Today there was EMH at Animal Kingdom, so we didn't want to mess around with trying to find breakfast in the park. Instead, we bought a box of donuts from the Contemporary Gift Shop and called it good - which it was!!
Anyway, we had 1:00pm reservations for Rainforest Cafe at AK. Now, when I made these reservations I never thought to look into the exact placement of the restaurant in the park. Rainforest Cafe is actually right outside the park. You have to exit the park and re-enter to get to it. When I was coming into the park in the morning - this sounded like it would be a big hassle...but in the end, it wasn't. They have their own exit and entrance back into the park - it was quite simple.
So we check in a few minutes after 1pm and are seated within 5 minutes. This is actually one time I wouldn't have minded having to wait to be seated - b/c they have a nice and big gift shop attached - and the browsing is good. Anyway, Rainforest Cafe is a unique experience. The entire restaurant is designed to look like a rainforest and there are plants, animals, waterfalls, etc everywhere you look! There isn't a bad table in the house. Every few minutes one of the animals will move or make noise and every 20 minutes ALL the animals move and make noise! If you go - check out the stools at the bar - really cute.
Ok, so we are seated. The menu is pretty big and there is a lot that sounds good. DD orders the grilled cheese, DH and DF have the cheeseburger, DB has the BBQ chicken pizza and I ordered a small salad and the appetizer coconut shrimp. DH and DF said there burgers were good, but the stand outs were DB's pizza - which both my DF and DB said were very good - and my salad and shrimp. I shared some of my salad with my DD and she loved it as well. It was pretty big for a side salad and was very light and fresh. It has lots of chopped veggies in it including jicama - which I love. My cocunut shrimp was light and not greasy, it has a mango dipping sauce that was really yummy as well. All told - we would go here again.
Later that night for dinner, we headed over to Ohana. We had 8:00pm ADR's and had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. If you've never been to the Poly, I suggest you make ADR's somewhere there or at least hop on the monorail and check it out. It's a neat hotel with great tropical design. Anyway, we have a wonderful waiter at Ohana, but I can't remember his name. A lot of people review Ohana, so I'm sure you all have heard about it....but just in case, it's a family style restaurant with a set menu. You just order your drinks and sit back and let the food come to you....and it just keeps coming and coming and coming!
I had read on the boards to order either a Lapu Lapu (huge drink in a pineapple) or the Maui Rita. Well, I couldn't find the Maui Rita listed in the drink book and the Lapu Lapu seemed too big....so I ordered the French Cosmopolitan. Big Mistake. Not good. Regular Cosmos are much better. So my advice is to order the Lapu Lapu - I hear it's very good.
First out comes the salad and fried wontons. This salad is as yummy as I had heard - it has a really light honey vinagrette dressing - soooooo good! The wontons are good (standard chinese takeout) and the three sauces are interesting. My family only cared for the peanut sauce....I can't even remember what the other two were - but they were not tasty to us.
After that comes the chicken wings and shrimp. The wings are in a sweet honey sauce and are deliscious - and that says a lot coming from me, b/c I rarely like wings. I love shrimp, and am not intimidated by peel and eat, which these were, but I thought they tasted fishy and not fresh - plus I found them to be overcooked. No one else in my family even tried them with all the other food choices.
Next came the potatoes and stir fried veggies. The veggies were good, standard stir fry. BUT THE POTATOES - OMG!!!! They were one of the best things I ate in Disney. It's the only thing we asked for seconds on!
Can't say enough good things about those potatoes!!
Finally, the meat servers come around the table (a la brazilian style - if you all have been to one of those before) the choices are steak, turkey breast, pork tenderloin and sausage. We, of course, tried some of everything. The steak was very rare - bleeding on the plate rare - and thus I couldn't eat it. The sausage had a good taste, but mine was overdone and burnt. The turkey breast was also a little tough, but had good flavor. But the best was the pork - and I don't usually love pork - but it was juicy, tender and full of flavor. Normally, I would have been really disappointed with the turnout of the meat - but I have been to Brazilian restaurnants that serve like this before, and I know that cooking 12 pieces of meat on a skewer is hard. I think it's really hard for the kitchen to get each piece done to perfection - so IMO they either end up with things too rare or too well done. But, like I said, this did not upset us b/c we had so many other yummy things to eat.
