Most of the things posted to this feed aren’t reviews per se, but trip reports of my experience. There’s certainly some overlap in material but a review to me adds editorial content that is usually not present in my posts.
Mrs. Mai Tai and I stopped overnight in Paso Robles and had a later dinner at Cane Tiki Room which we visited once before. We enjoy the clean but well-done Polynesian decor, and the staff was just as friendly as last time and worked with us when we arrived early for our reservation. Music on a Friday night was upbeat and funky, 1970s-leaning and anything retro is fine with me. I didn’t love the spam musubi which was a bit overdone and covered with sauce, but the dumplings, teriyaki chicken bowl, and lettuce cups were wonderful.
On our last visit I liked most of the cocktails except the Mai Tai which used a funny tasting mac nut orgeat. They’ve since reformulated with traditional orgeat but are now using Planteray Original Dark as the base rum, with an optional float of Goslings. Original Dark is not a strongly flavored rum and contains a lot of sugar, so the Mai Tai was not a punchy as I think it ought to be – and Goslings wouldn’t have helped as it too is not a strong flavor. With a Mai Tai you want to taste the rum and it really ought to be more rum forward.
I also tried a Chartreuse Swizzle that was much better with some tangy pineapple juice working well with the herbal liqueur. Mrs. Mai Tai had the Lapu Lapu, a juicy but well-balanced cocktail that is served in a cute pig mug (none for sale at the time, though). These two good cocktails were well-executed.
We also visited Eleven Twenty Two, a speakeasy owned by the same restaurant group, and were completely blown away by the drinks. While this serves a more cocktail-oriented clientele, the price of the drinks were comparable. So, we know the group can make better cocktails and while we understand the people coming to a tiki restaurant are different than a speakeasy we do think Cane Tiki Room should be doing better with the cocktails and especially the Mai Tai. Use a punchier rum, please, even if you have to bump the price up from $14.
Having some great cocktail options in a town known for wine tourism isn’t too shabby, and with the friendly staff and full menu Cane Tiki Room is a great option for more than just a quick stop for tropical drinks.
