Disney Dining Reviews - Resort Restaurants

Polynesian Resort -

Ohana Dinner

The Polynesian resort has a fun restaurant called Ohana. It is a very popular restaurant so reservations are almost always a "must". It is a great place to dine with big parites. Although you can definitely dine with just a party of 2 which is what we did this visit.

We waited about 15 minutes on this particular Saturday night and were seated at a nice table near the grill area, but also had a great view of Cinderella's castle outside the window. This would have been a great place to watch Wishes but my daughter wanted to go out to the beach area to watch which is what we did since we were finished dinner by the time the fireworks started. In order to time this right you'll need to check the fireworks schedule and then try to make your reservation about an hour prior.

Upon entering our hostess took us to pick up our "welcome" bread as they call it and she referred to herself as our "cousin". It's the Ohana "lingo"...everyone is a cousin, including the wait staff. Ohana means "familly"...it's cute;-)

The bread is freshly made and has a hint of coconut which I don't care for but you really can't taste it in this bread. It was good.

Our server, Gary, was very friendly and one of the best servers, I mean, "cousins" we've had here. He was very attentive and fun. This meal is served "family style/all you can eat" so everything is brought to your table in fairly large amounts and it'll keep coming if you ask for it.

First, he brought us this delicious salad which was just a simple mixed greens salad with the most delicious and tangey honey lime dressing. I ate this entire salad myself throughout the meal;-)

Then came the appetizers which included a big bowl of dumplings with sweet and sour sauce and a bowl of honey chicken wings topped with sesame seeds. The dumplings were ok, they were a little on the tough side. My daughter loved the chicken wings which was a first for her. They were definitely on the sweet side but rather meaty. They had a lot of sauce.

Peanut, sweet and sour and spicy mustard sauces are then brought to your table for dipping.

And then Gary came around with the skewers. On this night they had marinated sirlon steak, asian pork loin and mesquite grilled turkey. He also brought shrimp which was my favorite. I found the meats to be a bit dry so the sauces were needed on this night. The shrimp was good, although they looked a little overcooked on the outside, but they were pretty tender on the inside. The steak was a bit tough and the pork loin was very well done.

There was also a bowl of broccoli and lo mein noodles. I like broccoli and so does my daughter but we didn't particularly care for this dish as it was very bland and mushy. My daughter usually likes mushy broccoli but she didn't care for it here.

There was also a big bowl of lo mein noodles with a teriyaki sauce which was pretty good. My daughter loved those. She also decided she wanted chicken nuggets. The kids can eat the regular menu items or there is a verbal menu they can select from. Of course they can have both if they like to taste. It was also quite a nice amount of food.

During the meal, there was an entertainer walking around with the kids teaching them the Polynesian dance which was a lot of fun. They then parade around the restaurant a few times so it gives any antsy children something to do during dinner:-)

For dessert there was a wonderful bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. This was just delightful especially after a dinner like this. It was so refreshing but satisfying. It was probably the best part of the meal!

I did miss the old turntable they brought to the table with the various appetizers and sides. Of course there was less food but it was probably less wasteful, however it meant more trips back and forth for the servers. I miss the old potatoes they had at the time too.

I do know that some of the items are subject to change as they don't always have the shrimp and I would be disappointed if they didn't have that.

If we had nothing to compare it to, in all fairness, I have to say we enjoyed our dinner here. The food was pretty good, not great, but the overall experience was fun so we would return sometime in the future.

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