The Alaskan Disney Dining Expedition - 11 days of Deluxe Dining *Updated 5-20-11*

[Cinderella94]

Can't wait for more!

 

[madcam]

Great start to your review!! I love your attention to detail and descriptions of not only the food but the restaurant as well. Your family ate at many of the restaurants that we will be dining at on our upcoming trip so I am looking forward to the rest of your reviews. Keep 'em coming!!!

 

[jey]

We also have a tradition of going to the Plaza. DS loves the place. We go on our departure day since our flight out is usually around 8:00 pm. Looking forward to more great reviews!

 

[flafan]

Great Report, I am "hungry" for more.

Diane

 

[Splat25]

Kona Café
Polynesian Resort
Dinner
Oct. 5, 2010

Overview
Kona Café is somewhere we always wanted to try. Apparently we wanted to try it a lot this trip and had it scheduled for dinner, lunch, and breakfast. We really like Hawaiian/Polynesian type cuisines mixed with US ones – so this seems like a great choice. The Kona Café is very conveniently located just off the monorail stop at the Polynesian resort so getting there was really quite easy from our place at Bay lake tower (via Contemporary).

Atmosphere
The restaurant is open and airy with rich oranges and reds accented with wood finishes as are often seen in Hawaiian and Polynesian themed restaurants. I find it visually appealing and fun.

Kona Interior - This picture is from Disney itself, but shows the interior nicely

When you are seated you walk past a prep area that has a counter top with samples of all the desserts on it. Our hostess gave us a quick review of each on the way to our table. Our table was located near the outer fringe of the restaurant toward the monorail side. We were behind a screen and a bit off from other tables. This was a nice spot because it was quieter and very green/lush. If you recall, we had flown in at 7am from Alaska, went to get our key to the world cards at BLT, went to magic kingdom, went back to BLT to get our room and freshen up and then came here…..so a relaxed dining spot was perfect.

Our dining view

It also looks like the Kona café has a really nice Sushi bar. I occasionally go for some great sushi, but just wasn't in the mood today. I've heard others have given the sushi here good reviews.

Note: Restroom as not in this restaurant. They are very close by - just around the side of Ohana's restaurant.

Appetizers
While not technically an appetizer I want to start with the drinks. The kids drinks came out in festive cups with cute drink umbrellas stuck in the tops. This was a big hit with the kids and they really had fun with them.

Kids Drinks

Perhaps on a more adult side is the Kona Cafés infamous Lapu Lapu alcohol drink. I didn't know about this one, but I saw someone else ordering one and it got my attention – it is severed in an actual fresh-cut pineapple. It was $13.00 and was made from Myers's Rum, Bacardi 151, Orange Juice, and Sweet-and-Sour Mix. The drink was awesome and I would defiantly order again. One thing to note, you don't get a huge amount of drink, as you may think as its in a pineapple, its close to a standard mix drink size. However, it's very good.

The Kona Lapu Lapu

Now for the food! Our server brought us some very tasty bread, Hawaiian sweet bread I believe, served with a side of macadamia nut butter. The bread was very good, the butter was amazing and kids wanted more. (so did we, shhhh! ;-)

Bread with Mac-nut butter

DW ordered the Kona Salad. She is not a blue cheese fan, but took a chance and left it on rather than ask for it to be left off. The salad was very good. She did pick off the larger bits of blue cheese (I scooped those up, very nice blue cheese!), but left the smaller crumbles as she found the saltiness it added as a nice addition to the sweetness of the dressing and the Asian pear slices. The dressing was flavorful and added a nice sweet n' sour note to the mixed greens. It was a nice, refreshing way to begin dinner and went very well with the bread and Mac-nut butter. The Kona Salad is made up of mixed greens, Maytag blue cheese, fresh fruit, red onions, and smoked almonds with a citrus vinaigrette

Kona Salad

I ordered the Shrimp and Curry soup. It was outstanding and I would say one of the best soups I've ever had!! It is a bit spicy and has great curry flavors somehow coupled with a smooth texture and great flavor. The dollop of cream in the middle added a rich creaminess to the soup, especially when swirled into it.

