Three Dots and A Dash

3 dots and a dash has officially converted my partner into a lover of tiki. Thank you!We made a spontaneous trip to chicago and 3 dots and a dash was one of the cocktail bars on my bucket list so I so happy we had a chance to get in.The interior is beautiful. A lot of tiki bars are chaotic, whimsical, and rowdy. Which, do not get me wrong, I love. Three dots and a dash brings in more of speak easy feel. There is an effortless elegance meshed with the island vibes. You feel like you are on the beach, but with class. The ambience is beautiful. The music is a bit calmer, the pace is a bit slower, the lights a bit dimmer. Beautiful craftsmanship.But, the environment is not the only aspect that is elevated. The drinks are superb. I obviously had to get a three dots and a dash. It was awesome. So well balanced, and I loved the presentation. Sweet, silky, with just enough rum booziness. I loved it. Next up, I rolled with a trader vic's mai tai. Trader vic is a tiki revolutionary and I had to grab one of his masterpieces. No comments necessary, perfection. My partner got a tequila jet pilot and tropical itch. Both superb. Once again, the beautiful presentation on the drinks elevate them so much. Both are vastly different. The tropical itch is slightly tart, with the bourbon shining. But, just enough sweetness to balance it out. I loved it.The tequila jet pilot was a great balance of agave and tiki. The amaro offers a slight bitter nuance that is great. Our service was phenomenal. Attentive, sincere, and authentic. Our server was great.Lastly, the rangoons were great. And 4 dipping sauces? Amazing. Each one adds a unique experience to the rangoon. We specifically loved the spicy mayo and mustard as they are not traditionally served with rangoons. An elite drinking and dining experience. Any cocktail lover must visit as this place is amazing.

I wanted to love this place. Truly, I was so excited. I think it is simply - fine. Maybe I was expecting more due to the hype? Who knows. We order two drinks each. The painkiller was the best of the options. Being blended added a nice touch on a hot day. Not the best I've had, but very good. The other drinks we ordered were just alright. I believe tiki to be an experience in itself. Three dots and a dash does deliver on the food. Our curry, crab Rangoon, fried chicken, and fries were all very good. But, the lounge seating we were at made it difficult to eat at. So, instead of leaning over the short table to eat, we held our plates up over our dress clothes. Not the most comfortable seating for eating fried chicken and curry. I also have to comment on waiting for an extended period of time for refills on our drinks and water. No fault to the waitress because she was very busy, but maybe management should hire someone else to help her? I believe tiki to be relaxed, happy, and a fluid environment. Three dots and a dash was more rigid in ambience and didn't provide an environment that fostered good conversation for us. Maybe on a different night it would be better - especially if seated at a table. Try it for yourself, but if you've never experienced true tiki, don't let three dots and a dash deter you from trying it again if you don't have a great time.

To access Three Dots and A Dash you will go through an alley in case your GPS is having troubles. It is recommended to book a reservation. Note THERE IS AN ELEVATOR!!! We had a member of our group with a walker and when the doorman mentioned we had to go down the flight of stairs we asked if there was any other way down. He said that was the only way so we all helped her very carefully down the stairs since she still wanted to try and go and we'd deal with the struggle of going up when that time came. Well when we made it to the host stand and she saw the walker she said by the way you can take the elevator up!! We told her she should make sure the doorman knew this in which the response was oh he knows! Now if he was new and unaware of the elevator we would have understood however the fact that he knew about it and we asked about an alternative way to access the space is majority for this low star review ultimately. Next note that if you are a larger size group (more than 4) and don't want to be squished together the space isn't really set up for, we were a group of 6 and the booth only comfortably fit 4 of us to allow space to have room they did provide us two chairs. Honestly even then the table is really small and barely fit our one shareable drink, two single drinks, the waters, and the shared appetizers. The space is super adorable however - would recommend starting your evening here since it is so dimly lit and music a bit more calm it made the group a bit more sleepy. Let me tell you the drink did pack a punch!

We ended up going here on a rainy day and decided to check out this cute tiki bar! Walking into the bar is super cool and it's a fun experience just getting to the table. Once we sat down, we ended up ordering a group drink for all of us to share - I believe the Bali Bali which was delicious! This drink was strong and came with lots of dry ice so getting the drink was super fun experience. Everyone also got their own straw which was awesome!Overall the experience was really fun and I enjoyed a great time with the girls!

Very cool location and super hidden / have to work a bit to find it. Pretty good drinks overall. I think the service was ok could have maybe been a little better. I have to say tho the location of this place is pretty cool and they do a great job taking you to another world in the heart of chi town.

