Trader Vic's/Polinesio, Havana, Cuba (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

K KAHAKA Tiki Socialite San Jose, CA Joined: Mar 03, 2003 Posts: 875	K KAHAKA Posted posted on Wed, Apr 17, 2013 7:06 PM My good pals Notch, Mondo, Scott and I had an opportunity to spend a few days in Cuba a few weekends back. We expected to like it, but didn't realize just how much. I think the interest level hit obsession a few hours in. After checking into the Hotel Nacional, we headed directly to Il Polinesio. The place was empty. There was one other couple that came in during our time there. A lot of the goods seemed to still be in tact from the pics Bongofury posted last year, maybe a few items less. Nonetheless, it was pretty amazing to see a relatively untouched, original tiki restaurant from the heyday of Tiki. AND it's in Cuba! The very friendly bartender informed us that they were only serving traditional Cuban drinks due to a lack of supplies for the other drinks on the menu, so we had our first Cuba Libres of the trip! I took pics with the only camera I had, my iPhone. I apologize for the quality, but from all the other pics posted, you get the gist of what it looks like. Notch had a cool idea to bring in an original Suffering Bastard to leave behind at the Polinesio. We all signed it and hope to be able to visit it someday down the road! Fingers crossed that Il Polinesio's doors will still be open. Suffering Bastard with his new Cuban brothers and sisters Here's a shot of the menu to show the drinks they used to have. Hopefully they'll receive the needed supplies to put these back into action. We only made the one visit to the Polinesio during our short stay in Havana. There was too much see. And like Bongofury mentioned, we got very little sleep because we, too, didn't want to miss anything! ¡Salud! Woody

My good pals Notch, Mondo, Scott and I had an opportunity to spend a few days in Cuba a few weekends back. We expected to like it, but didn't realize just how much. I think the interest level hit obsession a few hours in. After checking into the Hotel Nacional, we headed directly to Il Polinesio.

The place was empty. There was one other couple that came in during our time there. A lot of the goods seemed to still be in tact from the pics Bongofury posted last year, maybe a few items less. Nonetheless, it was pretty amazing to see a relatively untouched, original tiki restaurant from the heyday of Tiki. AND it's in Cuba!

The very friendly bartender informed us that they were only serving traditional Cuban drinks due to a lack of supplies for the other drinks on the menu, so we had our first Cuba Libres of the trip!

I took pics with the only camera I had, my iPhone. I apologize for the quality, but from all the other pics posted, you get the gist of what it looks like.

Notch had a cool idea to bring in an original Suffering Bastard to leave behind at the Polinesio. We all signed it and hope to be able to visit it someday down the road! Fingers crossed that Il Polinesio's doors will still be open.

Suffering Bastard with his new Cuban brothers and sisters

Here's a shot of the menu to show the drinks they used to have. Hopefully they'll receive the needed supplies to put these back into action.

We only made the one visit to the Polinesio during our short stay in Havana. There was too much see. And like Bongofury mentioned, we got very little sleep because we, too, didn't want to miss anything!

¡Salud!
Woody

Post #674693 by KAHAKA on Wed, Apr 17, 2013 7:06 PM