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
Here’s a welcome return to the food menu at Oakland’s venerable Kon-Tiki.
The Crab Rangoon dip features crab and bay shrimp, melted cheese, and sweet chili sauce. Served with savory wonton chips that stand up to the dip. It’s pretty good and probably best if you’re able to share with others.
The crew from the Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand Vatos Who Tiki were up in the Bay Area last weekend and did a takeover at Oakland’s Kon-Tiki after Rum Fest. Having the Kon-Tiki’s legendary cheeseburger after drinking rum all day seemed like a no-brainer. The takeover included some great tunes from DJ Oran and El Nova and a special cocktail menu.
I very much enjoyed the Oaxacan in Jamaica, the Vatos’ Mai Tai blend that includes Oaxacan and Jamican rums. I’ve loved all the Oaxacan rums I’ve tried so this one was a great combo especially when paired with my cheeseburger.
Very nice to talk to El Nova in person after years of online discussions. The Vatos Who Tiki merch lineup for this event was full of great items including glasses and stickers – and you can buy shirts in their online Etsy store. Check it out.
We great to see Doc Parks in the house and to visit with Christ from Kon-Tiki.
The Kon-Tiki Oakland today is officially launching a new 5th edition of their printed cocktail menu, the first since October 2021.
I don’t know if anyone else cares about this at all, but I’m always interested when one of my favorite places updates a menu. And since I have the older menus, it is interesting to see what’s coming, going, and staying. I’ve done this each time they’ve changed menus but as you’ll see below this time was quite a bit easier. There are 22 items on this menu, including sharables and “low/zero gravity” cocktails, compared to a total 27 on the last one.
Most notable for us is the continued presence of an ultra-premium Mai Tai on the menu. We are saying goodbye to the $44 Samaroli Mai Tai which is being replaced by the $38 Captain’s Reserve Mai Tai made with Kon-Tiki’s fantastic private barrel Worthy Park Jamaica rum. I’ve had Mai Tais with this rum and it is a big improvement.
Only four cocktails are carrying over to the new menu, all of which were on the original menu when the Kon-Tiki opened in 2017. The menu’s design and the cocktail names are leaning into a Sci-Fi theme which I find… well, unexpected. I’ve loved the graphical design of the Kon-Tiki’s menus, cocktails, and website. This is something altogether different.
Be sure to try some of the new cocktails the next time you visit.
Original Menu Holdovers
The Kon-Tiki Grog
The Kon-Tiki Zombie
Uma Uma
Virgin’s Sacrifice
New Exotic Drinks
Cadet’s Grog
Captain’s Reserve Mai Tai
Cherry Coco-Naut
Cosmo Ship Yamato
Cotopaxi Caldera
Crater of Excalibia
Event Horizon
Heyerdahl Maneuver
Leviathan
Lunar Camel
Multipass
Nova’s Nexus
Pale Blue Dot
Pop Star
Princess of Mars
SR-138
Sunset of Risa
Zenith
Thanks for the memories
Blush Crush
Coca-Coconut
Donnie’s Element
Golden Gong
Golden Snitch
Haitian Hi Ball
Island Old Fashioned
Ma Kua (for 2 or 4)
Mai Tai
Martinique on Fleek
Mezcal in the Banana Stand
Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum on Nitro Draft
Phoenix Bowl
Ring of Fire
Rum and Spice
Rum Club Cooler
Samaroli Mai Tai
Saint Lucia’s Fox
Sea Shandy
Sea Shandy Jr.
Stormy Keone
The Kon-Tiki Spritz
Virgin Painkiller
Pagan Idol was a quick stop on our way to dinner, so we just shared a Mai Tai. Unlike the version at sister bar Zombie Village, this flavorful Mai Tai leaned into the Martinique rhum as the most forward flavor. Thus, more of those grassy notes that this style of rhum is famous for. Not my personal preference but it might be right for you and in either case it is nice to see each place doing their thing.
