Category: Tiki Bar

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Skull and Crown Trading Co. Mai Tais

We had the pleasure of visiting the best tiki bar between San Francisco and Tokyo twice during our visit. Skull and Crown is located in Honolulu’s Chinatown and is a treasure, such a welcoming and immersive space that transports you to historic Hawai’i. The vintage elements and decor helps you feel like the bar opened in 1920 and never closed.

There are three Mai Tais on the menu, so we had to sample all of them.

Dagger Mai Tai
Developed in conjunction with Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, this is a Mai Tai featuring some exotic spices and… well, that’s all we know. All the ingredients are redacted on the menu. Quite good.

‘Awa’Awa Mai Tai
Featuring KoHana Hawaiian Rum Agricole, Campari, Grand Mariner, Lime, Orgeat, and Lilikoi, this bitter Mai Tai is served flaming and is quite wonderful. The Campari for sure is the forward tasting note but this is still approachable even if Campari isn’t your thing.

Maunakea Mai Tai
Featuring Appleton 12, Clement Select Barrel, Smith & Cross Jamaican Rum, Dry Curacao, Lime, Orgeat, and Demerara Syrup. This was by far my favorite Mai Tai on the list, and obviously hews most closely to the classic 1944 Mai Tai recipe. It is so wonderful, a flavorful Mai Tai that allows you to savor the ingredients. Doesn’t make me sad that this leans into the Jamaican rums. I liked this Mai Tai in 2019, but love it this time. One of my Top 5 Mai Tais served anywhere. Really. This is truly excellent.

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Arnold’s Beach Bar – Hidden Waikiki Gem

Arnold’s Beach Bar is an under-looked gem of a bar in Waikiki. We were impressed on a previous visit and can confirm they’re still doing well.

The Mai Tai isn’t craft but at only $10 is really great. The ingredients are Calypso Virgin Islands White rum, Triple Sec, Amaretto, a splash of OJ and Pineapple, and a float of Dark Rum. A good shake means this Mai Tai is mixed well and chilled, better than many Mai Tais I’ve had this trip.

This is by far the best dive bar in Waikiki, with a friendly bartender and cheap booze. Plus some nice tiki decor. I enjoyed the visit and had two rounds.

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Tiki’s Grill and Bar

We missed this family-style tiki restaurant on our last trip so we ventured over for dinner just past sunset. Tiki’s is a very large restaurant with a large interior space that is mostly closed for refurbishment, along with a very large patio. We were seated right away and enjoyed some live music playing and some second floor views of Waikiki beach. Our service was very good.

Our food was moderately priced and a good value for the quality and portion. Less kind things can be said about the “1944 Mai Tai” which is served with a heaping portion of passion fruit foam, along with tourist-friendly Cruzan Light rum and Bacardi Dark rum. Far too sweet, even without any pineapple or orange juice. A plus of sort is that you can keep the plastic glass.

The interior portion that is visible is very nicely decorated with a lava rock and red paint theme that I think looks great. Lots of Shag artwork and other nods to Hawaiian and tiki culture. So, not bad at all.

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Tipsy Tiki

This is the former Myna Bird Tiki Bar location in the food court at the International Marketplace. There was an ownership change for the food court and this bar was rebranded as being part of the La Pina Cantina next door. So I was surprised to see a new name here and also a new menu.

And, friends, I’m here to tell you that Tipsy Tiki is fantastic. Our bartender Lee told us his Mai Tai is made from fresh ingredients and while I’m no Island Mai Tai fanatic, this one was pretty great. One of the best I’ve ever had. Mahalo Lee!

Mrs Mai Tai had the Cool n Fresh with Tequila, lavender syrup, cucumber syrup, lime, and coconut water and it was really amazing. We will return to try more of the menu.

This venue may not scratch the itch for the hardcore tikiphile, but I’m always ready to welcome a new tiki place when the cocktails are outstanding. Check it out in Waikiki!

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Happy 1st Birthday Trader Vic’s SJC

The world’s best airport bar is celebrating its first birthday today. It was a long time coming but Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport has been slinging cocktails for one year now. We didn’t plan on being here specially for this but it was a happy accident with our flight to Hawai’i leaving at 7:30 and we still had time for breakfast.

Breakfast Mai Tai? Absolutely. It is 6:15 am somewhere, right?

Mrs Mai Tai had a Shirley Temple and we both had the Island Parfait. So good.

For those scoring at home this does NOT count for the Hawaiian Mai Tai contest.

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Sunday Supper at Dr. Funk

Dr. Funk is now serving food on Sundays and Mondays, which previously were sans-kitchen. So, Mrs. Mai Tai and I had a great meal along with some drinks. I had the burger and Julie had the mushroom curry, both quite good. The cocktail for me was the Planter’s Punch, but I also had a pour of Koloa Gold rum to get me in the mood for our trip to Hawai’i starting on Wednesday (we’ll be in Kauai down the street from Koloa starting on the 14th). Music was mellow and leaning toward exotica, a welcome touch we always like to highlight.

And the venue is now open at Noon on Friday-Sunday, so there’s even more opportunity to try the specialty cocktails and excellent selection of rums and other spirits. If you like the early opportunity to do the tiki thing in the afternoon, I’d suggest patronizing and giving the team the feedback and economic incentive to continue opening early.

We’ve been told a special brunch menu is in the works, which would help for those early openings on the weekends when there is considerably less foot traffic in downtown San Jose.

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Tonga Room

Mrs Mai Tai and I made a special trek to the City to have dinner at the Tonga Room. We were last here in 2019, and we’ve missed the incredible atmosphere and dining at the historical tiki bar at the Fairmont Hotel. There’s always a line when the place opens (was told they don’t offer reservations anymore, even to hotel guests), and even more so this week after a nice writeup in the local SFGate news site.

Unlike our last attempt before a Go-Go’s show a couple months ago, traffic was light and so we arrived super early and were first in line. Definitely a big difference between the “Tonga line” 30 mins before opening and 15 mins before. We were seated poolside, which is always our favorite place.

The food menu is a little more limited than in our previous visits, and noteworthy doesn’t offer much for kids or picky eaters. I ordered the spam appetizer which I expected would be like sliders – but it most certainly wasn’t. This was very tasty, but difficult to eat and would be hard to share. Even better was my Grilled Miso Salmon over fried rice that was really delicious. Julie loved her Coconut Curry Seafood, though I had to convince her to try the Calamari.

There’s something off in the tart Mai Tai (I’m guessing cheap orgeat), though we loved our other cocktails including the coffee-coconut Tonga Kong and the lemon-coconut Adult Swim (normally served with vodka, I asked for rum to be subbed). The cocktails here are very pricey and the quality is okay – but balanced with the friendly service and amazingly immersive decor inside.

The Tonga Room is very expensive and hard to get in, but for special occasions or just as an occasional treat we think it is worth it. There’s no doubt that the business is booming, though an upcoming three-week closure for refurbishments will be a bummer for some. The rain and thunderstorms that happen every 15-30 minutes are a big hit with customers, and the decor and artwork is a sight to be behold.

Adult Swim and Tonga Kong
Mai Tai
Spam appetizer