Le Tiki Lounge, when we visited it, was a hopping bar with a local, lively crowd and friendly, helpful bartenders. There is a front area with the actual bar and some tables, a comfortable back room to lounge around in over drinks, and a basement they apparently open for group reservations – we did not see it during our visit, just the stairs down.
The soundtrack is solid 1960’s surf rock, and the décor, while not as deeply layered as it is in some tiki bars, still had plenty of tiki going on – and there was no TV (bonus!). Unfortunately, there were no mugs either; it turned out that their previous mug artist had gotten too busy with other projects, and hadn’t had time to make them anything recently.
While we chatted with Charley and Frances behind the bar, we looked over their somewhat short menu – about a dozen entries– and sampled a number of their drinks.
Zombie: Le Tiki Lounge’s take on this classic is a streamlined version involving maybe around half of the ingredient count of the old-school recipes – with three rums, bitters, cinnamon, and pink grapefruit juice, it was not much like the Don the Beachcomber original, but was still enjoyable.
Painkiller: Of the drinks we tried, this one made the least impression – the ingredient list on the menu looked right, but it seemed like it was missing some key element … not enough pineapple? Not enough cinnamon? We couldn’t agree, but did agree that it was only OK, not great, and somewhat sweeter than normal … just sort of there. I think they used some regular gold or dark rum in it, not Pusser’s – which would have added some needed character.
Tradewinds: This one was a clear winner; a delicious mix of Martinique rhum, lime juice, Jamaican gold rum, coconut milk and apricot liqueur.
Missionary’s Downfall: This one tasted pretty close to the Don the Beachcomber original – which is to say, it was very good indeed.
Nonalcoholic: Our teenage son had the Tiki Lounge’s Nada Colada, a decent, rum-less Pina Colada, and their Hibiscus Iced Tea, which was light, refreshing, and quite tasty with its house made hibiscus tea and cinnamon-infused syrup – of the two, the Hibiscus Iced Tea was the favorite.
Overall, this was a really good experience and a fine evening out. The décor, music, and atmosphere were spot-on and fun, the service good, and the drinks generally pleasant and tasty, as long as one didn’t get too wrapped up with how “authentic” they were. Also, it would be a good idea to eat before going, as they don’t serve food. Definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in Paris!
I’d like to thank Tom Hemmen for this write up!
Here is the Le Tiki Lounge website
And Facebook page
we visited Le Tiki Lounge during our stay in Paris in June 2018 and found it to be a very entertaining and offbeat bar. We met Cedric the owner and chatted about tiki bars in the States such as our fave home-based Latitude 29 in New Orleans and our soon to be planned visit to Mai-Kai in Ft. Lauderdale. We traded rum brand names and sampled some of his favorites. I remember the Machete as being a fine cocktail that evening. We returned a few nights later and had a great time as DJs Double Trouble spun their retro tunes that night. We will definitely return to that tiki island in Paris again.