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Tweaks at The Tonga Room

Mrs. Mai Tai and I had a couple weekend events in San Francisco so made it a staycation weekend. We started with dinner at The Tonga Room on Friday, arriving for our reservation right at opening and seated along the water with our friends Kristi and Jessie.

There are still a lot of things going well here, including our server Ahmad who was on top of everything during our visit. I was interested in checking the Mai Tai, but knowing that they batch some of the drinks I thought I’d take Ahmad on his prompt that the bartenders can make anything by asking for a Mai Tai with Jamaican rum rather than the Bacardi rums it normally comes with. I figured they would use Appleton Signature which is exactly what they used, with the overall result being just okay but at least they didn’t charge me anything extra.

I had better luck with the full-flavored Fair Fashioned, featuring rye and amaro. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Seafoam Espresso Martini was also pretty good as was the vodka-based Divine Dragon. The Tropical Itch was also quite good, the kind of complex tiki drink that Tonga sometimes had trouble with in the past. The revised cocktail menu sadly drops the Tiki Hunter which was our favorite, though the prices are a little lower than last time. A little.

We did enjoy the food as well, though my Ahi Tuna came in sort of a weird format with little chips. The side of fried rice was a good addition and the tiki noodles and veggie duo featured large portions.

The fine for jumping into the pool remains $1000, though more notably the cover charge for when the band plays is now $20 per person, which we feel is far too much and hence why we come early before they start at 7:00. We felt the overall value was a little better than our last visit, and though it is still very expensive here for dinner and drinks we do enjoy visiting for the vibe, decor, and frequent thunderstorms.

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Tiki Tom’s Ultimate Mai Tai is Still Great

We had another wonderful visit to Walnut Creek to have a family dinner and drinks at Tiki Tom’s. They don’t do reservations on the weekends but we only had to wait around 10-15 mins for a table.

We did very well with the food including a fantastic smash burger with kalua pork. Even better were our cocktails including a couple Ultimate Mai Tais that are still made correctly to spec and taste great. I also enjoyed a Tiki Negroni that comes with Jamaican rum and a bit of amaro. Quinn enjoys a good Navy Grog and said that Tiki Tom’s made it the way it should be.

We still love the Ohana Punch, which does include bits of walnuts and apples. Our server made sure to note this is a little chunky so patrons should avoid it if those little bits aren’t your thing. There’s also a new Espresso Tikini, though we suggest avoiding the option to use Bailey’s in place of coffee liqueur.

The tropical music and vibes remain at Tiki Tom’s, nice and cool inside as well. It’s an indoor and immersive tiki bar that all fans of the genre should be sure to check out.

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New Format for Mai Tai Day 2026 at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

Mai Tai Day is the day each year where we celebrate the birth of the world’s greatest cocktail and the man who invented it, Trader Vic Bergeron. The date is based on Oakland’s 2009 Mai Tai Day proclamation, the city where the Mai Tai was invented.

Trader Vic’s Emeryville has been hosting ticketed Mai Tai Day celebrations since 2019, with varying degrees of scope depending on the year. A couple years ago it was the 80th anniversary so there was a three-day celebration including a “Black Tai” event that was all-inclusive in the restaurant along with a dressy theme. In most years, Mai Tai Day has featured a festival vibe with vendors and performances in the parking lot plus drink and food stations inside.

Trader Vic’s Emeryville recently announced this year’s theme and a different scope for event ticketing.

Mai Tai Day 2026: Mai Tais then Fly

Flight departs August 30th. Destination: paradise.

Mai Tai Day 2026 is an all-inclusive tropical takeover: themed rooms, Tahitian dancers & drummers, rum tastings, island food, and enough Mai Tais to forget you never left the Bay.
3PM – 8PM. 21+. Limited seats. This one will sell out.

This one-day event seems to be similar to the Black Tai event with an all-inclusive food/drink format and ticket price of $200 plus fees. This setup will provide for a more intimate experience but has also generated some consternation from some previous attendees who are balking at the high entry price. That’s certainly understandable, especially for those who won’t drink their “money’s worth” of Mai Tais and other cocktails. We will see if this actually sells out or not, and whether this format works better for Trader Vic’s, but in any case we’ll see you there.

The travel theme seems to be paying homage to the Oakland Airport and Kona Hawai’i locations that are opening in the near future. The airport location is supposed to open very soon, though several rumored April and May openings have passed. The Kona location is connected to a refreshed Hampton Inn by Hilton Kailua-Kona Bay property that is taking reservations for October, and the venue just launched their website and Instagram profile @tradervicskona.

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Canned Mai Tai Blind Shootout: Crafthouse vs. Tip Top Proper vs. Straightaway

We were so impressed with Crafthouse Cocktails Mai Tai we naturally had to compare it to our previous favorite Tip Top Proper Cocktails Mai Tai. Seeing that we still had some cans of Straightway we threw that into the mix as sort of a control group, and we blind tasted all three of these with our family of four adults.

The results were interesting since we all chose the same canned Mai Tai as our favorite, though the difference between our top two picks was very narrow and a couple of us had to go back and forth a few times to declare a winner.

