Drink Here Now: The Grass Skirt is a Bonafide Tiki Oasis in Pacific Beach

By Felicia Campbell / Photography By Felicia Campbell | August 15, 2018

The Scene

Decked-out in tiki kitsch, The Grass Skirt's cool Pacific Beach digs have a food menu as colorful as their drinks. With retro surfer tunes playing in the background, a bar that lights up when certain drinks are ordered, and a visual feast of funky decor, this is place is just plain fun.

The Look

If you're a dork like me, you'll walk the entire perimeter of the sconce-lined end unit of the non-descript Pacific Beach strip mall before noticing the tiki man set in front of a poke shop. Enter through what looks like a walk-in freezer and you'll emerge into a Mid-century, Polynesian-themed wonderland of dark carved wood, neon sculls, and plether booths. The bar stretches along the entire back wall, with alchemists concocting their potions in a flurry of liquids, flowers, and fire. There is a small covered patio in the back where you can lounge by the charred skull fireplace.

Photo 1: Lava and Ice

Photo 2: Saturn

Photo 3: Hakuna Colada

The Drinks

Some drinks, like the perennial favorite, Lava and Ice, are all about the spectacle. Made with tequila, rum, lime, pineapple, coconut, and pomegranate, the drink is delivered flaming, a few dashes of cinnamon sending sparks into the air upon arrival at the table.

The bar recently added a few new items to the menu, including a masala, tea, and brandy-spiked twist on a Colada, and some surprising additions that forgo gin all together, like our favorite,The Saturn, a sweet, but not cloying drink of gin, falernum, lemon, passionfruit, and orgeat. If you prefer to keep it old school, forget the menu and simply ask for that blue Hawaiian or Zombie. The bartenders are pros and have you covered.

The Bar Snacks

In addition to poke and salmon cones from their attached poke shop, the menu is full of shareable pupus like the fried Brussels sprouts tossed with cilantro, mint, basil, crispy onions, and a house mae ploy chili sauce that you'll be licking off the plate. Newly added crispy garlic prawns come shell-on, and go down easy, while their pillowy, Korean short-rib bao buns might be the perfect bar snack.

In addition to shareable pupus, they also offer some heartier dishes, like the visually stunning hanger steak, which comes with its own flaming hibachi along with house-made kimchi, pickles, saamajang, and lettuce wraps.