This is an archive - these pages are no longer updated!
Some information will be out of date.  Some of this writing goes back to 1995.
See Tiki Road Trip (2007 edition) for the most up-to-date information.

Suburban Chicago Tiki Spots: Tong's Tiki Hut     Chef Shangri-La Malahini Terrace     Tiki Truck Stop Tong's Tiki Hut,Villa  Park, IL Tong's Polynesian Village, Naperville, IL Tongs - Bloomington, IL Autumn, 1998 Amy Flammang writes: Tong's Tiki Hut is on Roosevelt Road in Villa Park. It's in a strip mall near an Outback Steakhouse. Basically, Tong's is just a Chinese restaurant with tropical drinks (of course). They do have some cool decor, including a wallpaper mural of a beach scene, a couple nice tikis, and ample bamboo. The food is ok and the drinks are relatively cheap, though nothing to brag about. .. The Tiki Bar Review Pages had a look at Tong's, and basically, Amy's single paragraph review sums it up pretty nicely.  If you're in the western 'burbs of Chicago and you 're hungry, Tong's is probably a better choice than the random pizza, burrito, or steak joints that surround it. Chef Shangri-La (see below) is probably an even better choice, but Tong's is cheaper and further north.  Worth a peek. .. .. Full history, information, and reviews of Tongs can be found in Tiki Road Trip Chef Shangri-La North Riverside, IL Autumn, 1998 .. Chef Shangri-La is one of those places you'd never expect to find.  If one was visiting Chicago and was looking for Tiki Bars, they'd likely be directed by phone book or friends to the Rock A Tiki, Hala Kahiki, or Trader Vic's.  But Chef Shangri-La is so deep into the middle of nowhere, and so obscure, it's a miracle it survived at all. .. This makes me wonder about other towns I've gone Tiki hunting in.  I'll bet there are dozens of places just like this one all over the country, unknown to even the local Tiki Freaks.  We should all make a new effort to find 'em!  Yes, we have our high profile places like Kahiki, Tonga Room, Jardin Tiki, and Hala Kahiki, but there are also these charming little relics in barely surviving just under the surface of hipsterdom, probably closing for good as we speak. .. As it stands, Chef Shangri La is actually one of Chicago's better Tiki spots. Of course, the full history of Chef Shangri-La, as well as the address and a review can be found in Tiki Road Trip .. Malahini Terrace Willowbrook, IL June, 2001: .. The trek out to Malahini Terrace on a sweltering June evening was one I had been putting off for a while.  I figured that what I would see is exactly what I had been told I would see - a shitty, run-down Chinese food joynt with a couple of sticks of bamboo in the corner.  But. having already been to Tong's and Chef Shangri-La already, I figured I'd complete this hat trick of Tikified Chinese restaurants in the Chicago Suburbs.  There are plenty of places that fit that description around the country, and some of them qualify for inclusion on these pages to a more believable degree than others. .. After fighting traffic for 45 minutes, I made a right off of I-55 onto Route 83, and then a left onto 75th St.  A half mile up, on the left, I saw the weather beaten turquoise awning telling me that I had reached my destination.  The parking lot was mostly empty, and the place looked closed...  no, it looked condemned.  My gal, all dressed up for the occasion of this latest voyage of discovery, was immediately inundated with apologies, and promised a trip to Hala Kahiki. Then we went inside, and things were actually much cooler than our first impressions had led us to believe. .. What did we find there? How was the food? Were the drinks any good? Look for more data about Malahini Terrace and a full review in Tiki Road Trip Tiki Truck Stop On I-80, somewhere between Chicago and Iowa.... What did we find at the Tiki Truck Stop? Find out in Tiki Road Trip Here's another pic of Malahini Terrace!

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