The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai
Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
Kick off Mai Tai anniversary weekend with the ultimate Mai Tai Trivia challenge coming to The Kon-Tiki Oakland on Wednesday August 21 at 7 pm. Mark your calendars and join us for Mai Tai and Tiki Bar trivia, plus drink specials and prizes. Work as an individual or team to win bragging rights for life as the winners of the first and maybe only Mai Tai Trivia night.
Mai Tai Trivia is hosted by Kevin Crossman from Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai and Derek from Make & Drink YouTube.
Some things remain great at the Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport location, including the continued availability of To-Go Cocktails including the Original Mai Tai. That was a great way to kick off our travels to San Diego for Tiki Oasis. Staff here remain super friendly, though their ability to guess my cocktail choice might have had something to do with the shirt I was wearing and not clairvoyance.
Trader Vic’s Hospitality Group’s corporate site labels this location as a Trader Vic’s Outpost, same as the Oakland Airport location that continues to be confirmed as coming soon. These Outpost locations are intended for airports and lobbies, an obviously less immersive location that nonetheless offers travelers a great option to experience Trader Vic’s culinary and cocktail legacy; it’s a great marketing opportunity as well.
At San Jose, the restaurant and bar sits opposite a grab and go location that sells salads, canned drinks, and Trader Vic’s mugs and merch. In the past, the Trader Vic’s Canned Mai Tai was available here, but I confirmed that unfortunately the product is no longer being produced. A variety of beers and RTD cocktails are available here instead, notably not including a Mai Tai from On the Rocks or Cutwater for obvious reasons.
The Outpost Grab and Go location now includes some pretty nice looking bowls that are on-par with the restaurant across the way, plus some Salmon and Short Rib plates that look delicious. This is a big improvement in terms of the grab and go items.
The bad thing about the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai is that you sometimes have to take one of the team and try a cocktail that isn’t the best. Sometimes they’re the very worst. But sometimes these expected bad Mai Tais aren’t bad at all, in fact they’re great.
Such was the case at the Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. This bar and restaurant is attached outside to the Tommy Bahama clothing store and the mall is right behind the hotel where we’re staying for Tiki Oasis. “Why not, I’m on vacation” was the concept for ordering the Frozen Mai Tai and this cocktail was a total delight. Really good flavors that actually resembled a Mai Tai along with plenty of Trader Vic’s Dark rum meant this was plenty boozy and totally satisfying.
For lunch I did the Poke Bowl and this too was quite good with plenty of ingredients and complex but approachable flavors. The lunch was so good we made a second visit on the trip and found the results to just as great.
I didn’t have “Top 20 Mai Tai of the year” on my bingo card, but the Tommy Bahama Frozen Mai Tai is now in the running.
Sponsored by Denizen Rum
While the first Mai Tai was born with long-aged pot-still Jamaican rum, over the decades the Trader used rums from various islands and styles to produce Mai Tais for different purposes. Learn how the rums and recipes for the Mai Tai evolved over the years, and how changing the rum can make your Mai Tai more palatable for your guests. Think you know everything about rum in a Mai Tai? Prepare to have your assumptions challenged.
Thank you to Tiki Oasis for the opportunity and for everyone who attended.
Like clockwork, every five years it is time to revisit Hawaii West, a dirty tiki bar near the border of North Beach and Chinatown in San Francisco. This venue has a long history but the years have not been kind, so much so that even experienced tikiphiles have never heard of this place. Part dive bar, part tiki bar – this is definitely not the bar for everyone.
We entered at 9:00 pm on a Friday to find the place dimly lit and a mature lady sitting alone at the bar watching TV and having a snack. An awkward pause ensued. The staring contest ended when I asked if she worked here, at which point she dropped her fork and worked her way back behind the bar. I scanned the back bar, trying not to focus on the softcore photo prominently displayed back behind the bar. I also looked for a menu, missing the large sign off at the end of the bar.
The good thing about being on the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai is that few bars won’t know how to make one, especially one with a few tikis scattered around. The orange and red cocktail soon appeared I handed the lady a twenty. Just $8 came back, meaning that this Mai Tai was only a couple bucks cheaper than the world class Mai Tai at Smuggler’s Cove – but Hawaii West is a place that seems like it was from a different universe. As grenadine laden Mai Tais go, I’ll have to admit it wasn’t half bad.
A trio of young people entered and must be semi regulars, chatting with the bartender. While waiting for our Lyft, we found that the toilet wouldn’t flush and reminding us our friend had a bad bathroom experience on our last visit. Reading the Yelp reviews, it appears food is sometimes available here which strikes me as … unappetizing.
I don’t object to tiki dive bars that appeal to a local clientele, such as with Trad’r Sam across town. Though, I’m not sure who Hawaii West is for.
We were in San Francisco’s North Beach on Friday for an evening of bar hopping and dinner, including a stop at Bamboo Hut right at opening. Described as a neighborhood tiki bar, Bamboo Hut has been around since 2000 and proudly avoids the trappings of the craft cocktail movement that are embraced by many of the Bay Area’s tiki bars.
The cocktail menu was refreshed in 2019 to be a little bit more upscale, including a 1944 Mai Tai. Back then they used Real McCoy rum from Barbados, but now the featured rums are Planteray 5 Barbados and Zaya (both with added sugar). Three people in our group ordered the Mai Tai and none of us were particularly impressed, each citing weird flavors from the rum or orgeat. At $15 this is not a good deal compared to other Mai Tais in the City.
We had a better time with some other drinks, including the Surfin’ Monkey which is a blended banana daiquiri style cocktail that has a lot of flavor and actually wasn’t totally over-sweet. The Zombie was served in a Hurricane glass but did feature some spicy notes that we like in a Zombie.
Inside the music was reggae and the service was quite efficient and pretty welcoming as well. This place can turn very clubby later in the evening if that’s your thing. We did enjoy the vintage tiki head that dates from the 1940s but as a neighborhood bar immersive decor isn’t really what Bamboo Hut is going for.
Mrs. Mai Tai and I had a great time on Tiki Tuesday at Dr. Funk with some dinner and drinks while enjoying the music from DJ Ship Rex. The Tiki Tuesday thing seems to be working well in Downtown San Jose and there was a lively crowd. Rex’s upbeat vintage tunes were delightful and we enjoyed the Fried Rice and Chinese Chicken Salad. We also tried the Malasadas, which were good but small.
The quality issues at Dr. Funk seem to be a distant memory now, as I enjoyed another really outstanding Mai Tai with Tuesday’s all-day Happy Hour pricing. Julie loved the Milk Punch and also had the Dr. Funk favorite the Shipwreck (also all-day Happy Hour pricing). Service was prompt and friendly.
The waiter asked if I’d like to try a special from Bartender Justin and I was pleased to try a Well Oiled Mai Tai, a sort of hybrid of a Mai Tai and a Corn n’ Oil cocktail that was published in Difford’s Guide. As such, there was orgeat, falernum, bitters, and some great rum. This was a great change of pace and nice to see something off-menu being offered for this discerning Mai Tai fan. Justin and team have been doing great lately.
