Post #96213 by Humuhumu on Sun, Jun 13, 2004 6:46 PM

Ah, what a delightful time. I don't have time to get the photos off my camera right this instant, but I'll post them as soon as I can, I know there are a lot of folks who are itching to see more of this place.

My impressions: the food was really wonderful, the drinks were creative but so-so.(They have a "Classic Mai Tai" and a fruitier "Haole Mai Tai" on the menu -- an absolutely genious approach, except for that their Classic Mai Tai is neither classic nor a Mai Tai. It's closer than many mai tais out there, but they couldn't resist f*$^ing with the recipe, unfortunately. It's a great drink, why do people insist on trying to improve on it? But I digress....)

The decor is a trendy, modern take on tiki, but they've done a good job of updating the look of tiki while staying true to its roots, I think. I'm not a fan of the nose ring they put on the giant moai-esque tiki behind the bar, but that was really my only quibble. There are tikis, tikis everywhere, of good size and great Bosko quality.

The music was half good, half bad. For much of our meal, they were playing pounding reggae-flavored house beats, which would be appropriate for a late night lounge, but not for a meal. Later the music switched to one of the Ultra Lounge exotica compilations, we've all heard those albums a thousand times now, but it was a huge improvement until it switched back to the other stuff.

The service was very friendly and helpful, there were some minor snafus at our table with the timing of bringing dishes out and the wrong drinks & dishes being delivered, but they seemed to get resolved pretty quickly.

Super mahalos to Baxdog for ordering a Mondo Martiki for our table! It was a lot of fun, I've got some great pics of it coming later.

I also want to thank UtopianDreem & Tiki Bird for driving me to kick_the_reverb's place afterward, and I want to thank the reverbs for hosting us and making DELICIOUS Reverb Crashes! This was my first time enjoying this award-winning drink, and it more than lived up to the hype.

In addition to visiting Mister Tiki's, I also went to Spa Tiki earlier in the day (it's a short walk from Mister Tiki's). Its investors are the investors in Mister Tiki's, and it also has Bosko tikis all over the place, I'll post a review in its thread later. Also spent some time at the Hanalei Red Lion & the Islands restaurant and had a good time. On the way back home, I stopped at Bamboo Ben's shop and bought myself a sweet little bar! Ben's shop is great, I'm glad I finally had a chance to stop in. He & Mrs. Boo were there with the minor Boos, they're doing great and have been INCREDIBLY busy with work, which is great for them, but means they have less time to post here. There'd been some reports that they'd had a bar or multiple bars stolen at Oasis -- turns out it was all a misunderstanding and all bars are accounted for. Whew! (HUGE mahalos for helping me get my bar home!)