We had an 8:30 am ADR at 'Ohana so we took the monorail the short distance from the Contemporay to the Poly. This place is very popular so the lobby area is filled with large groups of people. Since the waiting area is expansive with groupings of rattan chairs and little tables, there was plenty of seating. Everyone is greeted Hawaiian fashion Aloha - and given a polyester lei. We had our photo taken at the Ohana photo prop and then proceeded to wait about 15 minutes before our buzzer went off.
We were led to our table by Giuseppe who filled us in on the happenings at this place, reminded us that we were cousins, and grabbed a basket of bread before showing us to our table. (Even though we had been here previously I dont recall such a nice spiel about the restaurant. Now that it has been several weeks since we dined there I cant recall all that he shared but it was noteworthy.)
We were seated at a table for two overlooking the Poly grounds facing the beach next to the windows. So far so good nice greeting, nice seat in the restaurant, and we had these really cool leis what could go wrong?
It took Susan, our server, a little time to get to us for our drink orders, which included Stitch juice.
Typically, you arrive at your table, your server greets you and provides your drinks and the platter of fresh fruit followed not too long after by a skillet of hot breakfast items all while the characters circulate the room and make you happy to have chosen this place. Here was our experience: arrive at the table, eat an entire basket of bread before the server arrives to even take our drink orders, drinks arrive, another long wait until the fruit arrives, wait another 20 minutes and no food, make eye contact with Susan across the room and shrug in a whats up fashion, she ignores me, comes around 5 minutes later and plops a platter of food on our table and says that she thought her backup had taken care of us. Really?? This is Disney and you need to give me a story about why you are not doing your job??
I will honestly give my opinion of the food without the service prejudice being interjected.
Starting with the bread since I ate all of it! I only had a bite last trip so I really had no opinion but now I wonder why didnt I indulge? The bread was actually very good. I cant say if I prefer the pineapple to the cinnamon bread since they were both moist and delicious. Now if you combined them into a pineapple cinnamon bread that would be awesome!
The fruit was fresh and delicious. The platter arrives with melon slices, pineapple, and red seedless grapes. It really is a refreshing start to a meal or it could have been our meal at the rate the service was going. After the loooong wait for our hot food (and seeing all the other tables that were seated around the time that we were being served as expected) I started to pay attention to my watch and time how long this was actually taking. I was so annoyed at having to wait 25 minutes between courses that it didnt make it all that enjoyable even when the characters came around to greet us.
About those characters
.Lilo, Stitch, Aloha Mickey, and Pluto they were all fine and interacted briefly with us since we only wanted a photo with each but they come out all within about 10 minutes. This isnt a complaint just an observation so if the meal is timed so that you are on your fruit course, you dont have to wait and have your hot food get cool. So dont pick up that biscuit and dig in if you see the characters coming!
During the Ohana character parade (I think we were there for 3 or 4 rounds of this event) one of the Cast Members kept trying to get Em to participate by handing her a maraca. Unfortunately, she didnt let the inner child in her come out! It really is adorable to see all of the little kids participate along with some of the adults.
The hot skillet of food contains; scrambled eggs, potato wedges (the same for all of WDW?), bacon, sausage, and 2 biscuits. This food was just ok. Nothing special, nothing particularly good at all. The eggs were probably my favorite part of the meal since they do prepare those to my liking. The potatoes were blech not hot and not flavorful. The bacon was limp and room temperature, I dont eat sausage so no opinion on that, and the biscuits were well, I didnt eat those either. However, there was some redeeming quality to this joint they serve Mickey waffles!!! Now we are back in the game with these little beauties. Susan served the Mickey waffles which arrive with a mini pitcher of syrup and a ball of whipped butter. I actually asked for a second helping of waffles since I figured that I could squeeze a couple more into my belly.
The photo person had circulated with the pictures from the photo op in the lobby. Being that they were decent photos of us, I paid the $31.90 to have the joy of owning an overpriced picture package. Actually, the term package is misleading since it is only 1 5x7 photo of us and 1 5x7 photo of the characters in a folio.
Susan arrived with our bill and a nice accompaniment a birthday cupcake with a little paper umbrella. She did light the sucker up but she didnt sing me a song! I took a few polite bites of the cupcake but it wasnt that great since it was chocolate ugh!
I gave Susan our TIW card and she said that she would need to get a Manager to enter it for us I think that was code for Im going to disappear again. However, no worries, she arrived back within a few minutes and we were done.
The bill was $43.33 with the TIW discount and the automatic 18% gratuity. We saved $8.40 with the TIW card for this meal.
I decided to bring to the attention of the management team that our dining experience had probably been the exception and not the norm for this place. When we exited and reached the check-in podium I asked to whom I could speak regarding a service issue. They called for a manager while I stepped off to the side.
Mr. Manager Ben arrives, a young guy who looked to be in his early 20s seriously? I shake his hand and introduce myself (hey, I was going to be professional and direct no reason to let my annoyance speak louder than my fight for justice!) I told Ben that I wanted to bring a service issue to his attention since one of his Cast Members may need a little coaching. I stuck to the facts and shared that we had dined there for breakfast in the past so we were familiar with the experience; however, the wait between courses and to even be greeted and get drinks this time was unacceptable for a guest eating in a family style restaurant where there were no made-to-order dishes. I asked him who Susans back-up was that resulted in our longer than anticipated wait. He said there is no back up. (I knew it! Liar liar Susan! I didnt say that but I wanted to.) I told him that it was unfortunate that I share my dining reviews and that I had to be completely honest in my evaluation of the service. He tried to deflect briefly by asking where we were from. Uh
Ben, lets stick to the issue here ok? Then I asked for what I thought was more than fair refund the $31.90 that I paid for the photo package. Without hesitation, he immediately did this and asked if there was anything else he could do. No. I was fine with his response.
So would I go back to Ohana? I dont know. And my answer has nothing to do with the service since I dont think that would be an issue should we return. Im not sure if it is worth the price for what I want out of a dining experience. I was finding that doing so many character buffets was just getting annoying since; 1) I dont have little ones to really enjoy the magical experience of the characters 2) I normally only eat a packet of low-sugar oatmeal and a piece of fruit in the morning, I dont eat a large breakfast so these meals were killing me! 3) I prefer to be served my food rather than have to go through a line and have people reach over me when I am dishing something on my plate! 4) At $22 per person, I can think of better ways to spend my sweet moola! (Especially when I figure that for $22 I can buy 2 months worth of oatmeal!)
Next Up: Contempo Cafe - and it wasn't half bad!
How exciting for you that you have something to look forward to in September! LTT is now a tradition for us and althugh I second guessed Akershus before we went - I ended up really liking it! At least the food and service were very good. 
with the carrot cake cookie. 
