the tropical restaurant & bar

am i invisible?. we went on a slow night and were seated immediately but at that point we became completely invisible. servers came and went right by us for nearly 15 minutes and no one ever even looked our direction. we decided to take our menus and go sit at thebarso at least we couldn't be ignored.

i saw lots of items on the menu i would like to try, but i doubt i'll be going back after that experience.

heard great things from several people about food. right before we went to eat someone said to me "food is great service is terrible". they were right! we stopped by on saturday night sept 1 at 7:30. parking lot was half full. walked in the door and was stopped by a party of 8 waiting for a table at the door. the hostess came to the stand and didn't even look at anyone for at least 30 seconds( was too busy with her marker and dry erase table layout). then she asks how many for the party in front of us who replied with "8" "do you have a reso" "no" "well you will have to wait for at least 20 minutes". the hostess was running back and forth from dining room while a server was visibly yelling at her in front of everyone. lame. while this is going on i noticed a family of four sitting at a table in thebararea with menus, no water or drinks and nobody ever talked to them or acknowledged them ever the first 5 minutes we were there. so finally we said "there is just two of us, how long is the wait?" " uh i will have to find out" "can we just sit in thebarand eat if it will be faster because we need to be somewhere after this?" "well you can sit there but can't promise you will get service, we are short staffed" "well if your short staffed should we go somewhere else to eat?" "well yes."

holy $&@%!!!!!!! really? i have been working in restaurants for almost 20 years, fine dining, casual dining, top restaurants in tulsa would never say this to anyone nor would they seat a family of four in abarsection with no server so they can sit there and stare at a menu with no acknowledgement. your front of the house is weak, tropical. doesn't matter how good your fish and produce is if you can't figure out how to seat people on a saturday night on labor day weekend when restaurants are slow because football just started and everyone goes to the lake one last time.

what your hostess should have said was "we are very short staffed, we will do our best to get you a table and on your way as fast as we can. if you have any problems please let me know my name is "courteous hostess name here" and i will make it right. if that is not good enough then please accept this card for a discount on you meal if you so choose to try us again. i'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

this is service.
you are not.
this is true.

will be great when service is improved.. really was excited to try out the tropical and am very glad i did. the location upon arrival raised an eye brow, but once inside was very pleased. the restaurant is new, nicely decorated, and exudes a fresh, tropical feel. we met our party in thebararea with a round of tropical mojitos which were excellent, but light on the booze. the hostess was way too eager to seat us, despite our request to finish up our round of drinks prior to being seated. she needs to be coached on facilitating a "leisurely experience". next we found our seats, and enjoyed the band, which was a bit loud for conversation-in my opinion, they should of perched in the bar. we started with the tropical lettuce wraps and rambutan chicken-both were truly sumptuous and very unique. the wait staff needs a tune up, they brought the wrong appetizers, and it took a very, very long time to get us more cocktails-which contained almost no alcohol. i ordered the tum yum soup, which was very good in flavor, however it arrived luke warm and 10 minutes after everyone else's. other guests in our party ordered items off the grill, including sword fish and shrimp, with basil fries, garlic fried rice, and steamed veggies. all items were so very fresh, and the sides delicious! we ended with coffee and sticky rice. the bill was very reasonable relative to other high end restaurants in tulsa. all and all a good experience, and i would recommend the tropical. the wait staff needs to be trained on how to deliver a better product. this will make or break this restaurant. really hope they read this post and get these issues corrected.

two out of three aint bad. i found this place on the recommendation of a couple of friends who had visited before and said the place was enjoyable. since the restaurant is operated by the same people who own the lanna thai restaurant, i knew the food would be delicious, and it was. the general ambiance in the place was also quite nice, subdued and classic with plenty of dark woods. there were quite a few televisions in thebararea, which seems to me that it would be a great place to watch a game. however...

thebarstaff was less than impressive and thebarselection leaves much to be desired. when the waitress asked for a drink order, i first wanted an old fashioned. about 10 minutes went by and i was still without my drink. i had to ask twice for my drink, but the waitress seemed to ignore the question. when i finally got the bartender's attention, she proceeded with a rather quizzical look and disappeared for about 10 minutes. she finally came back and told me that she didn't have the required ingredients for an old fashioned. i'll admit to being dumbstruck - how could a self-proclaimed "fully stocked bar" be missing an essential ingredient for an old fashioned? i mean, all it takes is bourbon, bitters, sugar (or simple syrup), orange slice, and cherries. it's such a basic cocktail i can't imagine a properbarlacking in the required materials, but this one was. i was told by the bartender that she didn't know what bitters were, so i imagined that was the missing ingredient.
so i passed on the cocktail, and instead asked for a manhattan made with maker's mark, and was assured by the bartender that she knew how to make one and that they had maker's. turns out, they didn't carry maker's. so i passed on liquor entirely and asked for a paulaner, since it was one of their featured beers on tap. third strike - the keg was dry. so i settled for a glass of water.

in sum, the food and the ambiance was fantastic, but i was disappointed in thebarservice. it's such a shame, since thebararea itself is very nice with the aforementioned wood and old fashioned feel, but the inability of a bartender to make a classic cocktail combined with not carrying a popular brand of bourbon in a "fully stocked"baris disappointing. i'll come back for the food and the ambiance, but i will limit my visits to lunch and dinner, and skip out on frequenting the bar.

the tropical. this place has great food, relaxed but classy atmosphere, and, most importantly, a fully stockedbarwith a super friendly staff!