Ohana, Is it overpriced garbage or the best meal?

[HunnyJar]

My family went in February for both dinner and breakfast and both meals were very, very good. My husband who is generally not a huge fan of turkey raved about how moist and tender the turkey was. Neither my son nor husband thought any of the meats were dry. I'm a vegetarian so I can't comment on the meats, but I will tell you the vegetarian meal the chef made was fantastic!

 

[youcansmellit]

I keep seeing people mention this - perhaps that poster did do this?

We have done it several times at 'Ohana, and it didn't do any good. I come from a restaurant family, so I can tell you that some restaurants do not want to raise the bar, as they are happy with the way things are. This is the case with 'Ohana, IMHO. You see the same continuous inconsistent reviews about 'Ohana. Why is that? Some of it can be attributed to different expecations from guests, but in this case, I truly believe 'Ohana is happy with the way they are.

It seems to be working, and they are full all of the time, as there are only 2 TS restaurants at the Poly, and it's a big resort. Not to mention the amount of people who visit from MK or other resorts.

If 'Ohana wanted to change, they would have changed by now. We went 3x over 3 different trips, during different months and years apart, and we encountered the same thing. That tells me they operate the way they wish to operate, and no amount of speaking to management (which needs to overhauled, IMHO), will change it.

Tiger

Thanks for the info. We have one night that we have not made up our mind for dinner. I'm the one that gets to pick it. We are eating at Epcot for 3 of the dinners, So we don't want to make it 4. I want to make sure that its a good pick. So we might do Chef Mickey. Better then Ohana?

 

[Tiger926]

Never been there, but does anyone else think that they hype might be the reason for this? that it might NOT be that the restaurant has gotten worse in 4-6 years, but they expectations have gotten HIGHER because of the hype? I don't know but that's what it seems like about all the reviews on the DS board. They are usually negative about the popular restaurants, and positive about the less frequented places. Just an observation from a newbie

I think the hype about Ohana for breakfast are the characters, and for dinner it's that ridiculous amount of food they provide. When you offer that much food, people aren't as inclined to complain or notice issues, as they feel an inflated sense of value. We feel it's extremely irresponsible of them to make so much wastage for dinner - each time we walk by to our ADR at Kona, we just can't believe the amount of wastage that is generated for dinner.

I honestly feel this is what all of the hype is about - it's also a huge resort, and with only 2TS meals, they fill up very fast. Remember though, even though a restaurant is always full (think Chef Mickey's), it doesn't mean it's good. Many people want to try the experience out, and I would venture there are lots of people who don't ever go back to Ohana after their first visit.

Tiger

 

[Tiger926]

Thanks for the info. We have one night that we have not made up our mind for dinner. I'm the one that gets to pick it. We are eating at Epcot for 3 of the dinners, So we don't want to make it 4. I want to make sure that its a good pick. So we might do Chef Mickey. Better then Ohana?

Ummm...unfortunately, no. Chef Mickey's is also usually bad: dirty, noisy, long check-ins, character issues, broken ice cream machine (every time we go), food is not good and supbar service. We have eaten at CMs at least 4x over the last 3 years for both breakfast and dinner, and we have experienced this.

That being said, we did notice an improvement for our July trip though, but we didn't go a few weeks ago during our March trip. We will be going for our upcoming July trip, as kids really like the characters and atmosphere. This will make 5 times for us at Chef Mickey's over the last couple of years, so hopefully, we see the same improvements we saw last July.

If you've never been, and can get an ADR, you might want to try it for yourself. I am being honest after having eaten pretty much everywhere, but again, this is our opinion, and you might have a totally different experience.

I wish you luck in choosing your ADR! Happy eating, Tiger

 

[Tinker Bella 17]

my absolute favorite!!

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

We've only done breakfast there and we really, really liked it. This is the only place my DS6 requested for our trip in September.

Personally, I'd pick this over CM, I like the service, atmosphere and location much better at Ohana. To be fair about the food though, I have only had breakfast here and dinner at CM.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We were unhappy with breakfast, but liked dinner very much. The meat was well cooked (although the beef was a little rare for some of the pickier people in our group). The sticky wings, pot stickers, bread, and veggies were all great.

I don't particularly like the coconut race (but then I feel the same way about the parades and stuff other buffets do for the kids), but we really liked the food.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We ate at Ohana for both breakfast and dinner last Spring. I thought the breakfast food was very good -- and since I'm not a buffet fan, it's a good alternative to still have a character meal. The service was just okay and I though the character interaction was a little less organized than other character meals we've done, but overall we liked it and would go back.

I almost cancelled our dinner reservation because I'd heard mixed reviews and after 8+ days of eating, I wasn't sure I was up for this type of meal. I'm really glad that we ended up going becuase we really ended up enjoying it.

 

[youcansmellit]

Ummm...unfortunately, no. Chef Mickey's is also usually bad: dirty, noisy, long check-ins, character issues, broken ice cream machine (every time we go), food is not good and supbar service. We have eaten at CMs at least 4x over the last 3 years for both breakfast and dinner, and we have experienced this.

