Tiki Bars
Tiki Port
Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States
Tiki Port is a Chinese/Polynesian restaurant. It opened in 1977. The decor includes painted murals and beautiful Orchids of Hawaii style swag lamps, but the theming is more Chinese than Polynesian. It serves traditional Chinese/Polynesian favorites, including a flaming pu-pu platter.
Tiki Port had a slightly-more-Polynesian sister restaurant in Medford, Tiki Island, which closed in 2023.
Polynesian Cocktail Lounge - at The New Chinatown Restaurant
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States (Closed)
The Polynesian Lounge opened in 1990, as a newly themed bar for the New Chinatown Restaurant. It was owned by Freddie and Jane Baker. Freddie "Kekaulike" Baker was born in Hawaii and moved to the mainland in 1949, he was an extra in Hollywood for some time, before forming a band. His band played hapa haole and other Polynesian-tinged tunes all over the country, including the Aku Aku in Las Vegas. He started headlining at the Tiki Kai Supper Club in the '60s, where he met Jane. The couple performed at the lounge regularly, along with a hula dancing friend, Evalani.
The New Chinatown was co-owned by the Ong family, and opened circa 1976. The restaurant was built using hundreds of green tiles which were brought over from China and are much coveted today (but these tiles were destroyed when the site was later leveled). When first opened, it advertised a Pagoda Bar and Kung-Pei Cocktail Lounge (one or both of these was probably coverted over to the "Polynesian Lounge"). It sat 400 people and they touted it as the finest Chinese restaurant in the Southwest.
When the New Chinatown Restaurant changed hands in 2003, the Polynesian Lounge was also sold, and the new owners turned it into a non-tiki, cabaret joint, and re-branded the restaurant as Mr K's Oriental Restaurant & Bar.
That was short-lived. This site has been re-developed (some time prior to 2015) and is now home to Labor Finders and Albuquerque Distilling (as of 2022) on the footprint of where the New Chinatown Restaurant used to be.
Aku-Tiki Room
Kewanee, Illinois, United States (Closed)
The Aku-Tiki Room was in the Andris Waunee Farm Restaurant, in a remote area just off Rural Route 2. Glen Andris purchased the farm in 1953, but didn't add on the tiki room until 1967 - inspired not by a trip to Hawaii, but instead by winter trips to Acapulco, and time spent in the Aku-Tiki restaurant there. The room was expanded in 1984.
It closed in January 2008, and there was an auction of the remains in June 2008.
Honolulu Harry's Waikiki - Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, United States (Closed)
From its opening in 1949 (putting it squarely in the pre-tiki category), Honolulu Harry’s Waikiki provided “entertainment direct from Hawaii” and “dancing under Hawaiian skies.”
The first location was at 4541 Broadway in Chicago.
Not long after opening, the bar made a short move and re-opened in 1952 at its final location at 804 W. Wilson.
Years before, this location on W. Wilson was the Barrel O' Fun Tavern, John Dillinger's favorite hangout.
This new incarnation was quite different: “There were fresh pineapples on the tables, paper leis and ti leaves hanging all around”.
Harry even imported tikis from Hawaii (see 1955 photo below with Harry, a fern tiki -- the Goddess Hina, and a hula dancer)
By 1959, the bar began touting itself as an “authentic Hawaiian theatre restaurant.”
Newspapers show the bar celebrated a 10 Year Anniversary in 1962.
It appears in later years before it closed (after 1962) that the name was shortened to "Club Waikiki".
Today, the site is home to The Covington Luxury Apartments, which were built in 1965, so Harry's must have closed some time between 1962 and 1965.
Ho-Aloha
Fair Lawn, New Jersey, United States (Closed)
Open from 1972-1987.
This Chinese/Polynesian restaurant had fake palms in the parking lot and plastic flowers, masks, straw huts and a miniature outrigger in the dimly lighted dining room. All lit by Orchids of Hawaii swag lamps.
The dinner menu had extensive offerings of exotic Polynesian potables and main dishes, along with several Cantonese specialties, a half‐dozen Mandarin delights and some standard American fare.
Chief's Da Tiki Bar
Bonita, California, United States
Opened @ February 2023.
This small place is run by a Chamorro family that also runs the adjacent JJ's Island Grind restaurant. You can bring in food from there (which is mostly Hawaiian, Chamorro and Filipino style foods). The bar is a mix of what one might call modern Island style, and a lot of the decor is standard, mass-produced stuff (masks, fish floats, signs, etc.). There are several TV screens, but they seem to mostly play Chamorro music videos.
