No Longer coming to you Live from Disney World! Take 3 DDW'S TAMBU LOUNGE 8/6

[emmysmommy]

Brenda's Kona Café Dinner Review

The last anything at Disney World is something to be slightly sad about... and sadly I'm sharing our last dinner, which ended up being our last meal, at Walt Disney World. Kona Cafe had the honor of being our last this trip. Although Kona is a big favorite of mine for breakfast, it has more recently positioned itself in our regular dining rotation for dinner. We have yet to try lunch.

To give you my completely honest logic behind booking dinner the last several trips to WDW at Kona Cafe - it's the bread. Yep. I'm a sucker for the completely wonderful sweet, soft and delicious bread that must be made somewhere in heaven and shipped fresh and hot to Kona. The macadamia nut butter is equally amazing. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

After a day of park hopping we had seen the Osborne Lights for the last time, dodged the only significant rain of the trip, and then hopped on a bus and then a monorail to the Poly.

We only had a short wait this time before being seated.

Menu Photos:

There is a menu in that photo too!

Em's beverage choice was the lemonade with I believe a berry flavored foam (forgetting what it was now.) She wasn't such a fan since she is a lemonade purist - just give her water, lemon, sugar and she's good.

We were started off with the AMAZING Kona bread and macadamia nut butter. Have I said how much I LOVE this stuff? I do. I believe I took about 6 photos of the bread since I didn't want to miss a thing about it!

We started off with an order of the pot stickers to share. I had visions of the pot stickers such that they serve at 'Ohana. However, the Kona Café version is a little different.

Pot Stickers: Wok Seared Pork and Vegetable Dumplings with creamy soy-ginger sauce ($7.99)

These were not bad but I preferred the 'Ohana sauce to this one. Although I had visions of a mayonnaise based sauce when I looked at this I believe it surprised me that it was so good. The pot stickers were not dry and hard nor limp and soggy - they were as Goldilocks would say "just right."

All the while we were making progress on devouring this....

There was no competition for our dinner entrée choice. As with last trip, we decided to split the teriyaki steak that is served with steamed rice and broccolini.

Teriaki Style New York Strip: Sirloin Strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki glaze served with sticky rice and stir-fried broccolini ($29.99)

In my eagerness to dive into the meal I had split the steak and scooped it off the plate before Em reminded me of the food photo! Yikes, I almost did a major dining reviewer faux pas! I carefully arranged the pieces of steak back together and artfully arranged the pineapple back on top so you can hardly tell that I dug in.

This was just as delicious and perfectly cooked as last time. We devoured every grain of rice and every tiny bud of broccolini. I've noted before that Kona is not really associated with steaks so I have no idea how they pull this one off so well. Or perhaps my standards for steak is greatly diminished after so many meals at WDW but whatever it is, this was a great last meal to share with Emmy.

We passed on dessert; although I'm still curious about the upside down pineapple cake. Even though I have been discouraged from ordering since it is not the best. I'm like the kid that has to touch something to see if it's hot. One day I will order it and someone will say, "I told you so."

I'm glad that we shared our last meal at one of my favorite restaurants. It definitely was worthy of that distinction for a more casual setting. I'm looking forward to sharing this place for dinner with my husband in a few weeks.

Although this concludes my December contributions to Barb's live dining thread, I will be back to provide my favorites and highlights.

​

 

[Linda67]

Great Kona review Brenda
I know what you mean about bread .... It's delicious!

 

[buzz1121]

I always like when we try "new to us" dining experiences during a trip. There are so many options at WDW, that there is always something new to choose. One of the complications, of course, is giving up the known great option for the unknown maybe.

Our Saturday night dining destination was a repeat location for us, but it was a new experience due to the time of day.

On the seventh day of our Christmas trip, our family chose to eat...Dinner at Trail's End.

I have to say that the kids loved taking the boat ride over to Fort Wilderness from the Wilderness Lodge. We had no wait on a boat and reached Trail's End within ten minutes.

I was surprised again, as I was at our TE breakfast, by the number of people either waiting to be seated or trying to be seated without an ADR. The porch and outside area were packed with people, not counting those lined up for the next show of Hoop De Doo Revue.

We also encountered a few really impatient, rude visitors who could not understand why it would take them 45 minutes to be seated. These people did not have an ADR but were guests staying within Fort Wilderness. I was taken aback by how rudely the group was speaking to the two hostesses who were doing their best to explain the situation. It was a Saturday night during the holiday season and virtually everywhere within the World was busy.

