Mister Tiki Mai Tai Lounge

After reading the reviews I was convinced not to go for a Dinner there. But at the gate checking the menue forced me in. The interior is mind blowing, the Surf sound grooves along with everything course of the menue I had choosen. Service was really good serving the Water without even not asking. I had the special menue with the satay and a fantastic homemade peanut sauce. Great Place — Great Music — Great Food.

Been here twice and I love the DRINKS.
The food? Great when paired with their DRINKS.
Dessert Tower, fail. In comparison to their DRINKS.
Get the hint?
Good spot for a girls night, to down a couple before walking the rest of the gaslamp. My friends and I usually share a huge mai tai in a fish bowl contraption type thing.
Good times.

Despite our large party (and for me coming late hehe) service was pretty good. I shared the calamari and lettuce wraps which were pretty awesome. Also had a beer too. Calamari was perfect… I loved it! And the lettuce wraps are way better than PF Changs :) I used the sweet and sour sauce for the dipping sauce for the lettuce wraps… if i put too much sriracha sauce I’d get the runs. Anyway place is awesome, décor’s awesome, service was awesome. A bit pricy but meh whatever, me likey: D. I’d come again… but with a much smaller party :)

I am a sucker for anything with «tiki» in the title. I am a sucker for anything that has a giant stone head. I am a sucker for palm trees, outrigger canoes, lanterns, wicker, lava lamps, and big fruity drinks that come in coconuts or pineapples or shrunken heads. I am a sucker for anything that remotely indicates 1950s pseudo-​tropicalia.
Mister Tiki has got it all!
I wandered aimlessly through the streets of San Diego looking for a place to eat. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew I would know it when I saw it. And boy, did I ever! «I think I just saw the word ‘tiki’!» I shouted.
I ran across the street, heedless of traffic. As I beheld the full name, a colossal booming voice rumbled «That’s MISTER Tiki to you, foolish mortal!»
The voice was like the Engine of Time, grinding inexorably forward with relentless might, and I fell to my knees in awe. This was the altar at which I would worship in San Diego forever more!
As the door was opened by a smiling, satisfied patron exiting the building, I heard the twang of spring reverb and surf music. My eyes teared up. I had finally found another safe haven so far from home.
As a business traveler who loves my home in Chicago, and almost nowhere else, these safe harbors in other cities are very important to my sanity. I like to have something to look forward to that I cannot experience at home. Even if the rest of the trip is a drag, I am unflappable when I can visit an oasis such as Mister Tiki during my stay.
So yes, surf music! All the time! Not too loud! Furthermore, there is no jukebox for knuckleheads to make bogus selections. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have never been anywhere that played non-​stop surf music, and I have been looking all my life.
There are lava lamps hardwired on the booth tables. Groovy! The giant stone head a la Easter Island stared down its nose at me over the bar. I would make sure to leave some fruit for him as an offering before I left. I wouldn’t want Mister Tiki to smite me down where I stood.
I’ve actually eaten at Mister Tiki several times now, so I have a great deal to share about it. All the appetizers I tried were fabulous. I recommend ordering Mr. Tiki’s Canoe, and have them paddle it on out for you. It comes with a beef tenderloin skewer which is incredibly tender, flavorful and juicy. There is also a chicken satay with a tasty peanut sauce. Again, the chicken was tender. So many places overcook chicken until it has the texture of high density styrofoam. Not here! The most surprisingly delicious was the mushroom rangoon. I actually despise mushrooms but these wontons full of mushroom goop were exceedingly good.
The calamari appetizer is one of the finest I have ever eaten, and I eat calamari at every single opportunity everywhere I go. They cut it in strips rather than rings, with a real light tempura batter, and a spicy marinara sauce. And AGAIN with the tender!
How do they get everything so tender? Some people say buy good ingredients, but I say there is a big guy in a grass skirt back there pummeling all the uncooked meat with a bamboo stick for hours on end.
Another highlight is the mahi mahi fish and chips. You bet that was tender! Again lightly tempura battered, with homemade potato style chips. I was surprised at how non-​greasy it was. I usually get the oily mitts after eating fish and chips, but Mister Tiki won’t have it!
«Would you like some more tartar sauce?»
Yes. Yes I would.
The staff here is very friendly and professional. The mark of a good waiter/​waitress is that when they come to ask how you’re doing, they actually look at your food and drink to see what you’ve done with it. I was in the middle of another long-​winded story, all the more lengthened by my Zombie-​fuelled enthusiasm, and I hadn’t even noticed that I had run out of tartar sauce, and was just pushing the last clumps around my plate. But she noticed. The staff at Mister Tiki has got you covered, and are fun people to boot.
Ah, the Zombie! Yes, it does come in a shrunken head. Why wouldn’t it? All the fabulous tiki drinks are tasty, strong, and speared with fruit.
Towards the end of my meal, my coworkers asked me to stop saying the word «awesome», and even though they wholeheartedly agreed, if I wanted to continue talking about Mister Tiki’s greatness, could I please discover a new adjective?
No.
Mister Tiki is AWESOME!
Mister Tiki is a little bit pricey, but the tiki gods demand a sacrifice in return for eating and drinking this well.

