A vacation while you're on vacation is dinner at the
Mai-Kai. That restaurant is a primitive patch of Polynesian on US 1 in Fort Lauderdale. We arrived early and sat in the bar for awhile. The bar looks like the inside of an old sailing ship. Beautiful girls in Molokai costume take your order from a menu of 50 specialty tropical drinks. I choose Tropical Breeze, fruit juice and rum. For some strange reason, the ice in the drink didn't melt - it didn't even get slushy.
We made reservations for dinner and the show and eventually we were directed to our table. Several "rooms" are around the centrally located stage. They had names like The Tahiti Room, The Hawaii Room, etc. Of course, it all looked like the inside of a big tiki hut, with a variety of handmade lampshades dimly lighting the area. Genuine Polynesian items hung from the ceiling also. It's very South Seas-looking.
We got a menu with four entrees because we were staying for the show. I chose Beef with Mushrooms and my husband wanted to try Ginger Garlic Beef. The first course served was a Pupu Platter with 10 items for each of us. Three different dips were brought for them. They were very good, but with the drink, a little too filling. I wasn't really hungry by the time dinner was served. My dinner had large chunks of mushrooms with tender well-cooked chunks of beef. I tried some, and it tasted good, but I ended up taking most of it home. It was great when I had it for lunch the next day. My husband said his was delicious. It was served with big pieces of red and green peppers and very spicy. Two very generous scoops of sherbet were served for dessert.
The show was excellent. The singers, drummers and dancers were obviously natives of the Polynesian Islands. The performers did an exquisite rendition of the Hawaiian Wedding Song. It is one of my favorites and it was our wedding anniversary. The lead dancer had come to our resort the preceding Tuesday and taught Polynesian dance, so we knew what the dance was about.
There is a gift shop in the complex with a large selection of clothes, jewelry and gift items.