The Royal Hawaiian opened in 1947. It was owned by the Cabang family. The Cabangs were originally from the Phillipines and were friends with both of the Fillipino Tiki carvers in L.A. at the time, Milan Guanko and Andres Bumatay. These talented artists both supplied Tikis for the restaurant. The prominent Andres Bumatay tikis outside the restaurant became weathered and destroyed and were later replaced by modern carvings.

The Royal Hawaiian also had a sister location located in Anaheim in the 1950s.

The Royal Hawaiian has been through several iterations. It originally had several small dining rooms with glass-walled dioramas filled with tikis and plants, great lamps, bamboo, thatch and sea grass matting, and a bar with a fireplace and pufferfish. There were lovely oil paintings throughout, including a large piece hung directly above the hostess stand.

In spring 2006, the restaurant was sold to a new owner, who gutted it. The newer, tiki-stripped version closed for good in 2012. In 2016, the space reopened, again with the name Royal Hawaiian, this time by people who wanted to bring back its rich tiki history. The new owners, Mo Honarkar and daughters Hasty and Nikisa, worked to bring back a fully-decorated Royal Hawaiian with the help of Bamboo Ben.

However in January-February 2019, the restaurant was closed for yet another remodel and then re-opened on April 3rd, 2019 under the auspices of chef Mariano Maro Molteni. Honarkars company remained as landlords, while Molteni owned and operated the restaurant which he rebranded as the "Royal Hawaiian Fire Grill". Molteni's remodel (which came as a surprise to the landlords) removed much of Bamboo Ben's decor, especially natural materials like lauhala matting and thatching in favor of dark blue painted walls and a "cleaner" and "less cluttered" look. There were still tikis and accent pieces, but the interior was much reduced from its former full tiki glory.

On July 15th, 2022, Royal Hawaiian Fire Grill announced its closure for the end of that same month, on July 31st, 2022.

Following the 2022 closure of the last iteration of the Royal Hawaiian, the space was turned over to Boulevard Hospitality for a complete transformation and a grand re-opening in May 2023. The new build-out was completed by Ignacio “Notch” Gonzales, famous for building spaces like Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco and Inside Passage in Seattle.

To round out the new experience, the Royal Hawaiian’s owners have brought on famed barman Dushan Zaric of Employees Only to build a bespoke cocktail menu that riffs, weaves, and rethinks the rum-forward staples of tiki lore.

*NOTE: For photos of original location prior to 2006, or newly opened version from 2023 onward, see separate listings.

The Grass Skirt opened November 7th, 2016, in San Diego's Pacific Beach neighborhood. It is owned by the SDCM restaurant group. This speakeasy-style tiki bar is hidden behind a poke restaurant, Good Time Poke. There is a full menu of tropical cocktails, mostly their own creations, and a menu of seafood-centered dishes. Carved posts by local tiki legend Tiki Bosko support thatch over booths wrapping around a central fire pit, and backed by a grand mural of Diamond Head with a hula dancer. The bar is backed with orange tile and lava rock, and fronted by bamboo, lauhala and tapa cloth. One booth sits inside the mouth of a huge tiki head.

Vavoom Tiki Room opened in November 2007. A wide selection of tropical drinks are available, some served in tiki mugs. The decor includes some tikis, a bamboo bar, and leopard-print furniture. Lunch is served from noon to 4pm.

Noa Noa Wood Grill & Sushi Bar opened in 2000.

Named after Paul Gaugin's journal made during his first visit to Tahiti (1891-1893), wherein he documented his experiences. Several Gaugin prints decorate the interior as well.

There is also a thatch-covered bar with a palm tree, and a selection of tropical drinks is offered. The food menu's emphasis is on fresh fish and sushi.

There is a banquet room available to rent for private events, the Taharaa Room.

Opened @ 2014.

Tonga Bar is a tiki bar in downtown Bergen, Norway. It is richly decorated with bamboo, thatch, lauhala, and lots of decor.

There was also another Tonga Bar location in Tonsberg, Norway, within the Harbor Cafe but it appears to have closed after 2014.

Pacific Seas is a bar inside of the Clifton's complex in downtown Los Angeles. It opened November 12th, 2016, and pays tribute to the original Clifton's Pacific Seas, which was located a few blocks away on Olive Street and operated from 1939-1960. This Clifton's location on Broadway opened in 1935 and remained in operation until it closed for extensive remodeling (2011-2015) by new owner Andrew Meieran.