I feel generous for giving this place 2 stars instead of 1 already. But since their food wasn’t vile and horribly inedible…
My friends and I researched this place in advance for San Diego’s Restaurant Week. We needed a place that was $ 20 which wasn’t Mexican, Greek, or Italian… someone mentioned that Mister Tiki Mai Tai had decent ratings on Unilocal so we decided to check it out.
What a mistake. Admittedly, our visit didn’t start out downright discouraging. We were running late, called in ahead of time to warn them we would be 15 – 20 minutes late. They were very nice about it; but when we arrived we saw why: the restaurant was fairly empty. It was also fairly dark, but I suppose all «date» restaurants have the same ambiance. People look better in the dark, right?
Our waitress introduced herself (I would almost feel bad for putting her blast like this, but she delivered such poor service I feel as if she deserves it) as Megan. She seemed friendly enough.
Except that she took forever to take our order. We asked which entrée – the ribs or the mahi mahi– was more satisfying (aka bigger-​portioned). Megan replied, «Oh, they’re about the same size». So I got the mahi mahi. She also had to consult the menu to take our orders – shouldn’t she know the pre-​fixed menu by memory?
Our appetizers came first. Not too bad. We ordered one of each in order to try them all; the goat cheese wontons were too cheesy for my liking, the coconut shrimp was decent, and the tuna roll was your run of the mill tuna roll from a sushi place.
We then waited for our entrees – we didn’t wait terribly long for them but nor did they come immediately after we finished our appetizers. With the arrival, I got an unpleasant surprise: Megan lied! My mahi mahi was NOT the same size as the ribs which my friend got; it was miniscule in comparison. But it was pretty good, though I have to say Mister Tiki should loosen their purse strings a little: the menu description implied the mahi mahi was accompanied with «steamed bok choy» and indeed it was. With ONE bok choy. ONE. The fish and the one solid vegetable was on top on what I suspect to be undercooked «black Thai rice». (Rice shouldn’t be crunchy… should it?)
I tried my friend’s ribs and they were average. Nothing too spectacular.
We then cleaned off our plates and sat patiently for our dessert. Megan came and went, passed our table without so much as offering to fill our water (oh, my mistake; she did offer but quickly forgot). We stared her down each time she passed by, hoping she got the hint. Finally, we flagged her down: my friend who was missing a class since Megan seemed to be taking her sweet as time asked her, «Hi, I’m missing a class right now so is there anyway we can rush the dessert?»
«Oh, there’s only so much I can do,» Megan replied. «I put in the order, but there’s only so fast they can make it… I can try though.» She spoke with a smile on her face, but her condescending demeanor was still present nonetheless.
«Bullshit,» my friend muttered under her breath. «I used to work in a restaurant and you can ALWAYS rush an order.»
Megan came back a moment later to reassure us that she was indeed trying as «HARD AS SHE COULD» to rush the order. She claimed she put in the ticket extremely early and had no control over the situation… if that was the case, why did patrons who came in after us already receive their dessert?
Finally, after approximately 30 minutes, the dessert came. Megan returned to tell us the dessert we had previously wanted was not available. She brought us a substitute without asking us if that was what we wanted. («This Rocky Road is the best flavor!» she claims, after having previously stated «Everyone loves the Dark Chocolate Raspberry!». MAKE UP YOUR MIND.)
The dessert was probably the best part of the meal: the dark chocolate cake and banana bread pudding were both delicious and reasonably portioned. Both sweet and not too overwhelmingly so.
The bill finally comes at 9:00 (we had been there since 6:30). We notice this is only time throughout the meal Megan was most attentive to us: when it was time for her to collect her bill.
This is why I detest dining at restaurants where there is a mandatory 18% gratuity; the waitress knows she can do a terrible service and yet receive a generous tip. I have no idea if this is just Restaurant Week service, or if the food is normally better… but since Restaurant Week usually is a chance for patrons to experiment with different restaurants, I believe we should be given exemplary service and exquisite food to encourage our return. Mister Tiki did not bother doing this, and as a result, I vow never to return and will encourage anyone who reads this to follow suit. Your money can be better spent elsewhere.
In conclusion:
Ambiance: slightly above average.
Food: very, very average.
Service: absolutely terrible.

