Post #803097 by SouthSeasKat on Sat, Apr 23, 2022 5:31 PM

Would you call lounges or restaurants that lean heavily into Hawaiiana, make decent tiki drinks, and have tropical plants and decor and in many cases Tikis, "Tikiesque" or "Tiki Adjacent"?

In Japan we only have a few tiki bars in the entire country. One is Trader Vic's in the New Otani, which I do go to every year on my birthday (well, not during COVID unfortunately, so maybe this year).

Tiki Bar 2 (Second) in Shizuoka, which is on an outcropping of some very nice beaches I intend to go visit when I can, which I tend to call Party City Tiki:

Back in Tokyo we have The Bushman:

We actually did have a full on competitor to Trader Vic's near Trader Vic's. Bad call. The decor was "Full Tiki" high TiPSY ratio. But also upon close inspection lacked the build quality of some of the US and UK Tiki destination bars I have visited, even most home bars I see here are better, and the drink's weren't that good. I may have some photos somewhere.

But I think COVID did them in. I can't find them on the map again. Being that close to Vic's was a bad decision. Not sure how they thought that was going to work out for them!

EDIT: It's the Tiki Tiki Shinjuku, it has disappeared from Google Maps, but the website still shows one picture of the dining room. I'll have to investigate if it is still open, but the reviews on Critiki echo my feeling. Pale imitation of a Trader Vic's. Marked as a classic and yet...

https://critiki.com/location/tiki-tiki-shinjuku-tokyo-759/

Tiki Bar Head Hunter in Okayama is the best Tiki Bar I have ever seen photos of in Japan, outside of Trader Vic's, but it's all the way on the opposite end of the country on the Seto inland sea. It's definitely on my bucket list:

Oh, and here is the proprietor with some no name beach bum, I guess:

We also have many, many, many Hawaiin themed restaurants, but I don't know if it's even worth it to put them into this discussion.

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2022-04-23 17:34:33 ]

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2022-04-23 17:54:34 ]

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2022-04-23 17:54:57 ]