The Polynesian
Summary
This place is located near 42nd Street and 9 ave in the POD hotel. The restaurant decor is kind of interesting as it does give out a tropical-ish vibe to it. There is an outdoor area that has a lot of those basket woven seats with a cushion on them. From where we sat outdoors, we can see views of the H&M building and the Empire State Building in plain sight.
The orange drink is the Notorious P.O.G.. It has rums, passion fruit, orange, guava, cinnamon, amaro, and club soda. I will say that I thought this drink was OK. All the ingredients sounded like it’d be a perfect blend, but something was off here. I’m wondering if some ratio was slightly off or not, or maybe the fruits were not real fresh juice.
The other drink was the Killer Kiwi. This one also had rums, melon, cinnamon, kiwi curd, bitters, pandan, and tropical juices. Again, I did not particularly like this one either as it was much sweeter than the P.O.G. with a subtle creamy texture that I wasn’t ecstatic about.
The real winner here (and maybe for a reason) was their canned beer. This is the Rekorderling Passionfruit Cider from Sweden. It’s just a passion fruit cider made with Swedish spring water. I thought this drink was great for the humid and hot weather that’s currently happening in NYC. It definitely was crisp, and you can taste those passion fruit aromas too.
The food here was alright. We got Hawaiian ribs and pork spring rolls. The Hawaiian ribs were probably equivalent to super sweet glazed Chinese style pork spare ribs. I definitely was indifferent about this. The ribs tasted like they were boiled first, then lathered with that red sweet sauce liberally. The pork spring rolls were my favorite of the 2. These were probably not much different than Vietnamese fried spring rolls, sans the lettuce but served with something that’s similar to the sweet sauce.
Service was pretty prompt and great, and the atmosphere is insanely laid back. They have an indoor area too, but it seems they wanted people to sit outdoors vs indoors. The outdoor area will get hot due to a lack of shade, so it’s probably best to come out here later in the afternoon.
Final Verdict
For as few Tiki bars there are in the city, this one is pretty decent. The price is a little on the pricey side, but I definitely think this is a good spot to take out of towners to just to chill. The music was really chill, think classic rock hits and the occasional hip hop.
Yelp Jabs
Tip: Outdoor Terrace bar doesnt offer the full cocktail menu however, the inside bar does!
I’m pretty sure you can order the full cocktail menu from anywhere. Why would they limit?
The two healthiest things on the menu, the spicy cucumber and ahà tuna poke, are not worth even a quarter of what the prices are, and aren’t even good. Skip them for sure.
I suppose healthy people shouldn’t be criticized, but then again this elitist is going to a bar to drink sugary cocktails and complains about the (lack of?) healthy food. I’m not sure how that logic is suppose to play out.