Giant Tiki masks on the walls, the tableside lava lamps, glass blow fish right above you and custom hand-​blown glass buoys strung with netting from the ceiling. This is easily a new favorite spot in the Gaslamp Quarter with our favorite tropical flavor and tiki style that we love.
For drinks try the Lei Me Martini and standard Mai Tai and appetizers everyone says the Shiitake Goat Cheese Wontons are the hit and yes they were great but we preferred the pot stickers the best. The menu isn’t veggie friendly at all, it focuses on a lot of asian fusion type dishes and rolls. 3 of us ordered the Mahi-​Mahi Fish and Chips and those were 5 stars. Tempura battered and home made kettle chips. We had such a great waiter and such an awesome time at dinner.
We wish would have gone back for happy hour or at least used the coupon that we found today after the fact. I ordered Jeff V. a subscription to Tiki magazine this year for his birthday and as luck would have it his last issue came today with a coupon for Mister Tiki, now I guess we have to go back.

This is the first spot that my friends and I went to for a drink and a bite to eat when we got to the Gaslamp area. The service was good. The food and drinks were ok. Nothing really impressed us, but nothing was bad either. The décor in this place is really cool. They have surfing videos playing on all the TVs that were around the place. They have some good happy hours deals, but we just missed it. So we’re not sure how things are from the happy hour menu. They have a sushi bar on one side. We were going to try in out but didn’t get a chance to. Maybe the next time if we come back here.

