Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar

There's a reason Anthony Bourdain called The Tonga Room ‘The greatest place in the history of the world.' It's amazing. The tropical environment, the live entertainment, the food and the drinks are all outstanding. We had a phenomenal experience on 5/2/25. Come here for a time you won't have anywhere else. You will not be disappointed.

Absolutely love The Tonga. Great service. Excellent band. Fantastic cocktails. Good food. Truly unique and extremely cool place. The only downside is that it is really overpriced, even by SF standards. However, would I overpay again? In a minute. It's just too much fun.

Love this place but food is mediocre compared to years back. I'll probably skip the food on my next visit.

I love the Tonga Room, it's always been a good time so that's why we booked our wedding night dinner there. However, it was a horrible experience, our drinks were spilled by someone at another table and no offer was made to have them replaced- they were brand new. My food was delivered 40 mins after everyone else at my table. Our waiter was no where to be found half the night and when my husband was finally able to order another drink, it took over almost an hour to get. He was so upset he left- we were treated so poorly and then the bill arrived, there was no compensation offered for any of the experience. I had to ask to speak to the manger to get some compensation and he did help amend the bill, but to be fair the whole thing should've been comped. It was a special night with horrible service and in the end we never to got toast the event or even enjoy our meal. I think our days at the Tonga are done.

Amazing experience, food quality has gone downhill over the past few years. The “bouncer” is rude and made the beginning of the experience less than ideal. Our server made up for it with amazing service and went over and above!

Thanks to the reviews we read, we knew what to expect. Definitely kitschy and disneyesque, but lots of fun if you're in the mood for that. Drinks were good and strong as advertised. Food was much better than expected. We knew to avoid the appetizers and ordered tuna poke and the seafood wok. Both were delicious and very generous servings! The live music tended toward a mix heavy on Fleetwood Mac/ Taylor Swift songs and the singer had a great voice. Well worth the $15 cover charge. All in all a great time!

Surprised by the decor. Very well done with water lake in the middle and the live music in a boat. The food was good the drinks were good and strong. The drinks were expensive but for one drink good.

This was such an amazing experience... So much fun. The music was amazing. The entire setting was so cool and fun. Our waiter was very attentive and very friendly. The overall experience was outstanding. I would definitely keep coming back. 

Starting with - We did love the ambiance and our boys loved it so we are glad we went. The big disappointment was that we ordered the $68 Pupu platter and it was nothing of what it looked like online in all the images and videos I've seen — and the amount of food for the price was actually shocking. Not to mention it was underwhelming. I had high hopes for the coconut calamari but it was 95% breading 5%substance. The edamame was in the form of nuts and had a really heavy coating of salt that made it inedible. Next time I'd just go for drinks. Expensive ones but I get that novelty.

The food here is pretty good, worth a try

Solid 4. Good portions and food.

We had a great time celebrating our 26th year anniversary.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

TLDR: Worst dining experience I've ever had. BEYOND BAD VALUE: AN OUTRIGHT SCAM. Blatant false advertising, exorbitant pricing, shameful quality, and utterly unhelpful staff.

My two friends and I booked the Tonga Room's 2024 New Year's Eve Luau Experience @ $159/person, plus mandatory 20% gratuity, for a total bill of $613.57 after tax. (See images #1&2, attached). This was a prepaid booking, so full payment was required in advance. The event description stated the following, verbatim:

"About this experience: Kick of 2024 in a tropical paradise. Enjoy a New Year's Eve celebration dinner, live music, dancing and California's best Mai Tai! This year's offering includes a buffet luau of Polynesian inspired classics! Join us for this all-ages event celebrating 2024!" (See image #3, attached).

That was the extent of information provided prior to booking, advertising the event on Open Table.

In our Uber to the Fairmont Hotel, we decided to look at our reservation on Open Table, and noticed that additional fine print had appeared (which was not displayed prior to payment), stating that all guests who remained in the Tonga Room past 6pm would be charged an additional cover fee for the live music (though the specific fee was not mentioned). Our reservation was for the first seating at 5:15pm, which meant that we would have only 45 minutes to enjoy our dinner before being charged an additional, unspecified fee to remain in the space. Moreover, the description for this prepaid event (above) clearly stated that the event included live music. Strike #1.

Upon being seated in the Tonga Room, we were presented with a drinks menu showing a price for each drink. Confused, we asked the staff if drinks were included in our experience, and we were told that all drinks were charged separately, even though the description for our prepaid event (above) clearly stated that the experience included "California's best Mai Tai". Strike #2.

We also noticed that the only food in the entire space was a skimpy selection of seven, sad-looking buffet dishes tucked away at the back of the room -- the kind that would have been disappointing as a complimentary continental breakfast at a motel. But serving this as a $200/person dinner at a five star hotel? Unacceptable. My party could have enjoyed a full tasting menu at any number of the city's fine dining restaurants for this price. Each dish looked like gloppy, reheated Chinese takeout. Hardly the advertised "buffet luau of Polynesian inspired classics". Strike #3.

In disbelief, we decided to leave our table, having not even touched the water. We immediately went to the front desk to speak with the manager, Andrew, addressing each of the above points. Andrew told us the event description never stated drinks were included. Okay then, let's review the Open Table listing: "Enjoy a New Year's Eve celebration dinner, live music, dancing, AND CALIFORNIA'S BEST MAI TAI." True, it didn't explicitly use the word "included" regarding drinks -- but it ALSO didn't explicitly state the "New Year's Eve celebration dinner" was "included", either. So then, using Andrew's logic, what exactly WAS our $613.57 SUPPOSED to include??

After sharing our concerns with Andrew, he told us in a witheringly patronizing and passive-aggressive manner, "I empathize with your misunderstanding." Sorry, Andrew, this is not a misunderstanding -- it's a blatant misrepresentation of actual services provided for the money we paid you.

We were told a full refund was "not up for negotiation". Since our conversation was going nowhere, we decided to leave the premises and file a dispute for the charge on my credit card, since the service for which my party paid was misrepresented by the hotel and not provided

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Atmosphere amazing service is ehhhhhh. Food was ok. But enjoyed live music

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 3

My group just got drinks and hung out in the standing area while the band played their last set at the end of the night. We walked right up to the bar, got our drinks, and then went right over to enjoy the music and the view. The stage was super cool, and the band played a good mix of mostly older music I love, and a few more "modern" songs, I say as an almost-40-yr-old. We had a great time, definitely recommend if you want to listen to live music and don't mind standing, and therefore don't have to pay the table cover charge.

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 5