Shrimp and Coconut Curry Soup

Entrée
The kids both ordered the Kids Grilled Chicken strips. This came with macaroni topped with marina sauce and cheese. They opted for the side of green beans with carrots (I see 3 maybe?) as one side, the other was saved for dessert. The kids say the chicken was moist and tasty – they liked it a lot. The macaroni was cooked well and the sauce was good too. The veggies were just ok.

Kids Grilled Chicken strips

The wife and I both ordered the Teriyaki New York strip dinner. I guess we were both in a steak mood and we like teriyaki. The steak was cooked to medium for both of us. They were cooked properly and we really liked the sweet and sour nature of their teriyaki glaze. The rice was a nice starch to have with this dish and fit in well with the Polynesian theme of the restaurant. I really liked the grilled onion and mango relish. It was tasty and added nice splash of color to the dish. The broccolini was cooked just right and had a slight crunch. And it tasted great with the teriyaki sauce.

Teriyaki-style New York Strip

Dessert
No surprise, the kids ordered the build it yourself sundae. They always love crafting their own sundae and emptying the little cups to make it just right – of course this mean EVERYTHING in the cups MUST go on the ice cream! ;-) This dessert is a huge hit for kids. You usually get Mickey sprinkles, fudge sauce and chocolate candies.

Kids Ice Cream Sundae

I ordered the Kilauea Torte which is a molten chocolate cake with ice cream and some great garnishes. The Kona Café logo is a stencil of cocoa powder and was pretty elegant. The raspberries went very well with the chocolate and the rich and creamy sauce, a crème anglaise (English Crème) I think, that surrounds the molten cake. The ice cream itself was a decent vanilla ice cream and was rich and creamy.

Kilauea Torte

DW decided to try the Kona Kone. It basically a waffle cone with a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and sprinkles, held in a metal holder, with cotton candy and chocolate candies on the plate. So, basically a glorified ice cream cone. ;-) The ice cream was good, and we liked the sauce and sprinkles. But the cotton candy and chocolate candies were mostly for show, we didn't eat them. The kids were interested in the cotton candy, but as they had both demolished their own ice cream, we figured that was enough sugar and left it. So, it's good if what you want is ice cream.

Kona Kone

Overall Impression
We liked Kona for dinner and would come again. We really thought the laid back atmosphere and the good food were a great combo for our first day back at Disney.

DH Rating 3.7 of 5
DW Rating 4 of 5

 

[minnieandmickey55555]

Awesome review! I love your detailed descriptions of EVERYTHING! We will be trying the Tonga toast for breakfast for our upcoming trip in December!

Waiting for more

 

[OurDogCisco]

Great Reviews... I'm in. Wondering what type of room you had at BLT?

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Really enjoying your reviews!! Look forward to the rest!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Wonderful update on Kona, you made it looks so good we want to try eating there.

 

[ilovepete]

Wow Kona looks yummy!

 

[Splat25]

minnieandmickey55555 - Tonga toast review is coming really soon

OurDogCisco - We had a 1 bedroom Magic Kingdom view at Bay Lake Tower. It was our first trip home using our DVC points and we LOVED it. Our unit was on the 6th floor, 1 floor above the skybridge to the Contemporary. Here are some Pics:

We had a great time here before we moved over to Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani. The access to the monorail was really a huge benefit and the fireworks were great from the convenience of your own room

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Wonderful pictures

 

[OurDogCisco]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. We got home to BLT for the first time in June and I can't wait!

 

[Timon]

Great reviews and awesome pics!

 

[Splat25]

Kona Café
Polynesian Resort
Breakfast
Oct. 6, 2010

Overview & Atmosphere
So, we are now on our second visit to Kona Café where we ate our last meal, dinner, last night! Please see our previous post for more details on the atmosphere of Kona. This time around we were seated in a much more central location, near the inside walkway, and out in the open seating area. Even with this more central location, we did not feel crowded in. The table space was nice and we still felt comfortable and semi-private.

