egg) and various types of sugary marinated meats, finished on a flat-top barbecue. These dishes are nowhere to be found at Tahiti Joe’s and really have nothing to do with the concept. I guess you could call this Polynesian food as interpreted by the time-share crowd, although veteran chef Gerard Canales does seem to be having fun with it. If you don’t come here with an idée fixe, you’ll probably have fun, too. The décor is nicely thought-out, if hokey in the extreme. Giant tropical plants fill the room, along with strategically placed bamboo staves, cane chairs, wall-mounted tikis and Polynesian lanterns carved from wood. Two giant statues that recall Easter Island and the book Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl guard the entrance, which also showcases a souvenir case stocked with logoed T-shirts. As soon as you’re seated, a cocktail waitress will approach you to see if you wish to get a drink such as the mereni mojito, flavored with watermelon juice, or an enormous punch meant to be shared. If you do, know in advance that she keeps a separate tab from servers responsible for the food. You can try a few of the Tahitian pupus, or appetizers, by ordering the Joe’s Tiki Torch Sampler for two, a wooden platter filled with fried calamari, spring chicken rolls, luau spare rib and crab Rangoon. If there was crab in these fried puffs, I couldn’t detect it, not that this is a complaint. I will say the calamari was fine, gently battered rings and tentacles served with remoulade sauce; the spring rolls were even better, nicely piquant and tasty when dipped in a sweet Thai chili sauce. The ribs were average, braised instead of charbroiled. I also think that the satay item I tried, soy ginger chicken, would benefit from a visit to the charbroiler. Satay is Malaysian skewered meats, and this chicken, a generous eight wooden skewers of meat cooked on a flat-top grill, tastes best when dipped in some of the spicy peanut sauce. From the Islander Soup and Salad section of the menu, choose Joe’s royal velvet corn soup, which lives up to the name. It’s a heavily pureed, smooth soup, and there are traces of the ginger, kaffir lime leaves and clam broth the kitchen uses in it. Joe’s shrimp sizzle au gratin, a hearty dip, needs more shrimp and less mayo. One of the more reliable first courses is Joe’s tiki wings, chicken wings offered with a multiplicity of sauce options. Makai Fish, another menu section, refers to the Hawaiian word for ocean, and here the best dish is probably a macadamia-nut-crusted mahi mahi, with a crust that tastes like the stuffing that your Hawaiian grandmother used to make. Tahiti Village lobster stir-fry is a resolutely Cantonese dish, a pile of noodles, lobster chunks and veggies, all flavored with salty black fermented soybeans. And Mauka Beef, using the Hawaiian word for mountain, is basically 100 percent Angus beef that is charbroiled. So is the Kobe beef meatloaf, a humongous portion with nice flavor that would be even better with less salt in the meat. Sides include Tahitian sesame slaw (more sesame, please), nicely seasoned Islander fries and a terrific baked potato that they will serve you with all the trimmings. For dessert, there are real s’mores, for two, brought to the table for you to cook yourself (in one of those Sterno-based portable island fire pits) and my personal choice here, Joe’s original vanilla of Tahiti. The ice cream is made in-house using vanilla beans from Tahiti; this might just be the best vanilla ice cream in the city. It’s certainly more authentic than just about anything else in this place. Tahiti Joe’s 7200 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 440-6950. Open 24/7. Suggested dishes: Joe’s spring chicken rolls, $7.95; Joe’s royal velvet corn soup, $3.95; mahi mahi, $18.95; Joe’s original vanilla of Tahiti, $4.95.

A basic review in the Las Vegas Weekly-

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/content/nc/news/single-story/article/authentic-hokum/

Authentic hokum

August 23, 2007
by Max Jacobson

Tahiti Joe's is fake but fun

If you remember the ’60s, you probably remember faux-Polynesian restaurants like Don the Beachcomber, bastions of silly rum punches topped with umbrellas, charbroiled pork ribs and waitresses in grass skirts. The point was never really the food, although Trader Vic’s did bring the dishes crab Rangoon, potage Billi-Bi (a creamy mussel soup) and huli-huli chicken into the American consciousness.

