Dinner at ‘AMA ‘AMA and Makahiki Buffet

[NWDisneyFan]

For those who have been before, is dinner at the two Aulani table service locations worth it? I’m having a hard time tracking down in depth dining reviews, but from what I’ve seen it isn’t very positive. I do have a character breakfast booked at Makahiki and I do have breakfast and lunch reservations for AMA AMA. Any help on dinner would be appreciated!

 

[OKW Lover]

We've done both and enjoyed them both. Makahiki has some really good choices on the breakfast buffet - a huge variety. I'm not a big character breakfast fan though.

 

[acndis]

I loved AMA AMA for dinner. It’s a very pretty place and had a nice, fresh menu. We will eat there for breakfast and dinner next time we are at Aulani. Breakfast is excellent, also.

 

[PetePanMan]

Ama Ama is very good but quite expensive. I really like b-fast and sunset dinner. We also have done Mother's day dinner buffet at Makahiki which was also good.

 

[Boardwalkin]

We have done both and they were average at best. This seems to be the theme for all locations at Aulani. Lunch at Ama Ama will give you a good idea if you should book for dinner. If you enjoy lunch then give dinner a try. We are not buffet people and have eaten at Makahiki once each of the last two years, but will not go back. Nothing was bad, but there was also nothing that really stood out. We usually eat appetizers in the Olelo room or go across the street to Monkey Pod.

 

[ebenmax]

Following. We have ressies at AMA AMA for breakfast and dinner once. I’m planning to keep breakfast. But if dinner is just average to good, we’d rather go all out at a restaurant that gets rave reviews since we have a car.

 

[JFox]

We are going to spend 2 days at Aulani in May as day guests, take the DVC tour, the hotel tour and other stuff. I glanced at the restaurant menus but haven't made a selection yet. As long as I can get my fill of MM waffles, MM ice cream bars and Dole Whip anything else is cream.

 

[newdeal]

I found the buffet not the best mainly because I don't love fish and there seemed to be a lot of it on the buffet and not a great variety of other things. Ama Ama was good but was certainly overpriced. The view was incredible though. The best meal we had by far was the prix fixe meal at Roy's. For me, Ama Ama is worth doing, the buffet is not. As for the other places around I found Monkey Pods to be mediocre and almost as expensive as Roys, the Korean BBQ place was terrible and not really sure what about it was BBQ at all it was more like really really bland Chinese food. The pizza place was pretty good the pizza had a lot of toppings and delivery to the hotel was not painful at all

 

[cgattis]

We did dinner at Makahiki our first night, and we all really enjoyed it. If you like seafood, I'd say it's worth it. I think my kids and I ate enough raw oysters, crab legs, and stone crab claws--plus POG juice--to justify the price ! LOL It's high, like any Disney character buffet, but we were very pleased with it. Breakfast was less, and tasty, but I didn't consider it a better "value."

 

[DVCRSheridan]

We enjoyed dinner at both, AMA AMA more than Makahiki. We enjoy breakfast and lunch at AMA AMA the most of any meals at Aulani. Our go-to dinner is across the street at Monkeypod Kitchen.

 

[NWDisneyFan]

Thanks guys! This has all been really helpful. I'll probably be dropping those dinner reservations based on the responses. I'm really interested in the restaurants next door at Four Seasons, especially happy hour at Mina's Fish House! That looks like a great value. https://www.michaelmina.net/pdf/menus/20180226-MFH-Happy Hour.pdf

 

[kiford]

I enjoyed the buffet at Makahiki and I'm allergic to seafood. I did find that there was a lot of seafood there (it's Hawaii - I kind of expected that) but I had no problem finding something to eat. I thought that the prime rib was really nicely done. I was definitely stuffed. I liked the breakfast buffet too. There was a decent variety of items.

We did Ama Ama for dinner and it was nice. Not as nice as I'd hoped, but that was primarily because I just wasn't all that thrilled with the menu offerings. Nothing wrong with the food itself - or the service - the menu just didn't appeal that much to me.

 

[GatorChris]

We did dinner at Makahiki our first night, and we all really enjoyed it. If you like seafood, I'd say it's worth it. I think my kids and I ate enough raw oysters, crab legs, and stone crab claws--plus POG juice--to justify the price ! LOL It's high, like any Disney character buffet, but we were very pleased with it. Breakfast was less, and tasty, but I didn't consider it a better "value."

So the buffet is the character meal? Want to make sure there's Disney characters AND I can kill myself with crab legs before I drop $50/person.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

So the buffet is the character meal? Want to make sure there's Disney characters AND I can kill myself with crab legs before I drop $50/person.

Only the breakfast buffet at Makahiki is a character meal. The dinner buffet is not.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

I thought the dinner buffet was a character meal on selected nights? We went out of our way to reserve the Thursday, even though it doesn't really fit our plans, because it would be the only character meal night we're there

Maybe they’ve changed it to that, but the 3 years we’ve been there (13,14 & 15) it was not.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

https://www.disneyaulani.com/dining/table-service/makahiki-buffet/
On the site is says it's available on Sunday, Monday en Thurday

There ya go then. They've changed since we were there. Enjoy!

 

[nkereina]

We did dinner at Makahiki (not the character dinner), as well as the character breakfast at Makahiki and a breakfast at Ama Ama. Of the three, dinner at Makahiki was probably our favorite. We were the first seating after the character dinner - when we were there, it only went until about 5:30pm and then switched to no characters so I'm not sure if that's the same. But because of our timing, the restaurant was only half full so it was quiet and relaxed. The food options were plentiful and all of it was very good.

Ama Ama breakfast was also amazing, only half full. It is expensive but worth it to experience Ama Ama without the heftier price tag of dinner. The mac nut pancakes were to die for!

Makahiki character breakfast was a madhouse. Loud, crazy, busy. Food was good, lots of options, characters were good but it was not relaxing by any means.

 

[happymamma]

I think Ama Ama is worth it at least once, especially for breakfast. The dinners we had there were fine also, but overpriced for sure and they don't even give you free bread anymore. I would say go for dessert around sunset time. Like someone else mentioned, Roy's was incredible - high prices but SO good. As for Makahiki, I don't think it's worth it for the dinner (but I'm not a seafood eater), but for breakfast maybe it is mainly because of the character experience. Enjoy!!