Ohana: Harsh review on WDWinfo

[pigletto]

I agree completely with the poster that pointed out opinions are just that.. individual opinions. I did not care for O'Hana but I can see that some would.
I was tired and grumpy from the start of the meal, our server grated on my last nerve (reminded me of someone I don't care for) and the service was pretty slow that night.
All of those things are completely subjective and only my experience. Had I gone another night, been a little more rested and not had to endure the mean girl in highschool it might have been entirely different.
I'd say give it a try.. there was nothing about it to hate and you might have a great time.

 

[Hootch]

large number of succinct reviews. Whenever I see a list of reviews I check out restaurants that I am familiar with to gauge how the reviewer(s) rate a known establishment. In my experience the reviews on the link paged are representative of the good and bad.

http://land.allears.net/reviewpost/showproduct.php?product=187&cat=48

 

[Lynn5700]

That review is full of crap lol! Ohana is the best.

 

[peyjax]

We have a 9:45pm reservation (only time available for dinner during our stay) next week. I booked it because it seemed to be a 'must do" and I am taking kids and it's our first time at Disney. It sounded fun and I thought the kids might eat the food. The time we got is not the best, but I don't mind it if the dinner/experience is worthwhile. If it is not, then I'd rather skip it and eat earlier somewhere else.

For those who were disappointed, was it the food or the experience? I am expecting loud and chaotic. I'm going with kids so I never expect quiet at dinner. The food is more my priority. It's not worth it to me if the food is terrible. We are on the dining plan but 1TS is as good here as another place and I don't want to waste it on bad food.

I personally was not impressed by Ohana, but I would give it a second try. With that said no dinner is worth eating that late at Disney. I think you might be underestimating how exhausting Disney is. I am a late owl and work nights but that big of a dinner that late is no fun, especially at Disney. Try Kona next door if you want good food and want to eat at the Poly.

 

[TruBlu]

I would call that review KIND. Our experience was worse.

 

[Tricia1972]

I just posted this on another thread this morning, but it seems applicable here as well.

I definitely agree with taking reviews with a grain of salt. I have pretty strong opinions about lots of Disney restaurants, and give a bad review of one of the Dis's favorites. People have eaten there since my bad experience and still love it. Go and cultivate your own opinion, don't let one bad review sway you regardless of who is giving that review.

 

[Pumbaa_]

This place is off our list, just bad all around

'ohana seems to be a love it or hate it kind of place. It is NOT on everyone's must do list. If it fits your schedule and you want to give it a run, great. If you are squeezing it in at a time you don't normally eat just to experience it, I would change the plan

Let us know what you decide

 

[hildarumpole]

The food, the service, and the entertainment were all disappointments. Meat was dry and over-salted, service was lacking, at best, and the entertainment was annoying. It's definitely not worth waiting until 9:45 p.m. to eat, especially with kids. Do you want to dine near MK or doesn't it matter? How old are your kids? A place we love is Raglan Road in DTD. The food is good and the entertainment is terrific.

 

[brergnat]

I like the food, but I can't stand the "lounge act". I find it incredibly annoying.

Ditto...but after a couple of drinks, it becomes incredibly funny to make fun of later.

 

[jimmalru80]

Kevin's review reflects our experience. It was an enormous disappointment.

Agree as well.

 

[tinkerbellybutton]

We have a 9:45pm reservation (only time available for dinner during our stay) next week. I booked it because it seemed to be a 'must do" and I am taking kids and it's our first time at Disney. It sounded fun and I thought the kids might eat the food. The time we got is not the best, but I don't mind it if the dinner/experience is worthwhile. If it is not, then I'd rather skip it and eat earlier somewhere else.

For those who were disappointed, was it the food or the experience? I am expecting loud and chaotic. I'm going with kids so I never expect quiet at dinner. The food is more my priority. It's not worth it to me if the food is terrible. We are on the dining plan but 1TS is as good here as another place and I don't want to waste it on bad food.

If you are going for the food AND the entertainment you may be dissappointed. We had an ADR for after 9pm last June and the activities were no longer going on. I asked a CM and was told that typically the fun entertainment ends around 9pm. If you wanted your kids to get the complete experience I am afraid that your ADR may be too late in the evening. Ohana's is a family favorite of ours and a must do for every trip (don't know if I could go to WDW and not eat at Ohana's). The food on that June trip was the best its ever been and I was glad for that because it just wasn't the same for our family without the chaotic activities going on. It was a last minute trip and we were just glad to be able to get into Ohana's, but for future trips I won't be booking any late ADRs at Ohana's.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I have said this before many times.. reviews are a matter of opinion. What some like, others might not.

Here is my list of what I do not like and yet people love.. Just for an example.

Whispering Canyon
Flying Fish
The Plaza
50's Prime Time
Yachtsman

So...when I read a review that does not agree with what I think or what I have read, I take it and keep it in the back of my mind and try the restaurant myself. If it is not good, well I have formed my own opinion as I did try it. People love the restaurants above that are on my list of not going to anymore, occasionally I might rethink and retry a restaurant that I have had on my list, if it falls short, then I know I was probably right the first time around. It is just my opinion and my choice to either frequent these restaurants or not, just as that was Kevin's opinion on O'Hana.. he is entitled to his opinion whether I agree or not.

 

[Cinderella94]

Aww that review makes me sad! We love Ohana!

