Is Ohana going downhill?

WE had the same problem. The first time we went we didn’t care for it. The second time a year later we thought it was fantastic. Seeing as though we loved it the second time we decided to go a third time another year later and it was horrible. We felt rushed, the wings weren’t cooked properly, the only things we enjoyed were the pot stickers and noodles. I think it safe to say we won’t be back.
 
I've been each of my last three trips. Each time has been good. This last time (on Sunday 2/25) we were in the first seating at 3:30pm. There was a negative wait (seated before our actual ADR time), which was nice, as that's a common O'hana complaint. The food was fresh and tasty this time and I don't see it as having gone down hill at all. My only complaint is that we were served some steak that was overly charred. But, honestly, they were the pieces on the edge of the skewer and we just moved them to the side and kept munching. No big deal. I found the overall quality to be on par with 2014 and 2016 trips.

The entertainment, however, was very lackluster following the replacement of the amazing woman who used to sing (I forget her name). We enjoyed her so much in 2016. Now it's a man, who is very nice, but there is no comparison. He didn't sing or play an instrument during our meal - just MC'd the kids coconut races.
 
The entertainment, however, was very lackluster following the replacement of the amazing woman who used to sing (I forget her name). We enjoyed her so much in 2016. Now it's a man, who is very nice, but there is no comparison. He didn't sing or play an instrument during our meal - just MC'd the kids coconut races.
leave a comment with disney. plenty of people are upset she is gone. she still works for the company so getting her back is certainly doable.
 
leave a comment with disney. plenty of people are upset she is gone. she still works for the company so getting her back is certainly doable.

Thanks, I will. I read another post (a Trip Report, I believe) that said she works at the Poly in the CL lounge.
 




I don't know. The person who wrote the report I read said that she was sad to have left O'hana and that it was not her choice to leave.
I think I read that report as well but don't recall the part about choice.
However it played out I'm glad she still has a job and is appreciated somewhere on the resort:).
 
I cross posted this to another thread about Ohana today, but:

We had a good experience here Friday 3.16. 6:50 ADR that we had made about a week in advance (we weren't originally planning on doing Ohana this trip.) We came prepared with big appetites, having closed down Blizzard Beach earlier that afternoon.

We checked in at 6:40 and were seated at 6:50. Good table one row over from the lake view windows. Service was unhurried (maybe a touch slow at the start) and our 3 experienced servers were great, attentive, and offered to bring us more of everything constantly -we actually had to tell them "seriously, no more" a couple of times! The food quality was excellent as usual. Manager checked in on us and we gave him a good report as we were very happy with the experience.

We have eaten at Ohana in each of our last 4 visits to WDW and only one of those (our November 2016 trip) did we have a bad experience - specifically, terrible service. It was bad enough that we complained to the management and they comped half our party of 5's bill, which seemed like a nice gesture, and was why I was willing to come back this trip. Ironically I am pretty sure that bad server is still working here (we saw her working a table on the other side of the room) so perhaps she was just having an off day, or was new?

I was glad to see it back to its usual high standards this time. I definitely wouldn't say it has 'declined' since our first dining experience there in 2013.
 
I cross posted this to another thread about Ohana today, but:

We had a good experience here Friday 3.16. 6:50 ADR that we had made about a week in advance (we weren't originally planning on doing Ohana this trip.) We came prepared with big appetites, having closed down Blizzard Beach earlier that afternoon.

We checked in at 6:40 and were seated at 6:50. Good table one row over from the lake view windows. Service was unhurried (maybe a touch slow at the start) and our 3 experienced servers were great, attentive, and offered to bring us more of everything constantly -we actually had to tell them "seriously, no more" a couple of times! The food quality was excellent as usual. Manager checked in on us and we gave him a good report as we were very happy with the experience.

We have eaten at Ohana in each of our last 4 visits to WDW and only one of those (our November 2016 trip) did we have a bad experience - specifically, terrible service. It was bad enough that we complained to the management and they comped half our party of 5's bill, which seemed like a nice gesture, and was why I was willing to come back this trip. Ironically I am pretty sure that bad server is still working here (we saw her working a table on the other side of the room) so perhaps she was just having an off day, or was new?

I was glad to see it back to its usual high standards this time. I definitely wouldn't say it has 'declined' since our first dining experience there in 2013.

Did that server's name start with the letter T? If so, I think we had her Friday night. She was awful. My husband really liked the food though so we didn't complain. Plus, maybe she was just having an off night? Who knows. I did not enjoy Ohana, I disliked the sauce on the meat skewers but it was my husband's favorite meal. Go figure.
 
