WooHoo! Yesterday was my first visit to the new TV's and all I can say is WOW! First Class Service, Excellent Food, and I literally feel like I was taken on a Tropical Journey to the South Pacific. I know where I'm going to be spending my Summer Vacation time :) Trader John your restaurant gets two thumbs up :)

I had dinner there last Saturday night with some friends and was impressed all around. The food was excellent. I thought it was better than the recent SF Vic's food was. I had the pork chop from the Chinese wood oven and it was outstanding, as were the sides it came with. We also had the Cosmo Tidbits and chicken skewers for appetizers. The service was very attentive and friendly. The decor was marvelous, like an old Trader Vic's. I especially liked the large outrigger in the dining room to the side of the main dining room, which may be from the old Chicago Vic's. I also liked the way the wood oven was displayed behind a glass wall in the dining room.

My favorite thing was the cocktails of course! I always thought the quality of the drinks at Beverly Hills Vic's surpassed all the other locations. And the new LA one did not disappoint. I had a Stinker, a Trader Vic's Grog, and a Coffee Grog after dinner in the bar. My friend Javier from Spain (who travels the world making sure all their bars all serve consistently good drinks) did the flaming duties on my coffee grog. On the previous Friday at Happy Hour I had a Mai Tai, a Gun Club Punch, and a Tortuga. All the cocktails were excellent, and the bartenders were passionate, were good at suggesting drinks, and knew all about the taste of the drinks they were making. My bartender even gave me a warning about the ingredients in one, in case I didn't like certain flavors, before making it for me.

The live Hawaiian music and hula dancers, who even did some dances in the dining room, was icing on the cake! I didn't dig the band as much when they did cheesy ballads from the 60s and 70s though.

I have only two minor criticisms: my calamari appetizer on Friday was sprinkled with coarse salt, so some pieces were too salty for my tastes, while other pieces tasted fine. I suggest they serve a small ramekin of salt on the side and let the customer apply it themselves.

There are too many TVs in the bar. I realize that they are close to many sports venues so I guess they have to have one large TV. But three seems like too many. At least the sound was turned down (or off).

Everything else was superb! I will be back whenever I am visiting LA next.

Great Review Jab.
hope to meet up with ya there sometime.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Hula dancing on the weekends!

[i]On 2009-05-14 16:35, thejab wrote:[
There are too many TVs in the bar. I realize that they are close to many sports venues so I guess they have to have one large TV. But three seems like too many. At least the sound was turned down (or off).

Everything else was superb! I will be back whenever I am visiting LA next.

There are 3 small tvs. It is virtually impossible to watch them, even if you wanted to. It is very odd to be next to the home of the world's most popular basketball franchise, where tens of thousands of fans descend several times a week just to see them play, and not try and capitalize on that market. The Yardhouse next door probably has a 100% greater revenue, which is unnecessary as Trader Vics is a much nicer experience.

The result? After the game, the bar at Trader Vics was empty; There were people 5 deep at the bar next door.

As much as I like Hula, it is the Lakers which draw the crowds.

My wife and mother-in-law surprised me and took me out to Trader Vic's for an early birthday dinner. I had the pork chop and a few crab rangoon from their sampler platter. The food was great! I was totally stuffed, but at the end of the meal they brought me out a birthday bowl of coconut ice cream with chocolate and toasted coconut shavings on top. I shared it with Joe and it was the only thing that kept him sitting still for more than five seconds. High praise indeed! The rest of the time I spent chasing Joe around the restaurant to keep him out of the bar while the band was playing and to catch him so he wouldn't press his face against the super hot plate glass in front of the wood-fired ovens! He's a tornado, but we escaped with only one casualty left behind. Unfortunately, Joe got a hold of one of the tiki salt dispensers and broke the head off. Our waiter was understanding though and was much more interested in discussing drinks with me. I only had two while I was there...the Mai Tai and the Navy Grog, but both were fantastic. Ilene had a Menehune Juice. I tried it and it was okay, but a little too light for my taste. Joe liked it the best, though, because he got to play with the little plastic Menehune that came with it. That Menehune was his only souvenir from the restaurant, although he tried to steal a set of shark teeth out of the lobby. I guess he figured that if someone was going to leave it on the floor, it must be free. Anyway, to summarize: a BIG THUMBS UP! We will definitely be back again.

