Editorial
Dubai is not a tiki town. The city runs on rooftops, beach clubs, and hotel lounges, and most places that hang a tiki sign are selling a themed photo, not a rum program. Two spots actually pour the real thing.
One is a Trader Vic's, the chain that put the Mai Tai on the map. The other is a rooftop that does tiki without the kitsch. Both know what the drink should taste like, and that is the whole honest list.
Trader Vic's has poured Mai Tais since 1944, and the JBR room above the Hilton on the Walk is the closest Dubai gets to the original. Regulars on Tripadvisor rate it 4.7 across more than 5,000 reviews and keep coming back for the Mai Tai and the Tiki Puka Puka. Happy hour runs 50 percent off cocktails, so get there before 8pm. Skip it if you want quiet; the live band keeps it loud.
Tiki's sits above the Canary Club at Banyan Tree Residences, a seventies-revival rooftop of rattan, wicker, and canary-yellow seats. Time Out Dubai pegs it for tiki-inspired cocktails and Japanese-Mexican bites over skyline views. Doors open daily at 5pm, and the sundown seat before dark is the one to book. Come for the rum and the view, not a deep tiki menu.
These two are where Dubai actually drinks tiki. Trader Vic's brings the history and the build, and Tiki's brings the rooftop and the view. Everywhere else in town that claims tiki is really a lounge or a beach club with one rum cocktail on the menu.
James Harlow is a former bartender who grades every room from its worst seat and rates a tiki bar on the rum and the build, not the decor. For this guide he leaned on the bars' own menus, Time Out Dubai, and the people who drink in them.