Royal Hawaiian

WOW i thought they were exaggerating on stories about the LAPU LAPU drink. i went there for a friend's bday. one of friends got trashed with one lapu lapu. she has a very very high tolerance too. that is a very dangerous drink. I RECOMMEND TO DRINK IT!!!!!

HAHAHHA lapu lapu, named after the king of the mactan in the philippines.

The Royal Hawaiian is a 40-year-old landmark in Laguna Beach. The food isn't supposed to be all that good but I can personally vouch for the bar's signature concoction, the Lapu-Lapu. For about $8, it's the equivolent of four to five drinks in one and it takes two hands to lift the huge fishbowl that it's served in. The bar/ restaurant just recently replaced most of their wood tikis out front. The decor inside is top notch.

Laguna Beach has a unique institution in the Royal Hawaiian. It dates from 1947, well ahead of the Polynesian craze of the '50s and '60s, and it's still healthy -- though there's little on the menu but the tropical cocktails and some Cantonese-style ribs to suggest the "Polynesian cuisine" of those times. Today it's basically a steakhouse.

What a steakhouse, though. The grass mats on the walls and low ceilings, the quasi-structural bamboo, the tropical plants and aquariums -- it's a walk in the romantic dreams of a generation ago. The striving world is very far away.