OK...The Final Word on Ohanas Please!!

[cavecricket]

Disliked here

no flavor to the food, very loud, our "cousin" would bring our skewer to us with a few pieces of cold dry meat after the other "big parties" had there fill.
the wait was horrible. the contests were out of control, like i had said once before, the hula hoopers are only supposed to hula around the waist. this one kid kept doing it around his wrist, eventually the hoop came flying off his wrist right into us. I ended up with a chicken wing in my lap. and my "cousin" came over and tried to make a joke out of it. not your expensive skirt , cousin.

the only reason i didnt make a complaint about this poor service overcooked place was because we had the most beautiful view of the mk fireworks.

trust me when i say i love disney world , and something has to be exceptionally poor for me to bad mouth it, i am just thankful that in 27 visits this was the first time i had such a bad experience.
i wont ever waste my money there again. i would rather spend that money on a never failed me yet dinner like le cellier or jiko or for buffet i would rather do boma.

sorry for the bad review, on a happier note every other place we ate was wonderfull!!!!

 

[lou7401]

I'm so surprised at the negative reviews. We were there for dinner on Nov. 2 and we had the best dining experience of our trip. The service was good we had a very friendly, funny waiter and he had an assistant who also served us. The food was delicious, not overcooked at all. It's Polynesian so I expected rice as the side-dish which was fine since I love rice. The shrimp was the best part - it wasn't the greatest to have to peel it yourself, but I think grilling it with the shell on makes it less likely to dry out.

Overall great food, atmosphere and service!

 

[Alice28]

WE LOVED it! We were a party of 7- me and DH, our two kids who were 5 and almost 2 at the time, my parents and my mother in law. We ALL loved it. What did we love?

The atmosphere- very friendly, laid back and the view is AWESOME.

The service people- again, friendly & attentive!

The food- specifically we LOVED the wontons and the wings! We could have feasted just on those...the honey lime dressing on the salad is great, as is the peanut dipping sauce. We all liked the prawns and steak...the pork and turkey were on the dry side, but perfectly tolerable dipped in some sauce. One was drier than the other, but I cannot remember which.

The pineapple with the caramel sauce is the perfect ending to such a carniverous meal.

And if your kids are picky eaters, they can order something off the kid's menu from Kona Cafe (I think there's hot dogs, chicken strips, mac and cheese...)

 

[tlev]

I am always amazed at reading threads like this, how there can be such completely different views on the same place. That being said, I have to be put in the dislike column. The appetizers were delicious but our server never offered to refill them, despite the fact that my DW and I finished the whole tray in about 5 minutes. Our server brought us each one serving of the 4 skewer products, disappeared for about 20 minutes and then came back and asked if we were ready for dessert. Never even offered us seconds at an all you can eat set-up! Not that we would have taken any because the meat was way overcooked and really did not have any flavoring at all. But again maybe we caught it on a bad night.

 

[Alice28]

It's so strange reading all the poor reviews. I will say it wasn't very busy while we were there....we had a team of two servers- one was kinda in charge of the appetizers (and we easily had 2-3 refills on the wontons alone, not to mention the rice, salad and sticky wings) and she came around at least twice to refill our meat...we would say, "Oh, just a couple pieces" and she would slide 4-6 on our plate."

I will say that my husband had to be a little firm when we checked in and asked to speak with the management----maybe the hostess warned our servers that we were tough or something. Our complaint was that we checked in 35 minutes early, there were maybe 5 - 7 tables occupied at the time, and DH asked for a window table. The hostess kind of snottily said that she couldn't guarantee that, and we would get whatever was available. Since you can see the restaurant from the hostess desk, my husband looked around, and say, "If you would like to seat us now, that would be great as you have a lot of empty tables." And she said the same thing and brushed him off. (we had received the same spiel at Rose and Crown 5 nights before, but they were VERY busy and I can understand why they had to say that). So then he asked to speak with a manager and another host stepped in and said, "Sir, I am sure that will NOT be a problem getting you your request as we are no where near busy right now." And we got a rockin table in the corner with a perfect view of Cinderella's castle and the fireworks. It did get busy as the meal progressed, but for us, the service never lacked at all.