[ Edited by: Trader Tom 2009-06-14 01:33 ]

Glad you got out of there before some of the crazy laker fans rioted in the streets around Trader Vic's! From the looks of the TV news cameras, it looked pretty outrageous! Was anybody at Vic's when this all happened? Hope not!

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/Trader_Vics_Flaming_Food_is_Back_20090728

Was in LA yesterday and we finally went to Trader Vic's in downtown LA. Very nice visit. Met a bartender named Billy. Real nice guy, and he impressed me by offering to add a little extra rum to our cocktails. And when another couple came in and ordered mai tais, Billy offered to make them from scratch rather than use the mix. Gott appreciate that.

Took the train (Blue Line to the Red Line) from Long Beach this past Saturday down to Union Station hung out at Olvera Street and got some Mexican supplies for the upcoming Tiki Oasis 11. We had an all day unlimited train pass so we decided to stop off at The Staples Center Station and walk over to L.A. Live and go to Trader Vics for some mai tais. Traveling by train is the best way to have a designated driver. We literally can walk out our front door walk 15 minutes take 1 bus to the train station and an hour later can be at Trader Vics, sitting on a bar stool. So we arrived at about 2:30 p.m. and went and sat at the bar and there were 5 other people saddled up. There was a couple sharing the barrell that looks like a horse troff with 2 long straws, which made me smile with admiration. While 3 other people with their eyes half opened laughed and ordered another round. I was among the people depicted on the side of the anniversary mug and was ready to join them. Then i saw that the Kings game was on the tv at the bar and the game being shown was being played at the Staples Center right next door. It was the 3rd Period, so i quickly asked my wife how many periods in a hockey game?? She said 3. I was like ok we are basiclly in a timebomb because once that game lets out we are going to be joined by 100 or so of our closest friends. We ordered our drinks and i asked the bartender if the green tiki mug was available (they were out of it last time i was there) and he said yes, so i told him i would take one. He served us a round of mai tais when i noticed that Guns and Roses was playing in the background. I thought to myself. Really? So i asked the bartender if they ever played Hawaiian or Exotica music in the bar and he informed me that its up to whichever Manager is working that shift. One of the guys sitting with the group of 3 said we need some rap in here (sarcastically) I said ya Funky Cold Medina is the ultimate tiki bar music. The mai tai was refreshing and we had a good conversation with the bartender and we shared our experiences at other various tiki bars. The bright light from the huge windows facing the patio on Olympic Blvd kinda changes the game when it comes to the dimly lit classic tiki bar, but so did the GnR. Regardless we tried to preoccupy ourselves with studying the decor and attending to the drink at(in)hand. For our next mai tai the bartender offered to make us the original mai tai recipe version and we quickly agreed. Halfway through that mai tai the time bomb exploded and the bitter defeated Kings fans and Canuck fans infiltrated the bar area chanting and heckling each other and the whole ambiance turned into a rowdy sports bar. We finished that mai tai and decided to hele, even though the guy that sat next to us wearing his Kings jersey seemed like a nice guy and offered to buy us a round if we stayed. So that was our experience. It is was it is and for better or for worse this is only a possible scenario when you go. I will be back for sure, but next time im gonna check the Staples Center schedule (not that im anti sports or sports fans) just would prefer my tiki bars to be a little less testosterone filled. I will also be nicely requesting some less agro music. Or i will just have to roll with it and accept the fact that its located in a trendy part of L.A. and as much as i would like to I can't convert the world into tikiphiles.

Took the red line and went to Trader Vic's downtown this evening. I had a great time, the place was pretty full with regular people who were ordering tropical drinks, the dinning room was 2/3 full, music was Island, Cuban, Hawaiian mixture, food was excellent and the drinks were ok, (Honi Honi was good but the Mai Tai and the Navy Grog was ok) service was good. I was happy to see business was good. I will try it again soon. I was glad to see a lot of people that were there were dressed in suits.

In her speech at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, Jodie Foster states that she is going to Trader Vic's

ABC News: Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes Speech: Full Transcript

Anybody see her there?

