ToW’s Tender, Tasty Short Ribs

Chef John Neff has taken a simple Korean beef meal and fashioned it into a spectacular and succulent dish, which exemplifies the type of Pacific Rim fusion cuisine you’ll always find at Top of Waikiki.

Kalani’s Kal-bi Short Ribs with Local Bok Choy Kim Chee ($29) is a unique and tasty dish to both locals and tourists alike.

“Most of the items on our menu are fusion, different cuisines brought together. So the kal-bi is more of a play on a Korean dish,” says Neff. “Instead of taking the skinny kal-bi that most people are used to, we take a nice boneless short rib and braise it, then finish it with a kal-bi sauce.”

Accompanying the kal-bi short ribs are homemade baby bok choy, sweet and sour cucumbers, Maui onion kim chee and peppers escabeche.

“It is so tender, it just melts,” says general manager Craig Bunkley. “The flavors are very good, very unique. You get the bite from the kim chee and the sweetness from the teriyaki.”

As an entree, the dish also is available as a portion of Top Of Waikiki’s pre-fixed five-course menu, which costs $63.

Kalani’s Kal-bi Short Ribs with Local Bok Choy Kim Chee fits the chic atmosphere that surrounds guests at Top of Waikiki. A rotating restaurant that sits atop the Waikiki Business Plaza, Top of Waikiki is open 365 days a year and has been displaying a panoramic view of the island since 1965.

Top of Waikiki