Normally I wouldn’t start off this way, but this place is just not worth it.
A friend of mine who live San Diego had always wanted to try this spot, so when I was in town, we came here for dinner. I actually was pretty excited because their onning from the outside said that they had poke, and since I am still coming off of my Hawaii vacation, this sounded really good to me.
The restaurant itself was pretty large, so I didn’t think much of the fact that there were not busy at all. It was a weeknight afterall.
My friend decided to do their pre-​fixe type of dinner, and I opted for an order of Poke (which you actually choose from a sushi menu) and another sushi roll of their regular menu. The fact that I had to order my Poke off a «checklist» sushi menu system should have gave it away.
The Poke was not poke at all. It was simply sashimi with sesame seeds on a bed of seaweed salad. The really sad thing about the poke was the fact that the waitress reiterated that I wanted the spicy poke, and even though I did say yes (by accident mind you) it was no where spicy at all. Again, it wasn’t even poke. The sushi also said spicy, and specifically spicy crab, but there was nothing spicy about the crab. There was some kind of spicy sauce that topped each sushi roll… and that was plenty spicey. The but the roll did not match the description.
My friends Kung Pow chicken was also described to be spicy, and though somewhat flavorful, had no indication of spice whatsoever.
Our waitress wasn’t very good at her job either. She hardly check on us and even forgot that we didn’t have utensils. She only remembered after giving us our food and realizing we had nothing ot eat it with. After ordering UN-​sweetened tea, I had to specifically ask her for sugar because there was none on the table. She was really bad… and I guess it didn’t matter because we were automatically charged for gratuity. And I’m not even sure why since it was only a party of 2… unless that is their policy.
I honestly thought of giving the place a 2 star rating because the flourless lava cake was pretty tasty and delicious, but I still can’t get over the automatic gratuity for poor service. And my meal definitely was not worth the $ 40 that I was charged. I’ve had better sushi at a walk-​in casual spot in New York.

Another mediocre to lackluster experience at a downtown establishment. My friend Lauren made the suggestion to head here before we supported some friends at 4^th and B last night. Unaware at first that it was in downtown, I acquiesced. My feelings about downtown are very cut and dry.
After making 5 million right turns, we found parking. Mr. Tiki’s was not hoppin’ by any means and so we were seated right away. Our waitress handed us our menus and made some drink suggestions. Lauren went with the Island Oasis, some apple brandy, sangria infused goblet of yum. Holly got A Good Lei, which was sweet and a tad minty. Lastly, my Pineapple Upside Down Martiki was underwhelming and lacked flavor for the $ 10 it cost. All the cocktails are at least $ 8.
As we waited for drinks, we set to work on reading the menu, which was probably the most amusing part of my experience here. Put lots of «wiki» and «aki» in your menu and you’ve got three goofy women acting like 12-​year olds. We are so refined. Anyway, Holly decided on some island influence quesdilla. Lauren got the chicken satay with an order of the sweet potato fries, while I was starving and ordered the Da Kine burger (medium rare of course) complete with sweet onion ketchup, pineapple wedge, and sweet potato fries.
I wasn’t impressed by the burger by any means. The meat was not flavorful though it came with burger trimmings to add. What did give it flavor was the pineapple, onion, and sweet onion ketchup I slathered on. The sweet potato fries are crispy and fried so they have an outer shell. They really looked like fried pieces of onion. I like hearty, stuff-​your-​face fries, not these crispy little waifs.
To top off the experience I decided we should get dessert. Because I love sweet stuff. After some deliberating I ordered the Drunken Monkey with an extra scoop of ice cream. Good thing too because those scoops are tiny! The two giant slices of banana bread were good, if not overwhelmingly banana-​y with some dessert rum poured on top.
Our bill came to about $ 80 for three of us. I was going to give the place 3 stars, but as I reviewed the experience, I really don’t find it worth it to return. It is also incredibly dim in there. Not sure how it adds to the island fusion ambiance. The cherry on top was the hostess’ lack of friendliness. As we we were out the door and around the corner she shouted a lifeless «Bye» in our direction. Yup. Bye.

Located in Gaslamp (Downtown area), this is one of the few restaurants that serves food until 1:00 a.m. We’ve been to this restaurant a few times in desperate cravings of sushi. We’ve also been here with a group of friends. We’ve tried the sushi, curry mussels, lettuce chicken wraps and even some of their appetizers, and although the food isn’t bad, the overpriced exotic drinks are more the appeal of this place. The late menu has less options but arrive early for a Hawaii ambiance and some good drinks.