That would have been the Trader Vic's lounge at the Beverly Hilton.

Though she was coming out, she must not have been going out for a while, then. :)

Still one of the greatest Tiki crimes of the decade: That they ripped that place out for no reason.

Been there twice during January and February.
It has caught on.
While there are no more hula dancers and some additional sports jerseys have been added,
both on the walls as well as the patrons, the Tiki Room is so crowded that one has to wait in line
to get in.

My one disappointment is that they have not had any Mai Tai glasses for sale for about 6 months.

On 2013-03-06 12:16, christiki295 wrote:
My one disappointment is that they have not had any Mai Tai glasses for sale for about 6 months.

You can always order them online. You'll have pay shipping.
http://www.shoptradervics.com/

Christiki - They sell the Mai Tai glasses at Oceanic Arts. They have the white ones and the 75 year anniversary black ones. They are $9 each. Cheaper than at Trader Vic's. :wink:

Mahalo for those excellent suggestions.

I am going to head over to Vic's for a drink and Pupus on Wednesday before the Clipper - Memphis game. Have always enjoyed my visits here.

DC

On 2013-03-06 16:04, lunavideogames wrote:
Christiki - They sell the Mai Tai glasses at Oceanic Arts. They have the white ones and the 75 year anniversary black ones. They are $9 each. Cheaper than at Trader Vic's. :wink:

Now TV LA Live has no printed Mai Tai glasses. They should go to OA.

The Trader Vic's website is a good place to buy mugs, glassware and other goodies with the Trader Vic's logo. It's not as fun as going to TV or OA, but they might have something online that they don't carry in the restaurants.

6 mai-tai glasses for $50.00

6 old fashioned glasses for $50.00, but sold out of them as of writing this.

-Lori

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2014-01-15 08:57 ]

Just saw on the TV website under locations that LA Live isn't listed...
Does that portend it's demise?

On 2014-01-15 09:54, Pittsburgh pauly wrote:
Just saw on the TV website under locations that LA Live isn't listed...
Does that portend it's demise?

That does look suspicious -- then again, their web site is so bad it wouldn't be surprising if they simply left it out by accident

Rob Roy posted on Facebook last night that Trader Vic's Los Angeles has closed. I did a search and their Facebook and Twitter accounts are also gone. I liked this Vic's, I couldn't go as often as I would have liked and I'm sad that it's no longer open.

Luckily when I really need a Trader Vic's Mai Tai the T.V. Lounge is only about 8 miles away.

In the immortal words of Bart Simpson: "I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows." :cry:

It's a shame, but I have no faith in the Trader Vic's company at all. Overall, their restaurants are often poorly located and poorly executed. Their food is overpriced. Their bottled drinks mixes are bad. Their web site is a joke. Vic Bergeron must be rolling in his grave.

On 2014-03-19 08:53, arriano wrote:
It's a shame, but I have no faith in the Trader Vic's company at all. Overall, their restaurants are often poorly located and poorly executed. Their food is overpriced. Their bottled drinks mixes are bad. Their web site is a joke. Vic Bergeron must be rolling in his grave.

You need to go to Trader Vic's Emeryville.

The food -- while a tad pricey--is delicious and they just brought back their extensive vintage cocktail menu which is amazing.

Plus the location is right on the water and its so picturesque to dine there.

Also they have started using "vintage" TV imagery on coasters and on their menus. Plus every drink that is supposed to come with a decoration i.e a parrot, menehuene, etc now does.

Plus anytime you go to TV Emeryville the place is packed.

So even though MANY of the Trader Vic's are failing and screwing up the classic Emeryville is thriving.

[ Edited by: SandraDee 2014-03-19 09:04 ]

Aloha Trader Vic's Los Angeles.

http://www.shoptradervics.com no longer seems to be their online page. This seems to be the page to order online from now http://tradervics.com/trading-post/

Their web site no longer shows Los Angeles. Just three locations in the US.

By the way, my last visit was to the Portland TV's. The food and the drinks were great, the location and the décor was memorable, and the place was packed. My group had a very memorable dining experience.

TV's has been, unfortunately, very hit-or-miss in the US. Emeryville, Portland and Atlanta are the only remaining locations.