We were told it would be about twenty minute before we could be seated as they were running a little behind. We waited about ten minutes and we were seated at a table in the lower level section, close to the tavern.

I had heard and read that the TE buffet was fairly small, but I was very impressed by the variety of offerings and the speed with which everything was replenished.

The buffet had a terrific offering of salads. There was a very good caesar salad, a garden salad, a cornbread salad, a tomato balsamic salad, and cold boiled shrimp which were delicious.

The hot buffet items included macaroni and cheese, corn, mashed potatoes, pasta with marinara sauce, pizza, ribs, fried chicken, carved roast beef, baked chicken, and a hot potato bar with any topping you could imagine including pulled pork.

They also offered delicious corn bread and rolls, with soft serve ice cream with many topping choices, soft chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, a Red Velvet cake, and a unique chocolate chip bread pudding.

I can say that I tried the caesar salad and it was delicious. The shrimp were so good and nicely sized without being overly large. The mac and cheese was good, the corn was good, and the fried chicken was very good.

My hands down favorite meat was the baked chicken. It had a mesquite marinade on it and it was so tender and juicy. DH and I both loved the baked potato bar. The potatoes were so good. They had that oven baked taste and the choice in toppings was amazing. I had a real "souped" up potato, akin to Barb's garbage omelet at Crystal Palace.

I did try the skillet cornbread and it was indeed very good, not dry like some cornbread can be, but rather moist and flavorful.

DD had the pasta with marinara sauce and said it was very good. She ate many of the same things as DH and I, but she was the only one of us to try the pasta.

DS tried the pepperoni pizza and found it to be very good as well.

Between all of us, I think we sampled all of the desserts. DS and DD loved the ice cream. They also had a chocolate chip cookie that looked to be very good as well.

DH had an oatmeal raisin cookie and a slice of red velvet cake. I tried a bite of the cake and it was really good, very moist with a delicious cream cheese frosting.

I had an oatmeal raisin cookie. It was so good,soft with plenty of raisins. I also tried the chocolate chip bread pudding. Wow, it was fantastic and rather unique in regard to the various bread puddings I have encountered at Disney.

We had a terrific experience at TE, so much so that it has made the cut to be included on our upcoming trip.

As we left Fort Wilderness to head to the boat dock, we snapped a quick photo of the beautiful outside tree.





From Fort Wilderness we headed to MK for a few rides, but we didn't stay long because we had a very important "new to us" breakfast experience the next morning.

 

[smile4stamps]

Is the 'Ohana bread similar?!? I'd never been to Kona for dinner and now with Hunter its not an option lol so I may never get to try that bread!

 

[emmysmommy]

Is the 'Ohana bread similar?!? I'd never been to Kona for dinner and now with Hunter its not an option lol so I may never get to try that bread!

Think King's Hawaiian bread but better!

Great Kona review Brenda
I know what you mean about bread .... It's delicious!

It's pretty awesome!

 

[jabead]

That's all the reviews we have at this time for Saturday, Dec. 14. Beth has one more dinner review to post, but her trip that was originally scheduled for the end of next week was moved up to this week. Beth left on Sunday night and will be at Disney World for a week, so look for her final review from her December trip sometime next week perhaps. But thankfully we still have DeeDee to post reviews this week, and perhaps we might see some of the other reporters pop in to post their December trip summaries.

As for my final contribution to the live thread...well, I actually should say "our" final contribution, because I will try to include many of the more than 200 DISers who did reports for the three live threads during the 15 months that they existed in the "live" format. Our 200+ volunteers (many of which did live reporting more than once) sent us countless live reports from not only Disney World, but Universal Studios, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney Cruises. I have spent the last month or so cataloging all of these live reviews and finishing up the INDEX which appears on the first two pages of this thread. This index represents 15 months of work and dedication, and not just mine but of all who contributed. While these reviews are probably not the most current available on the DIS or elsewhere, because of the sheer volume of them and the wide variety, I believe that they are still valuable and deserve to be kept around for awhile longer to be used as a resource for planning. In order to do this, I plan to occasionally post to this thread in order to keep it active. This post will feature past photos which were sent to me by the live reporters and will follow a theme...such as a particular restaurant or snack. I am open to suggestions, so if there are any restaurants, snacks, etc. that you would like to see featured please post your request here. If no special requests are made then I will pick these randomly.

In addition, if there is anyone who would like to post their reviews directly to this thread then please feel free to do so. I know that some people are intimidated by the idea of doing a complete trip dining report but wouldn't mind doing a review or two from their trip. If so, then you are welcome to post your reviews here. Also if you are at Disney World and are a previous contributor to the live thread (and still have my number/email address), feel free to send me any breaking Disney dining news items, reports from new restaurants or ones that you seldom see reviewed...like say for instance, Mickey's Backyard BBQ, which in 15 months we never received a live review.