 

[Threehearts]

Three visits, three subpar meals with dismissive servers- we're on the never again list. Threehearts

 

[wld]

We have been 4 times, twice with DDs and twice just DH and I. We have always had wonderful service, in fact we have to stop them from bringing us more. The appetizers are great we think and not something we have at home. We have never had cold meat and I am picky about things being hot. Pork is not my favorite but more a personal preference than the way it was prepared. Loved the steak, nice and pink in the center. I don't like the shrimp for 2 reasons, it is too spicey for me and I don't like to peel it either. But DH loves it and they always give him more than he asks for. ( you want 2? Oh take 4) They have been back before we finish what we already have. Our DDs love this restaurant too, they were in their teens the first time we went. We think the pineapple and carmel is a wonderful light dessert although 1 time the pineapple could have been riper. And one time the girls wanted to order a different dessert which they loved. After reading some of the reports I hope our luck holds.

 

[profdsny]

Another negative. We've been going there since they opened this theme, and it keeps getting worse and worse. Last time we went, NYE, last year, was only because we gave our 11yo her choice of where to go. Sevice has been all over the board, but no where near as good as it once was. And, the choice of items has decreased from a huge one to about just four. Even the starters have changed, and are not as good as they once were. A few years ago we were in the back room, and never did see the entertainer, which was good, because she certainly wasn't. There are some great buffet choices with all you can eat, and this year we are doing Boma instead of O'hana. Oh, AND, to make matters worse, they don't even have those great glass animal drink stirrers anymore.

 

[Oh Kay!]

Have you been to a Churrascaria? I thought 'Ohana was a poor cousin to it in terms of food selection and quality. There are several Churrascarias on Long Island, Queens and Manhattan. I recommend you to try one locally.

 

[Laralyn]

Do you think the size of the group changes the experience? Were those of you who had negative experiences in small groups of 2-3 people?

 

[psupple]

Originally posted by tlev
I am always amazed at reading threads like this, how there can be such completely different views on the same place. That being said, I have to be put in the dislike column. The appetizers were delicious but our server never offered to refill them, despite the fact that my DW and I finished the whole tray in about 5 minutes. Our server brought us each one serving of the 4 skewer products, disappeared for about 20 minutes and then came back and asked if we were ready for dessert. Never even offered us seconds at an all you can eat set-up! Not that we would have taken any because the meat was way overcooked and really did not have any flavoring at all. But again maybe we caught it on a bad night.

I have to totally agree with you. We were there a few weeks ago, and our experience was very similar to yours. Never again..

 

[Jen D]

I'm not in the 'Ohana fan club; but I have to volunteer that I have no problem with the peel / eat shrimp-- it's all cooked on the skewer, and you wouldn't want them peeled before they were grilled, the shrimp wouldn't taste very good. Much better grilled in shell.

My take on 'Ohana isn't as negative as some, and we actually had very nice service. But I just thought the place was nothing special for the price; we probably won't go back unless we stay at the Polynesian again and are looking for a meal "in" (although we prefer Kona!)

 

[UKAnnie]

Re our negative experience - we were in a group of 4 adults.

Ann.

 

[tlev]

My negative experience - just the DW and I.

 

[bdcp]

I have a question. I'm allergic to shrimp, so, is the shrimp on the same skewers as the other meat or on separate ones? We'll be going to WDW next fall and I want to be able to make PS for some restaurants, but don't want to find out the hard way that I can't eat at O'Hana's.

 

[Alice28]

Originally posted by bdcp
I have a question. I'm allergic to shrimp, so, is the shrimp on the same skewers as the other meat or on separate ones? We'll be going to WDW next fall and I want to be able to make PS for some restaurants, but don't want to find out the hard way that I can't eat at O'Hana's.

Each meat is on its own skewer.

 

[hannahryan]

I am about as particular as they come...but, I LOVE OHANAS! It's my favorite restaurant at WDW. We ate there on our last night (11/10/04). The server wasn't overly friendly, but he did offer us refills of yummy appetizers and brought plenty of tasty shrimp and meat. Wishes started at 7pm and they pipe in the music. It was so magical to watch from there. Great food, great atmosphere and lots of magic. We couldn't have asked for anything more!