We had originally been scheduled to go to the Biergarten on this day, but after having our plans messed up a bit earlier on in the trip we felt that we had to visit the MK again on this day, which meant we had to make a reservation somewhere closer. For us it was a toss up between The Wave and Kona Cafe, and after all the highly positive reviews of Kona we felt that we may as well give it a go!
Our ressie was for 7:55pm, but we arrived at around 7:20pm. Initally they said that we would probably have to wait up until our allotted time since they were quite busy, but luckily our buzzer rang at about 7:25pm!
For those who haven't been to Kona before, it is located in the Great Ceremonial House on the 2nd floor. The monorail station at the MK looked quite busy so we ended up taking the boat, which wasn't such a bad thing since we got to get out on the lagoon, although it was a little bit cold! Probably not going to be such a problem in the coming months as the weather in Florida warms up though! For those of you coming in on the monorail it is very easy, I believe the monorail station actually links to the 2nd floor of the Great Ceremonial House so as you get off the monorail and enter the building, look to your left and you should see the Kona Cafe!
Continuing on, we were taken into the restaurant and the CM took us past the wonderful open dessert kitchen, where she said that they prided themselves on their desserts and told us to leave some room to try one at the end! We were seated at a booth and our server was Ratana. He was really good, explaining everything to us and making sure that we were having a good time. He was on top of the drinks through the night and definitely made sure that the service component of the meal would receive an A+. Consider yourselves lucky if you have Ratana as your server!
Below are some pics of the menu. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the wine list, sorry!
Appetisers, Entrees and Prix Fixe Menu
Some of the drinks (BTW, there were other sodas available)
And a relatively new addition to the Kona Cafe, the sushi bar! The sushi bar is open for people to sit and eat at, and the chefs prepare the sushi fresh before your eyes. In addition to sitting at the bar, they can also bring it straight to the table.
To drink DM got a Diet Coke, DS got a Coke Zero, DD got a club soda (included but not listed on the menu) and I got an Orange Soda (all $2.69ea). DD also got a glass of the Simi Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine recommended to go with his entree ($9).
Ratana also brought out some bread, a big round bread roll type of thing meant to be shared. It was served with some macadamia nut butter, which of course was delicious!
The bread was nice and warm, but also soft and easy to break. It tasted really good with a bit of the butter on it.
And now onto the entrees! Since the three course menu was included for those on the regular
DDP, DM and DS went for that. They both got the pot stickers for their entree (wok seared duck dumplings with creamy ginger-soy sauce, $7.49 on the regular menu). DD and I decided to keep them company with a serving of the Sticky Wings for Two (OOP, $12.99).
The pot stickers...
And the sticky wings
We really, really enjoyed both of these appetisers. The servings were generous (even the pot stickers, which I assume is a smaller serving on the prix fixe menu) and as for the sticky wings, we must have at least a dozen or maybe more! They were well cooked and were really tasty. I reckon if you are looking for a light-ish meal the sticky wings could even pass as a great entree.
For the entrees, both DM and DS went for the Shrimp Pan-Asian noodles, with peanuts, vegetables and a soy peanut sauce (usually $17.99). DD and I both went with the Teriyaki-style New York Strip, grilled with a pineapple glaze and served with sticky rice and stir-fried brocollini ($28.99).
The Shrimp Pasta
Steak (sorry about the poor brightness, it looks like the rice has almost disappeared!
)
I'll start with the Shrimp Pasta. Both Mum and Rachel agree that it was a very tasty dish, but there was a problem with it when it came out. It was very cold, not frozen or anything, but sort of like room temperature. Definitely not at a temperature that was edible. Thankfully Ratana was a really great server and was on the job immediately, taking the noodles back to the kitchen for a bit more time in the wok. He brought them back in just a couple of minutes, nice and warm and after that they really enjoyed it.
As for the steak, I'll present DD and my opinion separately because we both had different ideas. Dad isn't a fan of sweet flavours outside of desserts and had asked Ratana if it could be done without the pineapple. Ratana had said it wasn't a problem. However, what Ratana thought Dad meant was no barbecued pineapple chunks on the top (as you see in the picture of my dish) and it still had the pineapple teriyaki glaze, which I suppose is reasonable considering that these marinades are probably made well in advance. This meant that Dad didn't really enjoy his steak.
