Post #442763 by Ragbag Comics on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 6:56 PM

I was VERY glad to see Vic's reopen!

Admittedly, I was a bit apprehensive about the locale- After a decade in Chicago, Rush St. is handily one of my most hated areas in town (especially on weekends...) But one look at the entry way soothed my nerves which had been severely jangled by the clouds of club-goers outside. The decor is definitely subdued (not the 'crazy interesting crap everywhere' we all love so dearly) but it makes a lot of sense. They're attempting to bring in regular people who don't know a 'tiki bar' from 'Pirates of the Carribean.' It's classy- I very much dug it, though it's a totally different urge to want to experience it than, say, Hala Kahiki. But then- the old Vic's wasn't Hala Kahiki either (Or the Kona Kai for that matter...)

First visit on my birthday back in January was excellent- the drinks were solid (we tried six different ones- the Mai Tai's were decent, but certainly not the best I've had. The Fog Cutter and Navy Grog were both awesome, however...)and the dinner- wow. It was fantastically good! The Macadamia Mahi Mahi, in particular, was unbelievably delicious.

But we went back with a couple of our friends for their Valentine's Day special, and...well... it was not terribly special (just expensive.)

Firstly- even though the special was all over their website, nobody seemed to know much about it.

The food was good, but not anywhere near as good as it had been on the previous visit. My beef medalions were burnt, and our appetizers were cold.

The Mai Tais seemed to be made at about half the strength (the strength, here, was replaced with the rummy's arch nemesis- ice)

Even though the place wasn't operating even close to capacity, we could never seem to find our waitress. And everything came out unspeakably slow. I got no problem eating on island time, but this was kinda crazy- dinner took almost 3 hours.

The one expected perk (which was advertised in no less than two spots on the website) was a special take home cocktail glass (which: I assume was a tiki mug of some kind.) We asked our server about it, and she said it was a "mistake" on the website. She also said there was a special drink that night that came in a take-home glass, but since no one told us about it (and we were racing out the door, over an hour late for something else we had happening that night) we didn't get one. So we asked a manager. He said the same thing.

Did anyone actually GET the glass? What did it even look like?

Anybody else have a similar experience on V-Day?

I sent a complaint letter to the head manager there- he sent a very nice reply back and said he'd like to call me to apologize. Of course, that never happened.

I'm sure he has much better stuff to do, but after shelling out close to $200 for two people to eat, I was pretty bummed.

I will probably go back- but with the kinda bucks they're charging for grub, I can't say when that'll be.

The saddest part was leaving without a special valentine's tiki mug... Just a lonely, naked Menehune on a stick.