Fairmont Hotel's tiki bar is a "Pirates of the Caribbean" for grown-ups.
Happy Hour 5pm-7pm
Dancing at 8pm--Live Band
Great for groups
Voted a "Top 5 Nightlife Date Spot for 2003" by Citysearch editors!
Consistently awarded for serving "San Francisco's Best Happy Hour" by San Francisco Magazine, The SF Bay Guardian and Where Magazine, The Tonga Room offers exceptional Pacific Rim Asian Cuisine in a tropical setting. It's the perfect escape after a busy day of meetings or shopping along Union Square. Be sure to try the Mai Tai, voted the City's best by Conde Nast Traveller.
The Happy Hour includes an extensive buffet of Pacific Rim delicacies. With items such as spare ribs, vegetable chow mein, pork buns, pot stickers, chicken drummettes, cheese, fresh fruits and crudites, the all-you-can-eat buffet is a 'steal' at only $8 per person with a one drink minimum. The bar serves tantalizing cocktails at Happy Hour prices.
The Scene This spot attracts a combination of visiting seniors, fun-loving business types and young ironists looking for a campy night out. The bar itself is splendorous, with fake lilacs vining down from a waterfall guarded by an Easter Island-like totem. Ritualistic masks, puffer fish hanging from the ceiling and grass huts shaped like giant beefeater hats complete the tropical theme. A Spanish galleon run aground forms the dance floor, which overlooks a shimmering tropical pool.
The Draw The most impressive attraction is the tiki-boat-cum-stage, which floats across the pool with a full band aboard. Dancers take in the island air and gyrate to cheesy pop songs. Be prepared: Every 30 minutes or so, a monsoon pours from the ceiling, spraying unsuspecting dancers with tropical mist.
This place has a fun, festive atmosphere as well as great food. The menu is a bit small in choices, but all dishes tasted were very good. The band that played on the floating boat was really good and it was fun to see it rain inside. You are also able to purchase the festive glasses all of the fun drinks come in.
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Ate here before a concert. They treat you with an inexpensive appetizer buffet but the drinks are pretty pricey. The atmosphere is pretty fun and we would go back again.
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There aren't many original Tiki rooms that have operated continuously since granddad swam home from Bali Hai, but this is one of the ones . Light and water show with rain hits like clockwork as do the blistering Mai Tais. Yeah it's pricey, but you're with me baby.
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Great cheesy atmosphere complete with the band and scorpion bowl drinks. Definitely bring a large group of friends and prepare to drink a lot and dance!
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You got to check this place. If you want some fancy atmosphere instead of ghetto like clubs, try this one out. This place is always packed usually on weekends. Either someone is celebrating something or just plain parties and good time. This place is located at Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco.
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Being in an upscale hotel you only expect the best food, and that's what you'll get here at the tonga room. The dishes are delicious, the dessert is awesome & the drinks to die for. The mai tais are the best! while eating you can enjoy the music & even dance a little. I take my parents here every so often & each time they have a different menu! so much to choose from.
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Latest reviews by Citysearch:
(read all 28 reviews
on Citysearch)
fab fab fab
By roifield
One of the few Tongan restaurants outside of Tonga! Worth a visit to sample the south pafic cusine for this small island.
Pros: good food
Posted 12/16/08
love this place - and its retro style
By caravaggista
okay, while living in the bay area, i used to come here for an occasional happy hour. the drinks were good and the free buffet - decent. a few months ago, my mom and i came up to sf for a friend's wedding. my friends live around the sunset and richmond district. however, we decided to stay at the orchard garden (great hotel). exhausted, i had one of my friends meet me at the hotel and decided to walk somewhere closeby. we wanted to go to a place, where you can bring mom, to drink and have fun. wise choice... the filippino band was amazing. playing everything from top 40 to class rock 'n roll. and, we could tell they enjoyed jamming. (appreciated their non-cheesy renditions). since, we never had eaten a meal at this establishment, we ordered appetizers and drinks. after tasting the fried rice and everything else we ordered, we regretted not ordering a meal. the food was good. and, would have cost as much as what we spent on appetizers. (i am definitely going back for food). another thing i enjoyed about this place - you can come dressed however you would like. it is also a place you can come dressed in the attire (which you would never wear again, otherwise) you purchased to attend the opera or that wedding in 2005. its fun to get dressed up - the kind of "dress-up" wear you would watch your mother put on when she would go out on weekends or used to don when you were first in college - going to a nice restaurant with your group of friends- and tried to be "adult." this is definitely the place where you can wear your pearl choker and cocktail dress.
Pros: the food, drinks atmosphere, and diversity of crowd Cons: none
Posted 07/02/08
Wow! This place is really tacky.
By hobotourist
It feels like like the perfect venue for a Goldman Sachs office party or something. We could picture a senior VP getting drunk on Mai Tais (which are quite good actually) and hitting on an intern as the faux Polynesian band belts out Journey. Nothing against Goldman Sachs really. We were just being juvenile and imaginative (drunk). I guess the festive mood does have an effect.
Just remember to visit this place with low expectations and take in all the cheese. It's like an episode of Montel. You want to turn it off but your having too much fun enjoying how bad it is. And for that it get two stars instead of one.
Posted 04/10/08
Poor Drinks, Bad Service, Incredible Decor, Astonishing Prices
By OaklandCocktailian
They just reopened Thursday after renovations, seems unchanged. 6 of us, we ordered ~10 drinks over the course of the evening. The Singapore Sling and Mai Tai were terrible, the French 100 - a champagne cocktail - was totally flat - no sparkle at all, the service was so slow that it was too difficult to send the drink back. The bus-boy cleared away my 'souvenir glass' without asking. The Planter's P*nch was pretty good, the shitake egg rolls were excellent as was the almond garlic tapenade on flatbread. The band was entertaining, some of their songs were quite good - fun to dance to.
The decor is incredible, the monsoon rain is fun - if heavily chlorinated. It was $245 for 6 people - two appetizers, 10 or 11 drinks, and the $7 per person cover charge for the live entertainment.
How can this place have a 5 star rating when it gets so many well deserved bad reviews?
FWIW, we throw cocktail parties and really know good cocktails, we have all of Jerry Berry's recipe books, we know what they are supposed to taste like.
Pros: the most amazing faux polynesian bar I've ever been in Cons: bad drinks, overpriced, poor service
Posted 03/22/08
bad valet parking
By heidyliza
I took my aunty at Tonga room for her birthday along with my sisters and it was bad the minute we arrived at the place.....I stopped in front of the Fairmont hotel and the valet attendant asked if we were checking in and I so no we are having dinner and he said that I am not allowed to do valet parking not unless I pay $50 for a valet parking, I thought it was rediculous for him to say I am not allowed to park there but I told him I didn't care if I have t pay that amount and he kept asking me at least 4 times and I was very offended just because I am Pacific Islander driving a very expensive car and I am young he assumed right away that I cannot afford to be there, that was very rude. When we got to the restaurants the lady set us on the cocktail side not asking if we were ging to have dinner or what not. Finally I told her we want to have dinner and she gave us attitude, the food was not very good and for the price it is absolutely not worth it, average chinese food nothing special. I do not like that place especially the valet parrking which I found out I didn't even have to pay for parking the attendant simply didn't like us because he felt like he was below us..... And we just wanted to have a good birthday celebration ft my aunty.
