How is Kona Cafe for dinner?

[tebookie]

Atmosphere is important to us also. I'm looking for a restaurant to replace an iffy Tony's ADR. The menu looks very good to me, but I've read it's a very loud restaurant. We like having dinner conversation & hate loud restaurants. We've avoided Cali Grill for the same reason. Is Kona so loud that it's distracting?

We didn't think so and we had a table near the edge of the restaurant near the lobby. We didn't overly crowded in the restaurant. The staff was very pleasant as well.

This was our first table service meal of a week on the dining plan. It was one of our favorites!

 

[the Fidge]

Atmosphere is important to us also. I'm looking for a restaurant to replace an iffy Tony's ADR. The menu looks very good to me, but I've read it's a very loud restaurant. We like having dinner conversation & hate loud restaurants. We've avoided Cali Grill for the same reason. Is Kona so loud that it's distracting?

We sat in the back and the sound level was not problematic at all for us. It is not a large restaurant though. Tony's on the otherhand I have not heard many a good thing about. I would suggest reconsidering that one.

Happy PLanning!

 

[SnwflkCts]

Oh that's not fair ... now I am hungry!!!!!!!!!

We've eaten there FOUR times!!! On our first trip, we ate there two days in a row!!! The filet was wonderful. I tasted the Mahi Mahi - good. Drinks with little umbrellas - !!

Anyway ... I did find it loud. I keep saying the acoustics are just bad there. Low conversation is out of the question at a mid-evening meal. After a little umbrella drink ... I no longer cared about the noise level ... I think I became part of it! Now an early meal seemed less noisy (crowd level smaller) or maybe we were in a different spot so it might depend on table location and time of day.

Despite that noise level, even my very difficult to please Brother-in-law APPROVED!

 

[KathyFG]

We love Kona Cafe- have eaten there several times. Great food and nice (if busy) atmosphere- but it is certainly no more hectic than O'Hana- We actually prefer both the atmosphere and the food at Kona. Great breakfasts too. ENJOY.

 

[dshouse4]

We have ADR's for September at Kona. I ask our travel agent her favorite restaurant in all of Disney and she said Kona!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Well I changed our adr from 1900 Park Fare to Kona and I'm excited I did it! I might be trying the chicken dish, though, since I'm not really a beef person. I'll just be asking for the almonds to not be included! Now hopefully my husband, who is not daring at all when it comes to food, can find something he'll want to eat.

This is new for me - looking for restaurants that don't just have characters at them.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We didn't think so and we had a table near the edge of the restaurant near the lobby. We didn't overly crowded in the restaurant. The staff was very pleasant as well.

This was our first table service meal of a week on the dining plan. It was one of our favorites!

We sat in the back and the sound level was not problematic at all for us. It is not a large restaurant though. Tony's on the otherhand I have not heard many a good thing about. I would suggest reconsidering that one.

Happy PLanning!

Thanks to both of you for the input. What time did you eat? I'm trying to decide, if we should eat before or after Spectro & Wishes. If we go there, noise level will be the deciding factor.

As for Tony's, I started a thread explaining my dilemma, before seeing this thread. I'm looking for a meal to replace Tony's. I'd rather try it on a longer trip, when we don't already have a subpar meal planned (LTT for the Halloween atmosphere).

Anyway ... I did find it loud. I keep saying the acoustics are just bad there. Low conversation is out of the question at a mid-evening meal. After a little umbrella drink ... I no longer cared about the noise level ... I think I became part of it! Now an early meal seemed less noisy (crowd level smaller) or maybe we were in a different spot so it might depend on table location and time of day.

Despite that noise level, even my very difficult to please Brother-in-law APPROVED!

Thanks for your thoughts on avoiding noise, as much as possible. As you can see, I've asked others who thought it wasn't that loud what time they ate. Hopefully, I will see a correlation between time & noise level.

We love Kona Cafe- have eaten there several times. Great food and nice (if busy) atmosphere- but it is certainly no more hectic than O'Hana- We actually prefer both the atmosphere and the food at Kona. Great breakfasts too. ENJOY.

We didn't like Ohana at all. How does the noise level at Kona compare to Ohana?

 

[ReneeA]

Kona is my very favorite meal at WDW, hands down. The Mahi-Mahi is wonderful.

 

[MissMouse21]

Kona Cafe is excellent! My DH and I went there on a whim, and loved it! The food is delicious, and the Polynesian is an excellent place for a romantic walk after dinner

 

[LilGMom]

We tried Kona for the first time in May. DH wasn't thrilled to try it because he didn't think he'd like it and it ended up being his favorite meal. We immediately made plans to add it to our "must do" list and have a dinner ADR for our Dec. trip.

Here are some pics from our meal -
The amazing bread and honey macademia nut butter (amazing and worth an ADR by themselves!!) -

Sticky wings -

Beef Teriyaki with extra mashed instead of veggies -

Pan Asian Noodles (yummy!!) -

Kona Cone -

The only downside to this meal is that we should have had it earlier in the trip so that we could have tried getting another ADR and I now have to wait until December to eat there again.

 

[allisonswonderland]

we loved Kona for dinner - definate do again!!! Thumbs up!

 

[Tink3Bell]

Love this place going twice this vaca.

 

[PrincessBride07]

I'm gonna be the debbie downer here. I wasn't overly thrilled with Kona. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. We didn't have that good of a server. (I do give people the benefit of the doubt, so I don't hold that against the restaurant.) Also, the food was just ok. I had the teriyaki steak, and it tasted like any other teriyaki steak you could get at O'Charlies or Applebees. There are other places that I would rather go to.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I'm gonna be the debbie downer here. I wasn't overly thrilled with Kona. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. We didn't have that good of a server. (I do give people the benefit of the doubt, so I don't hold that against the restaurant.) Also, the food was just ok. I had the teriyaki steak, and it tasted like any other teriyaki steak you could get at O'Charlies or Applebees. There are other places that I would rather go to.

Ewww, I despise Applebees. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[E-I-E-I-O]

I'm gonna be the debbie downer here. I wasn't overly thrilled with Kona. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. We didn't have that good of a server. (I do give people the benefit of the doubt, so I don't hold that against the restaurant.) Also, the food was just ok. I had the teriyaki steak, and it tasted like any other teriyaki steak you could get at O'Charlies or Applebees. There are other places that I would rather go to.

I did not like our server at all- she was very rushed and did not speak clearly which made her hard to understand. But the food was so good that I'll forgive less than stellar service.

 

[mommycrawford]

KONA is delicious for dinner!...There's not a lot to the restaurant itself IMHO, is is a bit of an extention of the upper level of the Poly lobby, very open...that is to say, there is no wall enclosing the restaurant. It is a great meal, and the Poly is a lovely environment, but there is no real cosy spot, nor is there ambiance like at say, Boma.

Foodwise it's a gem!

 

[Lisa77]

Kona is by far my favorite so far. I ate there once because we were staying there and DH had to go to a meeting so it was just the kids and I. We really enjoyed it (kids were 3 and 11). Then I talked the rest of the family into eating there again a couple nights later. Then we went back for breakfast one morning.

I'm not sure i'd order a special dessert because I loved there banana creme brulee. And the 3yo's face when he got the kona cone was priceless.