As for me, I ordered it 'as-is' and I really liked it. The teriyaki flavour wasn't overpowering as you might get at a Japanese restaurant (eg. Yakitori House or something like that), it was just a really subtle, mellow flavour that went really well with the pineapple element. The steak was a fairly decent size, as was the serving of rice. As for the brocollini it wasn't too bad, and tasted a bit better if you had it with a bit of the marinade. So as you can see, two very different opinions of the meal. I guess the bottom line is that if you don't want your entree to be sweet, then the teriyaki steak is probably not for you. I would probably order it again in the future, although the Ginger-crusted Rib Eye sounds good too!
Mum asked Ratana for some soy sauce and he went beyond, bringing out the soy sauce as well as a hot and spicy Vietnamese chilli sauce that he recommended. She thought it was pretty good, and it was nice of him to suggest it.
After the entrees we had a look through the dessert menu. They also recommend going over to the open kitchen and just having a look, since they actually have a display of every dessert available out on the counter for you to have a look at. If you are having trouble deciding based on the descriptions, I suggest going and checking them out for yourself!
DD got the Banana-Chocolate Creme Brulee ($5.99) and the rest of us got the Kilauea Torte ($5.49). This is where the differences between the prix fixe and regular appeared, as Ratana said that since I was just ordering it off the regular menu mine would be served 'a la mode' while their ones would be served without the ice-cream.
The Banana-Chocolate Creme Brulee
And the Kilauea Torte, one with and one without the ice-cream
DD enjoyed the Creme Brulee. As for the Kilauea Torte, DM and DS found that it was too sweet and too rich, and I don't think they finished it. I would have said the same, but the ice-cream helped to mellow the flavours and I actually enjoyed it. However without the ice-cream I too would have said it was too rich, and I don't say that too often!
Also, we found that the liquid centre was nowhere near as 'explosive' as they say it is. We have had these sorts of cakes at other places in other parts of the world and generally when you break the cake in the middle the chocolate sauce just comes pouring out. In this cake there was no such pouring, in fact I would probably say that it had a texture somewhat like warm, soft fudge. It definitely looked different to the rest of the cake and you could scoop it out with the spoon, but there was definitely no explosion here. I have read similar comments about this at a few other places, so I am thinking that this might not just be a one off occurrence. There are soooo many desserts to choose from here and they all sound so good, so I reckon you probably can't go too wrong with any of them. But in regards to the torte, just know that it will be very sweet if you get it without ice-cream.
So all in all, I think overall the Kona Cafe is a place that I would recommend, but just be aware of what you are going to be getting. The food is a mix of Asian and Polynesian and as such, it can be quite sweet at times. The biggest issue we had was with the Shrimp Pasta, although it was fixed and they did enjoy the meal immensely. It was just a shame it couldn't be hot to start with. I would assume that this is a one-off. As for the Kilauea Torte, well, I probably wouldn't have it again but it wasn't so bad that we regret it or anything like that. I think that we would return to Kona again if we had to, but there are so many other places nearby to visit as well, such as The Wave. My best recommendation to you is to do your research, this place is good, but there may be somewhere else that you may like even more
In terms of value, I think this place represents pretty good value on the DDP. It's not as good as a place like Le Cellier or Chefs, but you still get pretty good value out of the credit. And even though I personally didn't have it, I think that the fact you can get three courses on the regular DDP here is a really nice thing. I would love to see this option in more restaurants at WDW, even if they aren't priced as high, at least you get to savour a full meal. For those paying OOP, you may feel that you can get better value by going to a place like Ohanas or one of the nearby buffets, but otherwise this place isn't too bad and they do have some entrees priced very reasonably, such as the shrimp and chicken pastas as well as a few other dishes. Of course, if you just wanted something small to eat perhaps the sushi bar might be a good place!
I'll leave you with this pic of two of my fave Disney characters! This was at the Dessert Kitchen
Cost:
4 TS credits used - 0 remaining
Bill Total (excluding OOP extras) - $151.22 (avg. $37.80ea)
Running Total - $2614.89
NEXT UP: The DDP component of our trip is nearly over. Two more CS reviews (I'll put them together) and a few snacks left. After that I'll write a small conclusion about the Dining Plan, before writing about our surprise extra days!
I'm enjoying reading it very much.
