The Belly of the Beast is not a Tiki bar per se, though it is located — as a sort of Disney-and-Tiki adjacent speakeasy –within the Tiki bar Stowaway…
You can’t miss the entrance though once you are there; you literally have to walk into Monstro the Whale’s jaws – a gateway quite reminiscent of the Monstro build on the Storybook Land Canal Boats ride in Fantasyland, Disneyland.
The space is narrow and smallish, with only 5-6 tables, so reservations are a good idea indeed. However, the only reservation we could get ended up being the very end of the evening, so we quite literally had the whole place to ourselves. That said, given the tiny size of the place, reservations are probably a really good idea.
The décor? It goes from Monstro’s gullet to broken ship’s planks, a harpoon, wooden Pinocchio puppets, and other flotsam and jetsam, with the bar at the very back. The staff were all super-friendly and personable. And sure, they could have rushed us out so they could clean up, end their shift, and go home, but they didn’t, and we had a great time chatting with them and sharing stories for well over half an hour.
However, on to the comestibles:
Though the bar was Pinocchio-themed, the food and drink were predominantly tropical, as one might expect from a tiny theme bar buried in the larger Tiki space of Stowaway. It was late, so the only food we ordered were the Poke Bombs, and they were quite good indeed, with little cracker coasters provided for easily scooping up the seasoned raw fish.
Given the hour, we only had time to try two drinks. Jeanie had the Farewell to Jiminy, which was a fruity tropical in a mango-passion sort of way, presented with three presumably fried crickets on a dried mango slice coaster. At least, the menu said they were crickets, but we were not sure that they weren’t some other sort of bug. We’ve eaten a few roasted crickets in our time, and these … really did not seem like crickets. At the very least, there were no longish legs to get stuck between our teeth, but that might be regarded as a plus. We ate them, regardless. Fun presentation, and the drink was a decent, fruity rum punch, but relatively simple flavor wise – sort of a two-note wonder.
I ordered Cleo’s Castle (If you recall from the animated Disney film, Cleo was the goldfish, and there was a castle figurine in the fishbowl). Served in a miniature fishbowl with a gummy shark garnish, this drink, with forward citrus flavors and some bitters, leaned more towards sour than the Jiminy drink, but was good-tasting, and had a nice almond finish.
To conclude: From our limited experience, this uniquely-themed bar with a Pinocchio-tropical vibe had a fine atmosphere, a good food offering, decent drinks, and extremely pleasant staff. Well worth checking out for an unusual night out if you find yourself in Tustin.
