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Some information will be out of date.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.

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Islands Room
Hanalei Hotel, San Diego, CA

Full review and history of the Islands Room
is available in Tiki Road Trip

March 2001 The saga of the Islands room, and my relationship with it is long and strange.  I first visited the Islands Room in 1995, and it was in fact one of the first Tiki Bars I reviewed for this web site.  I was there again during the remodeling (see below), and I have received reports from Tikiphiles everywhere updating me as to the results of these construction efforts. I finally had a chance to visit the Islands Room again a few weeks ago, and after seeing the "new and certainly not improved" Islands Room first hand, I am now able to make an accurate appraisal of the Islands Room 2.0. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought.  Don't get me wrong - the lounge is completely de-Tikified, as are the lobby and the hallway between them.  But the smallish dining room is largely intact, and in the private meeting room across from it, there are still nice (if fake) Maori artifacts all over the walls.  The big Moai still watches over the pools, and the (often completely missed) tropical garden still exists on the opposite side of the hotel, complete with gazebo and koi fish. Granted, the bar - clearly the nucleus of any Tiki Bar - is a super bland 'white box'.  The menus are equally dull, and as Al Atchison pointed out, the drinks now suck.  They're miserable. Didn't try the food. Al's appraisal may be a little harsh - there is still more to experience at the Islands Room than there is at many of the other so-called vintage Tiki Bars, but the remodeling efforts have definately gutted the heart and soul of this once mighty establishment, rendering it worth a trip, but not worth getting too excited about. June 2000 Al Knepper writes: My wife and I visited  the Islands Room at the Hanalei Hotel a couple weeks ago and it was great!. They  may have gutted it at one time, but they put all the Tiki stuff back. The bar wasn't really Tiki, but the restaurant was. The pool even has a big Moai statue. February 1999

Al Atchison from NYC reports: There is news from San Diego.  The Islands Room has returned and I was there!  We were at The Bali Hai enjoying a Mai Tai when (a friend's girlfriend) hands me a slip of paper.  On it was the name, address, and phone number of The Islands Room.  Although certain it was old information I decided to call.  A woman answered and confirmed that it was in fact open and they still had tropical decor and drinks.  Next stop...the Hanalei Hotel!  The initial signs were encouraging. Opposite the restaurant's entrance was a tropical lagoon of sorts.  It had lava rocks, pools of water spilling into other pools of water and assorted plant life.  At the top of this display was a single majestic Moai surveying the scene.  Pretty cool stuff I must say.  After several moments in silent prayer it was time to check the main room.  The hostess escorted us to a table next to a rather handsome lava rock waterfall.  From this vantage point I was able to see the entire restaurant.  Most of the areas were divided by fences supported by carved Tiki posts.  There was a small outrigger hanging from the ceiling along with a fair ammount of bamboo framework.  Not the flashiest Tiki hangout but quite acceptable.  Sadly, not all was well at The Islands.  I ordered a Mai Tai and what I got was a disaster!  The first hint that something was awry happened when it was served.  Instead of the proper rock glass filled with crushed ice I got a hurricane glass filled with cubes.  And the color was all wrong.  It was fire engine red when it should have been an autumn brownish hue.  But the most important thing is the taste... which was dreadful....a syrupy, sugary mess.  While the Mai Tai sucked, the service was warm and friendly.  Plus the decor, although a bit bland, was servicable. Worth a quick visit if in the area.

December 1997 Tiki Bar Review Pages correspondants Bosko and Baby Doe have both reported that the Island Room at the Hanalei has been completely remodeled, and all semblance of Tiki culture has been murdered! Doe writes: "Sad to say that The Islands Restaurant at The Hanalei Hotel in San Diego is history. They closed a couple of months ago to "brighten the place up" and add the lobby entrance in the restaurant. This was like a 20 million dollar project so our febble protest petition got us no where... San Diego resources say that the place is now an empty white box-- I only hope they do add a few Tikis in the new decor!" Winter, 1997 My original report... I have visited the Islands Room several times while visiting family in San Diego. My return trip in December, 1997 (shortly after receiving the Doe letter) was devestating, indeed. What had once been one of the best Tiki Bars in the world was now a construction site.  Walls were missing, debris lay everywhere, a huge metal dumpster sat in the rocky mud where a garden had once been. Interestingly, the premises were NOT locked up when I arrived around midnight.  I was able to push a plastic curtain aside and easily enter the site, free to wander through the gutted remnants of what had once been a Mecca for Tiki lovers. Some traces of its former glory lay scattered among the power tools and unhung drywall.  Oddly, a saltwater aquarium was still mounted in one of the surviving walls, lit up, functioning, and full of healthy looking fish.   A huge wooden Tiki was still embedded in a concrete fountain which is now dry.  We attempted to rock it back and forth, wary of security guards who never materialized.  No luck in loosening it though.  Not too discouraged after our first attempt to save a little piece of this once mighty establishment for posterity, we noticed a much smaller Tiki still nailed to a wall near the big one.  Dana had to do some gymnastics climbing over, through, and around the concrete in order to get to where the small relic held its post.  A few tugs, and we had a souvenir - not quite a proper Tiki as one would think of it, but rather a sort of animal totem, about 10 inches tall. Rounding a corner and pushing some more plastic sheets aside, we entered another room. Visualizing how it had been in the past, we were amazed at how different it looked when stripped of the palm trees and brightly colored lamps.  The only decor left were tool belts and cans of paint.  And now, like so many others, it joins the list of extinct Tiki Bars.

More pictures!

images courtesy of: TikiMike and Al Knepper

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