The coral-colored building on Stuyvesant Avenue gives away the surprise before you reach the door. Palm trees decorate the sign, and inside, an outrigger canoe hangs above a dining room lined with rock and bamboo.
This is Lee’s Hawaiian Islander, a Lyndhurst restaurant where dinner comes with all the cheerful theater of a vintage tiki bar. It is an unusual sight on an ordinary North Jersey street, which makes walking in half the fun.
The menu moves from shrimp toast and barbecue spareribs to lychee pineapple duck, while the bar keeps the tropical drinks coming. Order the pu pu platter and your appetizers become a centerpiece.
Lee’s offers a particular kind of escape: a chance to spend an evening somewhere that still treats dinner out as an occasion. Settle in, look around, and you may find yourself discussing the canoe before you have even opened the menu.
Lee’s Hawaiian Islander Brings a Tropical Detour to Lyndhurst
At 768 Stuyvesant Avenue, Lee’s Hawaiian Islander announces itself in a shade of coral that stands apart from the surrounding streetscape. The palm trees on its sign offer a clue, but the full effect waits inside.
Lyndhurst sits in the middle of busy North Jersey, close to the Meadowlands and the familiar rhythm of errands, commutes, and traffic. Finding a restaurant so devoted to a tropical theme here feels like discovering that a neighbor has quietly turned their dining room into a movie set.
Lee’s has been part of the area’s restaurant scene for decades. The Lyndhurst location opened in 1974, and its vintage character is central to the visit.
The place has held onto the look and spirit of the American tiki restaurants that once made an evening meal feel a little theatrical. That history shows in the room, the drinks, and a menu where Chinese American favorites sit beside dishes with names such as Chicken Mauna Loa and Hawaiian Island Steak.
The name suggests a trip to Hawaii, but it helps to know what kind of trip Lee’s has in mind. This is a classic American tiki restaurant, shaped by an earlier era’s idea of island dining.
The food is a mix of Chinese and Polynesian-style restaurant traditions, rather than a survey of traditional Hawaiian cooking. Go in expecting that particular slice of dining history, and the menu and decor make much more sense together.
That is the appeal of Lee’s. A regular dinner can become a birthday celebration, a date, or an excuse to gather friends around a platter built for sharing.
You can arrive with a straightforward plan to eat and still find yourself looking up at the ceiling before deciding what to order.
Step Inside a Dining Room Full of Vintage Tiki Charm
An outrigger canoe overhead is a strong hint that Lee’s has no interest in subtle decor. Below it, tiki masks hang against rock-lined walls, and bamboo frames parts of the dining room.
There is even a hut-style booth. The pieces add up to a space that invites a slow look around before anyone gets serious about dinner.
The rock walls do much of the work. They give the room the feel of a grotto, particularly under the colored lighting, while the bamboo and carved details make different corners feel like their own little discoveries.
An upper seating area adds another layer to the layout. From one table, you might be focused on the masks; from another, your view goes straight to that canoe.
It is the sort of dining room where someone at the table will inevitably point out a detail everyone else missed. What makes the room engaging is its age.
Lee’s looks like a restaurant that has spent years hosting actual dinners, celebrations, and return visits. The vintage style is part of the place’s identity, visible in the larger features rather than confined to a few decorations near the entrance.
You can appreciate the craftsmanship and still smile at how thoroughly the theme takes over. This setting also changes the pace of a meal.
A plate of egg rolls is one thing at a takeout counter; eaten beneath a suspended canoe, it becomes part of a night out. Children have plenty to look at, and adults who remember the heyday of tiki restaurants may recognize the pleasure of sitting somewhere that takes presentation seriously.
Give the room a moment before you settle on an order. Lee’s best visual details are scattered around it, and spotting them is part of the experience.
The Pu Pu Platter Makes Dinner an Event
Start with the platter if your table likes to share. Lee’s pu pu platter is listed for two and brings together shrimp toast, Hawaii beef, fantail shrimp, barbecue spareribs, miniature egg rolls, and chicken wings.
It gives you six different things to talk about before the main courses arrive, which is a useful quality in an appetizer. There is plenty of variety within that lineup.
Shrimp toast offers a crisp, savory bite, while the ribs and wings give the platter a heartier side. The miniature egg rolls are easy to claim early; the fantail shrimp are harder to miss.
Hawaii beef adds one of the restaurant’s own specialties to a spread that already feels generous enough to serve as the opening act of dinner. The platter also captures the spirit of this style of restaurant.
An assortment of appetizers arranged for the whole table encourages people to reach, compare favorites, and change their minds after another bite. Lee’s gives the dish the presentation it deserves, with the flaming centerpiece associated with classic tiki dining.
Even before you get to the question of which piece tastes best, its arrival has a way of drawing attention. For two hungry people, the platter can be a substantial beginning, so it is worth thinking about what you want afterward.