Now to dessert - all day I had been dreaming of the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce. I had read all the reviews and knew I was prepared for a taste explosion!! But what???? What did our waiter just say??? They are OUT of the bread pudding?
Ok, at this point, I wanted to cry....but knew my family would never let me live that down....so I held it together. The waiter did bring my DD a cupcake and us a plate of pineapple with caramel dipping sauce. My mind was saying "hey, nice try, but pineapple doesn't compare to the bread pudding" but then I tried some and man, was that stuff good!
So we sat back and enjoyed ourselves and I got over my dessert disaster - but lo and behold, the Tiki Gods must have taken pity on us - b/c here was our waiter bringing us this huge platter of bread pudding with bananas foster sauce. I wanted to kiss that man!!
And oh my gosh - was it good!!! Totally worth the wait!!
And as another bonus - there is entertainment built into this meal. There are coconut races, parades, dancing, singing, etc. It's great fun for everyone. Even if you don't have kids - you are not left out. There is audience participation in songs.
So all in all - not all the food at Ohana is the best I ever had - but there are some definite highlights - the salad, potatoes, wings, dessert! And I can't see anyone leaving that place hungry. The entertainment is really fun and we all had a great time. I think this is a really fun evening that everyone should try at least once. I'm not sure we'll do it on our next trip - just because there are so many places to try yet - but I'm so glad we did this at least once. And I do think, in a few years, we would do this again. Good times!!
Maggie doing the limbo at Ohana
Maggie at Ohana
Maggie in a coconut race at Ohana
OK - next up: Starring Rolls Cafe; 50's Prime Time; and The Dining Room at Wolfgang Pucks
Anyway, we had 1:00pm reservations for Rainforest Cafe at AK. Now, when I made these reservations I never thought to look into the exact placement of the restaurant in the park. Rainforest Cafe is actually right outside the park. You have to exit the park and re-enter to get to it. When I was coming into the park in the morning - this sounded like it would be a big hassle...but in the end, it wasn't. They have their own exit and entrance back into the park - it was quite simple.
So we check in a few minutes after 1pm and are seated within 5 minutes. This is actually one time I wouldn't have minded having to wait to be seated - b/c they have a nice and big gift shop attached - and the browsing is good. Anyway, Rainforest Cafe is a unique experience. The entire restaurant is designed to look like a rainforest and there are plants, animals, waterfalls, etc everywhere you look! There isn't a bad table in the house. Every few minutes one of the animals will move or make noise and every 20 minutes ALL the animals move and make noise! If you go - check out the stools at the bar - really cute.
Ok, so we are seated. The menu is pretty big and there is a lot that sounds good. DD orders the grilled cheese, DH and DF have the cheeseburger, DB has the BBQ chicken pizza and I ordered a small salad and the appetizer coconut shrimp. DH and DF said there burgers were good, but the stand outs were DB's pizza - which both my DF and DB said were very good - and my salad and shrimp. I shared some of my salad with my DD and she loved it as well. It was pretty big for a side salad and was very light and fresh. It has lots of chopped veggies in it including jicama - which I love. My cocunut shrimp was light and not greasy, it has a mango dipping sauce that was really yummy as well. All told - we would go here again.
Later that night for dinner, we headed over to Ohana. We had 8:00pm ADR's and had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. If you've never been to the Poly, I suggest you make ADR's somewhere there or at least hop on the monorail and check it out. It's a neat hotel with great tropical design. Anyway, we have a wonderful waiter at Ohana, but I can't remember his name. A lot of people review Ohana, so I'm sure you all have heard about it....but just in case, it's a family style restaurant with a set menu. You just order your drinks and sit back and let the food come to you....and it just keeps coming and coming and coming!
I had read on the boards to order either a Lapu Lapu (huge drink in a pineapple) or the Maui Rita. Well, I couldn't find the Maui Rita listed in the drink book and the Lapu Lapu seemed too big....so I ordered the French Cosmopolitan. Big Mistake. Not good. Regular Cosmos are much better. So my advice is to order the Lapu Lapu - I hear it's very good.