One thing that’s a lot better at Pagan Idol is that back bar is visible and you can scan the myriad bottles of rum. And what did my little eye spy? Not one, but two (!) bottles of the famed Foursquare 2004 Exceptional Cask Series rum. This is one of my all-time favorite rums and in my opinion the best of all the ECS releases. If you sometimes find Barbados rum to be mild or timid you won’t feel that way anymore after tasting the rich buttery notes in Foursquare 2004. Very rare to find on shelves in bars, so head on down to Pagan Idol to give it a try.
I took Mrs. Mai Tai to Zombie Village for her first visit since 2019. We were pleased to see that that the cocktail program is still going strong including some of our all-time favorite tropical cocktails, plus a pleasant surprise.
After all these years, the cocktail menu is still largely similar to the one that opened this Tenderloin tiki bar in late 2018 – though of course the prices are higher now. Julie loves the Coco Pandan, featuring an Ube popsicle, and we both love the Disco Banana. The latter is supposed to be blended and our results weren’t perfectly smooth but at least all the flavors of banana and funky rums was present.
My Mai Tai was a pleasant surprise. While the Mai Tai here has always been perfectly reasonable, I found this one to be richer and leaning more into Jamaica rums than in the past. It was really great, one of the best I’ve had this year.
Our service was efficient and friendly, even with us at the bar and competing with a giant group of 14 young people who were hooting and hollering in one of the booths behind us. Music during our visit was a good mix of vintage tunes. Zombie Village’s impressive wall of decor still impresses as well.
Tipsy Tiki is the bar located in the food court at the International Market Place, previously known as Myna Bird. When we visited last year we appreciated that while this location was connected to the nearby La Pina Cantina there was also a separate list of tropical drinks under the Tipsy Tiki moniker. We enjoyed the Hawaiian-style Tipsy Tiki Mai Tai made by the bartender last year.
This year the Tipsy Tiki-specific menu has gone away, so when you ask for a cocktail menu it’s a Margarita-heavy menu for La Pina. There isn’t even a Mai Tai on the menu, which seems shocking given the still-present Tipsy Tiki signage.
Nonetheless, I’m pleased to report that my friendly bartender was easily able to make a Mai Tai and even went to extra effort to procure an orchid for garnish. It was an entirely serviceable Mai Tai that tasted just fine.
While a food court tiki bar doesn’t really scratch the itch of the hardcore tikiphile, there are far worse “tiki” experiences in Waikiki than this one (hello Cuckoo Coconuts!). I like the tiki touches here and did find the service to be very good. Plus my 11:00 am Mai Tai wasn’t half bad.
During the Tiki in Waikiki weekend we visited Skull & Crown Trading Co. a couple times, including one visit with the standard service and one that was connected to the event’s Sunday luau featuring food stations and multiple cocktail bars.
We enjoy our visits and the excellent cocktails at Skull & Crown. The numerous historical items including several vintage tikis means this feels like a business that’s been in Honolulu’s Chinatown for a hundred years and somehow survived. We didn’t love the Moose and Deer head mounts since they didn’t really fit the theme, though we were told they would be going away. Service is always a strength here, and was again for us on both visits.
Our first visit this trip took place the night when we arrived and we were feeling the jetlag by the evening (or perhaps the day’s earlier cocktails). I ordered the Maunakea Mai Tai which is Skull & Crown’s traditional 1944-style Mai Tai, but the flavors weren’t as bold and complex as I remembered. This was the same reaction I had for a couple Mai Tais the earlier that day and the day after, so it might have just me that day. I normally find this Mai Tai with Appleton Estate 12, Clement Select Barrel, and Smith & Cross to be fantastic.
A couple nights later I tried the Firecracker, made with Tanduay Especia Spiced Rum, Select Aperitif, Fresh Tangerine, Peach, Li Hing, Chili Pepper Tincture, Lemon, and Orgeat. I asked for the chili pepper to be dialed down since I am sensitive and it tasted just fine for me. I liked this cocktail. The Poe Poe we tried at the luau event featured Kō Hana Kea, Ube Syrup, Coconut, and Lemon. This pretty purple cocktail was not as heavy as something like Pina Colada or Painkiller, which might be a plus or minus depending on the customer. I thought it was pretty good.
Skull & Crown is a gem of a cocktail bar and is a must-visit for any tikiphile or craft cocktail aficionado.
