Created by "Skipper" Josh Collins who went on to create the Hula Bula Bar in Australia.

Interior boasted a number of very large painted styrofoam tikis.

This location was described as heavy on the nightclub and while they did offer Vietnamese style "finger food", few went here simply to dine.

South London Pacific closed in 2018 after 15+ years and is now The Cock Tavern London. The new owners retained some of the tiki decor and worked it into their otherwise Georgian style theme.

When the London Trader Vic's opened at the London Hilton in 1963, it was the first expansion outside of North America. In 1978, Warren Zevon immortalized the London Trader Vic's in his song "Werewolves of London" from his Excitable Boy album: "I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's... his hair was perfect."

In July 2011, a fire in the hotel caused some minor damage, requiring a short closure and a bit of remodeling in the dining room.

As of November 27th, 2022, the General Manager of Trader Vic's London stated that their lease was not renewed by Hilton and this location would close on December 31st, 2022.

There was a petition and much sadness in the tiki community, but this location did, in fact, shut its doors at the end of 2022.

There are three very large moai in the shark tank.

More of a Chinese restaurant than a Polynesian one, Chin's Chop Suey was opened in 1955 by Marvin Chin, who opened the very Polynesian Chin Tiki in Detroit 12 years later -- Chin Tiki closed in 1980.

Marvin's son Marlon nows owns and operates Chin's in Livonia, and some of the tiki decor from Chin Tiki has been relocated here.

*NOTE: Uncle and son team, Marlon and Steven have announced that the restaurant will close at the end of April 2025. The restaurant will be kept intact, but not open for business.

The Hawaiian Hot Luau was a Polynesian dance show and luau held seasonally from 1991 to at least 2009 at the Imperial Palace (1979-2012). The Imperial Palace started off as the Flamingo Capri (1959-1979). The location later became the Quad Resort and Casino (2012-2014) and then The Linq (2014-Present).

Taboo Cove opened in the Venetian casino in 2001, and was the first of the tiki revival bars to have been done with a large budget. There was fantastic decor, but in order to draw patrons, they played rotten music. The artist Bosko provided many carvings, and there were some great classic light fixtures. In December 2004, Taboo Cove was gutted for a remodel, and reopened as a non-tiki bar. Just across the hall from Taboo Cove's former location is Venus, a retro lounge-themed bar with artwork by Shag.

This restaurant, which is only open in July & August, is connected to The Tiki, a resort hotel. There are polynesian dinner shows nightly.

The Tiki was another brainchild of Lake George legend, Charles R. Wood. Wood was an innovator, philanthropist, and all around fun guy. He opened Storytown USA (now Great Escape) a Disney-esque theme park in 1954; a full year before Walt himself opened Disneyland. Wood also beat Walt to the punch with his version of Polynesian paradise the The Tiki. Why mention Disney's Polynesian Resort when discussing the Tiki? Because they are the last two themed full service resorts with Polynesian dinner show still operational in the continental United States.

The Tahiti Lounge at The Tiki Motor Inn opened on July 15, 1965.

The original lobby area remains relatively unspoiled and is currently Paradise Island Lounge. The original gift shop is now the Garden Cafe.

This hotel was run by Howard Johnson for many years, but it hasn't been stripped of its character like so many others that have been bought by hotel chains. Connected to the Waikiki Supper Club, which has Polynesian dinner shows nightly during July & August.

The Tiki also hosts Ohana: Luau at the Lake each year, bringing tons of tikiphiles to enjoy a celebratory weekend comparable to other major regional tiki events like Tiki Oasis or Tiki Caliente in California, Tiki-Kon in Oregon, or the Hukilau in Florida.

Built @1979-1980.

After the original The Tikis in Monterey Park closed, owner Danny Balsz attempted to reopen at this new location in Lake Elsinore with some of his old set pieces and tikis at the newly built-out location, but it never happened. It is now a paintball park, Jungle Island; all the landscaping and (now paint-splattered) rock formations remain, but the tikis are long gone.

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 under the auspices of chef Mariano “Maro” Molteni. Honarkar’s 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 the 2006-2022 version or from 2023 onward see separate listings.

Opened in 1973.

This Trader Vic's was located in the Crown Center Hotel (later the Westin Hotel or Westin Crown Center) and closed in 1996 when its lease was not renewed by the hotel.

A 1973 clipping from The Kansas City Times reveals that all the Trader Vic's cooks were immigrant Chinese without any fluency in English. After complaining that they couldn't function outside the restaurant with their poor English skills, the manager (after searching in vain for a community college course for adult ESL learners) delegated his secretary, Ms. Chere Simons, to tutor them after work, and though she had never taught ESL, she put her degree in Elementary Education to work and had great success. Soon, they no longer had to depend on Trader Vic's staff to write their rent checks for them or sign their leases, or do things that many native English speakers take for granted, and they could be heard practicing their newfound English skills in the kitchen during work hours as well.

This theme park included Trader Frank's restaurant.

In the mid-1940s, "Trader" Frank Byars and his wife, "Wahine" Jo Byars, ran a small St. Petersburg hotel. His wife began making jewelry from shells, and Mr. Byars saw that they were more than pretty; they were sellable.

They lost the lease on their hotel and decided to move forward with his wife's jewelry and other related gifts.

They bought the inventory of a failed gift shop, stocked it with similar shell jewelry, and started the Signal House, ultimately one of the Suncoast's largest gift shops. To attract customers, Mr. Byars put in a small Polynesian garden.

The Signal House burned in 1962, and they decided to rebuild it in earnest as a real tourist attraction.

They researched to see if there were any other attractions in the state with a Polynesian atmosphere and found none.

Thus came about Tiki Gardens, several gift shop, and its 450-seat restaurant, Trader Frank's, on 7 acres of palmetto swampland overlooking the bay and Gulf of Mexico.

The layout was greatly influenced by The International Marketplace in Honolulu and its gift shops and restaurants.

The tiki gods were designed by Gordon Keith Originals of Columbus, Ohio.

From the start, back in 1964, business was good. Auto clubs and tourist guides soon recognized Tiki Gardens as a Florida attraction.

In 1988, Mr. Byars and his wife sold the attraction to Australian investors Neville Schmidt and Darrell Roder. As partial payment they accepted $1-million in opals.

Tiki Gardens was subsequently closed and later, in 1990, Pinellas County commissioners approved plans to buy the site where Tiki Gardens stood and turn it into a park.