Tiki TNT & Potomac Distilling Company — Restaurant in Washington

My husband and I had high hopes for Tiki TNT. We're huge tiki fans and we've been eagerly awaiting the opening of this place for months. It's closer to us and parking is easier than at the other local tiki favorite Archipelago (which is very good, btw). Unfortunately, the drinks here are genuinely terrible. Normally I'd cut a place some slack since it just opened, but I watched the owner make our first round of drinks. Based on the menu, they're using very high quality ingredients, but the retro drinks were horribly watered down and not at all the intensely flavorful, well-balanced ones we've had at elite tiki bars like Hala Pele in Portland, Latitude 29 in New Orleans, Foundation in Milwaukee and Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco. Of the "not so classic" tiki drinks, one was good (whiskey, rum, falernum & bitters) and the other tasted like an Altoid dissolved in cough syrup. I had two sips and couldn't stand any more. Also, oddly, they seem never to have heard of garnishes. With tiki drinks, the presentation is part of the point. No swizzles, no flowers, no bunches of mint or fruit skewers, no flourishes of any kind. They seem to have an underwhelming house zombie glass, but not a house tiki mug. The place is decorated sort of pseudo-hipster tiki, but without any charm or theater.

Now for the good stuff. The staff is terrific. We had two servers and both were friendly, helpful and charming. Drinks, food, water, check--all were delivered promptly without them hovering. They made the evening fun. The food is also excellent. We had the pork belly buns, chicken flat bread and rum buns (with booze) and were absolutely satisfied with every bite.

We probably won't be back to Tiki TNT. It would have been one thing for a bar to miss on everything else but have fabulous drinks. Unfortunately while we liked our food, the atmosphere, the location and the service, we won't go to a bar with bad drinks. Maybe a fine place to grab a Miller Lite and a bite before a summer concert, but sadly lacking...

Awful due to management. While the beginning of my (first) time here was pleasant, only due to the surrounding company I came with, by the end it became distasteful and I do not mean the food. I came with a party that split checks according to their items. I was the last one to pay and left with an item I did not purchase. After politely notifying my amazing waiter, I was sent to the manager. The manager took 10 minutes to assist me where he immediately dismissed my valid claim and demanded my payment because “the company needed to be paid regardless of who ordered what.” While this logic might make semi sense if we split the entire bill, we received itemized checks at a gathering where I did not know every individual. He insisted that I simply pay and reach other to the others later. I was persistent in expressing how unfair and illogical this situation was. As he walked off to “handle the issue,” he proceeded to tell my kind waiter that he did not believed me and I ordered the item. I am typing this as I have been waiting for the past 15 minutes for the manager to return and resolve my issue. This is the worst customer service I have ever received and I will never return.

Update: 20 minutes later, I asked for an update on the manager. The manager then shook his head and laughed to another employee and then sent me a 3rd employee.

update: the manager claims he let me know that he voided the item, which was not true considering the other manager was the first to tell me this. she said I was all good to go despite never receiving a receipt. After getting the receipt that I asked for, it seems they already added a tip...

Unreal how awful our experience was. We stopped in yesterday afternoon to enjoy the Christmas declarations and went upstairs to grab a drink. Upon sitting down, our waiter, whose name tag said “pendejo” (classy) rudely tells us if we want to sit inside, we have to buy food. We asked him if we could could sit outside and just have drinks, and he tells us we can’t because it’s cold and windy outside (it was neither of those things). He did say that once our order arrived we could take it outside.

He came by a few minutes later to take our order, ignored questions about the menu and demanded a card for the tab and walked off abruptly afterwards. At this point, I walked over and told him to cancel everything as we are just going to go somewhere else. He tells me he can’t cancel anything and we should just wait at our table.

When everything arrived I started to walk over to carry the food outside. He then accused us of trying to walk out on our tab and we explained to him we are just taking our stuff outside as he’d told us to do because he couldn’t or wouldn’t do it himself, and he decided that outside is actually closed and we would have to carry everything downstairs.

I asked him why he was making everything so difficult and he said something along the lines of “I’m not the problem.” Exhausted with dealing with this man, I asked for the tab, which seemed suspiciously high, but he couldn’t provide a receipt to explain the extra charges.

Never have I dealt with such terrible service. Been coming here for years and will think twice about spending my money...