Condiments & Drinks
Breakfast typically doesn’t have appetizers, but we felt the syrups and butter playing the role as condiments deserved and honorable mention.

Butter and syrups –regular maple and a special strawberry sauce for the Tonga toast.

The strawberry sauce was smooth and creamy and really added special sweet strawberry accents to the Tonga Toast. The butter was softened and maple syrup was decent, but didn't survive long with my voracious DD when pancakes are involved.

Drinks – I had a standard coffee and a Lilikoi juice (passion fruit, orange, guava – known as POG many places). The juice is really quite good here and the standard coffee was ok. I've heard the thing to do is to share a French press of Kona coffee here, but I'm really the only coffee drinker in the family so it didn't seem to make sense to order one. The DW and kids had Lilikoi juice and loved it.

Entrées
DD had the Mickey Pancakes with fruit. These were a bit different in that it was actually three pancakes placed to make the Mickey instead of poured that way.

Kona's Mickey Pancakes

You do get a lot more pancake this way as it was a fairly large center pancake to make the head, with two smaller ones for the ears. She didn't care either way and devoured the entire plate. ;-)

DS had the Goofy Toast – basically a piece of bread fried with an egg in the middle, and a side of sausage.

Goofy Toast

This was his choice, and even though we explained it to him, he was a little put off the toast at first. We cut it up for him and he soon found it very tasty. Even then he was not super hungry, so I ate some – Wow, it was awesome! The toast was buttery and slightly crispy. The egg was cooked over medium, so still a bit runny in the yolk. The sausage was mild enough for him, well browned and fairly large. It had a nice snap when cut into and was very juicy.

DW and I both had the Tonga Toast – We had heard so much about it that we both had to try it.

Kona's Famous Tonga Toast

You only get one slice, but it is huge. I would say nearly 3 inches thick. And its stuffed with a banana filling that has at least one entire large banana in it. The filling was wonderful – warm, gooey and slightly sweet with tons of sliced bananas. The toast was coated in cinnamon sugar and crispy. The best way we can describe it's like a perfectly cooked cinnamon sugar donut – warm, fluffy and airy with a slight crispness to the outside and sweet, but not overly so. One slice was perfect. The toast was wonderful by itself. But then we tried it with a little of the strawberry sauce. Amazing! If you like the strawberry-banana combination even a little, you need to try this breakfast. I had mine with the side of sausage. The links are fairly large, bigger than the usual breakfast sausage, mild but well seasoned and very tasty.

Side of Home Fried Potatoes

DW didn't want the ham, bacon or sausage that is the choice of side with Tonga Toast. She asked to have the home fried potatoes instead. It was no problem to do the substitution, the waitress said sure thing. Large wedges of baby red potatoes, they were very tasty nicely seasoned. They had just a slight crispness on the outside and were soft and creamy on the inside.

Overall Impression
Kona for breakfast was great! The food was very tasty and we like the open relaxed atmosphere here. I like that you can find breakfast foods that you normally don't see around Disney such as Tonga Toast and Goofy Toast. We'll be back for sure on our next visit to the World.

DH Rating 4.2 of 5
DW Rating 4.1 of 5

 

[jacksonsmom]

loving your report so far!!!!

 

[Roxychica7]

Oooh Tonga Toast, have never tried it, but definitely on the trip for next time. Love your Kona review, we've eaten at Ohana's before for breakfast, but I kep getting sucked into the Kona reports, may have to end up just scheduling a breakfast, lunch and dinner too!

 

[PEANUT1]

Yummy We were just thinking about doing Kona for breakfast on our last day!! BTW...we love your state. We visited this summer and my husband wants to move to Seward If it wasn't 3 planes and 14 hours travel time from my family, I may have considered it.

 

[butiflfeet]

Great reviews so far! We have breakfast at Kona at least once every trip and I'm excited to try dinner there in December

 

[lblume91]

Loving your reviews & pics! Can't wait for the rest. Beautiful family!