Post #540986 by Tooki_C on Tue, Jul 6, 2010 11:59 AM

The Hula Hut (hulahut.com) in Austin refers to it's food as "Mexonesian" (Mexican and Polynesian) and it's really good. Sure it panders to the Texans' love of cheese-covered "Tex-Mex," but it works. The decor is "retro-junky-surf-shack-hula-girl," but it works. Large crowds (lots of people, too!), great vibe, and the broad scope of the "theme" lets them get away with fun things like the " Wikiwiki Shrimp PoBoy" and the "Thai BBQ Fajitas."

It seems like restaurants either focus on the food and neglect the atmosphere/experience (most mom-and-pop shops), or go all out on the decor at the expense of the quality of the food (Disneyland). Either extreme makes it hard to want to go back for a second and third visit.

I do think a Tiki restaurant would do well in certain markets, but it would take something between a Tiki-purist (some concessions would need to be made to insure mass appeal) and a generic theme-restaurant opportunist (another bad dollar-store-tiki-themed Denny's would only ruin it for everyone!)

I'd love to see something become of these ideas!

[ Edited by: Tooki_C 2010-07-06 12:54 ]