Ohana dinner - best meal of our Thanksgiving trip!

SFMommy

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 21, 2011
I have read so many negative reviews about Ohana dinner, that I thought I'd post our great experience.

I had always wanted to eat at Ohana, but was a little nervous after reading a lot of bad reviews. We had an amazing dinner and I would say it was our favorite meal of the whole 8-night trip!

We were staying in the Poly and the walk to Ohana from our room in Raratonga was about 2 minutes. This was on Monday 11/25 of Thanksgiving week. We had a 5:30 reservation for 3 people. We arrived at 5:25 and were seated within a few minutes.

Everything was delicious. Our DD13 loved the noodles, dumplings and bread. And DH really liked the veggies in the appetizer tray. We were all thoroughly surprised by the salad...that dressing was amazing. My DH is on a very low-cal diet and does not like salads that have been dressed. Our waitress brought him his own large bowl of salad with the dressing on the side and DD13 and I enjoyed the pre-dressed salad. The skewers were so good. We did not have any steak. But DH had dozens of shrimp, DD13 couldn't get enough of the chicken (that smokey flavor was soooo good!) and I enjoyed both the shrimp and the chicken.

We did manage to save room for dessert. It was good...not as amazing as I thought it would be based on other reviews. But it was very tasty. And they didn't give us too much. So we weren't overly stuffed.

The service was great...always refilling water and sodas. Coming by with plenty of chicken and prawns for us. Stopping by and asking if we needed anything else.

I highly recommend Ohana and I can't wait to go back!
 
‘Ohana has always been a family favorite of ours. I remember taking my grandmother when she was in her 80s. (19 years ago!) She was so delighted with the experience, watching the castle change colors, the food. She was such a frugal woman and I wouldn’t tell her the price, around $24 back then! She asked the waiter and I was ready for her to become indignant! She said, “ That’s a great price for such a wonderful evening!”

We always go, it’s tradition. Sometimes are better than others. Our trip last January I almost canceled because the reviews were so bad. There had been some changes to the menu but most of that reconciled before our trip. We were staying at the Poly with our 3 year old grandson. The place was a madhouse when we arrived. Surprisingly we were seated almost immediately and at the window! The waiters were incredible! They did not rush us and actually told us to take our time so we could enjoy the fireworks. They took note that DGS wasn’t eating much and showed up with chicken fingers and fries and later a special dessert. When the lights dimmed for fireworks and the music started DGS stood in his chair and started singing to the Moana song. The waiters almost tripped over themselves to get our phones and record him. I was so glad that I didn’t cancel!
 
I am so happy to read these positive reviews.

We LOVE 'Ohana. We always have since our first time in 2004. We have wonderful memories of delicious meals and great waitstaff. The character interactions at breakfast are fun. We have never experienced the chaos that others have. Maybe it has to do with the times we go. We usually do dinner around 5:30pm-6:00pm at the latest and breakfast as early as possible.

I recently read a post comparing Chef Mickeys to 'Ohana...um no. Chef Mickeys is off the chain and has always been. 'Ohana is nothing like it.
 


We loved it when we went in 2010, but, when we went in 2017, we had a weirdly bad time. I am really glad you had a great experience.
 


We ate there this past Friday night for the first time in 5 years. Our experience then was so bad we swore never again.
But it popped up Thursday and we were a party of 9, and we all decided let's try it again.
My daughter in law made the reservation while we were driving up Thursday. She received the email confirmation but it didn't show up in our plans. When we got to Hollywood Studios she went to show Florida resident proof for her annual pass and asked the girl at GS to check and be sure the reservation went through and we were good. The girl looked and said "yes, you are all set for O'hana at 5:30 tomorrow party of 9."
We get to the restaurant Friday (we also had tickets to the Very Merry Christmas Party at 7pm.) The lady looks and can't find the reservation. We go through everything, she looks further and sees the reservation cancelled. Of course we told her we didn't cancel it.
A manager comes over and was able to see the girl at HS cancelled it ( she could see her username).
What a cluster, she says we will sit you as a walk in party of 9! Ummmm, no we have party tickets and we didn't cancel the reservation, your employee did it.
She tells us, she will give us the next 9 top available. We were lucky to get a table by 6:20ish.
The service was great! There were drinks right away, always kept full. Food came out quickly and everything was good, except the bread, we love the bread, but it was hard and dry this go around.
The server kept coming with the skewers, we were very satisfied with the meal.
THEN...... we arrived about 7:45 to the party and my daughters stomach started feeling bad, she had to run to a ladies room, next my daughter in law felt sick, then my husband and lastly my son in law.
We figured out it had to be the dumplings because my son, myself and the kids didn't eat any of them, only the 4 who had stomach issues ate the dumplings.
So I guess we will be staying away again for at least 5 more years.......
 
My family loves Ohaha as well as most of the posters here. We eat there on our 1st night there as well as our last night on every trip and we add a breakfast somewhere in the middle. The girls love it so much they are now insisting that we should stay at the Poly on our next trip.
 
My family loves Ohaha as well as most of the posters here. We eat there on our 1st night there as well as our last night on every trip and we add a breakfast somewhere in the middle. The girls love it so much they are now insisting that we should stay at the Poly on our next trip.
You will all love the Poly. We can hardly wait for our next stay there in June.
 
We ate there the same night as the OP. Very very good, and a great server. Had eaten there in May, and when we sat down, my 3 daughters immediately started talking about the pot stickers. Waiter bought us a bowl of at least 30. Bonus we had not even thought about....reservation was at 930, fireworks at 10.
 
O’Hana is our favorite and a must do for us each trip. We’ve been very fortunate with a good experience and delicious food each trip. Can’t wait for our next visit in May!
 
We loved our Ohana meal on 12/17. Second time for us and it did not disappoint. Tied for first though with Boma, loved that too. Our last place was Cape May, bland seafood.
 
We ate at Ohana's last night. We hadn't been in a couple of years because last visit our service was terrible , and the food just so-so. Our 19yr old ds asked to go back, so glad we did. We were taken 10 min before our adr. The service was wonderful. Food was good and fresh. I thought my kid might eat them out of shrimp!!! But the waiter kept them coming!! Never felt rushed. I am glad we went back.
 
Last year, my husband and I ate dinner at Ohana for the first time. It was our one "splurge" meal of the trip because of how pricey it is. (We're usually quick service kind of folks.) We both really enjoyed our experience! The service was outstanding. The only complaint would be that the steak was tough and very chewy. And we didn't care for the flavor of the chicken wings, but that's not necessarily a complaint; that's just a personal preference. We'll be heading back to WDW in 2020! This time, we opted for the Disney Dining Plan. (Yay more "splurge" meals!) My husband's one request is that we make our way back to Ohana. :)
 

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