Tag: OrangeCounty

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Strong Water Anaheim Remains One of the Best SoCal Tiki Bars

This was our third visit to Strong Water Anaheim and we were seated in the main room at a table near their water feature, with this visit reinforcing the previous visits: Strong Water has amazing cocktails, food, and service within an incredibly immersive space. Reservations are almost always required and we made them in advance to meet up with some friends. We were celebrating Mrs. Mai Tai’s birthday and the fine folks at Strong Water provided a little daiquiri shot on the house.

I had the house Mai Tai with Demerara rum and Jamaica rum and found it once again to be an excellent cocktail, very well-balanced with the rum shining through. I also experimented with The Clementine Gambler, a Strong Water original named after the street address, featuring overproof Jamaica rum and Yellow Chartreuse and boy was it fantastic. Mrs. Mai Tai had the Taro Colada which is a nice riff that includes Coconut and Spiced rum plus Taro cream.

Our friends enjoyed the Loco Moco Burger and since we already had dinner Mrs. Mai Tai and I shared the delightful Coconut Cheesecake that includes Lime Zest to great effect.

For such a popular place, the noise volume inside is quite reasonable. You can hear the people at your table, along with the vintage tropical music, and not a bunch of loud screaming hooligans like you do at some places. This is how we like to appreciate the escapist charm of tiki bars, and Strong Water is one of the best is Southern California.

Taro Colada
The Clementine Gambler
Mai Tai
Do Not Use Cocaine in the Bathroom
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Escapist Tiki at San Clemente’s Lost Inferno

The Lost Inferno is the sister property of Stowaway Tiki and we ended up having a couple hours to kill in southern Orange County so decided to make a quick trip down to San Clemente to check it out. This is tiki bar with thematic decoration from the 1985 movie The Goonies. As such, there are pirate elements including a great grotto cave featuring a waterfall and skulls embedded in the rock (thank you Bamboo Ben) but also a few tikis. The music is exotic and there’s a nice back bar with plenty of interesting rums and other spirits to choose from.

As regular readers are familiar, when I visit a new tiki bar the first cocktail is always a Mai Tai. This seemed like a poor choice when I remembered that I had the Mai Tai at Stowaway the previous day, and when delivered the cocktail looked identical. But something about this version was better balanced and more rum-focused (something I’ve heard subsequently from others, go figure). Mrs. Mai Tai’s Rocky Road cocktail was right up her alley featuring vodka, chocolate liqueur, marshmallow, and peanut butter.

This venue is not well advertised from the street, though the Sushi place upstairs is (ironic since that restaurant has a speakeasy entrance). The venue isn’t large but there are a few standing room spots and tables scattered throughout. Lost Inferno’s twist on the theme is welcome, while still providing an authentic and cohesive tiki bar experience that is definitely worth checking out.

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Stowaway Tiki: Orange County’s Fabulous and Unpretentious Tiki Bar

We were excited to try the Stowaway tiki bar located in Tustin, just a few minutes down the Santa Ana Freeway from our hotel near Disneyland. This is Stowaway’s new location, much larger and nicer than than old one we were told. We met up with local tikiphile Chris Van Horn who was a great help working through the menu and the venue’s features. Our server Michelle works as a bartender on the weekends and couldn’t have been nicer and kept everything moving promptly. We also got to meet the owner Leonard Chan who discussed the bar’s features (and sister bar The Lost Inferno) and guided us through the bar’s infamous frozen Fernet shots.

Michelle Lights the Cococano

There’s a pretty large cocktail menu and a bunch of island-inspired dishes, including a Happy Hour menu that includes a $9 Mai Tai! It’s a good Mai Tai and a steal for that price. I definitely enjoyed the Chicken Skewers that are severed with rice and salad. I also ordered a Singapore Sling that came in a cute mug and the cocktail inside was a cherry-forward flavor bomb. So good, as was Mrs. Mai Tai’s Dragon Lady cocktail with rum and dragonfruit. A fairly large rum selection is also available here.

The highlight of our experience was Stowaway’s signature Cococano cocktail with rum, coconut, pineapple, orgeat, lemon, and fire(!). Michelle got everyone in the bar to chant along with the fire and the cocktail itself was a delightful twist on the Piña Colada.

