Flashback Friday: Diamond Head was famous for potent zombie drinks, flaming pu pu platters
Welcome to Flashback Friday, a feature that runs Fridays on Kansas.com and Dining with Denise. It’s designed to take diners back in time to revisit restaurants that they once loved but that now live only in their memories — and in The Eagle’s archives.
This week’s featured restaurant is Diamond Head, a Polynesian restaurant that recreated the magic of the Hawaiian islands — and its potent drinks — for landlocked 1970s Wichita.
China Star Super Buffet, which operated for 26 years out of a nondescript brick building at I-235 and West Central, closed a week ago.
But longtime Wichitans remember the once-loved restaurant that preceded China Star in the building at 5825 W. Central Ave.
It was called Diamond Head, and in 1986, its owners had the building on West Central constructed for their restaurant, which was moving away from its original home at Seneca Square — a now-aging strip center on the northwest corner of 31st South and Seneca.
Though Diamond Head managed to remain in business on West Central for about 12 years — closing around the time China Star took over its building — those who are most nostalgic about the restaurant remember its original address at 3137 S. Seneca.
To hear them tell it, that Diamond Head was a 1970s heaven-on-earth. Named for the dormant volcano on the island of O’ahu in Hawaii, Diamond Head opened in 1975 as a Polynesian restaurant specializing in way-too-strong tiki drinks, flaming pu pu platters, sweet-and-sour pork, surf-n-turf, and salads topped with an unusually delicious, mysteriously pink salad dressing.
The restaurant was opened by David Y. W. Lau, who came to Wichita from the east coast. He owned five other restaurants at the time — including the Royal Hawaiian Supper Club outside of Washington, D.C. Just after Diamond Head opened, Lau told The Wichita Eagle that he believed in serving good food in a relaxing atmosphere and that attentive service would be key to his success. Long-ago fans of the restaurant say that he excelled at all three.
The original Diamond Head featured several unusual seating areas, including secluded booths situated underneath thatched roofs. Some people recall that individual booths also were sectioned off with beaded curtains. The restaurant’s decor included lots of bamboo and Hawaiian tiki masks, and the space also had a “festival luau room” for private parties.
Upon entry, customers would be draped with paper leis, and the staff member doing the draping would almost always apologize for messing up female customers’ beautiful hairdos. Once diners were seated, waiters would attend to their every need. They’d put napkins in customers’ laps for them, and anyone who even reached for a cigarette would attract a staff member offering a light.
Customers also remember the food as being consistently good. In addition to Polynesian fare, Diamond Head served Chinese and American dishes like pepper steak and prime rib. Other dishes on the menu included sub gum shrimp, egg fried rice, and beef chow mein.
Diamond Head’s bar also was legendary. Famous for serving anyone who even looked 16, the bar offered island favorites like Mai Tais and banana daiquiris. It was particularly famous for a Zombie drink made with pineapple juice and 151-proof rum: After just one of those, customers would be feeling the island spirit. Occasionally, Diamond Head would give ceramic tiki mugs away with a purchase, and many Wichitans’ kitchen cabinets were stuffed with them.
Diamond Head was a popular destination for the pre-prom crowd from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. Many Wichitans remember having first dates or celebrating Valentine’s Day at the restaurant. A wedding announcement in a 1976 edition of The Wichita Eagle describes a bridal dinner with a luau theme thrown at Diamond Head. At the end of the dinner, friends and family surprised the couple with tickets to Hawaii.
In April of 1986, The Wichita Eagle reported that construction was about to begin on the new 6,000 square foot Diamond Head restaurant building on West Central.
Diamond Head relocated there in November of that year, and the owners did their best to recreate the magic, even reinstalling the grass hut booths.
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But it was just never the same, locals say. In its later years, the restaurant was more popular as a meeting place for groups like Insurance Women of Wichita and The Catholic Widowed of Wichita than it was for rum-laden nights on the town.
If it had survived, Diamond Head restaurant would have turned 50 this year.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 5:02 AM.
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