Tiki On 18th — Restaurant in Washington

This restaurant is all hype but unfortunately it fell very short. They have a really nice out door tiki set up/vibe but the food was a great disappointment.

Let me start off. We made a reservation online for a Saturday evening which required me to put my card info down. Parking in this area was almost non existent. We ended up parking three blocks away,

We were served water to drink which we constantly had to ask to be refilled.. we also ordered the Lava flow Hawaii drink and the Zombie, Trader Vic, Jules Bergeron Jr. drink. Both were delicious and strong. They were served in tiki cups.

To eat we ordered the Crunch time, Shrimp Bazookas, Java bowl with pork belly and a side of garlic bokchoy, Ginataang Kalabasa with pork, and Spicy Sisig. The Shrimp Bazookas were like a shrimp lumpia and they were pretty good. They were served with a strong ponzu like sauce. The Crunch time, or chicken skins were okay. Nothing special honestly. The Java bowl with pork belly had very soft, mushy and over cooked flavorless rice. The grilled pork in it was also bland and have very little sauce drizzled over it. The side of garlic bokchoy had no garlic and was just steamed.. The Ginataang Kalabasa with pork also lacked a lot of flavor, the rice was dried out as if it had been sitting, it didn’t have enough sauce and the pork was also dried out as if it had been sitting as well. The Spicy Sisig lacked flavor and spice. The pork in it left a taste in your mouth that meat does when it isn’t cleaned properly. It was served with a side of rice that was also dried out, not warm in the center and was sticking to the bowl it was in.. an indication that it was microwaved. Needless to say we did not enjoy our food..

The guy waiting on us checked after we got our food and asked how everything was then noticed we had hardly touched anything on our plates.. we said “it’s alright..” it was clear the food wasn’t good and we pointed out the bokchoy missing garlic and he offered to take it off our check. We then asked for a side of spicy vinegar thinking maybe it would help.. that spicy vinegar was never brought to us. He checked on us a total of three times the whole night and disappeared after that.. when we asked for a check we had to go up to the host and she came to our table with a tablet, didn’t show us the break down of the cost (so we don’t know if we still paid for the bokchoy or not) and did not give us a receipt.. a total of $140 .. food cost + 10% taxes + 20% mandatory serve charge.. the mark up was insane for food we did not even eat. And our waiter disappeared after we basically told him it was not good!?

In terms of the bland food.. Filipino food is served with strong flavors so you eat more rice with it to balance each bite. This is historically due to poverty, rice is more affordable than anything else.. I feel that this restaurant really took down the flavor levels to appeal to their costumers in this area. But representation matters and this restaurant really fell short representing Filipino...

My friends and I gathered for NYEE dinner at Tiki on 18th, a restaurant that serves classic Tiki cocktails and Filipino fare. During the pandemic, menus from The Game Sports Pub and Tiki on 18th were available to order from, indoor seating was prohibited, and masks were required if you weren't eating or drinking. Heat lamps were a great addition to their outdoor patio.

I'm glad I had made a reservation because it was pretty busy here. The staff (including Jo Jo and Orlean) were friendly and hospitable.

For drinks, my friends enjoyed Blue Hawaii, Painkiller, and Jet Pilot cocktails. I enjoyed the Ole' Christmas 'G' and the Hot Dad Tod. The Ole' Christmas 'G' consisted of rum, bourbon, and clarified gingerbread milk punch shaken and served over the rocks in a shiny red disco ball drink tumbler with a Christmas paper straw and served with an iced gingerbread man. It was delicious! The Hot Dad Tod consisted of rum, darjeeling tea, and falernum, heated, garnished with a lemon wedge and served in a gnome shaped ceramic mug. It was light and kept me warm.

While we were waiting for our food, we snacked on Kropek and Spicy Popcorn. The Kropek consisted of crispy and flavorful prawn puffs. The Spicy Popcorn consisted of popcorn seasoned with cayenne, garlic, butter, salt, and pepper.

For appetizers, I enjoyed Lumpiang Shanghai and Chicken Inasal Skewers. The Lumpiang Shanghai consisted of four thin spring rolls filled with pork and mushroom, cut in half and served with sweet mango chili vinegar dipping sauce. The Chicken Inasal Skewers consisted of three skewers with grilled chicken thigh marinated in soy and vinegar, served over a banana leaves and with fish sauce, spices, and annatto oil dipping sauce. I loved how tender and flavor the chicken skewers was.

For dinner, my friends enjoyed the Crispy Dinuguan, Chicken Adobo, and Java Bowl. I ordered the Vegan Pansit, which consisted of cornstarch noodles stir fried with garlic, green beans, shiitake mushrooms, purple cabbage, carrots, and baby corn with soy sauce and garnished with crispy tofu. I felt that the dish was a bit saltier than I like but I'd eat it again. My friends ordered sides of hand-cut fries served with ketchup. I loved how crispy the fries were.

For dessert, my friends enjoyed the Fried Oreos and Coco Funnel Cake. The Fried Oreos came fresh from the fryer. The Coco Funnel Cake consisted of funnel cake fries, topped Tiki coco-loco sauce, and dusted with powdered sugar. The coco-loco sauce made the funnel cake more interesting (in a good way). Despite the cold weather, I ordered the Classic Halo Halo, which consisted of macapuno, nata de coco, leche flan, sweet jackfruit, shaved ice, milk, ube ice cream, and pinipig. I'll admit it was a bit difficult to enjoy from a to-go cup but it satisfied my sweet...

The food is fantastic, but for a whopping $19 for Pork Sisig, $5 extra for a side of Garlic Rice, and $11 for a slice of Ube Cheesecake... Tiki on 18th is less "Filipino" than it is "DC".

Oh, and there's an automatic 20% gratuity.

In total, a dinner meal for one (an entrée, a side of rice--which SHOULD have been standard for a Filipino dish... for shame, Tiki--and a small dessert) came to be $46.20. That's 2.5 items plus the automatic tip.

Now, I grew up in a Filipino household. Others who have grown up similarly would probably agree that the best and most authentic Filipino food is the kind mom makes at home. I would say Tiki does pretty damn well in the quality department, but darn it, those prices just sucker punch you in the gut after a delicious meal.

You can either go to an old-school Filipino person's house where the moms or Lolas cook for everyone and get more for fewer dollars spent, or the actual Philippines and get a legit island feast for similar prices.

That said, the Sisig was sizzling and tasted delicious, and the Ube Cheesecake was magnifique. The Garlic Rice was good, but... well... my mom makes it better (and for cheaper). Also, the Sisig came on a cast iron skillet, which made a great first impression coming in all steaming and whatnot, but I soon realized that it made the entire dish difficult to scrape the actual food off of (see pics). I felt I wasted precious quality food like this, not to mention I had to scrape the cast iron with my metal utensil--yikes.

I don't really drink, so I didn't try the alcoholic menu.

INTERIOR: The place itself was a bar filled with tall tables and TV screens for the preppy sportsball nerds. I just sat at the bar and focused on the food which, again, was expensive but very tasty.

Overall, Tiki on 18th has delicious food, but at those prices, it just ain't authentic Filipino cuisine: it's a DC restaurant with Filipino influences. You want authentic, go make friends with Filipinos and get invited over to dinner. 3/5 stars...