 

[marypoppinstoo]

Thank you for your opinions. Yes, it is a late reservation, and much later than we normally eat. I figured we'd take a break in the day to rest and probably get a snack or light meal to tide us over. If the "entertainment" part of the dinner will not be going on then I might lose the kids. They like BBQ'd meat and all but it's not a favorite of theirs. We chose this restaurant more for the experience, though I do want the food to be decent. I still would like to do Ohana and at least give it a try, but I do agree that the time is very late and that might be a bad thing for us.

I don't know what we could get into though at this late date unless we just try to do a walk-in when we get there. I've tried to get earlier for Ohana but no luck so far.

Thanks again and if we go I will let you know what we thought of it.

 

[ElizabethB]

'Ohana was the single worst meal we've ever had on WDW property (and there have been a number of bad ones at other places). We booked it due to all the raves here. Huge disappointment. I agree with the posted review.

 

[Tiger926]

The breakfast is horrible, so that review doesn't surprise me at all. We much prefer Kona Cafe.

Tiger

 

[cpdwiz]

Was horrible. We will NEVER go again.....Our waitress was slow with food, would not bring us more, skipped us on waffles....The characters were great, food was not...For us Chef Mickeys is 100x better.

 

[mom of 3G's]

I like the food, but I can't stand the "lounge act". I find it incredibly annoying.

My thoughts exactly. I really enjoyed our experience and food at O'hana, minus the annoying Hawaiian singing and ukelele playing. We were waiting for about 20 minutes and I didn't know how much longer I could stand it. I had my heart set on someday staying at the Poly, but after seeing this "circus" act, I decided I'd continue to stay at Pop.

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

That review is full of crap lol! Ohana is the best.

A definite must do for us!!

 

[TruBlu]

I just looked back over my reviews from our June trip. This is what I had to say about 'Ohana back then...

After a fun, rainy day at AK we grabbed a bus to the Poly for dinner at....

'OHANA

Check-in here took a very long time. There was only one CM working the desk, and the lady in front of me had a problem. Her ADRs had been booked for July instead of June. The CM said that they could get her in then spent a VERY long time trying to fix all of her other ADRs while I waited.... Eventually another CM came over and checked me in. Our wait was about 20 minutes, but it seemed longer because the Poly was so crowded. I don't think I would like staying there because of all the people waiting for meals. It was chaotic.

We were seated at a table along the entry path, near the bathroom, back behind the cooking fires. We did not have a good view of the activities. There was also a speaker right over our table that was VERY loud and annoying. We heard all the singing and activities very well, but couldn't hear anyone at our table.

We probably had our worst CM of the trip here. She mixed up our drink orders at first, but eventually got them right. (We didn't complain, because she seemed to be trying her best.)

The bread here was AMAZING! It had a slightly sweet flavor. We finished one within minutes and asked for more. It took awhile, but it was worth the wait. The fresh loaf was hot and delicious.

Next we were served our salad. This was fresh and crisp. The dressing was very good, but slightly sweet. DH is the only one who didn't enjoy it. He has a strong dislike for sweet dressing.

It didn't take long to get the dumplings and wings, but the servings were very small for a table of 7. The kids didn't really like them, so the adults shared the few that we got. Both were just OK. The wings tasted almost scorched. They were also very messy. We were happy when we got the smoking hot towels to wipe our hands.

Next we were served the noodles and broccoli with pea pods. I gave each kid some broccoli, but quickly realized that even I didn't like it. It was very crunchy (almost raw) with a very strong flavor. I didn't make the kids finish it. None of us even tried the pea pods. The noodles were very plain - almost no flavor at all. We were concerned that they contained peanuts, so we had to wait for our waitress to return before letting DFs DD eat any. They were ice cold before we saw her again.

Before our meats were served, everything else (but the broccoli) was gone. We were never asked if we'd like a refill of anything. We probably would have taken more noodles, but we were never given the option.

Meats started to arrive when we were not at the table. We were up doing the hula on the other side of the restaurant. We couldn't even see our table. We returned to find that we each had a serving of now cold meat and 2 shrimp each.

The pork and turkey was extremely dry - so much so, that our DF got choked. He spent a very long time in the bathroom trying to recover. It was frightening. The shrimp was very messy. It was cooked in the shell, but covered in a spice. We liked it well enough and would have really liked to have more, but we never saw anyone with the skewers. The only meat that was actually good was the steak, but it was a little fatty. We only saw our waitress once during the meat portion of our meal. She was bringing the steak around.

We tried the dipping sauces, but didn't like them at all. The green one was especially bad. Even DS6 didn't like the sweet one.

So we gave up on the meats.

After a VERY, VERY, VERY LONG wait, our waitress finally came back to our table and asked if we'd like dessert. Since we had 2 kids with nut allergies, we asked for just ice cream for the kids. She brought out 3 bowls with the bread pudding. I'm not a bread pudding fan, but this was pretty good - not nearly as good as I expected. It still had sweet, lumpy bread chunks, but at least they were covered with ice cream and drizzled with bananas foster sauce. The dessert was the best part of the meal, but definitely not amazing.

So, based on terrible service, mediocre food, and my friend almost choking.... I'd give this one a 6 out of 10. We were not impressed and will not return.

Our ADR was for 6:45. By the time we finished we had 10 minutes before Wishes started, so we walked out to the beach and enjoyed the show. If you are at the Poly around 10:00, I'd highly recommend doing this. It was cool and relaxing on the beach.