Ohana's - What A Disappointment!

[LisaS321]

I just returned from WDW on 2/20. I had secured one of the "coveted" dining reservations at O'hanas for the night of the 15th. I was very excited as I had never tried this restaurant before and was really looking forward to it. The food was just ok for me, I didn't realize it was mostly just meat. However, the whole experience was truly ruined for us by our waiter, who basically served us the salad and then forgot about us!!! Over 30 minutes went by while everyone around us were served. At this point they were shutting down the firepits in the middle of the restaurant and I asked a waitress if she knew who should be serving us as we had not received anything. She was very kind, seemed to be genuinely horrified that we had been there the whole time without food and she made sure we were served. When our waiter finally showed back up much later and I asked him if we had offended him in some way he laughed and explained he was busy and had a special anniversary table to attend to. When I told him that wasn't a good enough reason to ignore us and that I didn't find it amusing he just simply kept laughing. I guess it was a nervous laughter but all in all, it was an awful experience and I won't ever eat there again.
Adding this today 4/26 - had he just given me a sincere "I'm sorry for the oversight" when he finally came back to the table I would have been ok with everything, it was the laughing in my face that was very offensive. Plus - Did I mention at the very end of the evening when the restaurant was basically empty he ran over and plopped a frozen raspberry drink if front of me and said "Here, drink this, it's very good and it will make up for your unhappiness, it's on the house"!!!! Well OMG, first off, I do not drink, second, I hate raspberries and third, how dare he think that alcohol would make it all better.

 

[kneedeep]

I am sorry you had such a negative experience. 'Ohana gets such rave reviews everywhere that it's disappointing when it doesn't match up to expectations. I would have been very frustrated if that happened, too. While we still enjoy 'Ohana, our last experience there wasn't as great as previous meals, for the opposite reason -- we felt bombarded with food and rushed and actually had to ask them to slow down. Not nearly as bad as what you experienced, but less enjoyable than past visits.

We have found that when there has been a major issue such as yours (whether at WDW or elsewhere) it helps to ask for a manager asap and simply explain the situation. More often than not, they will be sympathetic/eager to restore your faith and they have various means at your disposal to do so. (Waitstaff will rarely alert a manager themselves if the delay/oversight was their own fault.)

This past October we waited 30 minutes at CRT after our photos had been taken and our name was still not called to be seated upstairs. When we checked with the desk we were told we had accidentally been moved to a "hold" list. They acknowledged their mistake and laughed it off, saying, "Don't worry, you can still eat here." (Not amusing, since we had prepaid $$$, of course we expected to eat there.) That could have been the end of it, but once we were seated we asked to speak to a manager, explained what had happened and what the response had been. He apologized profusely, made sure our DD who was celebrating her birthday knew that she had not missed anything, and then came back with 2 sets of anytime Fastpasses for our entire party to be used at MK that day. We did not ask for any "compensation," but felt it was important that someone in authority be made aware of glitches so they could be avoided in the future. He wanted to make sure we did not leave unhappy.

Anyway, I hope the rest of your trip was better.

 

[Huff]

I don't think I'd avoid ever going back to a restaurant because of poor service. Every single restaurant at WDW has had numerous people complain of lousy service (or food) on any given day.

We've had horrible service at Via Napoli (slow, and waiter chased us outside for too low of tip) as well as Le Chefs and Ohana. Each of those was just the one time. All other times before and after have been great.

I do agree that if you are not a meat lover then Ohana's is not for you!

 

[vettegirl]

I don't dislike Ohana, but I feel it is overated.

 

[dakcp2001]

I don't think it is fair to condemn a resteraunt based on one bad server. Stuff happens. And as for the mostly meat part, did you not know what was on the menu before you went?

I like O'Hana but it is not my favorite. But I think you have to manage your expectations.

 

[quigs3]

We had a similar service experience there for breakfast. Our waitress barely brought us any food on our platter, and we were a family of four, including two teenagers. The food was gone pretty quickly, and when we asked for more, our server looked at us like we were pigs. It took her over 30 minutes to come back with the food, and that was after we had to ask for it again. That was the only time I've ever left a restaurant without leaving a tip. I wish that I had spoken with a manager, but we were so angry that we just wanted to get out of there.

 

[rookie2]

Oh my Gosh, I could have written your reveiw. We were also there on the 15th and had terrible service. We have alwasy loved O'hana. On two of our vacations we went to O'hana twice.
We were seated near the bread area and were totally ignored by our two waiters. Many times we were left sitting there for over 5min waiting for food. When they would show up with a skewer they would dump the whole thing on our plates. At one time he felt so guilty he put 8pcs of steak on our 12yr olds plate. Such a waste. When my husband complained he would just laugh it off. He may have been the same waiter, his partner was MIA most of the night. We left trying to be postive 1 bad time out of 7.....not so bad

 

[jess20k]

Sorry that happened! We love the food at 'Ohana but have 50-50 luck with the service there. There were a few times I vowed never to go back, and did give it a break for awhile. Luckily, the last 2 times we went we had good service, and as always the food was good. But, I know it is definitely hit and miss, at least for us it is.