We dined in Jan 18 for breakfast and dinner. The server at breakfast was more personable and kept checking on us. Dinner we had to ask the server to bring more of certain items out. We did have an amazing fireworks view and all in all the food was good. I think for the money we prefer dinner to breakfast. We were on the dinning plan, but in June we won't be. I'm thinking of trying out Kona to save money.
 
I want to thank all who by posting on this thread reminded me to get an ADR for 'Ohana's. When I first looked last night on mydisney there was nothing avail for 07/05 but at 5:16 AM touringplan's reservation finder came through with a 9:45 PM ressie. Not optimum timing but we'll "suffer" through it, LOL.
Keep your finder active for your preferred time; I have had good luck getting 'Ohana through touringplans.
 
We always had gone there for dinner every trip until the one trip when we experienced the rushed service. The server tried to snatch the salad bowl off the table without even asking if we were finished with it. I said, "Wait a minute. We just got that." Lol. The rest of the service was pretty decent, though the skewer meat was way too charred. I had filled up by then on the wings and noodles, or I would have asked for a less charred replacement. We don't like sharing food out of the same dish, so ask for small separate bowls for dessert as I did if you don't want to eat out of one big bowl. Just think it through, and be prepared to ask for how you want things to be. They will, or should try to do it your way. We skipped it a few trips, but we're going again on our arrival day in May since we do have great memories of it. Like the time my granddaughter got a non-alcoholic lapu lapu and dug out the pineapple it came in and ate it. haha
 
2016 I wasn't particularly impressed really.

Salad was sweet, okay.

Noodles good
Potstickers good

But nothing I couldn't get somewhere else.


Meat was okay I guess? Can't really say much more about it.

Desert can be got elsewhere, and I also felt rather rushed (until I ordered a Sangria, seemed to lighten up the server a bit................)
 
We went this past March 15th. Experience was just not the best. Especially not like what remembered in the past. We're a family of 5. We did have to wait awhile after our ADR, but we pretty much expected that. Unfortunately though, to start our table wasn't the best. We were sat close to the kitchen without being able to see much.

Apps and salad were decent.. actually thought they were better than the main course.

For the main course, The chicken was decent. Unfortunately the steak was cold, dry, and tough. The shrimp was cold and dry. Tried them off of different skewers, but the results were the same.

The bread pudding was good as always.

Service was meh, but could have been better. Had empty glasses for quite awhile at times. Food was slow to come out (and when it did, see above).

Disney needs to up their game to make sure ALL services are good. It shouldn't be hit or miss, especially for the price that pay. They need to be consistent.

I don't see going there again in the future, and it was the one we were looking forward to the most as a family.
 
We haven't had a bad meal there, and I consider myself a food snob.

My biggest pet peeve is having to peel the shrimp, but the skin is often kept on to preserve the moisture and keep it from drying out.
 
We have been to O'hana a number of times since we started going to WDW and for that entire time the reviews from other people have covered the gament "horrible" to "FANTASTIC!". It is almost an every trip must do for us, so obviously we like it. Most times the food has been good, but there have been isolated issues (under cooked pork once) and I truly miss the Maui potatoes that they replaced with the noodles. It's true, getting seated on time is rare, but just walk around the main building, the area is beautiful. We have had a bad table or 2, next to a main traffic area or where they gather all the kids for coconut races. We have had a few servers who were either new or just not on par with the better ones. We had one server (I didn't see or notice, but Luanne has never stopped talking about it) whose pants were very tight and he was going commando, so according to Luanne all his junk was perfectly outlined for all the world to see (don't worry, this was 9 or 10 years ago).
Overall, the good experiences have far out numbered that bad. O'hana may not be everyone's first choice, but if we all liked the same thing then every restaurant would be exactly the same.
 
I wish I read this thread before my trip last week. Our favorite meal in April 2017 was our dinner at Ohana. I wanted to try different restaurants this trip, so I didn't make an ADR for Ohana this time. We had planned to dine at Tusker House. My family of 6 went crazy when touringplans reservation finder came through with a reservation while we were in the parks on the last day of our trip. April 20, 2018, 5:15 reservation, we left AK and headed to the Poly. We were seated on time and started with the warm bread. So excited that we were going to be ending our trip on a high note. Needless to say, there were a lot of sad faces as we drove to the airport.
The service was lousy. The meat was overcooked. The noodles were sticky and the pot stickers were mushy.
So funny that today's 4/24 DIS Unplugged Podcast discussed the downhill dining at Ohana. Seems as though they go through ups and downs pretty consistently over the years.
 

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