Do the Roy's restaurants have Tiki?

Or, at least the Pasadena one?
I confess I've never been, but the presence of the Tiki torches outside cry out for Tiki inside, too.

I've never seen a tiki at Roy's in Pasadena or Hawaii.

On 2011-06-14 00:35, TikiSan wrote:
I've never seen a tiki at Roy's in Pasadena or Hawaii.

That is a travesty that Roys of Hawaii would not have any Tiki!

I've been to the one in San Diego and I don't recall seeing any tiki there either.

No Tikis at the one in Newport Beach or Palm Desert. But they do have a Great Hula Hour aka Happy Hour :)

No tikis in Woodland Hills.

I kinda got an anti-tiki vibe.

I dunno Christiki, I don't think "Tiki for the sake of Tiki" just because it's a Hawaiian-related business is a good idea. Isn't that a dilution of Tiki-style's mid-century pop cultural aesthetic ? I think of Roy's as fusion cusine for the 21st-Century.

To me Tiki-style should have either authentic historic roots (a la Tiki-Ti, Tonga Hut, DTBC/Sam's) or a specific Tiki Revival laser focus (a la Forbidden Island, Frankie's, Tiki No).

Others however might argue that the profusion of good Tiki art in any context is "good art for art's sake".

Our Roy's here in Kihei closed last year, no tiki's or tiki torches here.... I heard the food was great from everyone but it never made it..
Good point John-O.. If there would have been tiki's there it probably would have looked like this..

Not good...:wink:

Once an Outback Steakhouse concept restaurant (I believe Outback finally sold its interest), the answer is no. I used be a vendor for the one here in Tampa, and they have ZERO tiki. More Asian influence than Polynesian.

On 2011-06-14 10:01, JOHN-O wrote:
I dunno Christiki, I don't think "Tiki for the sake of Tiki" just because it's a Hawaiian-related business is a good idea. Isn't that a dilution of Tiki-style's mid-century pop cultural aesthetic ? I think of Roy's as fusion cusine for the 21st-Century.
. . . .

I think any restaurant called "Roys of Hawaii" should feature Hawaiian culture.
I personally would prefer that culture to include Tiki, but Roy's could feature Pineapple, volcanoes, hula, Hibiscus/Plumeria blossoms, etc.

Sort of like Diners featuring 50s Americana; Thai restaurants featuring Bhudda; and Chinese restaurants using dragons, etc.

A few years ago my wife and I dined at the Roy's in Palm Springs. The menu was ambitious but the execution was mediocre, which sometimes happens when celebrity chefs expand too far, too fast and they can't maintain control over the quality of what's coming out of the kitchen. We have passed by other Roy's in other cities and never felt the urge to try it again because the high prices didn't match the the pretentions to fine dining we experienced on our first visit. There are too many good retaurants in places like Chicago, for example, to bother risking another expensive but disappointing meal.

(Off topic: Earlier this year, after reading the customer reviews on Yelp of the Chicago Trader Vic's, I felt no desire to dine there, either. Some of those reviews were downright Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares-scale scary! Perhaps someone should start a thread about why so many Tiki restaurants, especially Trader Vic's, have such awful food.)

The decor in the Palm Springs Roy's restaurant when we were there was decidedly non-Tiki with an contemporary, very modern look (as opposed to a retro modern style). I asked the waitress if they had any Tiki mugs and she was totally nonplussed; I had to explain to her what a Tiki mug was because she had never heard of such a thing!

I wondered afterward whether the sleek modern decor and avoidance of any Tiki touches was deliberate on Roy Yamaguchi's part -- seeking to put as much distance between his project and the cliched image of Hawaiian exotica to create a new public image for his unique food creations, but I don't know if that was the case.

[ Edited by: Dr. Zarkov 2011-06-26 01:07 ]

[i]On 2011-06-26 01:02, Dr. Zarkov wrote:

I wondered afterward whether the sleek modern decor and avoidance of any Tiki touches was deliberate on Roy Yamaguchi's part -- seeking to put as much distance between his project and the cliched image of Hawaiian exotica to create a new public image for his unique food creations, but I don't know if that was the case.

I, too, have wondered if it was a "We are not Trader Vics!" attitude.