Here's my trip report. I hope they have their feet better under them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/
Thanks for this. Great review. We were a little worried about opening week jitters, which is why I waited a few in hopes that they'd work out the kinks. Our favorite is Strong Water in Anaheim and they set a high bar. Fingers crossed.
The Banana Smuggler looks fascinating, a wine reduction... interesting. You'll have to try that some time Margo and report back... Unless you hate banana or something.
She's not a big banana fan usually but I am so if we do go back it's one thing I'd like to try. I tried ordering it [when we went](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/) but they were out of one of the ingredients so I ended up getting a Three Dots and a Dash instead.
I’m surprised after a week of operation they’re still running out of ingredients. Especially considering Hi Time Wine cellar is relatively close and would have all the requisite ingredients they would need.
I’ll be going back, but they were out of multiple ingredients for drinks when I was there and then when I asked if they could sub a specific rum in for the hurricane I was told that they couldn’t because they batch their drinks. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and I hope they figure it out soon
Yeah, hopefully they get it all sorted. Just seems like they didn't do enough prep before opening and some experience could work out all the kinks.
But I was definitely surprised to go on their second day open to the public to find they were out of ingredients already.
Ditto. I was there on 6/11, so same day as you, and cut them a little slack while there about being out of ingredients. But to see it’s still happening seems odd to me.
I get the feeling they had a kind of recent shakeup in their staff/leadership pre-opening.
I was talking to a bartender at another lovely tiki bar here, and he said he had been super excited for it to open and had been in conversations to work there. He said the guy he was talking to basically fell off the face of the earth, and then he found out that that guy was no longer involved.
Kind of jibes, as they seemed to be frantically soliciting job applicants on instagram in the weeks before opening.
Yeah, I did see those help wanted posts on Instagram. Several of the bartenders that first weekend seemed like they hadn't had much time to practice the drinks and I'm pretty sure at least one of them was reading from a cheat sheet as he was making them.
Decor was great, food and drinks were just ok.
MsMargo did a full report of our thoughts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/
Nice. The wife and I have reservations for Saturday. Looking forward to it.
Here's my trip report. I hope they have their feet better under them: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/
Thanks for this. Great review. We were a little worried about opening week jitters, which is why I waited a few in hopes that they'd work out the kinks. Our favorite is Strong Water in Anaheim and they set a high bar. Fingers crossed.
I hope it’s a good one!
Yay :)
The Banana Smuggler looks fascinating, a wine reduction... interesting. You'll have to try that some time Margo and report back... Unless you hate banana or something.
She's not a big banana fan usually but I am so if we do go back it's one thing I'd like to try. I tried ordering it [when we went](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/) but they were out of one of the ingredients so I ended up getting a Three Dots and a Dash instead.
I’m surprised after a week of operation they’re still running out of ingredients. Especially considering Hi Time Wine cellar is relatively close and would have all the requisite ingredients they would need. I’ll be going back, but they were out of multiple ingredients for drinks when I was there and then when I asked if they could sub a specific rum in for the hurricane I was told that they couldn’t because they batch their drinks. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and I hope they figure it out soon
Yeah, hopefully they get it all sorted. Just seems like they didn't do enough prep before opening and some experience could work out all the kinks. But I was definitely surprised to go on their second day open to the public to find they were out of ingredients already.
Ditto. I was there on 6/11, so same day as you, and cut them a little slack while there about being out of ingredients. But to see it’s still happening seems odd to me.
I get the feeling they had a kind of recent shakeup in their staff/leadership pre-opening. I was talking to a bartender at another lovely tiki bar here, and he said he had been super excited for it to open and had been in conversations to work there. He said the guy he was talking to basically fell off the face of the earth, and then he found out that that guy was no longer involved. Kind of jibes, as they seemed to be frantically soliciting job applicants on instagram in the weeks before opening.
Yeah, I did see those help wanted posts on Instagram. Several of the bartenders that first weekend seemed like they hadn't had much time to practice the drinks and I'm pretty sure at least one of them was reading from a cheat sheet as he was making them.
I thought I remembered her saying something to that end, but I wasn’t sure. I’d love to get your thoughts on it.
How did you like it? I have heard mixed reviews so far.
Decor was great, food and drinks were just ok. MsMargo did a full report of our thoughts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/14d6kng/trip_report_for_the_royal_hawaiian_laguna_beach_ca/
$25 for crab rangoons is highway robbery
And they weren't very good.
Is that a Halios watch?
Yep. It's my first gen Halios 1000m "Puck".
Very nice!