We recently visited Secret Island Tiki which has been on our list for a while. It is located on the corner of Broadway and Pine under Shannon's. We parked in the multi-story parking garage behind Hamburger Mary's. Secret Island is a little over a block away. You can make reservations on OpenTable.
It has a bit of a speakeasy entrance, as it is not plainly marked. Look for the staircase going down with greenery around it and the Secret Island sign downstairs. Go right at the bottom of the stairs and there is a little walkway where you see a very cool tiki display. It you stay there long enough, the lights will flash and you will hear thunder. Walk a little further and go through the door to enter.
I was blown away by the atmosphere and build. Kudos to Bamboo Ben! It is dimly lit with a ton of cave wall, bamboo, thatch, netting, tiki lights, floats, skulls, tikis, and other décor. The bar is loaded with bottles and looks great with dark blue and green backlighting. The bar top is wood with deep cutouts that are filled with clear epoxy. The booths in the main dining area are little tiki huts and even have clouds overhead.
There was great tiki music playing the whole time. A few times an hour a thunderstorm hits. The lights dim, lightning flashes with thunder sound effects, and red lights illuminate cracks in the floor that looks like lava veins. There is also a photo-op "Pele's Throne" which is a big lava rock surrounded chair.
We sat at the bar and had the coconut shrimp appetizer ($12). The shrimp were breaded and cooked well, and had a coconut sprinkle on top. The spicy dipping sauce complemented the shrimp well.
I started out with the Drunken Monkey (Makers Mark 46, Jamaican rum, banana liqueur, cinnamon, allspice, Angostura bitters, normally $19, $17 during happy hour). It was somewhat bourbon forward with a little funk from the Jamaican rum. I definitely got the cinnamon notes with a little banana and allspice in the background.
She started out with the El Capitan Hook (Del Maguey mezcal, pineapple, banana liqueur, Luxardo cherry liqueur, lime, $17, $15 during happy hour). This was smoke forward with light pineapple and banana flavor.
I had the Hula burger ($18) which was very good with a lot of different flavors from the various toppings. It came with a decent amount of fries, and was a filling plate.
She had the pineapple bowl fried rice and added with BBQ pork ($17 + $5 for pork add-on). It is served in half of a scooped out pineapple and had a good amount of rice with pork and green onions on top. It had a good mix of teriyaki sauce on the rice and BBQ sauce on the pork.
Next, I had the Rum Runner (coconut and blended dark rums, banana liqueur, raspberry, grenadine, pineapple, orange, lime, $18, $15 during happy hour). It was very pineapple and coconut forward which overpowered all of the other ingredients.
She also had the Let That ManGo (white rhum agricole, coconut, mango, lemon, $18, $16 during happy hour). The primary flavors here were mango with some grassiness from the agricole.
We were here from about 6pm to 8pm on a Wednesday night and it was pretty dead with only a few other people in the place the whole time. They do have a stage in the back with live music acts, so it is probably busier when there is entertainment and on weekends.
Our first bartender was Alex who was nice but we barely talked with him. Manager Pedro took over the bartender duties later on and we had a great time chatting with him. Service was great from both of them.
The drinks are a few dollars above average, but if you come during happy hour, the drinks are several dollars off. Happy hour is currently all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, and Thursday through Saturday from 5pm to 8pm.
The food was good, the drinks were ok to good, and the atmosphere was great. Normally, this would probably be a one and done, but I really liked the build and would like to come back when it is busier, maybe on a weekend. read more