Food only: Storybook Dining vs 'Ohana

[hinamra]

If rating just the food, and for dinner only, which one is better (more delicious) given that my family is flexible with cuisines and looking at the menu, would love the foods at both places, and it just depends on how well they make it.
I found posts comparing the character dining, some mentions about service, etc but I couldn't seem to find anything comparing only the food. TIA!

 

[AKBrewer84]

I would go with Storybook Dining for food, based on our experiences. And to be perfectly clear, I do love 'Ohana, its one of my favorite restaurants on property. But for food-Storybook Dining wins.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Ohana is much better.
We went to Storybook dining our first time last week.
The appetizers were ok. The entrees were great. The desserts not very good at all. It was neat the way it was all presented & we enjoyed our meal. It’s a one & done for us though.
Ohana we repeat every trip & love it.

 

[MrsDuck]

Storybook gets my vote!

 

[goofyintoronto]

Ohana food is not very good IMO. Poor quality. I'd go with Storybook.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I had the gnocchi at Storybook based on good reviews and it was the worst dish I’ve had at Disney. The asparagus in it was the very end of the stalks (the thick part not the flowering part) and it was barely cooked so like eating wood. Everyone else’s dish was fine and that dish got good reviews in a lot of places. Any restaurant can have an off night - apparently I hit Storybook on a bad one. I’ve never been to Ohana though so I can’t compare.

 

[_19disnA]

We haven't eaten at Storybook, so can't compare it to our Ohana experience. Ohana only has character dining for breakfast, we ate there for dinner. We enjoyed our dinner, but it is good to review the menu ahead of time and realize they have a fixed menu of items. Some of the negative comments I have seen on other posts seem to be from people who didn't realize the dining format. If you have small children, it is great place for dinner since you don't have to wait 30+ minutes after ordering your food to be served.

Reviews that only rate the food tend to be subjective and all over the map since everyone seems to have a different preference for what they like to eat.

 

[KenHutch]

We prefer Ohana. We eat there twice every trip for dinner and once for breakfast. The girls love the character at Storeybook the food not so much.

 

[Marissa227]

We did both on our last trip, and my vote would be Ohana for sure.

 

[Mr & Mrs DD]

We ate at both places just last week. We really enjoyed both, but 'Ohana was the best. Everything we ate at 'Ohana was outstanding. The main entrees at Storybook was very very good, but we enjoyed 'Ohana more. We weren't impressed the first time we tried Ohana a few years ago. I'm glad we decided to try it again.

 

[MickeyP]

We did both a month ago and our vote for food only would be 'Ohana.

 

[TongaToast21]

Storybook was excellent, and the Queen was stellar. Love 'ohana too, but i think the food quality was better at Storybook

 

[Mango7100]

Vote for Storybook. The desserts are the weakest point to me, our entrees were very good!

 

[star04]

We have eaten twice at Ohana, and then also recently had the room service. The food is ok with the ambiance, but when eaten out of the restaurant it was easy to see that it was not that great and very oily.

 

[starousse]

Definitely Ohana. Wasn't impressed w Storybook. That was a one and done.

 

[ajwolfe]

Glad I stumbled upon this post..Had this exact issue a couple months ago when I was making our ADRs and we booked O'Hana. We have a family going with us this time that has never been so we figured the safer bet was O'Hana. But if it was just us I would have booked Storybook from a food perspective.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

With some exceptions, I think generally when you're going for food not experience at Disney, pick the non character meal. I know some people have bad experiences there, but we really love Ohana and I think you get more bang for your buck. Ohana is also slightly cheaper too so there's that.

 

[hinamra]

Thanks for all the input! I figured I'll update with our own experience and answer my own question now that we went.

We ended up going to Storybook bc we were on the dining plan and figured it was better bang for the buck. We were happy we picked it. Agreed that the Queen was excellent with her character. The rest we good also but the Queen really stood out. My kids weren't originally interested in Snow White at all but we went to MK the day before (this is our very first WDW trip) and they loved the mine train ride so they were more into it by the time we had our dinner reservation the next day.

The entrees were very good (we got the salmon and pork shank) as they were clearly sous vide. We actually felt like the appetizers were the weakest part of the meal. The chicken was unimpressive (but the fruit spread went wonderfully with the popover later), the shrimp was good overall but felt like the shrimp was a wee overcooked and not as tender as I'd prefer but the sauce was good (my kids thought it was a bit too spicy though). The tempura mushroom and bisque were delicious in flavor but the bisque was too salty (was happy to see more of the mushroom accompanying the salmon dish however). I was interested in the popover that was supposed to come with the beef entree instead but they gave it to me anyway after I asked if I could substitute one of my salmon sides for it instead.

Maybe we went there on a good dessert chef day but we actually loved the desserts. The cake was moist and the chocolate bits complemented it nicely, the dark chocolate apple was scrumptious (my favorite), and the pie was well done (I thought it was a bit tart but it was my husband's favorite).

The food for the kids was not as good though. The chicken was way too dry. The prime rib was a bit tough. I had to cut it into the thinnest pieces for my kid to be able to eat it. They enjoyed their appetizers and sides though and we shared our dishes with them and they loved it. If we weren't on the dining plan next time, I would definitely get the salmon or pork for the kids and having them share it instead of getting the kids meals.

Otherwise one of the best meals we had during our 8-day trip.

 

[mlayton14]

Ohana Is better in our experience , the food at storybook , esp the prime rib was of very poor quality and was barely lukewarnn when served. When I sent it back , it was still lukewarm when it returned. The other entrees at our table weren’t particularly well liked either.

 

[illinidp]

Storybook. ‘Ohana is now low quality Costco frozen appetizer food.