Trader Vic's

This place is really amazing. I wish I remembered the bartenders name, but he was so nice and talked to me for a long time about tiki and gave me tastings of some rums. Before I left he went in the back and came back with a porcelain geisha on a bamboo swizzle stick, a menu, and a bunch of their plastic swizzle sticks for me.

Was in Tokyo Recently and had to make a stop to this destination. The place looked fantastic and the drink menu was on point. The food also looked good too but the prices for the food where a little bit steep. Over all it was a great visit on a random weekday night everyone there was on point with cocktails and service. If you ever find yourself in that corner of the work I suggest you stop by

This Trader Vic's is Fantastic! A great piece of history that is still alive. As a musician, I get to travel once in a while, and when I told her I would be going to Tokyo,she immediately told me I had to go visit Trader Vic's. When I got to Tokyo, I wasn't sure where my located. Once I found out where I was staying I asked my driver where Trader Vic's was from my hotel and they said it was only 10 minutes from there. Nice!
Trader Vic's is located inside the New Otani hotel on the fourth floor. The bartender told me that bar easily accessed from the outside where there is an elevator. I was told it could be difficult to get to Trader Vic's from inside the hotel. Once I got there I sat at the bar and was greeted by Roberto, who is the head bartender there, Who is a gracious host and has vast knowledge of trader VICS history and all things tiki. I ordered a mai tai and beef cho cho which was incredibly delicious! I stayed for a few hours, with great conversation with Roberto who was generous with his knowledge of the history of mixology. I came back the next day as I had a day off and ordered a Navy Grog, coffee Grog and a Trader Vic's burger. Delicious!
The decor is incredible with many tikis, oceanic art, and displays of vintage Trader Vic's mugs and history. This place is awesome.. get here if you can do it.. 5 stars!

An EXTREMELY SPECIAL PLACE. This, like a few others, is one of the rare places to see a world stuck in time, The fun starts at the location, the New Otani hotel. This hotel, built for the 1960's is a beautifully kept up Grande Dame hotel in the middle of Tokyo. Parts have not been touched since the 1960's, but in true Japanese style, are so well taken care of, they are pristine time machines back to the grande days of hotels. Trader Vics is on the 4th floor of the Garden Tower. As soon as you see the entrance, done up (similar to London), and it mentions San Francisco, you know it has been well preserved. The prices are high (it is Tokyo), and they have altered some tastes or styles to Japanese liking (including cigars and whiskey). Yet, I enjoy that this location has taken up the Japanese culture a bit, Since Japanese culture is a bit more formal in its service, its dress, as well as old school in its manner and detail, it serves the location well. As Trader Vics used to be more upscale, you can really enjoy that here. They have 2 menus, one at the bar and another formal dinner menu. The windows overlook the garden at the hotel. Sitting at the bar, it feels like you are back opening day in the 70's. They use original glass ware, and have all original recipes. During my stay at the hotel, I went 3 times. I would do the bar menu for a quick snack, and enjoy the hot after dinner tiki drinks, which are rarely served.

