Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
It’s a city that’s a 45-minute train ride from downtown Manhattan. It has no claim to fame and I can’t see anyone needing to or wanting to go there—unless you happen to be my buddy Matt who lives there.
I was in Pennsylvania visiting my parents and long story short, I missed my connecting flight that would get me back to Seattle. I asked the man at the flight desk what my options were. He said I could come back the next day and fly out at 5:00 AM (no, I wasn’t doing that!) or I could fly down to Newark right then and fly out from there the next morning at 8:00 (okay, that’s much better). So that’s what I did.
Matt picked me up at the Newark airport and started heading back to his place. “Are you hungry?” Matt asked. “If so, there’s someplace you need to see.”
That place is Lee’s Hawaiian Islander. It’s a Chinese restaurant that happens to be a Tiki bar, or maybe it’s the other way around. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but you once step inside…
Lee’s opened up in 1972, one year after I was born! I’m guessing by the decor that things haven’t changed much since then. That’s not a bad thing!
This is the bar…
Old school and dark. Don’t mind the gentleman taking a nap. It was a slow night!
Exotica and Hawaiian music pump through the old speakers in the dinning area. I can tell the speakers are old because I can hear cones flapping and vibrating!
The dining area is huge! It’s one big room…
With bamboo booths to the left…
And a giant rock waterfall to the right…
Looking up to the tall ceiling, you can see there is even more seating upstairs…
I had to take a peek…
Hanging from the ceiling is a larger outrigger! I tried to imagine how they got that up there…
Scattered around Lee’s you will find these “interesting” paintings…
There has to be a story behind them, I’m sure!
It was time to order some food. Matt went with the Boneless Spareribs…
I’m telling you folks, they taste even better than they look.
I went with my old stand by, Chicken Lo Mein…
You can’t go wrong with a classic.
Now that we got some food in us, it was time for some drinks!
This is the drink menu…
As you can see, there are no descriptions of the cocktails. Unless you know your Tiki drinks, you just have to guess or take a chance on one and hope it’s good.
You don’t have to worry about the drinks at Lee’s, though. They know what they’re doing!
Matt ordered a Navy Grog…
I ordered a Planter’s Punch…
Okay. So both drinks were served identical Tiki mugs, but I assure you, the drinks were not the same.
Our drinks went down quickly, so we got another round.
Matt loved his Navy Grog, so he ordered a second. I wanted to try something different, so I got a Boco Loco. It came in a coconut Tiki mug!
Two drinks and more Chinese food than two men should really eat: we were done.
Lee’s Hawaiian Islander is an amazing place. The food is good and the drinks are really tasty and strong. If I hadn’t missed my connecting flight, I might have never known about this place. Who would’ve thought that Lyndhurst, NJ would be a destination city? It is for me now!
Here is Lee’s Hawaiian Islander’s Facebook page.