The last time I went to Mister Tiki Mai Tai Lounge, there there was some kind of special where we ended up drinking carafes, yes, indeed, carafes, of Mai Tais. Happy hour has changed a bit since then and now they offer five sushi rolls, appetizers and drinks for $ 5 each until 7 p.m.
Even better, happy hour is available not just in the bar but in the entire restaurant. I enjoy the lanterns in the dining room, but I think it’s more interesting to sit in the bar where the giant Moai with the neon nose ring presides.
We sipped a «haole» mai tai and the coconut kiss cocktail and both were absolutely delicious. The calamari fries were ok, but I could eat a million of the shiitake and goat cheese wontons with garlic ponzu sauce. Yummy!

This is a beautiful, though gimmicy Hawaiian restauran in the middle of the Gaslamp. Recently, I joined several girlfriends to celebrate one of their birthdays. The first area is a spacious bar, decorated with grass huts, a winding bar and tiki torches. There are booths lining the sides of the room. The next room, which is the main dining room, has long tables for large parties, and large booths that offer some privacy for medium-​sized groups.
Again, tiki torches and grass huts filled the room. I really liked the colorful glass blowfish hanging from the ceiling. This turned out to be a fun place for a party, as there were two other birhtdays, a bachelorette party and a marriage proposal all in the same room that Saturday night.
The menu was primarily seafood, and was divided into appetizers, salads, sushi, and seafood entrees. I ordered the Ahi salad and a Mai Tai. The list of tropical drinks was expansive and expensive. My salad was delicious. The Mai Tai was a little too sweet… and I saved myself a few bucks, as I am sure it was way too sweet to order another one.
All in all, it was a fun night with some good food and drinks. Our server was attentive throughout. I doubt I’ll come for dinner again, but some of the appetizers sounded great and I’m dying to try a drink called the coconut kiss. Happy Hour sounded like a good deal.

I do love the blowfish lights at Mr. Tiki’s, they’re pretty awesome and I hope to find some for my house. The Coconut Kiss is pretty much amazing as well, but only worth it during $ 5 happy hour.
Everything else is «meh.» I feel like all the people around me who loved the place just had a few too many Coconut Kisses and that skewed their opinion. I’ve been twice now and I wasn’t unhappy with it either time, but not exactly shouting from the rooftops. I reserve that for my Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
Overall, it’s probably supa-​fly for the tourists. I mean it does feel beachy in there, but I’d rather save up and head to Hawaii.

Not a big fan of the food or service. Décor is a little cheeseball, not authentic at all. Way over-​priced fare but I think the way they serve their desserts in martini glasses is cute. This place is only good for the drinks in my opinion, if that’s your thing.
Food was okay. For the amount you pay you’d think they’d make bigger portions! The Ahi Salad was dry and a little bland. Pu-​pu platter was nothing to write home about. It took forever to get our food even though it was early and there weren’t too many people there yet. We practically had to beg for water refills by waving our glasses in the air to get our waitress’s attention, much to her annoyance.
Don’t think I’ll be heading back anytime soon.

Came here for a late dinner (kitchen closes around 1030)…the drinks are PERFECT!!! They come in pretty glasses, taste like Hawaii, and leave you w/​a great buzz ;)
Sweet potato fries and the sauce are deeeeeelicious and the sushi is yummy. Unfortunately their later night menu only has sushi and a selection from the main menu, we were still left with a lot of delicious sounding options.
Another cool aspect is that there’s a vibrant bar side and a quieter side so you have a choice!
The other reviews are right… GET THE HORNY MONKEY!

Every visit I have had to Mister Tiki has been a very positive experience. This place is great for all occasions: Dinner with friends, family in town, date night… you name it. The atmosphere is very inviting with fun décor like hanging blown glass fish and a giant tiki mask dude behind the bar.
speaking of the bar, what fun drinks! ive gotten the flaming drink for 2 a few times and always really enjoy it. large bowl drink with giant straws on either end, some mixed goodness with fruit chunks and bacardi 151 flaming in the center. how can you not enjoy that? definitely something cool to experience with out-​of-​towners. my last visit i had some sort of cantelope mixed drink (fabulous, but a little heavy on the ice making the drink actually kind of small) and their sangria which is made with rockstar guava — very interesting and tasty!
the food always rocks as well. id say this is a great place for a «refreshing, little meal» if you are looking for that. the menu is changed up every now and then keeping it fresh. way back when i had their salmon and seaweed salad which was great and last time i had the beef medallions with mashed sweet potatoes and ooooooooooh… delicious! and service was awesome. prompt, always there when needed and checked in quite a bit… great to see on a friday night.
A+ for ambiance, food, and service. i really do love this place and highly recommend.

