Top of Waikiki (***)
2270 Kalakaua Ave, Fl. 21st, Honolulu, HI 96815
Still trying to get back into my blogging schedule.
For our fancy dinner in Hawai’i, the hubby and I dropped by this revolving restaurant that overlooks Waikiki. Eating here probably was one of the better dining excursions that we had in Hawai’i. Don’t even get me started with our luau outing. Talking about the celebration starts at 6pm, but we are not going to serve food until 8:30/9pm.
One cool thing. Since this is a revolving restaurant, you don’t have to walk to escalators that lead to restrooms. You can wait for the restaurant to make its 360 rotation. Easy, breazy.
Anyway back to Top of Waikiki (ToW)
First, I loved the restaurant’s cocktails. I rarely order fancy, bougie cocktails because they typically have more juice and bullshit than booze. Look, I refuse to pay $15+ for a martini glass full of mixers and “organic” tonic water.
For the most part, ToW’s signature cocktails have about four ingredients. The Fitzgerald in the Lineup was my favorite of the signature cocktails. Y’all know that I love my gin. Actually, this is pretty much the type of beverage that I end up ordering at “fancy” bars in NYC. Yes, I’m one of those people who orders drinks like this:
Me: Could I have the Ernest Hemmingway Margarita? Buuuut, I would like it without Cointreau, passionfruit juice, ice, or pomegranate-infused mint water.
Bartender: Sooooooo, you just want tequila with a splash of lime juice in a glass.
Me: You got it! But please, go easy on lime juice.
Ok, I slightly lied. I did order the Gummi Bear Martini. It was Halloween, and I was in vacation mode. However, this martini did not have 80 million ingredients in it.
On to the food.
Paniolo Ribeye
Cioppino
It hurts me to say this as a seafood/shellfish lover, but the steak had the edge. The Ciopinno, which was full of clams, scallops, shrimp, calamari, mussels, and fish (I think it was tuna), lost points with the bland tomato broth. Also, the restaurant does not provide extra bread. Damnit, the hubby is European, and he likes his bread!!!!
The restaurant was quite fun, and our bartender (sorry, mixologist) and waitress were so nice.
If you are ever in the Waikiki area, I highly recommend ToW. Oh, if you get there around 9ish, you can see the nightly fireworks. Oh (part two), one tip when making your reservation. Try to arrive a bit early and have a couple of drinks at the bar for happy hour (5/6 pm to close). You can get the signature cocktails for $9 at the bar, compared to paying $18 for the SAME drinks at the table. We were smart. After our pre-dinner cocktails, we ordered a nice, moderate bottle of wine for the table. I say for “for the table” like there were more than two people. I mean the cocktails were good, but not $18-at-the-bar-when-I-can-pay-$9-at-the-bar good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that I’m cheap.
I think that I had too much beef and pork while vacationing in Hawaii because I earned a new badge on Yelp. 
