The Grass Skirt Tiki Lounge
As you may know, Darren and I are cousins. What you may not know is that our parents were born in Hawaii. So, we’ve got a natural affinity towards island style cuisine and themes.
Tonight we were excited to be checking out the soft opening for The Grass Skirt in Pacific Beach. This Tiki Lounge concept is from SDCM, the same group that brought us Kettner Exchange a couple years ago. One thing that we realized is that they love to make a great first impression!
There was no direct entrance into the lounge we could find, but we spotted a new poke place just next door. It’s called Good Time Poke and they just opened up as well!
In fact, Good Time Poke is the sister to The Grass Skirt.
See that walk-in freezer door? Well, that’s the hidden entrance into the lounge!
Walking inside reminded me of space mountain at Disneyland! It was super dark and lots of steam filling the room.
Wait. Do you see it? You have to look a little hard, but there’s a cool hologram of a hula girl right here!
The lighting was subdued to give us all the effects of the rich colors and island decor.
Towards the back there’s a small outdoor enclosed patio.
Check out this fireplace! Now, that’s pretty dope.
Like I said, colors and cool visuals were popping out of every nook here. I particularly liked the puffer fish floating just above our heads.
This cool seating area surrounds a 360-degree fireplace. It wasn’t on tonight, but it’s easy to imagine it’ll look really cool when it’s ready.
Darren and I were seated at the bar where Steven was eager to please!
Since I don’t do alcohol often, I got a tasty virgin pina colada to accent the island vibe.
Darren got a Gilligan’s Island which was pretty refreshing, but tangy.
Of course, they have many other great cocktails available and presentation was super fun and inventive with everything we saw.
Look who was seated next to us at the bar. She would occasionally sway her hips left to right just at the right time.
The Food
Darren and I were excited to order up some food now. The kitchen and menu are from Chef Brian Redzikowski. He’s got a penchant for bold flavors and inventive kitchen theatrics.
First up was the Skuna Salmon Cone. This was interesting. I loved the salmon, but the cone was a touch too sweet for me.
That’s okay, we also got some pork belly buns which were super rich in flavor. I’d definitely order those again.
YUM. Check out this kimchi fried rice! Darren was craving kimchi just the other day, so this really hit the spot for him.
It was fantastic. I loved the nice bits of egg, Chinese sausage, rice, and kimchi all folded together. The portion was generous and we polished off the entire plate… fast.
It kind of reminded me of the world famous fried rice found at Side Street Inn in Honolulu, Hawaii. Delish!
Our last savory dish was the skirt steak lettuce cups. As you can see, it came out perfectly medium rare. If you like your meat a little more done, no problem.
Toss it on top of the mini grill provided! We cooked one just for fun, but medium rare was fine with us.
The steak was well flavored and tender. It was accompanied by some kimchi puree and a deng sauce which added a touch of heat.
Awesome presentation and flavors. We would order this one again too!
We finished up the night with a coconut snow with crushed peanuts on top. It was nicely light and sweet. The snow was super fine (think Taiwanese snow if you’ve every had that).
Final Thoughts
All in all, a fantastic new addition to PB which will surely be getting traction in no time.
Check out their menu below.
While we’re at it here’s their sister poke shop – Good Time Poke. We’ll definitely be back to try some during the daytime.
Please note we were invited to this soft opening of The Grass Skirt and our meal was provided free of charge. We were not otherwise compensated and our opinions remain our own.
You can find them here:
The Grass Skirt
910 Grand Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109
Check ’em out and let us know what you think!
I love the ambiance of the restaurant. I especially like the fireplace! So clever!