Blinded By The Light

Come here during the day and the afternoon sun quickly blinds you as you approach the door set in the middle of a large white adobe wall. Once you find the door and step inside, prepare to wait for about 10 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the near total darkness that the Vegas sun has not prepared your eyes for. No joke, the first few times I came here during the day, I would stand at the front door for easily 5 minutes trying to make out things I was definitely going to trip on. Now being a Frankie’s semi-regular, I can easily make a beeline to the bar by just smelling for the rum. Well sort of smelling the rum…

The Decor

The one thing about Frankie’s Tiki Room, well it’s certainly in Vegas. Why? Well there is the requisite video poker machines along the long single bar that runs the length of the building. But mostly, the smell of years and years of smoke. This building originally was Frankie’s Lounge, a cocktail bar that opened back in the 60’s. Frankie’s has only been around since 2009 but seems like it has been there forever. The decor is perfect tiki. Bamboo, Tiki’s, Vintage GoGo  dancing playing on a loop on the tv. A Long bar, high top seating, a few tables, and two great deep booth areas to accommodate a couple large groups semi privately. These are the great features of Frankie’s. Well, that and the Drinks!

Making The Drinks

There are typically two bartenders here and they are the fastest tiki bartenders you will ever see. it’s rather impressive that the drinks are as good as they are but are still made so dang quick. Granted these are not your Smuggler’s Cove level of beverages but the thing is too, they will not break the bank. And what with being in Vegas and all, having at least one thing not cost an arm and a leg is a good thing. Drinks here are typically never more than $9. Super great! The bartending staff are all really friendly as well. No matter what time you come. Did I mention this is a 24hour tiki bar?

About Those Drinks

All the drinks here are great. They offer a huge selection of originals and then a small variety of classic drinks on the back of the menu. My usual staples apply here; Zombie (grenadine heavy), Mai Tai (quite great and not too tart), and Three Dots and a Dash (honey forward!). My favorite original drink here is the Three Rum Scum. A bit of punch to it along with some nice coconut and pineapple to it. Not quite as thick as a Painkiller but some similar taste to it.

In Summary

It’ll take you 10-15 minutes to get out to Frankie’s Tiki Room from the strip depending on where you are coming from. There are no food options out there so make sure your belly is full before you get all the way out there (unless you want to frogger across the street to the Del Taco). Oh, if this is going to be a mid-day adventure, plan on changing clothes when you get back to the hotel on account of how much smoke smell you will have absorbed into your clothes (and then seal those clothes in a plastic bag in your luggage!).

I love everything about Frankie’s and no doubt you will too. A perfect place to escape from the strip and soak in all that we enjoy about a good tiki joint and beverage!

The post Tiki Bar Review: Frankie’s Tiki Room appeared first on Badgersans Tiki Hut.

The Location

As is the case with several tiki bars I have been to, The Golden Tiki is in a strip mall and pretty easy to miss. Once you get to the porthole covered door, you enter into a small cave room replete with faux rock walls and “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirates life for me” playing from the speakers. Upon entering the second door you are presented with a very long L shaped bar with plenty of seating.  Some small high tables are at one side, a few large booths and then a private back room. While it didn’t feel crowded it really was as every seat was taken.

We stood close at the bar for a little while (there isn’t much room to hover around the bar as the aisles are very small) while I figured out the reservation system. If you check online at their site, they do take reservations through an online form, and if you ask the host at the front entry, they will also try to accommodate you (which thankfully they did with us in what turned out to be a large party of 8 or so).

The inside decor is really quite great. A high ceiling includes a fiber optic night time star effect that gives the whole room a fanciful charm. The lighting levels are perfect. The walls, booth, and bar are all adorned with fun tiki and Polynesian pics and props.

The Drinks

So the drinks; Lots of great ingredients and a pretty big menu. The service time was pretty long. They were quite busy, but at least once I think our order was completely lost. Even our server didn’t know what happened to it, but she was nice to bridge us over with some complementary shots. I ended up having a Mai Tai and the Navy Grog that night. Both had good flavors but were very very light on the booze. Thankfully they weren’t completely sweet. Pretty much everyone in our party that night who I polled all agreed that the drinks were light on the booze. Heavy on the juice.

Overall

The Golden Tiki gets high marks for it’s decor and ambiance and while the drinks were not really awesome or ‘leaded’, they were still okay – and maybe it’s a good thing that they weren’t too strong, you are in Vegas after all, and this probably wasn’t going to be your first or last stop of the evening.

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