South Florida's Most Unique Dining Experience With Award-Winning Cuisine

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The Mai-Kai Restaurant & Polynesian Show

The United States was once filled with roadside tiki bars and dinner-show venues. There, your grandparents would dress up to watch fire dancers and hula girls while dining on crab rangoon and pupu platters and sipping drinks called the Jet Pilot and the Zombie. These days, only a handful of those places remain. South Florida is lucky to boast one of the most glorious examples. Perpetually lit tiki torches welcome thirsty travelers from far corners. Sure, the Mai-Kai offers a spectacular dinner show, but the real fun is at the Molokai Bar. Here, servers clad in bikini tops and sarongs serve classic tiki drinks. You’ll find no foams, dry ice, or other trappings of molecular gastronomy here. Instead, you’ll sip grogs, rum barrels, and Mai Tais the way they were meant to be enjoyed — from shrunken ceramic heads festooned with tiny paper umbrellas and maraschino cherries in an atomic shade of red. Go ahead and add your name to the lampshades that bear the monikers of thousands of people who came before you, and listen to the thunderous beat of the drums while the show goes on in the next room. Then venture out to the tiki garden for a selfie. It’s a slice of Americana that’s both fantastic and authentic at the same time. Hours are 5 to about 10 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 5 to about 11:30 p.m. Friday, 5 to about 11 p.m. Saturday, and 4 to about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. If guests want drinks after the show, the bar remains open until everyone leaves.

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