Longtime readers may remember my 2019 trip report from Tiki Pete, San Jose’s once singular tiki bar. Cocktails took 45 minutes to be delivered and we had a weird interaction with the owner, though not as uncomfortable as his replies to my post where he outed his server as trans amongst other transgressions. This has been one of the few places on our “do not recommend” list ever since.
But sometimes second chances are worthwhile and we like to stay open-minded. We found ourselves in downtown San Jose on Saturday at 8 pm so popped in to the sparsely attended venue to see how things were going. The space originally opened as Da Kine Island Grill restaurant but it has fully transformed into a weekend-only nightclub with almost all the space devoted to VIP Bottle Service, plus purple and red lighting, and most tiki elements stripped.
We sat at the bar and ordered a Tiki Pete Mai Tai, made with Nohia dark, gold, and 151 rums (Nohia must be a private label for this venue), and a Shirley Temple for Mrs Mai Tai. We try to grade on a sliding scale depending on the venue but this was a terrible Mai Tai that tasted like plain sugar and didn’t even have any rum flavor. Arguably worse was the Shirley Temple that tasted like overripe fruit and nothing like cherry or pomegranate. It bears repeating: they can’t even make a Shirley Temple correctly.
The cocktails are almost as worn down as the rest of the venue which lacks any charm and seemingly no budget for restroom maintenance or anything Hawaiian. The giant TV screens seem to be in working order, though, if UFC or college football is your thing..
The takeaway is that Tiki Pete’s heel turn is fully complete. Do not recommend. Still.