Any recommendations? I am willing to go off property. I just want a place that I know is consistent. It sounds like the places I have been looking in to are not. Thanks

 

[Tiger926]

Any recommendations? I am willing to go off property. I just want a place that I know is consistent. It sounds like the places I have been looking in to are not. Thanks

In all fairness though, as I mentioned, we saw a big improvement during our July trip. As I mentioned, we didn't go last month, but will be going again this July.

Most character meals as of late, have seen a decline in food and service, IMHO. But, since we've eaten at all of them many times, we've had pretty consistent positive experiences at:

Crystal Palace
Cape May Cafe
1900 Park Fare - breakfast (dinner wasn't that great last time)

All of the others are hit and miss, and some like Garden Grill and 'Ohana, we find just aren't good all around.

As I say this though, there will be many others who say they love these restaurants!

I would say if you go in with lower expectations, you might be fine - we just expect a clean eating area, a server to attend to us only 1 or 2x and hot food. Even these low expectations find us disappointed at times, but that's the nature of the beast when eating on-site: all character meals pretty much function as a get em in, and get em turned out as quickly as possible, in order to get the next table served.

I can make other recommendations to you for other TS meals, but not sure if we should do it on this thread, as I wouldn't want to hijack it?

HTH, Tiger

 

[Tricia1972]

Personally, I would try any restaurant that appealed to me from reading at the menu, ignoring all "DIS experts" and trends that I see on the DIS.

We've gotten stung hating a few places that are revered overall on the DIS, and have loved quite a few places that get slammed on the DIS.

EVERYONE has different tastes. Everyone. Some people will hate a restaurant that you might love if you gave it a shot. People just like different styles/types of food in general. No matter how they grew up, where they work now, or how many times they've traveled to Disney, their opinion isn't more important than yours and your reality.

I might trust actual food critics, but even then, I've found that I like places that they don't.

If Ohana's menu appeals to you, then I say give it a shot. Even if popular opinion is that they don't deserve that chance.

 

[HunnyJar]

Personally, I would try any restaurant that appealed to me from reading at the menu, ignoring all "DIS experts" and trends that I see on the DIS.

We've gotten stung hating a few places that are revered overall on the DIS, and have loved quite a few places that get slammed on the DIS.

EVERYONE has different tastes. Everyone. Some people will hate a restaurant that you might love if you gave it a shot. People just like different styles/types of food in general. No matter how they grew up, where they work now, or how many times they've traveled to Disney, their opinion isn't more important than yours and your reality.

I might trust actual food critics, but even then, I've found that I like places that they don't.

If Ohana's menu appeals to you, then I say give it a shot. Even if popular opinion is that they don't deserve that chance.

Thank you for posting this! I couldn't agree more. I really wish people would give a restaurant a shot if they like what they read on the menu rather than just go by other people's opinions. There are plenty of restaurants that get consistently poor reviews on the Disboards that my family loves and others that get rave reviews that we will never go back to. Everyone has different tastes, different likes and dislikes and honestly the only way you will know what you like is to try it for yourself!

 

[Spaceship Tigger]

Thank you for posting this! I couldn't agree more. I really wish people would give a restaurant a shot if they like what they read on the menu rather than just go by other people's opinions. There are plenty of restaurants that get consistently poor reviews on the Disboards that my family loves and others that get rave reviews that we will never go back to. Everyone has different tastes, different likes and dislikes and honestly the only way you will know what you like is to try it for yourself!

I know pretty much every restaurant gets blasted on the DIS and other boards much of the time, so you really just have to try things for yourself. Our personal favorites that we seem to return to all the time include Chef Mickeys, Ohana, Whispering Canyon Cafe, and San Angel Inn - all places that often get poor reviews. A lot of people just have different expectations and ideas of what their meal should be. To me, if it has a great atmosphere and pretty good food then we can depend on it. Service can be up or down anywhere at any time and doesn't usually make or break our experiences.

 

[dawgfan]

We have eaten there twice. We are a family of four with two kids age 14 and 11. We all love the place and the kids make it a Must Do every trip.

 

[disneychic]

We have been going to dinner at Ohana since our WDW honeymoon in 2000. We try to go on every visit. I guess we're lucky, but we've yet to have a bad dining experience there. No complaints here about food or service.

 

[Sammie]

In my opinion it falls somewhere in between.

 

[BEANTOWNDR7]

We did the breakfast last year and intend to do it again this Oct., the atmosphere is great, the food is good and plentiful. The best part of th breakfast is the service, I'm not getting up and down to refill my kids plates and drinks. The kids get to interact with the characters will you get to sit and enjoy some Kona style coffee and relax.

 

[crabbygal902]

I agree with Sammie, it is somewhere in between. I think that it falls closer to the better end rather than the worst. Especially good are the Lapu Lapu (mixed drink served in a pineapple) and the bread pudding dessert, and I normally hate bread pudding!

 

[ElizabethB]

Tried dinner once. Won't do it again. We do enjoy the character breakfast.