Kapu Bar
Petaluma, California, United States (Closed)
Opened January 21st, 2023.
Owner Michael Richardson is a longtime tiki bartender and co-author of the Frankie's Tiki Room (Las Vegas) cocktail book, “Liquid Vacation.” Chef Mike Lutz helms the kitchen, serving Hawaiian-inspired dishes.
Interior design was done by Bamboo Ben.
April 19th, 2025, the building was sold and the last day was abruptly announced.
Pōā Tiki Bar
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Opened December 23rd, 2022.
Pōā Tiki Bar claims to be the first permanent bar in Ottawa to have a tropical Hawaiian atmosphere.
The entire space is filled with tiki and pirate-themed decor - with nautical ropes and flotsam & jetsam hanging from the ceiling -- all artfully lit with colored lighting.
Their cocktail menu features some unorthodox creations of their own and some unusual serving vessels, including their "Shokin Pirate" which is served in a clear glass bong with dry ice to provide a smoke effect in the chamber.
Polynesian Fire Luau - Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach, Florida, United States
Opened in 2018, although the dance company was established several years before.
Polynesian Fire Luau is primarily a Luau Dinner Show that is held multiple times a week but they also have a tiki bar in their location.
Their team performed the Luau show at the Hawaiian Inn for 5 years and finally moved in to their own location in 2018. They also have a Luau show in Myrtle Beach.
Tiki Hut Steak N' Lobster - Seattle
Seattle, Washington, United States (Closed)
The Tiki Hut was open and running circa 1962 -- with "exotic beverages" served in the Shell Room lounge -- and continued into the 70s (at one point also know as "Hope's Hut"). In the 80s it was the Blue Hawaiian Restaurant (still featuring the Shell Room) until becoming Lee Chee Garden in the late 80s. It was later known as Chen's Village from 2005-2018.
As of 2022, this location is a Sisters and Brother Nashville hot chicken restaurant.
There was also a second location for Tiki Hut, at one point, in Lynnwood at 5621 196th S. W.
*NOTE: The menu below mentions a Harvey Wallbanger cocktail and lists 3! cocktails with Galliano which seems to date it to the 1970s.
Catamaran Resort Hotel
San Diego, California, United States
Opened in 1958.
A classic tropical resort hotel on Mission Bay. Originally built by the Scripps family as a Spanish Colonial style summer house, the buildings were rebuilt in a Hawaiian Colonial style in the late '50s to better fit in with the tropical grounds. The hotel's been renovated many times since then without losing its Tiki touches.
Throughout the decades, the Evans family has gone to great lengths to import traditional Pacific Island art. All of the ethnic art including spears, personal jewelry, hand-woven rugs, and warrior shields are from New Guinea and were made prior to World War II. As you face the front desk, look above and you will see a very large tapa cloth made of Mulberry bark. It is from the New Hebrides Islands located off the coast of New Guinea. When this piece was commissioned, it was the largest one done since 1920 and took many different island families over a year to make. The wood that makes up the front desk is called Black Koa wood, which is native to the Tahitian Islands. The totem poles throughout the property were handcrafted in Bali specifically for the Catamaran. As you approach the stairs on the way to the Atoll restaurant, look to your left and you will see a large carving encased in glass that looks like a stool. This piece of art is known as the "speaking stool." It was found by Michael Rockefeller in a headhunter village in 1961. This stool is the second largest one known in existence.
Maka Hiki Tropical Bar & Grill
Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong SAR China (Closed)
Opened in mid December 2021.
This was the newly opened space for the former Honi Honi in Hong Kong.
Maka Hiki translated to "new beginning" in Hawaiian and took inspiration from a wide range of island and beach sanctuaries scattered from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, Polynesia to Southeast Asia. Maka Hiki took over the space formerly inhabited by Bond, reimagining the interior in a material palette of timber, bamboo and eye-catching tropical wallpapers. The outside terrace also contributed to the feeling of escape.
Helming the kitchen was chef Russell Doctrove, previously of Maximal Concepts, who ideated breakfast, lunch and dinner menus to sustain the tiki vibes from morning to night. Signatures included the Hawaiian-style tuna poke, grilled mahi-mahi, and a 48-hour slow-cooked beef rib with tamarind jaew BBQ sauce.
Cocktails also formed a large part of the experience, with drinks by the name of Tik Tok Tiki, Dum Dum Give Me Rum Rum, and Maka Hiki Punch continuing the Honi Honi tradition of spiriting patrons away to a faraway paradisiacal beach.
Closed in May of 2024.