Post #747904 by TongaT on Sun, Jul 26, 2015 7:36 PM

On 2015-07-25 23:11, nui 'umi 'umi wrote:
How are the drinks, service,and overall feel of the G T ?
Mahalo Jon Seeya at Oasis.

Went to Vegas to go to the opening night Friday, To say they were having some issues would be a major understatement....my thoughts:

First off I have to say I went with high expectations, seeing all the pictures on their facebook I expected something to rival Disneyland's Trader Sam's (which is high on my list of favorites)

I also have to say I had went to Frankie's Tiki Room for the first time earlier in the day and didn't have really high expectations as everything I had heard kept describing it as a "tiki dive bar" and I was actually really, really impressed so that put my expectations even higher for Golden Tiki.....

Bad sign number one: Parking lot is packed, I was there before they opened (so I thought) but I had been told to go around back for valet...and instead I find people doing construction, table saws and all.

After finding parking I make my way in the front and am immediately overwhelmed, it's packed, it's hot as hell and the music is so loud I can't keep talking to the person next to me about what we should do (we were supposed to be checking in pre opening with a reservation) but it's obviously been open for some time and no staff is visible at all.....there is a cool host station that looks pulled right out of jungle cruise, really well done but people are using it as a table.

The initial feeling is that I just walked into a club I would never actually go to. And it's huge...like a club. The ambiance is not tiki at all.

Knowing there was supposed to be three distinct areas we decide to wander and check out the decor.....it was hard to maneuver through, like walking across the packed dance floor in a club, the theming is really well done of what we could see, but it was not done....the back room had construction going on right then...the ceiling was unfinished and my biggest issue was right in the middle of the top of the awesome tiki shack behind the bar is a huge flat screen showing gambling or sports or something, I honestly tried to ignore it....I had kind of expected to see that kind of thing at Frankie's but not here (Frankie's on the flip side had cool clips playing on their screens)

I also realized later we had seen two of the three distinct areas, we just didn't realize the booths that you walk into at the front door and are a few feet from the bar were a separate "village"

Walking around we also noticed that what everybody was drinking was beer....in cans. That throws me a bit in tiki bar.

The staff was nice....the service was not good in that they were just overwhelmed and they all looked it.....I actually felt bad for them. I liked the fact that the bartenders were wearing jungle guide looking uniforms but that also kind of made me expect the Trader Sam's kind of energy from them and instead they all just seemed like they were on the verge of quitting. Same goes for the cocktail servers once we saw them....they were friendly when you talked to them but as they walked through the place to serve drinks they looked like they were wishing death on everybody in their way.

When we finally ordered I asked if the mug for the house drink was a house mug, if it had location specific markings on it (the other mugs on the menu were clearly generic tiki farm but I hadn't seen the golden tiki before and thought maybe it at least was a variant version) her answer was "yeah it's a mug" I'm not sure if she didn't understand the question or just couldn't hear me because we had to basically scream at her trying to order.

I can't answer if the mug is location specific, or what the drinks taste like because it never came.....we waited an hour and a half with no drinks seeming like they were really going to anybody (besides the kids ordering that canned beer) finally we canceled it and bailed. That hour and a half brought up another issue.....

The bar tables are really big, maybe so lots of people can gather around them, but they only have two stools so we were sitting like 3 feet apart trying to talk about the theming to pass the time waiting and waiting for our drinks but our conversation ended up mostly being us screaming "what!" At each other with the dance club music that was going on.

The table next to us seemed like tiki fans as well - they were there before us and all wearing Hawaiian shirts but they never had drinks come either while we were there which lead me to the final observation, the kids wearing t shirts and jeans and drinking beer seemed like they were being treated very well by the staff and were maybe friends? And all seemed to be having fun, everybody that was there that looked like they were there for the tiki experience (Hawaiian shirts, etc) seemed like they were being shunned....and didn't seem like they were being served at all.

All in all I think the decor is high end, but too big and open to really be comfortable the way I expect a tiki bar to be (the actual tiki room is more intimate) who knows what the drinks taste like, unless your wanted a bud light it didn't seem like they could get them out. The overall atmosphere could be corrected, I just hope they don't go forward on trying to make it feel like a club.

I hope they get things to fall into place because it has potential - it seems like they are blending Trader Sam's and Three Dots and A Dash, it just wasn't working opening night....At All!