Mai-Kai Restaurant & Polynesian Show

I love the atmosphere only thing is it is dark (you could barely read the menu).  The show was great no doubt about it.  The outdoor garden was BEAUTIFUL.  Downside.  Their food.  Mediocre.  It's good too go only for drinks and the show.  Eat at home or eat else where (cheaper).

First time I came to MK was a great place, it was not as filled with tourist as it is lately! The food, drinks and service are always great!  The show is fun and the ambiance is excellent!

Mai-Kai needs two reviews, really. First is Mai-Kai as a killer happy hour spot. The bar off to the left was designed to look like the belly of a sunken ship. The Barrel o' Rum tastes like its name, with maybe a slight hint of something other than liquor. And during happy hour, the place fills up with tourists, locals taking out tourists, and occasionally people dressed in pirate and Tiki outfits. During happy hour, it'll be packed, it'll be fun, and you'll leave wanting to hit the next tourist trap (that's the Wreck Bar).

Then there's the other side of the review: the food. Mai-Kai has filled its sunken pirate ship bar and the Polynesian show with tourists since 1956, so it seems to have forgotten about the need to serve stuff people want to eat. The Pu Pu Platter seems like somebody in the back heated up some frozen stuff in the microwave, and the sweet and sour chicken is so covered in sweet-but-not-sour sauce you'll leave with a tooth ache.

If you've been in the area for a while, you've heard similar stories about the food. But then, we all still go to Mai-Kai, to down a Barrel o' Rum in a sunken ship, and to toast the fact that one of the iconic Florida tourist traps still sails.