Post #462147 by Mai Tai on Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:48 AM

Leleliz's recommendations are good. If you only want bar food, then that is the way to go.

However, if you want a fine dining experience in a tiki setting, then I would have to recommend the Tonga Room in San Francisco at the Fairmont, and Trader Vic's in the East Bay in Emeryville, right across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco.

The Tonga Room's atmosphere is pretty hard to beat, especially if you haven't been there before. Oh, some people might complain that they cleaned it up too much in their recent refurbishment, and maybe you can see some of the exposed pipes up above, plus the strobe light when the lightning strikes, which to them spoils the magic. But have you ever been to a restaurant where there's a rain and thunderstorm inside every 20 minutes, and there is a band playing (cheesy) music on a floating raft in a giant water feature that once upon a time used to be the hotel indoor swimming pool? I think not! :D The drinks aren't really anything to write home about, and the service - especially by the cocktail waitresses - up until recently was pretty surly, but things have improved to some extent after the "Save The Tonga Room" event. And dinner is usually pretty good - if you go, you want to go there for the full dining experience, not just cocktails in the bar. Also, the Tonga Room might not be around forever, so if you don't forsee getting back to San Francisco any time soon, then my advice is to go to the Tonga Room while you still can.

My other fine dining choice would be Trader Vic's in Emeryville. The service is good, the drinks are usually great (but occasionally can be off), the food is good too, especially anything from the chinese ovens. The atmosphere is a little more airy than your classic tiki bar, with a heavy nautical theme and big windows overlooking a marina. But there are tons of tiki archaeological gems dispersed throughout the place, including all of the items that hung above the bar at the original Hinky Dinks location.

But you will have to travel out of San Francisco a little to get to Trader Vic's. So if you are going to head all the way over to the East Bay, then you might as well go to Forbidden Island too. It's not that far away from Trader Vic's, but you will have to travel to the middle of an island in a suburban neighborhood. But the drinks are well worth it - you're not going to find any finer tiki drinks than at F.I. Hell, some of the peeps up here carpool 45 miles or farther away to soak up the atmosphere and libations on a regular basis! A word of warning that it can get really crowded on a warm weekend night, with a line out the door and a wait to get in. It's still worth it, though, if that is the only night you can go, but most of us locals avoid the "bridge and tunnel" crowds and go on weeknights.

So if you had to choose one restaurant, I'd probably choose the Tonga Room for it's unique atmosphere and dining experience. Or I'd choose Trader Vic's, and follow up with Forbidden Island. Depends on how much time you have.

On those threads that you posted, look for recommendations by thejab, mrsmiley, and martiki - those will all be good recommendations as well, whether they're tiki or not tiki. Also, if you're in the Carmel area, you might want to stop by Munktiki. And if you're up in Napa Valley, go check out Judd's Hill. Those are my recommendations, for what it's worth. Hope you have a good time!