Wednesday, October 14th - Kona Island Sushi Bar: We Likes Them Rrrrrrraw and Wrrrrrrrriggling!!!
Before leaving Stinktown, Jay and I had asked our friend Lori (BriarRosie) if she'd like to meet up for some sushi on Wednesday night once we finished our dessert buffet. Originally we were going to meet at Kimonos - from a logisitcal standpoint it was much more convenient to get there since we were all staying at the Beach Club Villas. Another thing working in Kimonos' favor was the fact that their kitchen remains open until midnight ...
We now interrupt this post with a random editorial from your addlepated author; the opinions, beliefs, viewpoints, tantrum-throwing, and childish name calling expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of anyone unfortunate enough to be acquainted with said author ... unless they've had lots of booze.
Yo, Disney-Food Arbiters! What up with all the craptacular decisions you cartilage heads been making for the last three years??? First you pare down and homogenize the restaurant menus; then you standardize the cocktail menus; then you turn Pleasure Island into a dead zone that even zombies wouldn't want to visit; and now you close down all the resort restaurant kitchens at 10PM??? You think people don't get hungry in the late evening hours? You don't think they might want something a little more tasty than a cardboard wheel disguised as a pizza or a kangaroo patty with cheese? We want service ... with plates, glasses, silverware napkins, and a menu until midnight. If it can be done in Stinktown then surely it can be done at the WDW resort. Now hop to it, or next time we're going to Las Vegas for their food and wine festival!
... but we'd read many positive reviews about the Kona Island Sushi bar and after much weighing of options decided to ditch (haha) Kimonos for Kona. After all, we reasoned, Jay and I were already going to be at the Magic Kingdom; how long could it possibly take for us to get to the Polynesian from there? A matter of mere minutues, surely.
Don't call me Shirley.
And don't make assumptions about how quickly you can travel to a Magic Kingdom resort when twenty thousand of your closest friends are all simultaneously trying to leave the theme park with you.
Good Gawd!
It took us 35 minutes to get to the Polynesian ... poor Lori probably thought we were going to stand her up. See, we thought we were being smart by not taking the monorail - the ramps leading to both the resort train and the express train were packed tighter than a cattle pen at the slaughterhouse. So we opted for a boat-ride; there weren't many people waiting and it was a lovely evening for an open-air jaunt across the Seven Seas Lagoon. But we forgot that there was a definite passenger / weight limit on the boats, unlike the monorail where they wedge guests into cars with a shoehorn.
We made it ... finally ... after sprinting along the boat dock, past Captain Cook's, up the stairs, and down the hallway outside of Ohana to the two-story atrium where our lovely friend was waiting for us. After exchanging some quick hellos and congratulating Lori on her amazing weight loss, we placed our orders so that we could have something to snack on before the sushi bar closed down (we thought they shuttered at 10PM). As much as I had been going on and on about wanting to try the Lapu Lapu I wonked out - I'm not a big fan of pineapple and since Jay wasn't interested in booze I didn't want to take a chance on ordering something that I actually might not like. So I opted for the Captain's Mai Tai ... exactly how this differed from a regular mai tai I do not know, but it was tasty and there was definitely a lot of alcohol in it. And it came in one of these cool little island god glasses, which I desparately want a pair of and always forget to buy!
Island gods are most happy when filled to the brim with booze
The chef working the sushi bar that night was a busy man, but obviously skilled at his trade. He was able to make two volcano rolls at the same time - one for Lori and one for Jason. According to the menu the Volcano roll is comprised of spicy tuna, shrimp salad, and tempura crunch. Jason really liked this - he's a big fan of spicy sushi and thought this fit the bill nicely for a late night sushi snack.
Slap me with some fishies, sushi dude!
Volcano Roll - eruption seems imminent!
I stuck with the sushi that I love the most - nigiri. For those of you who may not know much about sushi, nigiri is just a small wedge of formed white rice and a slice of fish, barely held together by a dab of wasabi. It's very simple and very flavorful and I could probably eat my weight in it every day, that's how much I've come to appreciate it over the last couple of years.
My selection was the Nigiri sampler, which left to right in the picture below included tuna, hamachi, and salmon.
Nigiri ... where have you been all of my life?
Oh, it was wonderful! So clean ... so light ... so fresh and sweet! My eyes rolled back in my head when I took the first bite, it was that good ... you just can't get your hands on truly fresh sushi here in Stinktown no matter how hard you try.
For the tastiness of their sushi and the staff's willingness to let guests order items from the Kona Cafe's menu, Jay and I give the Kona Sushi Bar a Batmanuel. It could have been a Ren & Stimpy but for the 11PM closure and somewhat limited sushi choices.
But I think more than price was that I don't want to give up the time. We're only planning one MK day since it's a short trip.
I'm not a big nigiri fan (yet, working my way towards it) but that volcano roll, YUMMY!
We could not say it better ourselves!