 

[chrisw127]

Overall, I liked it but we didn't have the best service either and much of the food tasted the same. It was all that sweet, vaguely Asian taste. I would have liked if some of the meat was more savory than sweet. Also, the potstickers were cooked so long they were like plastic.

 

[kathie859]

I've never had a good experience at Ohana. Once the meat tasted like lighter fluid, once the service was rushed and meats were dry. And on the third try, service was just awful. We ordered cocktails and they came mid-meal and no refills of even water was offered. I invoked the "three strikes and you're out" rule.

 

[bosox32]

I recently went late january and had a great time. Best meal of the trip imo.

But the service did force us to wait a bit to be seated and for our waiter to bring our drinks.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I don't think it is fair to condemn a resteraunt based on one bad server. Stuff happens. And as for the mostly meat part, did you not know what was on the menu before you went?

I like O'Hana but it is not my favorite. But I think you have to manage your expectations.

This! I dont think its fair to condemn a restaurant because of one server. Its just like me saying I will never go to HS again because I was traumatized by the Tower/Terror. It happens everywhere. If i find myself waiting too long for our food, i'd pipe up and say something. I wouldnt just sit there and let a bunch of time pass by.

It helps to check out the menu before you go someplace. Ohana is known to be a meat lovers restaurant. Lol!

And definitely manage your expectations. I try not to get to excited about a restaurant just because ppl rave about how good it is. Happened to me with Le Cellier. Ppl raved and raved about how heavenly the place is. I think INCREDIBLY over-rated!!!

 

[shoney]

They must have picked up the pace...LOL...We were there on the 16th and within 5 minutes of sitting down we had a waiter and waitress put everything on the table and then started coming around with the meats. It was quicker than McDonalds!

I enjoyed the bread, salad, dumplings and shrimp. the rest was just ok. Husband enjoyed the salad, bread, wings, noodles, chicken, pork and shrimp. His absolute fav was the ice cream with the sauce...no bread pudding.
Ds12 loved it...favorite meal. He was the only one who liked the bread pudding!
Ds10 ate chicken wings and nothing else....wouldn't even eat the ice cream!

Overall, I'm glad we went. It was paced too quickly. I can't say I would ever rush back, though.

 

[MolonLabe]

I don't think I'd avoid ever going back to a restaurant because of poor service. Every single restaurant at WDW has had numerous people complain of lousy service (or food) on any given day.

We've had horrible service at Via Napoli (slow, and waiter chased us outside for too low of tip) as well as Le Chefs and Ohana. Each of those was just the one time. All other times before and after have been great.

I do agree that if you are not a meat lover then Ohana's is not for you!

 

[mskayjay]

The last time we were able to get an 'Ohana reservation (our 2010 trip) we had a terrible waiter. He made us feel very uncomfortable for a number of reasons. I excused myself to use the restroom, found a manager and asked for another server. Situation solved. The original waiter gave us a few funny looks but too bad! lol

 

[gdrj]

I would definitely let the mgr know.

I made the mistake of keeping quiet at a restaurant and regret not letting someone know so the evening could be fixed... I did email the mgr after the fact, they can't fix what they don't know. I'm not sure if they all have business cards with the mgr and area mgr's e-mail but I know some do

 

[cymbaldiva]

Oh my Gosh, I could have written your reveiw. We were also there on the 15th and had terrible service. We have alwasy loved O'hana. On two of our vacations we went to O'hana twice.
We were seated near the bread area and were totally ignored by our two waiters. Many times we were left sitting there for over 5min waiting for food. When they would show up with a skewer they would dump the whole thing on our plates. At one time he felt so guilty he put 8pcs of steak on our 12yr olds plate. Such a waste. When my husband complained he would just laugh it off. He may have been the same waiter, his partner was MIA most of the night. We left trying to be postive 1 bad time out of 7.....not so bad

I hope this is just an odd attempt at being sarcastic? While I don't entirely feel the OP's pain (it is a meat eater's paradise, menu check would have helped), I can empathize with most of it. I don't think your 5 minute wait quite compares with the OP's 30...and then after your "wait" you got too much food? I can't find your problem...

Sorry, not quite the same.

 

[Albytaps]

Well this is not good to hear as I'm going for the first time in April. However, I do know the menu and if we're waiting long I now know to speak up about it. I'm looking forward to this dinner.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

I have ask what is probably a stupid question, but if the Mgmt. of Ohana is receiving so many complaints about poor servers why aren't they doing more about it across the board? That would just make good business sense. I don't understand where the difference is coming into play, is it the difference between those who are DDP and those paying OOP? They will receive the tip regardless, but I have to say, I always tip very well (I used to wait tables in college, tough job, but if you do a good job you can make good $$$), so if you serve me well it doesn't matter if I'm on DDP or OOP you will recive the same rate from me. Anyone care to try to venture a guess?

 

[AryaForQueen]

i understand your frustration but you didnt have to be rude to the waiter. im sure he was trying his best and it was an honest mistake. think about it, disney doesnt just hire slackers- im sure he really was super busy.