A group can treat it as a sampler before ordering several entrées to share. Either approach suits a menu this broad.
If someone at the table is torn between the familiar comforts of an egg roll and a dish they have never tried, the platter lets them have both. The listed price is $28 for two on Lee’s online ordering menu, though prices can change.
More useful than the number is the plan it suggests: come with someone willing to split the last piece of shrimp toast fairly.
Chinese and Polynesian Favorites Share the Menu
Reading Lee’s menu can take a while, especially once everyone at the table starts making suggestions. Chow mein, egg foo young, fried rice, and wonton soup cover familiar Chinese American territory.
A separate Polynesian section brings out the restaurant’s more theatrical side, with fruit, sizzling presentations, and even a few flaming sauces. Lychee Pineapple Duck is among the clearest examples of that style.
It pairs duck with a sweet-and-sour sauce, lychee, and pineapple. Chicken Mauna Loa puts breaded chicken breast on pineapple and adds a flaming sauce.
Lee’s Hawaiian BBQ Shrimp takes a different direction, with jumbo shrimp and a soy-and-wine garnish. The dish names sound festive, but their descriptions give you a practical way to choose according to what you like.
There is room to keep things familiar, too. Roast pork wonton soup, shrimp with lobster sauce, sweet-and-sour pork, and vegetable fried rice all appear on the menu.
Someone in the mood for a classic Chinese American dinner can find one without following the rest of the table into pineapple-and-lychee territory. That range is handy when a group agrees on the restaurant faster than it agrees on dinner.
If you want a little of both sides, build the meal across sections. Start with the pu pu platter, then share a Polynesian entrée alongside fried rice or a vegetable dish.
Lee’s also lists a gourmet dinner for two or more that includes soup, the pu pu platter, and an entrée choice for each person. It takes some of the negotiating out of ordering for a group.
The menu tells the story of the restaurant as clearly as the canoe above the dining room. It belongs to a style of American dining where a Chinese restaurant and a tiki bar could comfortably share one address.
At Lee’s, they still do.
Tropical Cocktails Keep the Island Mood Going
A mai tai feels right at home under Lee’s bamboo and colored lights. The bar is part of the restaurant’s identity, with tropical drinks that match the setting and give the evening a leisurely start.
Order one while you look over the food menu, and the choice between shrimp, duck, and steak can wait a few more minutes. The Zombie and Scorpion are among the tiki-style drinks associated with Lee’s, alongside the mai tai.
They suit a room that already gives you plenty to look at: a colorful cocktail fits among the masks, rock walls, and mugs. Drinks here are part of the presentation of dinner, especially if your table follows them with a pu pu platter.
A tiki cocktail also gives friends a reason to linger. One person can study the sprawling menu while another notices a detail across the room; by the time everyone is ready to order, the evening has found its pace.
Lee’s is particularly well suited to a group that enjoys talking over a drink before passing plates around. You can enjoy that rhythm without ordering alcohol.
The online menu lists fruit punch, coconut, juices, and a nonalcoholic piña colada. Those choices make it easy for everyone at the table to join the tropical mood, whether they are driving, dining with children, or simply prefer a drink without rum.
Cocktail selections and presentations can vary, so ask what the bar is serving when you arrive if you have a particular drink in mind. Lee’s has a dining room built for a lingering evening, and its drinks give you one more way to settle into it.
What to Know Before Visiting Lee’s Hawaiian Islander
Lee’s Hawaiian Islander is at 768 Stuyvesant Avenue in Lyndhurst, and the restaurant lists (201) 939-3777 as its phone number. Its online ordering page shows noon openings Tuesday through Sunday and a Monday closure, with later hours on Friday and Saturday.
Those details are useful for planning, but a call is sensible before making a special trip, particularly if you want to ask about dining room hours or a reservation. Bring enough time for the kind of meal Lee’s does best.
The pu pu platter is made for two, the menu offers plenty of choices beyond it, and the dining room rewards a little wandering with your eyes. If you are going with a group, deciding whether to share several dishes or order individual entrées is part of the fun.
The gourmet dinner option offers another route for parties of at least two. Budget with the full evening in mind.
The online menu lists the pu pu platter at $28, with many entrées in the roughly $18 to $33 range, depending on the dish. Posted prices may change.
A shared starter and individual meals make for a different bill from a couple of cocktails and a spread of dishes across the table, so it helps to look at the menu before you go. Lee’s is also a place with a long history and an uncertain future.
The property has been offered for sale, while recent listings continue to show the restaurant operating. That makes checking directly with Lee’s especially worthwhile before visiting.
For now, the canoe still hangs above a room where shrimp toast, lychee pineapple duck, and a mai tai can all belong to the same dinner.
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