What can I say - it's a great place - one of the smaller family owned 'tiki themed' restaurants. It doesn't look much from the outside at all - its on a busy intersection, and the 7-11 right next door gets much more traffic - but once inside you are definitely in the land of tiki.

The Mai Tais and other tropical drinks are fantastic - the food good and filling Chinese, but not gourmet. It's a small place - several times I've been there in mid-afternoon and been the only customer. It is a family runned business, so chances are that you will be served by either David or Annie Chan, the very friendly owners of the place. Also, be warned that when they go on vacation, they close the place down for several weeks- if you try visiting the Honolulu in July you might be out of luck.

Also, they have a bar, but no seating at the bar. The place is more of a neighborhood type bar than a fancy popular restaurant. There's a good chance that when you are there a table in front of the bar will be seated by a blue-collared working drinking Budweiser instead of mai-tai -- but I think that adds to the overall charm.

There is bamboo, netting, tikis, red lights, lit-up giant transluscent sea-shells providing ambient light, two really nice murals on either end -- but no waterfall. There might be a small fountain in the tiny opening area, but I can't recall if it was operating or not.

David, the owner, did bartend at the now-closed Trader Vics in D.C. - and remembers President Nixon coming in while he was President (his drink was the Navy Grog) David Chan bought the Honolulu in 1978, and has kept it running ever since.

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Date Visited: May 31, 2000
Reviewed By: Vern

I agree pretty much in all particulars with Mr. Bartell's review of the place. I lived just down the street from the Honolulu for eight years; it was my watering hole. Dave is a wonderful host, very friendly and outgoing. I didn't know that he'd originally tended bar at Trader Vic's, that explains why his Mai Tais are so good (like you said, it's not that easy to make one). Hardly anyone goes to the Honolulu for the food, it's mostly a place for crackers to get loaded. I would also give 4 stars to Dave's Mai Tai.

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Date Visited: May 7, 1999
Reviewed By: Mark Mellon

I tried to visit the Honolulu on Easter of all days, but found they're closed Sundays. The following Saturday, April 10, 1999, was slow. It was the day of the Cherry Blossom Parade in nearby Washington, D.C., the weather was nice and the city was full of people, including autonomy-seeking Sikhs in orange turbans, buses, bikes, and of course, cherry blossoms. Plus! Infamous beavers had already eaten several of the sacred trees before being trapped. Despite the excitement and ensuing lull in business, Honolulu sold 50 marvelous Mai Tais that spring day.

Outside, Honolulu looks like a warehouse for rent, situated between a 7-11 and an Exxon, with nothing else around, as far from it's namesake in appeal as in miles. Three grizzled drifters were smoking out back by the dumpster. They paid us complements, verifying that the neighborhood may not be as bad as it looks. The entrance to the restaurant does not look like a place customers are meant to go, but then there are the two tell-tale tiki totem pillars painted in from a putrid Lincoln log palette. Inside the foyer there is a phone (out of order), a cheesy dribbling fountain (with about 37 pennies in it), and perhaps a gumball machine.

Inside, the décor is tacky-tiki. Hideous masks in clashing colors threaten diners who have only the security of fishnets and a misshapen Buddha or two protecting them. Fake grapes and unidentifiable curios hang all about. A hula girl music box totters on the cluttered bar and there are free cocktail parasols for the kids. A silhouetted beach scene glows in primary colors on the back wall, challenging the owner's claim that his resident daughter majored in art. The wicker chairs have plastic leis woven around the edges. This same gaudy garnish is impaled in the woven wallpaper, ketchup and mustard-colored graffiti tattooed about the scowling tikis, as subtle as this mutilated sentence, or the tiki lamps that look like they're about to grunt on the tables.

But the infection and flickering of a flaming volcano tend to make the world a Rorschach, and witches can become angels. I found the charm when I heard the music. The two tapes "borrowed" from the recently defunct Trader Vic's in Washington played old Hawaiian standards laced with 50's exotica. (You'll know I'm biased when I tell you my daughter Leilani can sing a couple of the songs!)

The service at Honolulu is personal, the food westernized Cantonese, Szechwan the specialty. As neighborhood Chinese restaurants go, it's above average, but I'm no gourmet, and this isn't a food review.

The house drink is the Tiki Tumbler, which tastes okay. For $6.50 you get to keep the glass. I learned something about collections from my brother-in-law, who says that every aquarium needs an ugly fish. Hmm. I bought the 'Tumbler. The tikis models offered are mercifully discontinued often. If you don't want the glass, don't order the drink. It's from the same molecular group as the Mai Tai, but sweeter, probably from bombardment with high-energy grenadine atoms.

At $4.50 the Honolulu Mai Tai is nearly half the price of the one at Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills. Did I mention that the proprietor at Honolulu used to be a bartender at Trader Vic's in Washington? In the interest of full disclosure, I mentioned before ordering that I was going to write a review of the Mai Tai, and was interested in an authentic version. Owner/bartender David Chan produced his credentials -- a dog-eared drink list from Trader Vic's -- and may have made me a special drink:

The Best Mai Tai in Washington!

My 'Tai was served in the large old-fashioned glass garnished with a pineapple cube, cherry, and lime quarter on a plastic sword. There was no mint sprig. The color of the drink was right, a foggy brown with no hint of grenadine. Less strong than the Trader Vic's Mai Tai I recently had, and a shade less impressive, Chan's is nevertheless vintage Trader Vic's. This is how a Mai Tai should taste. Harmonious, refreshing, elusive, aging gracefully as the ice melts.

Five stars. 'Nuff said. "Enjoy!"

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Date Visited: April 10, 1999
Reviewed By: David Bartell

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