For my first post, I chose a classic Disney snack...
































































Do you recognize any of the people in these photos? If so, please post a comment or just stop in to say hi.

 

[farrahalex76]

I've been lurking here for 15 months and just want to say thank you to you and everyone who has contributed to this thread. And yes the index at the beginning of the thread is just awesome. There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't go through it checking stuff out and getting ideas for my upcoming trip. Thank you again for all your hard work on this thread.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Another thank you for all you've done with this thread - life would have been much duller without it :

 

[jenjersnap]

Aw, love the montage of kiddos (and not kiddos) with the Mickey bars! I too am a lurker who, on most days, has settled down with a cup of coffee to read whatever was going on in the live thread. You have brought much enjoyment (and pangs of "I wish I were there") to my everyday life, thank you!

 

[daisymomof4]

And another thanks to you Barb, and all the live reporters that have kept this wonderful thread alive

 

[jabead]

And although this Mickey-shaped ice cream treat is not quite as popular as the ice cream bar, it still deserves some of our attention...

 

[Nohal]

I have so enjoyed this thread and want to thank you for all you have done to make it possible.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Barb,

Was reading your wrap up and love your ideas for keeping the thread going. And I have to tell you that I used your index when making my dining plans for my next trip. It's a great resource.

And that is my beautiful Brianna eating a Mickey ice cream sandwich in your last post!

 

[emmebear]

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to this thread barb...it's astounding as to how organized you are to keep it going...you are amazing!

And thanks to everyone for their reviews! Many of the reviews were pivotal in choosing where and what to eat.

I've met some awesome people because of this thread and hope to meet some more. Only you guys understand my love for Disney, food & photography! Ha ha!

Emme and I will be making a few more trips before the year is over.

See you soon barb & looking forward to sharing a meal with you in a few weeks & rocking DHS!

 

[smile4stamps]

Well I recognize someone in that post lol! I can't say I've ever had the traditional Mickey Premium bar! At DL I usually go for the TollHouse Cookie Sandwich! And at WDW I am rarely hungry for snacks!

 

[buzz1121]

Despite the fact that Disney fatigue had begun to set in a little, every single member of our family had no problem getting up very early for our breakfast on Sunday morning. And not only did we get up early, we did so cheerfully, which is quite a feat for five people!

I think I will share a few pictures to give you a hint as to where our family had breakfast, for the first time ever.







Check out those immense, wall to wall crowds!

If you look in the first picture, that single person is DS walking up the castle walkway. I have read and viewed pictures of being in MK prior to park open for an early ADR, but actually experiencing it is something else entirely. It is so surreal!!

I'm sure everyone has guessed correctly now, but for form's sake,

On the eighth day of our Christmas trip, our family chose to eat...Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table.

We made our way to the check-in podium a little before 8:00 and were immediately taken up the staircase. I thought all of the decorative touches were amazing and I thought five year old DD was going to jump out of her skin she was so excited!




After getting our picture made with Cinderella, we made our way into the dining room. I thought the room and the high ceiling were very impressive.







As soon as we were seated, a platter of pastries were delivered to our table.



I tried one of the muffins and a portion of a cinnamon roll. Both were pretty good, not Starring Rolls quality, but decent.

DS and DD ordered the kid's royal breakfast.








The portion sizes at CRT are fairly small in comparison to the overall price. The kid's breakfast came with french toast sticks, scrambled egg, and bacon.
DS traded his bacon for DD's french toast stick. Both were happy with their improvised breakfasts.


DH and I chose the Caramel Apple Stuffed French Toast as our entree.



We both enjoyed our breakfast. My serving was a little light on apples, but overall it was a good breakfast.

Clearly the main draw at CRT is not the food, but rather the experience of dining in Cinderella's Castle. We received visits from Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Jasmine. DS was a good sport and I really think he enjoyed it. The princesses did such a good job of building up his princely state.

DD loved it so much. She was thrilled by the wishing ceremony and has treasured her wand that she received at the breakfast. DS received a princely sword.

While I would not book this breakfast every trip, I do believe there is value in the overall experience. It is an exciting, magical event. As a parent, there is such a draw to giving my children any moments of magic I can and CRT certainly fulfilled that desire. The wonders of childhood are so fleeting that it's moments like this that create lasting moments in my mommy heart.

Tables at CRT are turned over in about thirty minute increments so we were able to shop a little prior to park open.