In addition to the nod to Clifton's own Polynesian Pop history, Pacific Seas incorporates elements from the later heyday of 1960s tiki, thanks in particular to decor purchased from Bahooka after it closed in early 2013. Pacific Seas was built by Bamboo Ben, grandson of the famous early Tiki decorator and builder Eli Hedley.

Reservations are recommended, and there is a dress code (basically: don't wear shorts and a t-shirt, put a little effort in and you'll be fine, wear some nice vintage aloha and you're golden).

The venue was open sporadically and for special events since closing in 2018 and again in 2020 during COVID.

In September 2022, Los Angeles real estate investment firm Robhana Group acquired Andrew Meieran’s Clifton’s Cafeteria, aka Clifton’s Republic for $8.6 million. It was said Clifton’s signed a long-term lease with the new owner so that the nightclub, including Pacific Seas, would remain open.

However, since then, the Pacific Seas remained closed until the end of August 2024 when it finally opened once again.

Trader Eng's opened on June 27th, 1963, and operated until 1981.

It was owned and operated by Walter England Huckabee, Jr. ("Eng" being short for "England"). Walter was born in 1920 and passed on in 2003 at 83 years old. He had previously been in the military and ran a couple of Kentucky Fried Chicken locations.

Trader Eng's was a Polynesian restaurant with the decor to match, including fake palm trees, a-frame "huts," and bridges, and it featured a "hibachi" (teppanyaki) grill. The bar was called the Shell Bar. It was located in the Peachtree Towers, north of downtown Atlanta.

Trader Eng's closed in 1981, and today the site is a condominium building.

There was also an attempt to franchise the business and a second location was opened in 1969, at 2814 Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, Florida. This location later became Lucy Ho's and King Buffet.

The Royal Hawaiian Apartments were built in 1964. The apartment complex encircles a central kidney-shaped swimming pool. At the front of a building, a rock wall with a "Royal Hawaiian" outrigger sign is on one side of the entrance, and a bamboo-lined wall is on the other, above a parking garage supported by carved tiki posts. More tikis can be found in the inner courtyard.

This is the second location of Hula's Modern Tiki, the first is in Phoenix (opened 2009 and re-located in 2018) and a third is in High Street (2020). This Scottsdale location opened in early 2014. True to its name, the look of the place is sleek and tiki-lite. The main room has several large carved plaques by Tiki Bosko on the back wall, and a large tiki by Tiki tOny stands out front.

The Royal Hawaiian Estates were built in 1960 and opened on New Year's Day 1961. It is a complex of 12 buildings containing 40 condominium homes with two shared central swimming pools, designed by the famous mid-century architect Donald Wexler and his partner at the time, Richard Harrison. The developer was Philip Short, and ownership was initially restricted to Jewish buyers over the age of 55 (Jewish people were not allowed to buy in the other private communities around Palm Springs at that time). Some of Hollywood's movers and shakers owned units as a vacation home in the 1960s. The property fell into disrepair in the 1990s and many of the defining architectural elements were removed. Restoration began in the 2010s, and today the mostly-restored complex is the first Historic Residential District in Palm Springs. The artist Shag (who has a store in Palm Springs) has a tikified vacation home in the complex.

The Jungle Bird opened October 23rd, 2016 in Midtown Sacramento. The bar and restaurant is owned by Melissa and Tyler Williams (of Sacramento's Tank House) and Buddy Newby. The decor includes lauhala and bamboo, with a few large tikis. There is an outdoor patio. A full menu of tropical drinks, including many classics, is available. The small food menu has a mix of old school Polynesian and modern Asian-Pacific fare, including a Pu-Pu Platter.

Note: No association with Jungle Bird bar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which made the Asian Top 50 bars list in 2018-2019. That bar is more of a rum bar than a tiki bar. However both started in 2016 and the "Jungle Bird" name seems to hold steady across the globe!

Lost On 111 Grill & Art Lounge was a small breakfast cafe and art store in La Quinta, outside of Palm Springs. There were many pieces of tiki art and carvings for sale by modern-day tiki artists.

Lost On 111 Grill was originally called Scramblez Cafe & Grill and was not tiki. Tiki art and decor was added gradually, and the new name and identity was forged by owner Damen Perry in January 2015.

Closed as of 2019.