Post #516310 by BH on Wed, Mar 10, 2010 11:15 AM

I first discovered Mai-Kai by accident a few years ago when I happened to drive past it. The place looked interesting so my wife and I went in. I already had an appreciation for rum cocktails at the time so I was pleased when I saw the menu. I ordered the Barrel of Rum as recommended by our waitress and was immediately taken by it, finding a love for tiki that has persisted to this day. When I made it back home after the trip, I began investigating to learn more about the Mai-Kai and became very interested in tiki culture. I have been making tiki drinks at home ever since and have always wondered how to recreate that magical Mai-Kai flavor that seemed to punctuate many of their drinks. The elusiveness of that Mai-Kai flavor, along with my love for the history of the establishment, brought me back to the Mai-Kai at least 10 times. I had always enjoyed myself immensely, until this last trip.

This time my wife and I started with two of our favorite drinks off the light menu, I had a Mai-Kai Swizzle and she ordered an SOS. We had been waiting months to enjoy these drinks but immediately upon first sip something was off. Actually, upon first sight something was off with mine. The drink was served in a different glass than usual and lacked the pink color of past visits. Upon tasting the drink it was weak and lacked depth, mostly tasting of orange juice. My wife's SOS was even more disappointing. For those of you who have had the pleasure of tasting this drink in year's past, you know it was a complex blend of sweet and spicy flavors including cinnamon and allspice. The first time my wife ever tasted this drink her immediate reaction was that it reminded her of a Christmas wreath (believe or not, that was a compliment as she loves the Holidays). This time, however, the SOS was a muddled mess with a sharp punch of allspice and little in the way of balance or complexity. It was in short, a disaster on the palate and a huge disappointment. We ordered a few more drinks, including the Barrel of Rum, Oh So Deadly, Malayan Mist, Mai-Kai Special, Cobra's Kiss, and Shark Bite (this spanned two visits, btw, so our tastes were sharp throughout), with the same result. Each drink tasted differently than we remembered it and most were unpleasant.

One other thing that I should mention is that I ordered some of the drinks two times and there was no consistency. We ordered a Mai-Kai Special on the first night and then again on the second night, yet the two versions were miles apart, and neither was good. The same thing happened with the SOS. I don't know what is going on there, but I am very upset that what I considered to be the mecca of tiki drinking is now losing its edge. When I make cocktails at home I pride myself on using fresh squeezed juices and I am wondering if this could be part of the problem. Has Mai-Kai begun using premixed syrups instead of fresh juices? Our drinks came out a lot faster than we remembered them coming out in the past and our waitress told us that they now sell the Barrel of Rum, Mai-Tai, and a few others "to go" in gallon jugs where you just add the alcohol. Lastly, the old bar manager Rick is no longer there and I am wondering if his absence has something to do with it. This was my first trip back since he's been gone. In fact, on the second night we were there a charity organization rented out a portion of the Molokai Bar and brought in a guitarist to play classic and modern rock covers at a volume that made it difficult to talk to the person next to you (even at the other end of the bar). This is not the atmosphere I expect at a legendary tiki establishment.

In short, my reason for posting is to inquire if anyone else on TC has been to Mai-Kai recently and if so, have you noticed a difference in the drinks? The drinks were always my biggest draw to Mai-Kai, but now it seems that their historic flavor and quality is being compromised. I hope that flavor is not about to be lost forever like so many other classic tiki drinks. My experience this time around left me feeling like the Mai-Kai has become a commercial sell-out and I am interested in other people's thoughts.