Ohana tonight- we're done

[AquaDame]

I have a love hate with O'hana... I do like going there, the food is OK and I am a total tiki lover so the setting & drinks mean I WANT to go eat at the Poly, but it really does vary quality wise. Some times the meat is dry, and the shrimp never shows, other times it all comes out flavorful and piping hot! Regardless I have NEVER had good service there, though I never expected it. Its a very busy all you can eat, and it shows in that regard. Drop the food, run to the next table to pick up a stack of dirty dishes, try to avoid several tables by not making eye contact so you can make it to the kitchen before you drop it all. Get hit on the way out by another table before you make it back to the tables you ignored, even if its not your own table. Those servers seem to hustle, just never to my table. Our first visit we waited over 45 minutes for our reservation to be crammed into a dark corner (could not see to peel my shrimp even though I was in my 20s at the time - it was DARK) - hard to recover from that one. But I do go back...

My husband and I have all but given up on all you can eats and buffets at Disney. They are SO much more expensive than places where we order entrees and neither of us are huge eaters (we split many things and walk away happy) so we never feel like we get our moneys worth. That is an infinitely stronger feeling once you realize that at such places you typically less personal service. We can't justify the price of them anymore.

 

[Mrs. P. Charming]

We ate at O'Hana tonight and it was our last visit. The chicken is still on the menu and was probably our favorite item. The service was bad and some of the changes to our favorites don't make it worth it anymore. The noodles were my favorite, but they've changed. The flavoring is lighter making them not as enjoyable. The shrimp tonight was burnt. I mean black. I asked for more and was served moe black shrimp. My daughter has to go to the restroom during our meal and I took her. When we came back the steak and shrimp had been served. Mine was cold. The server wanted to start dessert at that point, but I asked for more steak and shrimp. Then the black shrimp came.. When it came time to serve dessert our server poured the banana sauce over the pudding. I realize this sounds silly, but in all our visits I don't remember a server ever doing that. Maybe they do and it was just the way she did it. I felt very rushed, like she wanted to turn the table soon. We were probably there 1hr 10 minutes at this point. I guess it's lost its luster for us finally. Last year I said we were never going back, this time I mean it. I did speak to the manager before we left to let him know.

I agree with you 100% this is by far my least favorite meal at Disney. I will never go here again. Cold, burnt food appears far too often.

 

[jerseygal]

So many other places to eat...Think I will "pass" on this trip...Hope it improves because I love going there!

 

[Kristina]

I totally agree! My last few vists were nothing special but the very last was awful. You can tell they just do not care and there are so many other good places to choose from, Kona for example. Had this restaurant been outside of WDW I'd never have gone back after the first crappy visit. Odd that a WDW gets a second chance, and a third...!

 

[o0quirkygirl0o]

I was so excited to go to 'Ohana on our honeymoon for the first time. It was the meal I was most anticipating! But, like you, we had a horrible experience. The service was just awful and most of the food arrived slowly and cold.

That being said, I feel like a great meal could have come out of that kitchen. I can see how other people could love 'Ohana. I think we just managed to get a server who couldn't care less that particular night. I didn't even realize we were supposed to have been served pork and the caramel sauce for dessert was supposed to have bananas in it.

It has been over six months and I didn't complain at the time. But, every time I think of that meal it makes me so angry. I wonder if I should still write a letter. I don't want anything from them, just to let them know that things are not going how they would want at that restaurant.

 

[Lynn1274]

3 years ago we had our favorite meal at O'hana. So much so we booked it twice the next year. We were so disappointed with the service both times that trip. It was sad because we loved it the year prior. We thought the first night that maybe our server was having a bad day. The second night, we were actually begging for our server to give us food. Last year, we couldn't bring ourselves to make ressies. This year,we questioned to give it another chance but after reading this I think we will wait. Thanks for your input.

 

[heathsf]

Oh no! This is really disappointing. We loved it three years ago and are planning on going back in August. I'm worried.

 

[riversend22]

I'm actually a bit worried myself. Reading all of the negative experiences on the DIS is making me question whether or not we should eat there. I'm noticing that either people are entirely for O'Hana, or completely against it - there's never really anything in the middle. I've never been so I figured we'd give it a shot on our next trip.

My biggest concern is that our reservation is for 9:15pm (that's the only one available) and I keep reading that the later the night gets, the worse the wait/food can be. So I'm looking for opinions....is that too late for a reservation and will we potentially get terrible service and food since it will be towards the end of the night? It's our last dinner meal for our trip as we leave the next day...

 

[Gemm01]

I agree with you 100% this is by far my least favorite meal at Disney. I will never go here again. Cold, burnt food appears far too often.

This was our experience the last time we ate there. We had eaten there many years ago and the food and atmosphere were so wonderful. I was really looking forward to our meal but the meat was burnt up and dry. Very disappointing indeed! We do not intend to return either.

 

[dixielanfan73]

We also went there last Thursday with our kids(11,9) and my parents for our first and last time.

The positives -
- Our ADR was 6:45 and we were seated by 7 which was perfect.
- Our server was very polite and attentive.
- I think we all decided that the pot stickers, salad and bread were good.
- The lettuce wraps were weird but OK.

The negatives -
- Everything else was served cold
- The wings were slimy ( we are from and are used to crispy wings)
- The meat ( the pork was very dry, the beef, some pieces were dry others were chewy but all were cold, and the shrimp was burnt - others around us were complaining about it, we just didn't bother eating it)
- The desert would have been very good if it hadn't been served right after such a sweet meal...In fact everything was so sweet that it all just tasted the same..
- Finally that ukulele lady was so loud and out of tune.. we couldn't hear each other at the table.

