Bamboo Island Luau Photos

A bunch of us met at the new Bamboo Island restaurant and bar for their luau last night- and a fun time was had by all! Great to meet a bunch more TikiCentral folks and to see Randy, Naomi, and Mig again....Tiki King even brought tiki pendants for all of us!

Big thanks to Martin and Rebecca for getting us all together!

Enjoying our Mai Tais and Lava Flows
From the lower left: Martin, Rebecca, Mig, Mig's two guests, Naomi, Randy, Jessica, Shannon

Tiki King, Queen, and Princess- The Royal Tiki Family

After the luau- that's me next to Martin with shy Jessica and Shannon hiding behind me :)

One of the two identical tikis they have

Tiki King serenading us on one of the hand carved/detailed ukes that he makes

One last group photo

mahalo and 135 to you all!
Mike
http://www.tradervic.com
http://www.tikiroom.net

[ Edited by: TikiHula on 2002-07-29 12:13 ]

How about a food and drink review? And don't be afraid to be critical!

Well...this was my second dining experience there, and was quite good. My lunch was very tasty- it's an upscale, Roy's-style menu, very california-flavored island food. The buffet at the luau was also very good- I'm giving them some leeway since it was a buffet and it's hard to be great with steam tables. I thought the only dish that fell down was the mahi mahi which was very dry and tough.

I think the drinks are basically terrible so far, as I've tried four from the menu.
Mai Tai- tastes OK but is not a Mai Tai. Should be renamed Bamboo Islan Punch and would be OK.
Lava Flow- Just too sweet for me. (Coconut and grenadine based)
Mojito- not enough mint and not carbonated.
Guava Rita- Guava juice Margarita. Actually pretty good, but difficult to justify a $7.50 price for some Cuervo and Kerns Guava Juice.

We had a great time. Thanks to everyone that came out for it. It was nice to put some more faces to UserNames.

Thanks for the great pics Mike!

And thanks again for the tiki pendants, TikiKing! I've been wearing my Lava Guy for three years and now he has a friend.

-martin

Thanks for the review. I'll go for the food and drink beer!

That Tiki reminds me very much of a stretched version of the misinterpreted "Tahitian Cannibal Carving" on the Don The beachcomber menu (BoT, p.68) and the back of THE LUAU menu (p.105)

We had a great time. The food was pretty good, but I agree about the Mai-Tai (pinapple juice? guava Juice?)not really a Mai Tai, and the Mahi Mahi was a tad dry. But the company more than made up for it. It seemed like the staff was trying hard to please with out being "in your face" All in all not bad, but they need to maybe modify the drink recipes and get more Tikis!

Thanks to Martin for setting up our dinner and to Tiki King for the great pendant! Wow! Some more photos...

me, Rebecca, Martin, Tiki King, Princess, and Queen, and Mike

Naomi compares dental work with the tiki

Mike and Naomi investigating tiki's "sixpack abs"

And a special bonus picture. I've been traveling a lot lately for work - mostly uninteresting hotels and stuff, but here's an unusual juxtaposition...

Hope to post more previously promised pictures soon, honest.
-Randy

I would like to mention that TikiPrincess is just about the cutest kid ever. Any of you out there with cute tikiphile kids, they may be cute, but sorry, TikiPrincess takes the cake. So cute that I couldn't stop staring (and I'm hoping that T-King and T-Queen take that as flattery and nothing creepy!) She is getting my vote for official Tiki Central mascot. And according to Tiki King, she's the youngest member of the Santa Cruz Ukelele Player's Association... very cool! VIVA LA TIKI PRINCESS!!

Another cute lil tikiphile I spotted recently was at the Hukilau. Sunday night at the drive-in, this little 3yr old (Isabella daughter of Elizabeth) did a topless belly dance! And King Kukulele caught it on video! I hope he sends it on to the Menehunes to post on their site, cuz it was hilarious - uh, enchanting!

Aloha

My vote for adorable Tiki Pincess goes to Catalina, CC and Anne's kid. She's just to precious.
Al

Any Bamboo there? Besides the name?

The ceiling over the bar and in some places of the main dining room have bamboo poles. They are laid out in a spaced apart, minimalist fashion. There are also several poles hanging vertically from the skylight of various sizes, creating a kind of giant windchime effect.

Nothing that you couldn't handle in your sleep, Ben.

-martin