Well, the Polynesian restaurant is being revived, with Trader Vic’s soon to open at Miracle Mile Shops, and Tahiti Joe’s already open in the Hawaiian Village complex just north of Warm Springs Road on the lower Strip.

Oddly enough, Vegas has almost a dozen authentic Hawaiian restaurants, where transplants from the islands can find the dishes they grew up with: spam musubi, lomi lomi salmon, loco moco (rice topped with a hamburger patty and a fried egg) and various types of sugary marinated meats, finished on a flat-top barbecue.

These dishes are nowhere to be found at Tahiti Joe’s and really have nothing to do with the concept. I guess you could call this Polynesian food as interpreted by the time-share crowd, although veteran chef Gerard Canales does seem to be having fun with it. If you don’t come here with an idée fixe, you’ll probably have fun, too.

The décor is nicely thought-out, if hokey in the extreme. Giant tropical plants fill the room, along with strategically placed bamboo staves, cane chairs, wall-mounted tikis and Polynesian lanterns carved from wood. Two giant statues that recall Easter Island and the book Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl guard the entrance, which also showcases a souvenir case stocked with logoed T-shirts.

As soon as you’re seated, a cocktail waitress will approach you to see if you wish to get a drink such as the mereni mojito, flavored with watermelon juice, or an enormous punch meant to be shared. If you do, know in advance that she keeps a separate tab from servers responsible for the food.
You can try a few of the Tahitian pupus, or appetizers, by ordering the Joe’s Tiki

Torch Sampler for two, a wooden platter filled with fried calamari, spring chicken rolls, luau spare rib and crab Rangoon. If there was crab in these fried puffs, I couldn’t detect it, not that this is a complaint. I will say the calamari was fine, gently battered rings and tentacles served with remoulade sauce; the spring rolls were even better, nicely piquant and tasty when dipped in a sweet Thai chili sauce. The ribs were average, braised instead of charbroiled.

I also think that the satay item I tried, soy ginger chicken, would benefit from a visit to the charbroiler. Satay is Malaysian skewered meats, and this chicken, a generous eight wooden skewers of meat cooked on a flat-top grill, tastes best when dipped in some of the spicy peanut sauce.

From the Islander Soup and Salad section of the menu, choose Joe’s royal velvet corn soup, which lives up to the name. It’s a heavily pureed, smooth soup, and there are traces of the ginger, kaffir lime leaves and clam broth the kitchen uses in it. Joe’s shrimp sizzle au gratin, a hearty dip, needs more shrimp and less mayo. One of the more reliable first courses is Joe’s tiki wings, chicken wings offered with a multiplicity of sauce options.

Makai Fish, another menu section, refers to the Hawaiian word for ocean, and here the best dish is probably a macadamia-nut-crusted mahi mahi, with a crust that tastes like the stuffing that your Hawaiian grandmother used to make. Tahiti Village lobster stir-fry is a resolutely Cantonese dish, a pile of noodles, lobster chunks and veggies, all flavored with salty black fermented soybeans.

And Mauka Beef, using the Hawaiian word for mountain, is basically 100 percent Angus beef that is charbroiled. So is the Kobe beef meatloaf, a humongous portion with nice flavor that would be even better with less salt in the meat.

Sides include Tahitian sesame slaw (more sesame, please), nicely seasoned Islander fries and a terrific baked potato that they will serve you with all the trimmings. For dessert, there are real s’mores, for two, brought to the table for you to cook yourself (in one of those Sterno-based portable island fire pits) and my personal choice here, Joe’s original vanilla of Tahiti. The ice cream is made in-house using vanilla beans from Tahiti; this might just be the best vanilla ice cream in the city.

It’s certainly more authentic than just about anything else in this place.

Tahiti Joe’s
7200 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 440-6950. Open 24/7. Suggested dishes: Joe’s spring chicken rolls, $7.95; Joe’s royal velvet corn soup, $3.95; mahi mahi, $18.95; Joe’s original vanilla of Tahiti, $4.95.

Post #327800 by mrsmiley on Thu, Aug 23, 2007 7:06 PM