Tiki Bars
Kitchen 5315 Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Lahaina, Hawaii, United States
Opened around 2017.
This is a restaurant and tiki bar inside the Napili Shores Resort in Lahaina.
The restaurant dining area is a large open room bordered by windows with spectacular island views.
The interior of the restaurant and bar are not decorated in an immersive classic style like you might expect from classic tiki bars like Trader Vic's, etc. Instead, the restaurant has white ceilings and their tropical accents mainly consist of bamboo trim and faux greenery throughout with a few inexpensive tiki masks. The tiki bar is a smaller, darker, and cozier space with more tiki masks and a tiki mural on the back wall.
Solid food offerings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A small number of classic tiki cocktails, and other more modern cocktails with a tiki spin - and a couple of non tiki drinks renamed to be tiki-ish.
Lava Tube - Waikiki
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
This bar & restaurant used to be named Da Big Kahuna (@2011-2015) which had the same tikis out front and the same decor inside and out but skewed a bit more to the dive bar side.
Not to be confused with Big Kahuna's Pizza (since 1994 and still running).
This incarnation, Lava Tube, opened @2018 under new ownership and prides itself on being locally owned and using locally sourced food.
Yours Truly - at the AC Hotel Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
The AC Hotel by Marriott is a 112 room boutique hotel with an expansive lobby, full service restaurant, two bars, Yours Truly Speakeasy, coffee bistro, fitness center, conference, event spaces, business center, concierge and VIP access to the best of Honolulus vibrant business district, artisan storefronts and diversified nightlife.
Yours Truly opened @ January 2024 and pays homage to the space's former identity as a post office.
Patrons fill out postcards and drop them in the vintage mailbox nearby to make their cocktail orders, which are later brought to their table.
Cuckoo Coconuts
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Opened @ 2014.
This is a big family friendly venue that glories in the kitsch and is known for its very large fiberglass tikis inside and out as well as its inexpensive cocktails served in plastic cups.
They do serve food beyond the typical bar food one might expect.
They also have indoor as well as outdoor seating.
Tiki Garden Dining Room & Restaurant - at the Hilo Lagoon Hotel
Hilo, Hawaii, United States (Closed)
The Hilo Lagoon Hotel was built in 1971.
The 10 floor building was built overlooking the spring-fed Waiakea Lagoon and Park. The six acre site included lush landscaping, extensive fishponds filled with colorful carp, and a freshwater swimming pool.
The Tiki Garden Restaurant was located on the first level overlooking the carp ponds. It specialized in buffet meals. Decor included large murals and floor-to-ceiling Easter Island Moai heads.
NOTE: As of today (2024) this building has been converted to apartment housing.
The Pupu House & Kiki's Tiki Bar - Waikiki
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Opened May 16th, 2023.
Located on Lewers Street in the old Moose McGillycuddy’s space.
The Pupu House on the first level is a family-friendly restaurant and bar, while Kiki’s Tiki Bar, located upstairs on the second level, is a DJ driven Dance Club/Nightclub.
Teddy's Bigger Burgers - Haleiwa
Haleiwa, Hawaii, United States
The first Teddy's Bigger Burgers opened in 1998.
While you’ll get great burgers (etc) at any of the Teddy’s locations spread out between Oahu and Maui (they have around 11 island locations and counting as of 2024) this Teddy’s located along Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa is a unique one. Part tiki bar, part burger joint, this Teddy’s opened in 2015 and takes the cake as being the best of their locations.
Their decor is highly Instagrammable, thanks in-part to the touches of local artisan and carver, Gecko, of South Sea Arts. The food holds up to Teddy’s superior burger standards, and their shakes are the bees knees (order the Pineapple shake!), while the bar itself is a great place to congregate with the locals to watch the game and talk story. This ain’t your typical burger joint.
Hawaiian Hut - at the Ala Moana Hotel
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (Closed)
This venue was opened in 1970 with the Ala Moana Hotel and was one of the Spencecliff family of restaurants.
It was painstakingly modeled to resemble a Maori meeting hall on the inside and was covered with all manner of carvings.
Spencecliff later passed this restaurant on to his former employee, Gordon Yoshida, who continued to run it until February of 2009.
In its time, it was run as a dinner theater and home to a number of full Hawaiian Revue dance teams throughout the years.
After its close, the contents were auctioned off or demolished and disposed of. Some of the better carvings found their way into the hands of collectors and a few are on display at La Mariana Sailing Club.
The Royal Lanai & Attic Bar
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (Closed)
The Royal Lanai opened @ 1962.
This site was previously occupied by the first Tropics restaurant (The World Famous Tropics at Waikiki) which was opened by Peaches & Tony Guerrero and ran from 1940 to at least as late as 1955, possibly later.
The upstairs portion was designated as a separate bar called "The Attic Bar".
This location was open at least as late as September of 1968.
It is interesting to note on their limited cocktail menu that they used Leilani brand as their house white rum. Beachbum Berry describes this as one of his favorite historical white rums for that time period. They also produced a very cool tiki-shaped bottle glorifier to set the bottles on that has become highly coveted over the years. See photos below...
Chuck's Steak House - at the Edgewater Hotel
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (Closed)
This first Chuck’s Steak House was opened in Waikiki at the Edgewater Hotel in 1959, by Chuck Rolles.
As seen in the postcard, they had a bar with a tiki, fish floats, fish nets, and other flotsam and jetsam.
The restaurant became known for its casual atmosphere, self-serve salad bar, and high-quality steaks at reasonable prices. Today, a self-serve salad bar does not seem ground-breaking, but Chuck's was one of the first restaurants to implement this and they introduced it to the mainland.
Since 2007, with the creation of the Waikiki Beach Walk, this entire area has been redeveloped and no signs of the original Chuck's remains.
Over the years, the Chuck's chain expanded across the United States, although many locations have since closed, leaving only a few remaining, including one in Santa Barbara, California.
Hawai Waipahu Paradise
Madrid, Spain
Built in 1979.
Hawai Waipahu Paradise is a small bar on the outskirts of Madrid. The front facade features beautiful, intricate tile work in the shape of Papua New Guinea masks. There is an outdoor patio in the back. Drinks are served in the gorgeous tiki mugs that are common to all tiki bars in Spain. The decor in the space is simple, but the bar back has some nice, elaborate carved details.
Hawai'i General Store
Seattle, Washington, United States
A medium-sized store in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, which seems to be targeting the homesick among Seattle's Hawaiian community. It's not unusual to hear the lilting tones of pidgin english spoken here. There is a food section, and leis can be ordered straight from Hawai'i. Tiki Farm mugs and other tiki and party supplies can be found here.
They also run a travel agency out of the store as well.