Nonetheless, we did unanimously pick Crafthouse Cocktails as our winner of the blind taste test, a shade above Tip Top Proper. Your mileage might vary but for us there was a clear best in show.

Summary

Straightaway – clearly in last place for everyone by a wide margin, artificial citrus aftertaste, not very rummy. 25% ABV / 100 ml.

Tip Top Proper Cocktails – a very close second on all our ballots, with a great rum finish and a good balance of sweet and sour notes. 26% ABV / 100 ml.

Crafthouse Cocktails – the unanimous winner, a delightful rum flavor and complex notes of orange and almond, with a rich mouthfeel. 16% ABV / 200 ml.

When we started evaluating RTD Mai Tais a few years back most of the ones we tried were in large cans and barely tasted like a Mai Tai, but there have been so many quality entrants in the last few years providing ready to drink cocktails that actually taste like a cocktail you might make from scratch. These tend to come in smaller bottles or cans, usually with an ABV +/- 20%, and there are now many good ones to choose from.

Learn more about Ready to Drink Mai Tais

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Crafthouse Cocktails Mai Tai is Fantastic

This canned Mai Tai has been on my radar for a little while, with seemingly universally great reaction from the few posts I’ve seen about it. I was considering wasting a Saturday trying to find one in the Bay Area when Crafthouse Cocktails co-founder Charles Joly reached out and asked if I wanted a sample.

It is always interesting as a low-level “influencer” when people send you stuff for review, but the Crafthouse team knew they were working from a position of strength and smartly saw I was open-minded to the idea of a canned Mai Tai. I do believe RTD cocktails are great for many scenarios including camping, vacations, or just when the day is so hard that even juicing a fresh lime is too much work. I love the concept of ready to drink cocktails and the Crafthouse Cocktails Mai Tai is fantastic.

Issued at 16% ABV in a 200 ml can, Crafthouse’s Mai Tai is a little less potent than some of the other canned Mai Tais that come in cans half the size. But there’s no lack of flavor and still plenty of booze given the larger size. The ingredients are listed as Planteray Rum, orange curacao, orgeat, and fresh lime, just what you want in a Mai Tai. The floral notes and overall rumminess means this should be a hit with any fan of the original 1944 style Mai Tai. While there’s no country of origin listed for the Planteray rum, something like Original Dark’s blend of Barbados and Jamaican rum is a good bet.

Crafthouse was also kind enough to send over some cans of the other cocktails in their lineup – look for those posts in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, the summary is that Crafthouse has an excellent Mai Tai in a convenient format.

We were impressed by Crafthouse’s Mai Tai, but how does it compare to our previous favorite? Check in tomorrow to see the results of our blind test shootout.

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Straightway Canned Mai Tai

This brand of ready to drink Mai Tai was recommended and the 25% ABV on the label was a good sign, but unfortunately I found this RTD cocktail to be quite lacking. After pouring the drink you can likely see immediately what the problem is, since it is a clear color and doesn’t appear to have aged rum or rich orange curacao included.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I’ve had and liked plenty of Mai Tais made with light body, lightly aged rums (these type of Mai Tais were labeled Menehune Juice by Trader Vic), and in this format the drink is supposed to lean more on the almond and orange flavors from the orgeat and orange curacao. The problem with Straightaway is that you don’t get much of that flavor either, resulting in a very light rum taste which is bowled over by the tart and artificial lime flavors.

The label says this contains Jamaican and West Indies rum, but I didn’t taste any of Jamaica’s legendary funk here either. Most RTD Mai Tais in these smaller cans are usually worth seeking out, but I can’t recommend Straightaway.

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Livermore’s Latest Popup: Lost on Pigeon Island

Livermore’s Fat Pigeon has launched their latest themed popup experience, the pirate, tropical, and tiki inspired Lost on Pigeon Island. As with their previous popups, you can expect thematic decor and cocktails inspired by the theme.

When initially announced, this seemed to lean heavily on pirates, but in practice it is much more of a beach themed experience with tropical and tiki elements. The music includes surf, reggae, and Jimmy Buffett, and there are inflatable sea creatures and tikis within the venue and outdoor patio. This isn’t quite as immersive as the previous Wizard of Oz theme, in part because this is a more general concept.

The good news is that the cocktail options continue to be pretty strong. There are a variety of cocktails using different spirits, so there’s something for fans of bourbon, tequila, and gin, along with rum of course. I very much enjoyed Azure Bliss which is better balanced and more interesting than most of the Blue Hawaiian’s I’ve ever had, and comes with a gummy shark as a garnish. Our party also liked the clarified Toasted Trader which has good bourbon notes and actually uses Cinnamon Toast Crunch as a flavoring ingredient.

It should go without saying that for hardcore tiki fans that Fat Pigeon isn’t really the tiki bar you are looking for in Livermore, given numerous “party city tiki” type decorations, instead we’ll direct you to the nearby Tikeasy at Rosetta. But Fat Pigeon is open every day including early on the weekends, so is a very nice option for day cocktails and the service here is nice and friendly. A Pirate High Tea service is also coming soon.