VenTiki Tiki Lounge and Lanai — Restaurant in Ventura

Unbelievably bad customer experience. We came and stood by the host stand for so long with no service that we nearly left. I turned to my wife and said "maybe they're not seating anymore." A man on the other side of the patio heard this, seemed annoyed, and meandered over, he presented himself as either the host or apparently a bouncer? We came for dinner but instead we got harassed by the host about my wife's ID. To be clear, we came for dinner and at no point in time requested any alcohol. He would not seat us because he quizzed us both about the addresses on our IDs, and my wife's is very old and nearly expired, and she couldn't remember the zip code having moved multiple times since then. He also proceeded to lecture us about how that wasn't ok and if we move she needed a new license. While he is technically correct about what you should do when you move, again, I was hungry, and requested neither any alcohol nor his opinion. Additionally we were unable to update when we moved due to COVID and I guess we've let it fall by the wayside since she almost never drives working from home. If he was unwilling to serve her alcohol because of this I honestly think I could understand but he wouldn't even let us in and by the time he had gone through this entire charade he had turned us off to the whole place. I'm trying to give as much credit as possible here, my wife genuinely couldn't answer the question from memory but the only places i think I've ever been carded without asking for a drink are the strip club and the casino and this is neither and aside from being absent from the host stand he could really stand to be polite and hold the snarky advice. We moved on to Sal Y Limón across the way and it was fantastic. I'd suggest it to...

I would rather be posting about a more positive experience here, however, given the circumstances, there is no way I can do better than one star. My wife and I had been wanting to go here for a long time to scope out drink and fare. WOW! Were we surprised and caught off guard at the greeting we received.

Being someone that has and requires a legitimate and specially trained mobility service dog, my wife and I were asked to leave because he was in accompaniment, as he is - always. We were told that it is "not their law, but dogs are not allowed" and the manager told the server to ask us to leave. The manager didn't even have the balls to come talk to us himself. He made the server do all the dirty work. I have no clue who's law it is, but it's not the state's law either. In fact, it is a misdemeanor in CA to interfere with the duties of a service dog, and to misrepresent one. It is not against the law to have or require one. I wonder if I was still in a wheel chair, they would have the same request.

I am surprised they haven't ended up with a civil rights case or civil suit against them for treating disabled customers like this. This whole interaction was captured on video and violated every ADA law out there both state, and federal. I will never return here and I make sure to let others interested in going know about my experience and the distasteful lies told by management and staff.

On the other side of the token, right after this, we went to Limón y Sal, a block away, and were treated like royalty. Even got to go enjoy the Havana Night music upstairs. They even welcomed my service dog to join us at every point along the way, doing what they should, by barely acknowledging his presence. What a difference a city...

Hello, I’m leaving a review because this is the third or fourth time I’ve attempted to enjoy Ventiki and have been refused service. I have always called ahead of time to ask what time they close off which is 10:15pm. Tonight I called at 9:57pm asking for the close off time and was told 10:15pm after asking three time since the girl could not hear me. I got there at 10:02pm and was told they were closed for the night by a blonde woman wearing a two piece dress. As I’m writing this review it’s still not even 10:15pm. I called Ventiki again after I left to ask again what time their cut off was. The girl who answered could not hear me. When she asked me to repeat myself I asked for her name, she went silent and then hung up on me. I would like to know if the owner supports this or not, I normally don’t even leave reviews for stuff like this. But this time I’m disappointed because I called ahead knowing that they close at 10:15pm to confirm they were closing at that time. Do you guys typically close ahead of time? The crew or bar tender (which is what the woman told me up front) decided they were closing within the 5 minutes I called as I was walking to Ventiki. Id like a response from the owner so that I may plan ahead of time if I even decide to come back. The front entrance employees have always been standoffish but I’ve always chosen to ignore and enjoy Ventiki. Tonight I just couldn’t especially because I went under the impression that they were still open because they said...