Tuk Tuk Real Is a 'Tuk Tuk Fail'; Cedar Point Bar & Kitchen Is an OK Place

Now open for just over two weeks, Thai-Mexican fusion experiment Tuk Tuk Real has been dinged early by Midtown Lunch as a "Tuk Tuk fail." Only the Thai iced tea and hibiscus tea fared well; "after that, nothing really worked."

Complaints covered most of the bases, from service hiccups to balance of flavors to ingredient quality to general execution.

Maybe this place will work out the kinks and put out better products, but I was sorely disappointed.

Meanwhile, the South Philly Review's Phyllis Stein-Novack and husband Edward caught a Phillies game at the bar at Cedar Point Bar and Kitchen, resulting in one of the most noncommittal restaurant reviews in recent memory.

Apart from a side of blue cheese  dressing that's singled out as an "exceptional offering" and some "uncommonly good" potato chips (that needed salt), very little of the food seems to have inspired any opinions at all. Ingredients are described as: "a little salty," "slightly grilled," "slightly under-ripe." Dessert was appropriately hot and contained the expected ingredients. And check out the thrilling conclusion:

Restaurants like Cedar Point are popping up all over the city. It is the type of place I would go to on a weeknight when I don't feel like cooking.

Still, in a surprising twist, she goes on to give it three tips of the toque (out of four).

The really good news of the week goes to the Yachtsman, Tommy Up's new tiki bar in Fishtown, which has been receiving pretty positive buzz after some initial backlash against the project's use of Kickstarter. City Paper's Adam Erace pays a visit to the "kitschy and silly" (but well-done) space and enjoys it so much he considers starting off each day with a banana daiquiri breakfast. (Seems like a solid life plan, and fitting now that we know that Erace's AIM handle in high school was "Ketel-N-Tonic" — ahh, the glory days, before parents knew they should be monitoring what their kids were doing online.)

Anyway, the cocktails all get high marks, but there's something else tugging at Erace's heartstrings. For years now, he's been honing more serious, grown-up tastes in liquor. Hell, the guy owns a grocery store specifically known for its selection of bitters. And yet...

Problem is, while this is all very sophisticated and interesting, it's not always fun. Frozen drinks are fun, benders in the tropics are fun and in Fishtown, Tommy Up's new Yachtsman — Philly's only tiki bar — is fun.

And hey, who doesn't like fun?