Category: Tiki Bar

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Incognito Mode at Zombie Village

Our planned couples night had dinner at China Live and then drinks at Starlite, so I dressed for those locations. But as things often work out in San Francisco, we soon found ourselves at a tiki bar since Zombie Village is just a short walk from Union Square. The village was medium full and we found seats at the bar since there was a large, loud group in the ice cave.

In addition to the previously discussed Pumpkin Spice Colada shot, I made sure to get my all time favorite in this venue – the Disco Banana. The villagers are still making this the way it should with a special blend of funky rums, banana liqueur, and a real banana – blended. It has an anchored location on my tiki cocktail Mount Rushmore list. Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai had her favorite, the Coco Pandan that features an ube popsicle.

Disco Banana

The large group in the ice cave were playing some sort of game and literally twelve of them were huddled around the small table, so I never really go to see what it was that they were doing to make such a racket. And look, it’s Friday night and there’s nothing wrong with blowing off some steam. But you need to pick your venue accordingly and when you enter a darkly lit tiki bar playing vintage Les Baxter and Martin Denny exotica music, well, that’s not the place to be hollering nonstop. San Francisco has better tiki bars for that, such as Bamboo Hut, Tiki Haven, or Trad’r Sam. We left annoyed.

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Pumpkin Spice Colada Scoop + Shot

We are unapologetic fans of pumpkin spice and we made sure to check out the special offering at Zombie Village where you get a scoop of frozen colada sorbet plus a side shot of pumpkin spice rum. Halloween is over but pumpkin spice season lasts at least through Thanksgiving so this fit right in for our November evening in the city.

The pumpkin spiced rum itself is rather dry, which means this is far less of a sugar bomb than you might expect. The flavors pair really well and the little spoon is helpful to savor this delightful treat. It’s great, so check it out in San Francisco while you can.

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Trader Vic’s Ofrenda

Trader Vic’s Emeryville hosted the annual Holiday Bazaar and Brunch on Sunday, and we enjoyed shopping and dining with friends.

Notable this time was a thoughtful ofrenda display that paid homage to Trader Vic as well as local legend Brian Mcdonald who recently passed. A couple Forbidden Island friends even made sure there was a little offering of coconut rum, Chiwito’s favorite.

There were a couple fall cocktails on the menu, which we tried with mixed results. I tried the La Ofrenda which featured Mexican rum, pepita syrup, and Limpia’auras Herbal Liqueur. I wanted to embrace some new flavors but this blend didn’t do it for either of us. Much better was Mrs. Mai Tai’s Marigold Path, also featuring Mexican rum plus Hot Buttered Rum Batter and a host of spices. Served hot, Marigold Path was a delightful cocktail with a ton of flavor to savor.

We’ve had a long Halloween season and I’ll admit we might have done too much but we were having too much fun while it was happening. Time to look forward to the holidays including an upcoming trip to Christmas Markets in Europe.

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Return to Kaia’s Tiki Bar in Danville

We returned to Danville for a family dinner and cocktails, finding Kaia’s Island Kitchen and Tiki Bar to be running smoothly and with quality service and offerings. The restaurant recently enabled a reservation system, making planned trips even easier. We also saw that the shaded outdoor patio has been expanded.

During our visit we once again enjoyed the island style food, including a delightful poke bowl that I loved. The preparation and delivery of food was very quick once again, and our server was super prompt in following up and getting us set up with a second round of cocktails.

The cocktail menu has expanded a bit since our first visit, and we found the cocktails to be overall better balanced this time as well. The Ipanema Breeze leans a little tart with cachaca, passionfruit, and falernum but is still pretty good. The standout drink for me was the Ohanapod Mai Tai, a riff on the Monkeypod Mai Tai from Hawai’i. This cocktail features Koloa coconut rum, Coruba Jamaican rum, plus honey-lilikoi foam. The coconut rum wasn’t overpowering and this Mai Tai leans sweet in a good way.

Kaia’s remains a pretty good suburban tiki option, especially if you want to include kids. They also offer a variety of merchandise including mugs and glassware that look great.

Ohanapod Mai Tai and Ipanema Breeze

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Rum Club Launches at Boo Loo Lounge

Orinda’s small but well-received tiki bar Boo Loo Lounge  is launching a rum club called the Restless Spirits Club. Similar to other venues, the club allows you to taste spirits and accumulate credit for those purchases on a checklist. The club is inspired by Boo Loo’s location inside the Orinda Theater complex, so it is a nice touch that your punch card looks like a movie ticket.

The process at Boo Loo is pretty simple and more open than some other spirit or rum clubs in that you can pick any rum on Boo Loo’s list and then they punch your ticket that stays at the bar. A list of rums will be generated periodically and you can take that home with you to track your progress or plan your next tasting. The reward system is still completing development but you’ll get coupons for discounts after 25 rums and there are plans for a wall of fame as well.

The rum list for October 2025 shows a nice variety of brands and styles, all of which are value priced lower than another local tiki bar that has a publicly available price list.

It is really nice to see this development at Boo Loo Lounge, and I am a fan of choose-your-own rum lists so I can avoid rums/style I don’t like or already tasted (or owned), allowing me to focus on things I do like or something I’ve never tried before. While nobody will confuse this with the elaborate rum clubs at Smuggler’s Cove or Forbidden Island, this does provide focus on Boo Loo’s pretty nice selection of rums and should be a gateway opportunity for casual visitors that make up a large portion of Boo Loo’s clientele.

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New Menu at Boo Loo Lounge

It’s been a few months since our last visit to Orinda’s small tiki bar, Boo Loo Lounge. Of interest on our latest visit is the new and expanded cocktail menu that launched a couple months back and the first revision since the venue opened in 2023.

The menu format takes inspiration from Boo Loo’s location in the Orinda Theater complex, laying it out like a screenplay with red editorial notes in the margins. It’s a clever way to draw in many of the patrons who are new to tiki and visiting due to the proximity of the theater or the local restaurants and shops. There are 14 cocktails plus three NA options, plus beer and wine, and is a nice mix of classics along with a few originals and some good options for tequila, gin, and whiskey drinkers.

I’d heard the Mai Tai’s rum blend was reformulated but after scanning the menu I couldn’t help but get a Donnie’s Element, a banana/coconut/coffee cocktail with spiced rum that was developed by Chris Day and served at The Kon-Tiki during Day’s tenure there. It’s a truly fantastic cocktail and am so glad to see Boo Loo Lounge serving it. Mrs. Mai Tai ordered the Voodoo Grog that surprisingly is pretty heavy on the Rhum Agricole and so not really to her liking (or mine, really), though she did love the Donnie’s Element.

Those were the only cocktails we tried on this visit, though was interested in the special Halloween menu from Kriss “Cucuy” Gonzalez that’s also movie inspired. Check it out while you can.

Boo Loo Lounge is doing a lot of things right given the confines of their small space and sleepy suburban location. We arrived on Friday well before 5:00 and had the place mostly to ourselves but by the time we left there were several parties inside and there was a lot of great energy from the crowd and surf music playlist.

IYKYK
Donnie’s Element and Voodoo Grog
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Return to Tiki Pete

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.

The Mai Tai is terrible

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 Shirley Temple is worse

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.