Intro: This review really pains me because Three Dots and A Dash has the potential to be a five-star experience. I stopped by on a Tuesday night for some drinks. Since this tiki bar and restaurant is located downtown, parking isn't easy. I found some street parking a couple of minutes away by foot and paid for two hours at the meter (parking in Chicago is never fun nor is it cheap). Ambiance (5/5): I have appointed myself as the king of speakeasies. While Three Dots and A Dash isn't a speakeasy, it takes some inspiration from Prohibition-era bars. How so? The entrance to Three Dots and A Dash is found in an alleyway. Look for some tiki torches and a bouncer outside checking IDs and you'll know you're at the right place. From there, you'll walk down a long corridor before arriving at the bar. Once you walk in, you'll be impressed with the ambiance. This is everything a tiki bar should be. Tropical decor. Dimly lit. You feel like you're in Hawaii even though you're nowhere close. Drinks (4.5/5): Access the food and drink menu using the QR code you're given once you're greeted by the hostess. Three Dots and A Dash has a creative list of cocktails. What's nice about the menu is that you see a picture of the cocktail on the menu itself which might impact your decision. They also rate the strongness of the drink on the menu which is a nice touch. I went with The Three Dots and A Dash (can't say no to a drink that's named after the restaurant!) and the Rum Barreler. Both drinks were exceptional. The mix of flavors. The added garnishes. The presentation. Their cocktails aren't cheap but they are elevated drinks. Food (N/A): I was on a liquid diet at the time so I can't comment on their food. Service (1.5/5): And here's where we have arrived to the fatal flaw. Three Dots and A Dash was completely packed. Even on a Tuesday. To the point where the bar area was standing room only because the twelve or so bar stools were all taken. Packed like sardines where there is barely any room to move around. The bartenders were doing their best to serve complex cocktails as fast as they could. It was one of those situations where despite their best efforts, they just needed more bartenders to handle the crowd. It took quite a while to order my second drink because of this. And I don't think this is an isolated incident because there was a line outside to get in when I left. And Three Dots and A Dash is one of the most popular bars in Chicago on Yelp. There's another aspect of their service to mention. When I was ready to pay, I was given one of those electronic devices that are becoming more and more popular these days. The device listed how much I owed but it wasn't an itemized receipt. I asked one of the bartenders to see an itemized receipt and she said she could do so after I tipped. I told her that I wanted to make sure my check was correct before tipping. After some back and forth, she finally gave me an itemized receipt. It shouldn't have been this hard to do something that is standard procedure at most places. When I finally got my itemized receipt, I noticed that they include a surcharge (I believe it was between 1.5-3%). Had I not seen the itemized receipt, I would have never known this. Shady. Overall: If you're coming at a time when Three Dots and A Dash is less busy, I think it substantially changes your experience. And take away the service miscues, and you have an A+ experience as all of the elements are there.

Stopped here on a recent trip to Chicago and SO glad we got to come here for a girls night. The drinks were delicious and they even offer cocktails for ones in the party who don't drink. Drinks are a little pricey, but I feel like you are paying for the experience and vibe of the bar. If you're a fan of tiki bars - I recommend coming here! Some people recommended getting reservations as it gets quite busy and soooo glad we did. After getting seated around 6 pm, the crowd started to trickle in. Reservations require a booking fee that can be used towards the final check which was fine.

This place has been on my list for quite some time and I was excited to try it out. The quickest way to finding this place is to look out for the tiki torches in the back alleyway. I didn't have a reservation because I thought showing up around 5 pm was early. To my surprise, there was a good amount of people there and I was able to snag seat at the bar.The vibe was super cool. Definitely feel like you're a set up pirates of the Caribbean. It is very dark and very tropical inside. The first drink I ordered was Gremlins After Dark. It was pretty solid. The Japanese whisky was light and the melon favor really comes through. It does not taste artificial at all, which I loved. This drink is definitely on the fruity and sweet side so if that's your preference, this drink is for you. The next one I ordered was Three Dots and a Dash. This is a very typical tiki drink. It definitely tastes like rum and allspice. it was easy to drink and pretty refreshing. I definitely preferred the first drink, but both were pretty decent.My experience was pretty solid. It's definitely a fun place to go and grab drinks. I would recommend this place.

Another 3 yeses. Yes yes and yes i meant. If you are in town definitely check it out. If you wanna impress someone do sit by the bar and have a drink or two. Will the drinks come back to haunt you whenever you visit any other tiki bar? Maybe not but i recommend them simply for their best practices. They charge $10 for advance reservation which they deduct from the bill. They do not ask you to pay for tips after adding taxes as in their suggested tips is based on the amount before tax. This shows why they are still around and so popular since i visited them in 2014.

After cruising the Chicago River and staring at The Bean from afar (...the surrounding area is under renovation), Jamie W. and I were ready to wet our whistles at 4PM when this place opens. Perfect timing because we were at the front of a gradually growing line. We felt like Liza and Bianca at Studio 54 waving at the wannabes. It's a subterranean space, darkly lit and impeccably tiki.We secured a fairly large round table and browsed the voluminous menu which included both tiki classics and modern variations. Jamie first went for the $16 Coconut Midnight Stinger, an enticing tropical choice with coconut-infused single barrel bourbon, fernet branca, toasted coconut, and lemon (photo: https://yelp.to/0KmLBoCZWn). I was bold and ordered the $25 Royal Hawaiian.It was pricey because it was a vertical tiki cocktail presented as an elaborate horizontal production with London dry gin, almond orgeat, lemon, and pineapple mixed together and poured over crushed ice. It was pure delight with the smoking dry ice a nice touch (video: https://yelp.to/g38-lwDQiO). We thought we should eat something before embarking on a second round.We settled on the $15 Thai Fried Chicken which were honestly larger-size, panko-encrusted chicken nuggets tossed in a sweet Thai chili sauce (photo: https://yelp.to/b9d0y-wIXU). They were the right savory complement to the sweet cocktails. We were ready for Round 2, and Jamie went for the familiar $16 Painkiller, a truly topical blend of Caribbean rums, tangerine, pineapple, and coconut (photo: https://yelp.to/qKYYRCpi-U).It was the most traditional of the cocktails. For my finale, I decided to get the appropriately dusky $16 Coffee Grog, an intoxicating mix of Caribbean rums, Creole shrub, espresso, coconut, and cinnamon (photo: https://yelp.to/pgmU4thU-t). It was just the right way to end our tropical adventure in the middle of Chicago, and Abi was the perennially sunny server who helped make it happen.COCKTAILS - 5 stars...creative concoctions in true tiki packagingFOOD - 4 stars...solid bar bites, need to try moreAMBIANCE - 5 stars...evocative decor without treading into kitschSERVICE - 5 stars...Abi was a font of positive vibesTOTAL - 5 stars...a truly exceptional tiki bar, an unexpected Chicago findRELATED - Exploring Chicago? Here's my collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/44c4CZO