Tonga Lei Room in the Malibu Pier Club bar , Malibu, CA (restaurant)

Name:Tonga Lei Room in the Malibu Pier Club bar
Type:restaurant
Street:Pacific Coast Highway
City:Malibu
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:(310) 456-9800
Status:operational

Description:
The Tonga Lei Room is located on the Malibu Pier inside the Malibu Pier Club bar which is part of the Beachcomber restaurant.
The owner Doug Cavanaugh, built the room as a tribute to the original Tonga Lei that once stood next door. Bamboo Ben, Tiki Farm and Tiki Ray collaberated to build this gem.

http://www.thebeachcombercafe.com/_malibupier/11-mpclub/mpclub-tonga.aspx

Wow! Last night for their birthdays (2 days apart) Rama Lama and Nepheria of the Ding Dong Devils invited a small group of friends (10 people) to dinner in the Tonga Lei Room at the Beachcomber at Malibu Pier. I'd seen the pictures here, and Rama Lama and Nepheria had told me about it from a previous visit, but I still was not prepared for the beauty of the room (with the usual great work by Bamboo Ben, Tiki Ray and Tiki Farm), and by the Enchanted Tiki Room-style Tiki God light and audio show which occurred whenever anyone pushed the "No Push Button! Make Tiki Gods Angry!" button. Needless to say, the Tiki Gods were frequently angry, as the button was pushed many times during the night (unleashing the couple-minute-long show complete with chanting and singing, and the flashing and dimming of the glass float lights).

I highly recommend reserving the room, which is tucked behind the bar on the left side of the Beachcomber on the Malibu Pier (the right side is the nautical hunting lodge like main dining room). Unfortunately, we were informed that they had long since sold out of the souvenir mugs (including the Fog Cutter mug and the box-like Beachcomber mug) and had no plans to replenish stock (our fault for waiting so long). We had a group of 1o people, and that seems to be the max that comfortably fit in the room. I don't know if they have a minimum for reservations (Rama Lama set it up, and he and Nepheria generously hosted). I had a Fog Cutter, followed by a couple of Mojitos (on top of the Old Fashioned I had in the bar prior to our reservations) and had a very pleasant evening (my wife Vixiana was designated driver this night).

John-O, if you haven't been to the Beachcomber yet, I highly recommend you getting one of your groups together and making the trip! (You probably have though, and it's just one of the many Tiki Central threads I have spaced on finding).

Caltiki Brent

[ Edited by: congawa 2011-03-06 12:01 ]

I should add that all the appetizers, the Wedge Salad, and the Kobe Burger were delicious (as were the drinks--with the exception of the Old Fashioned, because I didn't specific the whisky--it didn't look like they had much selection--and it tasted like I got Jack Daniels. The Mojitos were with Bacardi, but were very nicely made. Most of the other "tiki" drinks were vodka based.).

Caltiki Brent

I was going through my mom's momentos and pictures tonight. I found a menu for Tonga Lei Polynesian Restaurant so I decided to google it and I found this site. The menu was tucked in to an old photo album with the caption "my 16th birthday" which means the menu is from 1963 as mom was born in 1947. The menu is in PERFECT condition. I'm not sure what I should do with it? Should I hold on to it for another few decades and let my kids enjoy it when they are old enough? I enjoyed reading your site and learning about this neat little restaurant. Very cool to know it has such a following. This was 30 minutes of reading well spent.

Sadly, I think it is now closed.

Or could it be Hibernating for the winter?

Jeff(btd)