I must say that our entire morning at MK was magical. It was overcast, a little rainy, and cool, and there were absolutely no crowds at all until lunch time. I have never seen the park so empty throughout an entire morning. There were moments when it seemed like we were one of ten families in the park.

Coming up, dinner in New Orleans?

 

[smile4stamps]

Wow.. The empty park all decorated for the holidays is BEAUTIFUL! Just stunning!

Glad you enjoyed your meal. I've never dined there due to the price... Have thought about it plenty but just haven't done it. I had thought about doing it for our Anniversary as our wedding theme was Castles but then I couldn't find availability.

 

[jabead]

I've been lurking here for 15 months and just want to say thank you to you and everyone who has contributed to this thread. And yes the index at the beginning of the thread is just awesome. There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't go through it checking stuff out and getting ideas for my upcoming trip. Thank you again for all your hard work on this thread.

I'm so glad that the live threads and index have been helpful to you. Have a great trip!

Another thank you for all you've done with this thread - life would have been much duller without it :

And thank you for your contribution, chocolateMinnie!

Aw, love the montage of kiddos (and not kiddos) with the Mickey bars! I too am a lurker who, on most days, has settled down with a cup of coffee to read whatever was going on in the live thread. You have brought much enjoyment (and pangs of "I wish I were there") to my everyday life, thank you!

Thanks for following along, I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

And another thanks to you Barb, and all the live reporters that have kept this wonderful thread alive

I see you are going to be at Disney World very soon. If you are still there on 4/27 - 5/4, be sure to say hi if our paths should cross.

I have so enjoyed this thread and want to thank you for all you have done to make it possible.

Thanks for letting me know that you have enjoyed it.

Barb,

Was reading your wrap up and love your ideas for keeping the thread going. And I have to tell you that I used your index when making my dining plans for my next trip. It's a great resource.

And that is my beautiful Brianna eating a Mickey ice cream sandwich in your last post!

Thank you Rachel for all of your great contributions to the live threads. I think you will be seeing more photos of your beautiful daughter and also your handsome son in my upcoming highlight posts.

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to this thread barb...it's astounding as to how organized you are to keep it going...you are amazing!

And thanks to everyone for their reviews! Many of the reviews were pivotal in choosing where and what to eat.

I've met some awesome people because of this thread and hope to meet some more. Only you guys understand my love for Disney, food & photography! Ha ha!

Emme and I will be making a few more trips before the year is over.

See you soon barb & looking forward to sharing a meal with you in a few weeks & rocking DHS!

Thanks Patty! Your post is actually an excellent summary of what the live threads have been about. I can't wait to spend time with you and Emme.

Well I recognize someone in that post lol! I can't say I've ever had the traditional Mickey Premium bar! At DL I usually go for the TollHouse Cookie Sandwich! And at WDW I am rarely hungry for snacks!

Yep, I actually thought that Hunter had an ice cream bar but when I found the photo I discovered that it was an ice cream sandwich...and so, that's how I got the idea for my next post. Now you have provided me with another idea.






Also, thanks DeeDee for doing an excellent job of describing the magical feeling that one experiences when dining at Cinderella's castle...especially for the first time. Your wonderful review has inspired the theme for my next highlights post.

 

[daisymomof4]

........

I see you are going to be at Disney World very soon. If you are still there on 4/27 - 5/4, be sure to say hi if our paths should cross.

.........

Oooooo, we may cross paths on the 27th, 28th or 29th - Epcot, AK and MK, or so the plan goes, lol! I will keep my eyes peeled for you (now that's not creepy )

We will be in the parks for a few days before that as well. If I can get my phone to work in the States without roaming I might post a few updates in this thread, is that okay? I think you invited us to do that in a post above. It will help keep the love alive

 

[jabead]

Oooooo, we may cross paths on the 27th, 28th or 29th - Epcot, AK and MK, or so the plan goes, lol! I will keep my eyes peeled for you (now that's not creepy )

We will be in the parks for a few days before that as well. If I can get my phone to work in the States without roaming I might post a few updates in this thread, is that okay? I think you invited us to do that in a post above. It will help keep the love alive

On the 27th (my arrival day), I might just hang out at the resort (Wilderness Lodge) and relax but if I do go to a park it would probably be MK. And on the 28th I'll be at Epcot with Paula and Hunter. But on the 29th I'll be at MK solo, so hopefully we will run into each other then...perhaps in line for the soft opening of the Mine Train ride???

And it would be great to have you post updates here, either while you are there or soon after you return home. Whichever way works best for you.