I ate here last night with some friends with reservations that my dinner wasn’t going to be all that great. I was there four months ago and hated my dinner, I barely touched it, the ribs tasted awful.
So we ate here last night because we were walking around aimlessly trying to find a place to grub and this place had some immediate seating available. It was odd how we were assisted by the manager (?) when we walked in, he was dressed in a dark suit looking very investment banker-​ish when this place is overly decorated like Hawaii threw up in there. Our server, Bernice was very friendly, but she had to switch the area back to the other server who was not so warm and fuzzy with us, we wished she didn’t have to go!
We ordered the appetizer platter that came with two teeny tiny crab cakes, some calamari strips and two pieces of ahi wrapped in something. That platter cost $ 22 bucks, so not worth it. I ordered the shrimp tempura roll, it was good, but not the best. We also ordered some spring rolls that tasted okay as well.
When my friend ordered another Captain & Diet, our server came back with another drink for me (not Captain & Diet). When we told him that wasn’t the drink, our server blurted out «Oh crap.» I told him I’ll keep the drink since I was probably going to order another one anyway, but when he walked away to get the right drink, we laughed at how unprofessional he was by saying «oh crap» about f-​ing up the drink order… oh well, our server’s mind was obviously somewhere else last night… we wanted Bernice back!
This place wasn’t a hit when I was there four months ago and it still isn’t. I guess it’s more of a place for tourists, it’s at a perfect location in the midst of the hustle & bustle of the Gaslamp, but I can’t tell you that you have to check this place out if you’re in the area.

This place had a LOVELY atmosphere.
as for the food and drinks, I was very very disappointed. I came here for my friends birthday and the drinks were very weak. I ordered one of the most strongest drinks at our table and I didn’t even feel any kind of buzz of anything from there.
also their food was very bland and didn’t have any flavor at all. I thought there food was small and ok, but pricey for what I saw when it really came out. I couldn’t believe that my friend and I paid so much for such little food.
I feel like I could have gone to a Jack in a Box or Burger King and gotten more food that could have filled me up for that price.

1^st Stop in our «Dining Experience» — mini appetizer tour at several gaslamp stops.
The appetizers we had were pretty good… calamari, spring rolls, something else, and goat cheese wontons. The wontons were a BIT interesting, as I’m not really a goat cheese fan… but it was good.
The drinks were STRONG. Our server recommended the «Horny Monkey» — which was very strong banana-​flavored cocktail topped with a quarter of a banana with a plastic monkey. It definitely got stronger as I worked my way to the bottom.
My co-​workers shared a couple Volcano bowls, which was a bowl-​sized drink complete with a small fire in the middle. They definitely seemed to enjoy drinking out of the bowls with 2 foot long straws that they brought with them to the rest of our stops.
The staff was great. The atmosphere was good… definitely wouldn’t mind coming back again.

We had reservations for about 25 people and unfortunately our party got larger at the last minute. They couldn’t accomodate us inside so some of our party had to sit outside which was not bad considering how packed the restaurant already was.
I had the spicy miso seared salmon (roasted fingerling potatoes, mango seaweed salad, macadamia brown butter) and it was a very big portion. I got tired eating it halfway because it was just too much of one thing. The salmon was cooked nicely though, a little raw in the middle which is how it should be.
This place is pretty trendy, pricey & not so authentic but it’s in Gaslamp so it’s all for the atmosphere.