The Golden Tiki — Restaurant in Spring Valley

The Golden Tiki is a fantastic tiki bar located in Chinatown part of Las Vegas, Nevada. It's a quick Lyft/Uber ride away, easily accessible off the freeway. I mention getting a ride because these drinks are superb and after a couple, you probably won't want to be driving. 😂

As soon as you enter, you're in a small vestibule type of entranceway. It's all rock like going into a cave, with a small waterfall flowing, and it's dark! The next door, you're transported to some tropical island in the Caribbean or south Pacific, perhaps. Certainly a place where many sailors have been. The entire place is decorated with elaborate displays of bamboo, seashells, nets. and water. The natives, sometimes known as "headhunters" play a large part in the decor, with many shrunken heads of celebrities on display.

While you enter into the "bar" area, which is very large, with seating for more than thirty around the bar, there are also tables around THAT area. Then, in the back is a more "quiet" and relaxed area with seating for large groups. You can really spend some time looking around at all the decor. Many of the displays look straight out of movie, they're so well done. Be sure to look inside the portholes on each of the walls in the back room!

The restrooms are located in the back, as well. Wow! So much fun! Never a dull moment. They're clean, sure, but time was spent decorating them and it shows. Worth a visit even if you don't have to go!

Music is playing not SO loud you can't talk to the person next to you, but certainly loud enough you know it's there. Sometimes they have LIVE bands playing!

Now, the drinks. They certainly have all the favorites like mai tai's, zombies, and pina colada, but they have many of their own creations. I've had quite a few in my many visits and they are SUPER tasty! I don't think you can go wrong. The menu has "Dots" next to the drinks (like morse code) which signify how strong a drink is. The more dots (up to 5), the stronger the drink.

They also serve food here. It's not a full fledged restaurant, but it's enough snacks to tide you over.

Happy Hour is the real treat. Great specials on drinks AND food. You can really do well coming here then, saving a LOT of money, but having all the fun.

I usually go during the week and it's never been busy. However, this time I arrived on a Saturday, about 6 pm and the place was PACKED! Reservations only, they said. Fortunately, a group had left early, so they were able to seat us at a table for about an hour. Enough time to enjoy the live music, a couple drinks, and relax.

It's important to note this is one of Las Vegas' two premier tiki bars. Each has their good and bad. One of the best things about the Golden Tiki is it appears to be Non-Smoking. I observed several people going out the back door, which seemed to have a sitting area, outside, where people could go smoke. I understand many bars in California have a similar set up, which I truly LOVE and wish more Las Vegas places had this. The other Las Vegas Tiki bar, Frankie's, is simply incredibly smokey. Like a WALL of smoke as soon as you enter. You HAVE to shower after leaving because it's in your clothes, your hair. It's just awful. One leaves Golden Tiki smiling and smelling as pretty as you did when you came in.

Another difference of Frankie's and Golden Tiki is the prices. Frankie's cocktails are all the same price. Golden Tiki's varies, some getting pretty expensive, BUT Golden Tiki has a Happy Hour which includes MANY drink specials. Plus Frankie's doesn't have food. Frankie's sells MANY different ceramic souvenir mugs, for about $25. This visit to Golden Tiki, they only had one style, and it was $60! 😳

Frankie's doesn't always have enough staff working. You will wait in line to order a drink and then wait again for the drink to be made. At Golden Tiki, you have a waitress comes right to your table to take your order. They check back with you, not being a pest, but just to see if you're okay.

Both places are worth a visit, but I go to Golden Tiki most often so I don't...

Ok, I write a lot of reviews, because I go out a lot. I try to be fair with my reviews. With that said, this was the very worst experience I can remember at any Las Vegas bar or restaurant.

Went at around noon on a Friday, was not drinking, but just looking to check the place out and have a couple apps. I had never been there in my forty years in Las Vegas, and was curious what I had been missing.

Turned out to be the worst experience I have had anywhere in the city of Las Vegas. First of all they confiscate your credit card before you are seated. Now I realize why they do that, I would bet they have many customers who simply refuse to pay.

We were seated at a table right next to a water feature that continually sprayed water on the person sitting next to it. And that was the best thing I can say about my visit.

I was not drinking and that probably was a mistake, being dead drunk is probably the only way someone could enjoy this establishment.

We ordered the following apps, Hot Bites, Sticky Fingers,  Crab Rangoon and Coconut Shrimp. Let's start with the Hot Bites, think Ore-Ida miniature tater tots right out of the microwave. It was a larger serving, which in this case was a minus not a plus. I think I ate five on the sixty or so in the serving. But wait.....it gets worse!

Next the Sticky Fingers, I guess it was some kind of Chicken Nugget, with some kind of Asian dipping sauce. You know how sometimes you put something in your mouth and the more you chew it, the bigger and bigger it gets in your mouth. The one bite I tried wound up spit into my napkin as it never got small enough to swallow. Rating INEDIBLE,

I would rate the Crab Rangoon, and the Coconut Shrimp much higher, I would say almost edible. I would rate them a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, but they probably were only that good in comparison with the Sticky Fingers and Hot Bites.

As we were leaving, my complaint to the hostess, fell on very deaf ears, I am betting she just gets tired of hearing it from almost every customer. Who knows,, but to say she was impolite was a understatement.

My honest advice, avoid this place at all costs. You have...

Reading about The Golden Tiki will undoubtedly bring up the word 'vibe' a lot. Once you step through their unassuming strip mall front doors and into this treasure island fever dream you will understand why. The entire bar area and two themed side rooms are stuffed with so much character, and the attention to detail is seriously unreal. I could have spent hours just wandering around and taking it all in. Even the restroom is an adventure unto itself.

They were rocking and rolling with a full house even at eleven on a Sunday, so I'd recommend getting a reservation like we did. Otherwise go during off times or be prepared to wait. The busiest employees we encountered were all still nice if not brief, and our main server was very knowledgeable and attentive even being as busy as she was. This place is a party, and it's well worth planning your evening around. It would be a heck of a place to catch a concert.

My wife and I weren't very hungry but after feeling out the considerable alcohol content in their cocktails, we decided to split some coconut shrimp for extra padding which we enjoyed. They were left in the fryer for too long and had black edges, yet were still tender and paired with a killer sweet chili dipping sauce. Though the menu is mostly just Hawaiian style bar food, our shrimp was delicious enough to peak our interest with plans to come back hungry next time with the hope that whoever is manning the fryer isn't asleep at the wheel.

Tiki drinks should be a perfect balance of sweet and tartness to expertly hide the fact that the cocktail is proofed high enough to humble even the most seasoned booze hound. The Golden Tiki has not only perfected this art but also enhanced it with inventive deviations from the classics and entirely new creations that blew us away. A place this awesome to look at and be in could have easily just phoned it in with resort style Mai Tais. Lucky for us someone behind the bar has a mind for forward thinking mixology combined with a reverence for tiki bar culture. The results speak...