Scott D.
Yelp
First time at Tiki Bar, went with two other couples for a Saturday night dinner and drinks.
If you read 8-10 reviews, you will probably get the gist of this place. I like restaurants with something unique or interesting about them...and I generally like 'cook your own' places as well. Tiki bar appeals on both counts here, it's got a cool vibe, a great setting by the Manatawny river (right on it in fact), good music and a really nice, young energetic staff. All a plus in my book and all important to a fun night out at a restaurant. In this area, especially, interesting/cool spots are not that plentiful, this place is definitely that.
Where it struggles is in the quality and value of the food and drinks. First off, if you are a tiki bar you should have a wide variety of tiki cocktails... not just a hurricane and beer. No Rum Runner, Planters Punch, Zombie, Mai Tai or even a pina colada/strawberry daquirii? I didn't see a blender anywhere. No drink list in a tiki bar? Really? I ordered a hurricane and for $7.75 it was served to me in a 10 oz plastic cup (the cheap kind). It wasn't great, didn't have any fruit in it (typically a slice of orange and a cherry) and I didn't order another (though I did drink several delicious shocktop summer beers).
The food (mix and match kebabs with scallops, beef, sausage (looked like kielbasa), shrimp or gator and a few steak options (to go with or without kebabs) was decent. I had gator and a mustard marinated steak kebab...both were seasoned well but the gator was tough/chewy (probably just a gator thing) and the beef was only OK in terms of quality (3 chunks totaling probably 4 oz, 2 of the 3 chunks were quite sinewy). Baked potato is good and the salad was pretty much lettuce with a couple of veggies.
Overall, the food gets a 3 from me, the setting/vibe gets a 4 and the price brings the whole thing back down to a 3. $23 for 2 kebabs a potato and a salad that I cook and serve myself is pretty pricey for these parts. Almost $8 for a so-so 8oz hurricane in a 'college bar cup' also leaves me concerned. Lastly a tip jar everywhere you look (when you buy your steak, when you cook your steak, at the bar and obviously for the server who brings drink and clears your table) leaves me feeling liked I tipped more than normal and I cooked my own food and did half of my own serving?
Glad we went...would I go back? Not until I run out of other new places to try.