Shag wallpaper

Mrs Mai Tai came back from the restroom gushing about the clean design and amazing Shag wallpaper inside. Chris mentioned that Leonard is friends with Shag, which made me think like well I wonder how true that is – but a couple minutes later who should walk into the bar but the artist himself with entourage in tow!

Stowaway is a great time, a tiki bar without pretension. The dark and enclosed interior is effective to immerse you in the space where you’ll find plenty of opportunities to escape.

@juliebeane68

We visited Stowaway Tiki Bar in Tustin, CA. This drink was drlicious. We had the best sevice, great drinks and yummy food.

♬ original sound – Juliebeane
Dragon Lady
Mai Tai
Singapore Sling
Cococano
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Blue Bayou Hurricane

This is the restaurant in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, in the same building as Pirates of the Caribbean. The advanced reservations always book up fast but we approached the entrance about 15 mins before they opened and were able to score a table off the waitlist. We were seated about ten minutes after opening in the middle/back of the restaurant, so no dockside view of the Pirates boats but plenty nice anyway.

I had a great and pretty large winter salad and the Brioche bread was delicious. I also had the Hurricane, an option for the last couple years where the sit down restaurants do serve beer, wine, and a specialty cocktail. This seems appropriate considering the New Orleans theme, where the Hurricane was (likely) invented.

The Hurricane is very fruity and very easy to drink. Not too sugary though. It uses light and dark rums and these aren’t challenging or overly potent but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Really great time at Blue Bayou, with excellent service. We also got some branded coupe glasses as a nice takeaway and a birthday present for Mrs Mai Tai.

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Tangaroa Terrace Mai Tai w/ El Dorado 8

Met up with Mrs Mai Tai for lunch. She was coming from Disneyland and I was coming from the hotel where I’ve been working. We wanted to get into Trader Sam’s but it was closed for a ticketed mixology event. So lunch on the terrace was our option and still just great.

I asked for a Mai Tai with El Dorado 8 Demerara Rum that I saw on the back bar. I enjoy aged rums in a Mai Tai more than the Bacardi / Coruba (or maybe Plantation Dark) combo they usually use. And this was a truly outstanding Mai Tai. So balanced and flavorful. The Bartenders there really know their stuff.

Lunch on the terrace was so relaxing. One of our favorite places.

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Oga’s Cantina for Quinn’s 21st Birthday

Our son Quinn turned 21 on Saturday during our Disneyland trip so Oga’s Cantina was an intended destination. We completed some early park touring and landed in Galaxy’s Edge and tried the online checkin for Oga’s and found it was only a ten minute wait.

Inside we were seated at a table, which aside from being more relaxing was a welcome change since the four previous times I’ve visited Oga’s they’ve always “sat” us in the same place all the way at the end of the bar on the left. Nice to have a different perspective.

Oga’s isn’t a bad place for someone to have their first cocktail, since these are made for easy drinking. Quinn ordered the Takodana Quencher with Bacardi Dragonberry rum, Blue Curacao, and juices. Like I said, easy drinking.

They are now serving a Pretzel Knot with Hawaiian Black Sea Salt and a nice cheese sauce, a welcome addition of something substantial to be served alongside the drinks. And this pretzel knot was pretty damn good. Or so I thought after my Jedi Mind Trick cocktail at 9:30 in the morning.

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HippopotoMai-Tai – New 4th Edition Orange Glaze Mug

We landed at the Disneyland Hotel on Friday evening and got some seats outside at the Tangaroa Terrace after a short wait. A pretty nice dinner, as always, and I enjoy the ambiance at night with the torches and live Hawaiian music.

I don’t love the Bacardi in their standard issue HippopotoMai-Tai so I looked at the rums on the backbar and ordered one with Hamilton 86 Demerara rum. The taste was lovely, richer than their standard.

We also got the new orange mug, which Mrs Mai Tai says is her favorite of the releases so far (I prefer the blue glaze from Trader Sam’s in Florida). The staff worked with us to adjust the level on the propane heaters. The skipper even threw in a few zingers.

When I got the bill it listed Hamilton 151 as the called rum. So that might explain why I found the cocktail so intoxicating.