Enjoy on Your Own - Don't Do the Show
- January 9, 2008
- Rated 5 of 5 by
rjp3 from cambridge, Massachusetts
Every other year my partner and I enjoy The Mai Kai. It is not just a Fort Lauderdale, or Florida CLASSIC - it is an AMERICAN CLASSIC TIKI INSTITUTION.
Dont do the show. You have less (great) food to choose from.
And you WILL be seated on long tables jammed together.
HINT: Book dinner for around 9:15. Show starts at 930.
Non-dinner show guests are seated in more private and beautiful spots. If you dont have a direct view - get up and walk around and enjoy the show. There are all kinds of interesting nooks and corners to explore.
DID YOU KNOW - the materials to build the Mai Kain in the 1950's were FLOWN IN FROM HAWAII - along with the carvers and builders.
SUPPORT THE MAI KAI - something like it will NEVER EVER come again.
The bar is a trip - PRE-DISNEY total immersion (rain outside the port holes--- bridges over indoor rivers).
You will get great asian/hawaiian food - beautiful fun - cool TIKI GLASSES to take home.
ENJOY ... just dont feel like you have to do the show!
Mai Kai
- February 16, 2007
- Rated 1 of 5 by
mahart1975 from Miami Beach, Florida
This restaurant was the worst restaurant experience in my entire life. First, we made a reservation for 9:30pm and were horded like cattle into their Tiki bar where we had to wait for the next Hawaiian Dancer show. We thought we had the 9:30 show, but they overbooked.
Next, it took until 11:30pm until we finally got seated and we had no idea what to do. A line formed to get in and we found ourselves in a "first come first seated" situation with people that just walked in. So much for reservations!
There was no order to anything and nobody would tell us the truth about how things worked. They just made us sit in the bar and wait and they would "call us."
After the long wait, surely the food must be good at least, right? WRONG! The menu was all colorful and full of yummy sounding things, but the food was absolutely terrible. I thought that a steak priced at $43 would have been delicious, but I have eaten WAY better at Outback or Longhorn. These steaks were maybe $12 Applebee's kind of quality.
The service was terrible. We had to flag down a waiter to take our order. For the prices in this place, we should have had people waiting on us hand and foot! Fine dining prices for Denny's quality service. Actually, that's not fair because Denny's is WAY more responsive than this.
The Hawaiian show was so clichéd. The narrator of the show was so cynical and made sure to plug for the restaurant bar and the gift shop oh so many times. The show was not at all worth the hassle or the bad service.
This place is nothing but a gimmick, and a bad one at that. I would NEVER waste my money or time going to this place again, and I hope nobody else does. The best way to put tourist trap chop shops like this out of business is to simply NOT EAT THERE.
From journal Valentines Day at Mai Kai