| rev:text
| - We live down the street and anxiously awaited the unveiling of this place. Already stoked to have Lola within walking distance, I must admit I was less than thrilled to learn it was a "tiki bar".
While walking the dog, we turned into the parking lot this fine Sunday afternoon and thought, "what the hell?..." so we decided to stop in and check it out.
First, they are dog friendly on the patio and the dog bowl full of water at the entrance is very inviting. Second, I like the sparse tables on the patio. It beats the hell out of scrunching a bunch of oversize tables into uncomfortably small spaces (ahem...Oregano's).
We ordered the shrimp coconut rolls and I got a Painkiller (dark rum, coco lopez, fresh squeezed pineapple and o.j.) Delish! Although the shrimp rolls need an extra layer of flavor on the inside (red pepper? mango?) they were tasty enough. Great app, nice portion size, plump, juicy shrimp. The sauce is just divine.
Next up- ahi tuna poke (aka "crack in a bowl"). Nice cuts of ahi marinated in a perfectly balanced soy, sesame oil with citrus hints, minced macadamia nuts, green onions and little bit o' heaven. Seriously, couldn't stop eating it. It was damn tasty. Tastier than toro poke at other places I've had.
Cocktail #2- The Zombie. The tiki glass was cute, a little too Disney/Macayo's for me and way too strong with no actual flavor. Both my husband and I were bartenders and can appreciate a well-crafted, toxic cocktail. However, this was lacking and not sure what could've saved it. Our server was gracious and understanding, happily swapping that for my much-beloved Painkiller. Mmmm. mmmm. good. Although this time it arrived with some sprinkle of nutmeg? allspice? on top....hmmm...curious as the last one didn't have it but tasty nonetheless.
Enjoying the ambiance and not wanting to leave, we ordered sweet potato fries. Tasty and more crack in that sauce. Ginger with some....crack. It was just good. The fries not greasy, not too crispy, not soggy. Well done.
On to dessert. Husband had the key lime pie and I had the brownie with macadamia nut ice cream. Mine was "eh", nothing to write home about. I'm a brownie/chocolate cake snob. The key lime pie was tart, sweet, creamy, nice crust (suspect it was actually homemade).
Overall, a great experience. I love that they are in the hood, not pretentious and seem to know exactly who they are and what they want to accomplish. We talked to the owner and this is not a "chain" but a collection of 3 friends who have similar concepts and invest together. I think it's great that the attention to detail is obvious. The space is downright lovely and it seems like a wonderful gathering for groups. We saw several large parties (6+) handled with ease and grace.
Like any new restaurant, there are some consistency kinks to work out but I love the attitude of this place and definitely see more afternoons on the lovely patio sipping some Painkillers....hello Arizona fall.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)