Dinner on MK Day

[hds424]

Looking for where to eat dinner on our day at MK. None of the MK restaurants thrill us for dinner. We've never been to the Poly so were thinking of Kona Cafe or Ohana. Thoughts? Advice??

 

[PoohsFan1]

Never have eaten dinner at Ohana, we have only ever been to the character breakfast. As for Kona, we have been a couple of times and really enjoyed ourselves. Another MK resort favorite is Whispering Canyon Cafe at WL. If you like BBQ, then this is definitely the place to go, however, there are a ton of antics that go on (all in good fun) plus the kids get to gallop around the dining room on wooden stick horses, but if you are not into that kind of atmosphere, then maybe you should stay away. Good luck deciding.

 

[Nadjalu]

We love Ohana! The food is very good. Not sure what menu is wrong (think it is allears) but it is an all you can eat family style meal.

Salad and pinapple bread to start.
Sticky wings, lomein noodles and a brocolli, snow peas, carrot mixture of veggies. 3 sauces for the wings, sweet and sour, a hot bbq, and a peanut sauce.
Meat skewers: sirloin, chicken, pork and peel and eat shrimp.
Dessert is bread pudding with bananas foster caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream. (best on property in my opinion)

We always have to do Ohana. It can be hard to get into because it is popular but very much worth it.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[sbprincess]

Well, it's a little tough to say since I'm not sure if you have kids. Plus, tastes definitely differ from one person to the next.

But as for my opinion, we loved Kona! The food was great, as was the atmosphere. Since it's so close to MK, I think it would be a good break for dinner. We have thought of trying Grand Floridian Cafe but have never made it over there. That would be one I would consider too. Personally, based off of things I've read, I'm not too interested in trying Ohana.

Please, do NOT go to Tony's though! It gets such mixed reviews. We're in the "hated it" camp. If nothing else, it lacks consistency. I know you didn't mention it but I felt like I needed to say it!

Good luck in your choice!

 

[JoePa4Ever]

We love Ohana! The food is very good. Not sure what menu is wrong (think it is allears) but it is an all you can eat family style meal.

Salad and pinapple bread to start.
Sticky wings, lomein noodles and a brocolli, snow peas, carrot mixture of veggies. 3 sauces for the wings, sweet and sour, a hot bbq, and a peanut sauce.
Meat skewers: sirloin, chicken, pork and peel and eat shrimp.
Dessert is bread pudding with bananas foster caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream. (best on property in my opinion)

We always have to do Ohana. It can be hard to get into because it is popular but very much worth it.

Enjoy your trip!

Ditto for us - Ohana is a favorite of ours also.

 

[raider97]

Ditto for us - Ohana is a favorite of ours also.

Ditto for us - We love Ohana! It is a must do for us!

 

[meachell13]

We love Ohana! The food is very good. Not sure what menu is wrong (think it is allears) but it is an all you can eat family style meal.

Salad and pinapple bread to start.
Sticky wings, lomein noodles and a brocolli, snow peas, carrot mixture of veggies. 3 sauces for the wings, sweet and sour, a hot bbq, and a peanut sauce.
Meat skewers: sirloin, chicken, pork and peel and eat shrimp.
Dessert is bread pudding with bananas foster caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream. (best on property in my opinion)

We always have to do Ohana. It can be hard to get into because it is popular but very much worth it.

Enjoy your trip!

How does the family style work? They bring you whatever you want to the table or you have to choose among the choices and they will bring you all you want of that choice?? I have been looking to an answer for this question b/c I think based on the menu I would love to try the food when we go for the first time in Sept. I, too, am not thrilled with the MK dinner TS options and have been looking around at the nearby resorts. We are thinking about going to Kona also on another even while at MK..

 

[joemess]

I second Whispering Canyon at WL for a fun family dinner or Narcoossee's at GF

 

[dbug209]

We are doing Kona on our MK day!

 

[Reese2]

Ohana is a must for us!!

 

[Momto8]

We always have to do 'Ohana also. It is one of our favorite places for dinner!

 

[wdwlver]

O'hana would be my choice. We make it point to eat there twice every vacation! We love it.

 

[Imagineer76]

We try and go to the California Grille on our MK day... But we do not have kids. Based on the posts, we will be adding Ohana to our reservations during our May trip!

 

[Alabama Minnie]

If you get a early (5:00) ressie at OHANA you should be able to eat and get back to MK before the fireworks and parade. We did in December.

 

[lilandvisma]

Kids or not you cannot go wrong with Ohana or Kona! We LOVE them both

 

[Quin]

How does the family style work? They bring you whatever you want to the table or you have to choose among the choices and they will bring you all you want of that choice?? I have been looking to an answer for this question b/c I think based on the menu I would love to try the food when we go for the first time in Sept. I, too, am not thrilled with the MK dinner TS options and have been looking around at the nearby resorts. We are thinking about going to Kona also on another even while at MK..

Bread, apps, sides they just bring big bowls full to the table. If any item gets eaten up, ask for more (if your server is any good they'll bring more without being asked, but if they don't - ask and ye shall receive). Also fun is that they leave everything through the whole meal: if one of your kids decides to eat nothing but the chicken wings, the server will keep refilling the bowl even while everybody else has moved on to dessert.

For the meats - in addition to the particular waiter for your table who is supposed to take care of drinks, sides, etc, there are servers walking around with skewers of each of the 4 meats (steak, shrimp, pork, and turkey) . They repeatedly stop by your table and offer you some. I recommend accepting a VERY SMALL portion of each one to start with, then just taking refills of the specific one(s) you like best.

And save room for that dessert. I remember thinking on my first trip that bread pudding did not sound very appetizing. WRONG. They bring out a big bowl with the pudding topped with ice cream and a pitcher of warm 'bananas foster' sauce to just pour over the whole thing. Each bowl feeds several people so for large groups they'll bring several bowls. And they'll refill that too if you want. I think their secret goal is to see how many people they can stuff so full that they have to be tipped out of their chairsn onto the floor and rolled out of the restaurant.

So this is the opposite of Akershus in Norway where you choose from a menu, and also different from the other family style meals where every single thing comes onto the table on a skillet or platter. The skewer service is more like a Brazilian steakhouse concept, if you are familiar with those.

 

[SarahKate]

We've been to both - 'Ohana once and Kona 4 times.

'Ohana is more about the experience and hype. Not that we were totally disappointed in the food, but for us it was an abundance of dried up meat on sticks. The entertainment was fun and DD enjoyed it.

Kona is just next door. We love it there. Very nice atmosphere, comfortable, good service and have always enjoyed the food AND desserts there. Whenever we go, we have to squeeze our way through ALL the dozens of people waiting to get into 'Ohana and walk right up to Kona. It's kind of a best kept secret, in my opinion.

If you want to do 'Ohana, you have to really book it far out in advance, whereas Kona will have a bit more flexibility.

 

[DISprincessWANNABE]

I vote Kona! I've eaten there for dinner on my last two trips (and once was a walk up with five adults and one child), and will be going back this week for dinner. Not sure if you like sushi, but a plus for me is that you're also able to order off the sushi menu at the sushi bar next door (which is delicious, btw). The tuna oscar on the Kona menu is one of my favorite meals on the Disney property. Oh, and their bread with macadamia nut butter is yummy, too.

I heard the sticky wings are amazing, so I'll be trying them next time I eat there.

 

[DrewG]

You can never go wrong with O'Hana!!! That is if you like meat. (pork, beef, shrimp)