Swaylo’s Tiki Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Longmont

I ate lunch here with a friend on 03/19/22. We drove down from Fort Collins on our way to the mall in Lakewood. The restaurant is dark, but your eyes quickly adjust and notice the colorful lights, wall décor, and tropical plants. The relaxing sounds of Martin Denny, and even more recent stuff like new-to-me Swedish tiki band Ìxtahuele (a fantastic discovery!) were heard. The musical playlist was great, and really helped to set the mood! Neither my friend or I drink, so the option of virgin drinks was absolutely fantastic. I got a Blue Hawaiian and he got a Notorious P.O.G. For appetizers, we got Griddled Hawaiian Bread and Smoked Octopus Tostada, both very good. I almost got the Tiki Burger and Fries but wanted to try something different. So for an entree, I got the Luau Chicken. The potatoes that come with it were wonderful, as another couple one table over remarked, and the gravy the chicken comes in reminded me of Thanksgiving turkey gravy. Yum! My friend got the Hawaiian Fried Rice and added fried tofu. For dessert, we shared a piece of Haupia Pie and a Dole Whip. If you're looking for a souvenir to take home, check out the glass case at the front of the restaurant. They have Hawaiian shirts and tiki mugs for sale, both $25 each. In the 8 months I've known my friend, I told him this was the best restaurant I think we've eaten at, and certainly some of the best food I've had in years. For those of us who can feel easily overwhelmed in a loud and crowded bar environment where the focus is not the food, it was so thrilling to find a restaurant that has exceptional food, seating away from the bar, and even virgin drinks in a truly laid back island environment! I can't wait...

Same owner as The Roost and Jeffe's in Longmont with a tiki/Polynesian theme. Reminded us a little bit of the Rainforest Cafe minus the animatronics.

Food is secondary to the drinks just like the rest of their restaurants unfortunately.

Drinks are good, interesting and strong.

All three of our meals were bland and tasteless. The $17 fish tacos were light on the fish (go to Wahoo's for better/cheaper fish tacos, they're a block away). Burger was good quality ingredients and well-cooked but even with the side sauce, lacked flavor. French fries needed salt.

Many items had pineapple but they left the hard core of the pineapple in the slice which was too hard to bite into and made the bite unpleasant.

Service was great.

GM came to ask about the food and offered to give us free desserts (we asked for no special favors 3 times but he insisted), we gave him honest feedback and he thanked us because they were still figuring things out only being open for 1 week.

Deserts: ice cream was good but we found the Hawaiian bread weird (how about a cookie or brownie or something instead?), cheesecake was good (but had the pineapple core on it again like the burger).

Very pricey but so is every place in Longmont nowadays... Definitely too much $ for the food. Drinks weren't cheap either. Only 4 items under $10 on the menu and they were all appetizers, many items over $15. You're gonna pay a lot for dinner, just understand that going in.

Overall: just ok. Wouldn't come back unless we're drinking heavily. Hoping that maybe they hit their stride in a few months, but knowing their other restaurants, I'm not...

We have eaten at Swaylo's twice now for lunch. The first time, we ordered the coconut shrimp appetizer with an order of Hawaiian rolls, both very good, however unlike most restaurants, the rolls were not free ($5 for 3 small rolls). The main courses we ordered were Ahi, Teriyaki sticks and beef with broccoli. The Ahi and rice was very good, the teriyaki chicken sticks were also good, but not great. The chicken was way too tough for my taste. The beef with broccoli could have been excellent had it been less salty (too much soy sauce perhaps?) Visit #2 we ordered the same thing. This time the Ahi was way too dry, the beef and broccoli was saltier than the first time, which is saying a lot, the teriyaki chicken sticks also overly salty.

The recipes themselves, along with the food presentation were top notch. Definitely developed by a well-trained, seasoned Executive Chef. The issue is he/she was not the one in the kitchen preparing the dishes. IMO, the kitchen staff requires more training so that these fine recipes are prepared in the way the EC intended. If he/she can do that, Swaylo's will be something truly special!

Management should be advised that the service was really sub-par. At 12:30 on a Tuesday, a family with a handicapped son in a wheel chair waited 15 minutes just to be acknowledged and another 10 to be seated! We were behind them and had to wait just as long. There were only six tables being served at the time. We really, really want this restaurant to succeed because it has huge potential, so please get your...