I recognize Trader Vic’s Tokyo (TVT) is a dream destination for tikiphiles and I hope this long review allows potential customers to make a more informed choice. I’ve closed TVT more than a dozen times over the last several years so there’s drinking experience fortifying my observations. Also, if you decide you must travel to Tokyo to visit TVT, it’s also critical to visit the Old American Bar at the Imperial Hotel. Your local rumbullion dive may have casual decorations like vintage Frank Lloyd Wright fixtures and original animation art of a sozzled Tinkerbell drawn by Marc Davis, one of Disney’s original animators known as the Nine Old Men, but your place is definitely not the home of the Mt. Fuji: Japan’s most important contribution to the classic tiki cocktail menu. Dress in a clean and pressed Aloha shirt and let the man in the silver thread tuxedo guide you through a world class drinking experience.
Back to the main topic: Trader Vic’s Tokyo is really a tale of two bars. One bar is the best tiki joint on the planet and the other is a restaurant/bar entertainment complex with a confused management structure that treats a real gem like cheap glitter. This should not be the case at the world’s most expensive tiki bar and it’s certainly not an issue at the Old American at the Imperial.
First, the good stuff. TVT is essentially a functional museum from when it was built (c. 1974). Almost all the vast tiki swag is original, in almost ‘as-new’ condition and with 40+ years of patina to make the glow even more golden. You’ll be bumping into things from jaw-dropping awe even before you start drinking. Functionally, it’s little more than a hallway connecting several dining rooms and a compact drinking area adjacent to the bar. Everywhere you look is tapa cloth, carvings, tikis and seashells. They use giant clam shells, which today are worth thousands and were once used as multi-person stemware, as floor decorations and, during the Christmas season, fill them with glass ornaments. They probably wouldn’t last more than one night in any other country. After you’ve poured enough 7-year Havana Club down your gullet, it can be intimidating to move around for fear that you’ll crash into some priceless relic that fell out of The Book of Tiki. This is why there is usually someone around, typically a lovely maiden in a cheongsam, to help you negotiate some of these obstacles. It is freakish to realize that all the eye candy is American-made and old. Exquisite vintage Trader Vic branded dinner china meant purely for display.
Second, the cost of all this wonderfulness. Most costly tiki bar on the planet. Budget at least $150/person/night just for drinking plus ride home. Cost of the drink plus service charge plus tax plus entrance fee if live music. Expect to be tormented by a fourth rate Cuban band, instead of lovely hapa haole, that is more interested in getting back to their smartphones than playing music: too small for surf bands or amplification. Surprised the Cuban government doesn’t file a complaint for cultural defilement. Almost all aspirational tiki bars on the planet do a better job with their music. For most, better to avoid such nights and spend quiter evenings talking to the bartenders and girls. If it’s really quiet, the bartender will slip something soft and appropriate into the sound system.
Third, the cloudburst of what you’re drinking. Sorry to be a cranky pirate, but the rums available at TVT are just not good enough. There are not enough rums bartenders or other rum enthusiasts use at home to mix their own drinks. These drinks would be an entire order of magnitude better if made with better matched and better quality rums. One Okinawan rum that tastes like sochu is no excuse for an absence of Demerara. No one should have to travel to Nakano, a district in west Tokyo, to find a 15-year-old bottle of Havana Club poured, along with a 17-year Caroni(!), at Murakami’s eccentric Bar Zingaro. Liquor is not taxed heavily in Japan and, given the wide variety of other exotic brown liquors available at TVT, a better selection of rums should be available.
Fourth, the bartenders are very skilled and concoct magic with what they’ve got. Besides yourselve(s), they will be the only persons present wearing an Aloha shirt. The staff will immediately bond with you as one of them and most definitely not with the smelly and greasy guy looking for shot specials on Bundaberg. He will always be accompanied by an employee.
Now that I’ve harshed on their cocktails, I’m filled with remorse because they really are magnificent works of art. Huge orchid(s) in my Tiki Puka Puka, plenty of freshly cut garnishes for my Suffering Bastard, perfect blend of sweetness in my Honi Honi, et al. More gaspingly, several of these are served in vintage American-made barware. You’ve pretty much got to earn your way into getting drinks served this way; they also know how valuable they are. It can’t help but be powerful to be served the same drinks as your grandparents were in the same stemware.
Next, it’s very possible you will be the only person in TVT drinking a tiki cocktail. Most of their bar business is selling whiskey, cognac and cigars (real Cuban Cohibas from a fancy humidor box). The hotel where the bar sits is in the diplomatic quarter and I never saw a dude in a leopard-print fez lounging. On the other hand, not being immune to the charms of other brown liquors, I had plenty of time to experience things I can’t get in the US like IW Harper 12-year, Yamazaki 18-year and Hibiki 21-year. Hence, in some ways, you’re in an alternate world with the theme dressed staff while most everyone else is in a suit or formal attire. Other customers are likely to think you work there if you are dressed in your best tiki finery. Ultimately, this isn’t a tiki bar as much as a food service operation (which looks scary from my brief glimpse inside), where you overlook an undermaintained garden (other hotels have better), that uses its bar to sell the kinds of brown liquor its guests expect in order to pay the bills. The now-vintage tiki is an artifice to get people through the door and not an attempt at some ethereal Polynesian Pop dream where people celebrate joyfully.
Understandably, this is a buzzkill if you’re searching for the luau of your dreams. No Mai-Kai shenanigans here. Just a drunk truckdriver from the Pilbara who asks, “What’s a tiki bar?” The staff lacks ‘Ohana. More depressingly, ever more of the staff seem to be New Otani employees, not Trader Vic employees, and TVT is just the latest bar they’ve worked at within the New Otani complex: there are dozens of restaurants and many bars within this complex. The New Otani senior managers run a vast property complex and TVT is entombed within. They currently do a lousy job. I recognize a work force, easily in excess of 1000 people, under tremendous strain by management and it bleeds through every aspect of the site. The wa, the Japanese spirit of harmonious teamwork, is under grueling ordeal among the entire labor force and it can’t help but impact your experience at TVT. I suspect the relationship between Trader Vic’s corporate and the New Otani is strained. I don’t know enough to take sides.
There is a rock in the garden of the New Otani that symbolizes this lost connection. It is a large boulder of pink granite given by Vic Bergeron c. 1980 as thanks to the Japanese people in general and to the New Otani staff in particular for the incredible hospitality they’ve demonstrated in the past. The image on the rock of Mt. Fuji, traditional fishermen and Kanji characters would be familiar to any long-time Trader Vic fan. Once polished to a high sheen, today it is filthy, stained, covered in perpetual freeway scum and almost always in shade and darkness. This conscious neglect offended me on several different levels and surprised myself at how angry it made me.
The boulder would be the altar/centerpiece of any tiki bar just about anywhere else. In Tokyo, it’s a decoration for the HVAC maintenance men. Disgusted, I marched into the garden and poured my hotel issued bottle of water over the rock and started to scrub the rock face with my hand. That’s when I stepped onto the bronze plaque mounted into the ground that tells us gaijin what the rock is about. Buried in the weeds, it was invisible. Hence, I had to remove the overgrowth in case a future visitor came to this forlorn spot. Regardless of the relationship status between TVT and the New Otani, if I were the general manager of TVT, I would take personal responsibility to make sure that boulder was clean and glowed as testament to Mr. Bergeron’s enduring vision. Any tikiphile would be astounded at this shocking breach of etiquette even if tikiphiles aren’t known for etiquette.
Would I make a special trip to Tokyo to visit TVT? No. Would I make a special trip to TVT if I was in Tokyo? Absolutely. Would I stay at the New Otani when I was in Tokyo? Absolutely not.

I searched for this place during 2 hours walking around!! Never found it.
I'm so disappointed when I watch these fabulous pictures. So sad.

This was my first expirience at a Trader Vic's. The service could not have been better. The maitre' d was very kind and took pictures for me very often. He also gave me a complimentary drink menu (as a souvenier) when I was distressed to discover their gift shop had closed. The food was excellent. Only complaint was that despite the huge drink selection many drinks tasted the same. A bit pricey but was well worth it.