First out comes the salad and fried wontons. This salad is as yummy as I had heard - it has a really light honey vinagrette dressing - soooooo good! The wontons are good (standard chinese takeout) and the three sauces are interesting. My family only cared for the peanut sauce....I can't even remember what the other two were - but they were not tasty to us.
After that comes the chicken wings and shrimp. The wings are in a sweet honey sauce and are deliscious - and that says a lot coming from me, b/c I rarely like wings. I love shrimp, and am not intimidated by peel and eat, which these were, but I thought they tasted fishy and not fresh - plus I found them to be overcooked. No one else in my family even tried them with all the other food choices.
Next came the potatoes and stir fried veggies. The veggies were good, standard stir fry. BUT THE POTATOES - OMG!!!! They were one of the best things I ate in Disney. It's the only thing we asked for seconds on!
Can't say enough good things about those potatoes!!Finally, the meat servers come around the table (a la brazilian style - if you all have been to one of those before) the choices are steak, turkey breast, pork tenderloin and sausage. We, of course, tried some of everything. The steak was very rare - bleeding on the plate rare - and thus I couldn't eat it. The sausage had a good taste, but mine was overdone and burnt. The turkey breast was also a little tough, but had good flavor. But the best was the pork - and I don't usually love pork - but it was juicy, tender and full of flavor. Normally, I would have been really disappointed with the turnout of the meat - but I have been to Brazilian restaurnants that serve like this before, and I know that cooking 12 pieces of meat on a skewer is hard. I think it's really hard for the kitchen to get each piece done to perfection - so IMO they either end up with things too rare or too well done. But, like I said, this did not upset us b/c we had so many other yummy things to eat.
Now to dessert - all day I had been dreaming of the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce. I had read all the reviews and knew I was prepared for a taste explosion!! But what???? What did our waiter just say??? They are OUT of the bread pudding?
Ok, at this point, I wanted to cry....but knew my family would never let me live that down....so I held it together. The waiter did bring my DD a cupcake and us a plate of pineapple with caramel dipping sauce. My mind was saying "hey, nice try, but pineapple doesn't compare to the bread pudding" but then I tried some and man, was that stuff good! So we sat back and enjoyed ourselves and I got over my dessert disaster - but lo and behold, the Tiki Gods must have taken pity on us - b/c here was our waiter bringing us this huge platter of bread pudding with bananas foster sauce. I wanted to kiss that man!!
And oh my gosh - was it good!!! Totally worth the wait!!And as another bonus - there is entertainment built into this meal. There are coconut races, parades, dancing, singing, etc. It's great fun for everyone. Even if you don't have kids - you are not left out. There is audience participation in songs.
So all in all - not all the food at Ohana is the best I ever had - but there are some definite highlights - the salad, potatoes, wings, dessert! And I can't see anyone leaving that place hungry. The entertainment is really fun and we all had a great time. I think this is a really fun evening that everyone should try at least once. I'm not sure we'll do it on our next trip - just because there are so many places to try yet - but I'm so glad we did this at least once. And I do think, in a few years, we would do this again. Good times!!
Maggie doing the limbo at Ohana
Maggie at Ohana
Maggie in a coconut race at Ohana
OK - next up: Starring Rolls Cafe; 50's Prime Time; and The Dining Room at Wolfgang Pucks
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Wrongo!!! They were totally disgusting! I truly don't see how anyone can like those? They were skinny and full of nothing and had a weird taste to me. As I wasn't going to finish them, I passed them around to my family and none of us liked them. Maybe we have different Chinese takeout here in the Midwest - but our egg rolls are big and stuffed with fresh cabbage, pork, etc...nothing at all like those at the Chine CS. I'd avoid the egg rolls at all cost!! I did take a glance at the potstickers there and they at least looked normal. I would try those instead if you are jonesing for Chinese.
Fantastic view from your room - so lucky 
I got the regular croissant and it was good and DD got a yogurt. (DF wasn't hungry for some reason). The service was fast - there was no line and no trouble finding a table. It was a little hard to find this cafe from the MGM map - it's tucked behind some other shops on Sunset Avenue - but look for the patio and you'll find it. So this is a good choice for a quick breakfast stop (on your way for FP's at ToT and RnR) at MGM.