I think we are going to get our Poly fix at breakfast for now on...

 

[Gemm01]

We also went there last Thursday with our kids(11,9) and my parents for our first and last time.

The positives -
- Our ADR was 6:45 and we were seated by 7 which was perfect.
- Our server was very polite and attentive.
- I think we all decided that the pot stickers, salad and bread were good.
- The lettuce wraps were weird but OK.

The negatives -
- Everything else was served cold
- The wings were slimy ( we are from and are used to crispy wings)
- The meat ( the pork was very dry, the beef, some pieces were dry others were chewy but all were cold, and the shrimp was burnt - others around us were complaining about it, we just didn't bother eating it)
- The desert would have been very good if it hadn't been served right after such a sweet meal...In fact everything was so sweet that it all just tasted the same..
- Finally that ukulele lady was so loud and out of tune.. we couldn't hear each other at the table.

I think we are going to get our Poly fix at breakfast for now on...

We thought the same thing about the ukulele lady. On that particular trip, we were there to visit our son who was in the college program. We could not hear each other speak which made the whole experience very frustrating. Mostly we could not wait to get out of there. My husband still talks about his disappointment with it to this day.

 

[L&Lfan]

We've eaten at 'Ohana exactly twice, in November 2012 and May 2013. Both experiences were satisfactory. We're going again in September. We love the steak, pork and shrimp. Chicken's our least favorite cause we eat plenty of it at home and so we don't really want it when we're at a restaurant. We like the bread, salad, dumplings, wings and noodles. Each time our server automatically poured the sauce over the bread pudding. We wish they would ask first, but they always seem to catch us by surprise and boom, it's too late to stop it. In September we're gonna try to remember to ask if we can keep the sauce on the side.

 

[babydoll65]

We ate there a couple of years ago and I see the food hasn't changed much. Everything was good except the main course( steak,chicken,shrimp) all extremely overcooked. I love the atmosphere so we only do the character breakfast. That was still very good. Love that it's served family style.

 

[Disney owl]

Oh dear!!

 

[Ava]

How is the breakfast here? We're all vegetarians so I won't bother with the dinner, but I booked breakfast for our Sept trip. Is the food any different than standard breakfast fare? (I'm fine with standard breakfast fare, just wondering.)

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I totally agree! My last few vists were nothing special but the very last was awful. You can tell they just do not care and there are so many other good places to choose from, Kona for example. Had this restaurant been outside of WDW I'd never have gone back after the first crappy visit. Odd that a WDW gets a second chance, and a third...!

Disney is also the only place that I know of that gets "off night" passes on a regular basis. Every time there's a negative review, it must have been an "off night", which according to many on the DIS makes a bad experience acceptable.

 

[KatMark]

We ate at O'Hana tonight and it was our last visit. The chicken is still on the menu and was probably our favorite item. The service was bad and some of the changes to our favorites don't make it worth it anymore. The noodles were my favorite, but they've changed. The flavoring is lighter making them not as enjoyable. The shrimp tonight was burnt. I mean black. I asked for more and was served moe black shrimp. My daughter has to go to the restroom during our meal and I took her. When we came back the steak and shrimp had been served. Mine was cold. The server wanted to start dessert at that point, but I asked for more steak and shrimp. Then the black shrimp came.. When it came time to serve dessert our server poured the banana sauce over the pudding. I realize this sounds silly, but in all our visits I don't remember a server ever doing that. Maybe they do and it was just the way she did it. I felt very rushed, like she wanted to turn the table soon. We were probably there 1hr 10 minutes at this point. I guess it's lost its luster for us finally. Last year I said we were never going back, this time I mean it. I did speak to the manager before we left to let him know.

We went there last year for the first time after having read all the raves about it over the years. It joined the list with Whispering Canyon and Hollywood & Vine for never going back to. The best part of the dinner for my husband was the dessert. Awful service too (and we were there rather early...5:00 p.m.).

 

[ldnoggle]

Thought I'd add our recent experiences here. We had our first Ohana dinner last Thursday (snagged a last minute ADR while on the Magical Express).

Our ADR was for 9:45 and we didn't get seated until around 10:15. That was pretty much our only complaint. We loved the bread and salad, I enjoyed the wings, and I could have eaten the whole plate of potstickers! I think my mom enjoyed the lettuce wraps- I didn't try those.

I thought the shrimp and steak were great- and my mom loved the pork. We also LOVED the noodles- and I never eat noodles.

The bread pudding was delicious too!

So basically- we thought it was great, and will actually be trying for an ADR over Christmas. Our only complaints were waiting for so long, and that they brought out so much food for just 2 people we felt wasteful.

I can't compare it to before since it was our first time, but we were definitely pleasantly surprised by how good we thought everything was!

 

[AZMermaid]

I went here with my sister, loved it, and couldn't wait to take my new hubby here (this was almost 5 years ago though). This was my only repeat. It was terrible. We were so rushed in and out and the food was edible at best. There's too many other options to give it another chance. We LOVED Kona for breakfast.

 

[tink'smom2B]

I wonder if someone from Ohanas read this and fixed the problems We ate there on 5/22 and were seated before we could even get a drink at the bar. The food was excellent, especially the steak and shrimp. I ate so much I could burst. In fact, that would be my only complaint. Way too much food! DD is a very picky eater and when our server, Joe, noticed this he offered to bring her some chicken nuggets. Perfect This was one of the best meals on our trip