Ok, so had my Ohana experience last night. My kind of RAW review:
Won't bury the lead here - I had the Window seat for the Fireworks viewing. I booked it for this specific reason, and YES, it is worth $55/adult if you book it for the fireworks. Without the fireworks, ehhh, I still think Sebastian's $29/adult is the better value. I forgot how magical it is in there to be stuffing your face and watching the fireworks with the music pumped into the location. So much fun, and the reason why I love experiences like this at Disney. Was with someone who had never ate there and they LOVED IT!!! I felt like Ohana was BACK! Actually had a DVC stay booked there for last night that I had to cancel for other reasons so I would have loved my night even more if I got to wobble my way back to the room with a drink and leftovers to eat. My goal was probably always to do Ohana 2x a year anyway, so I can see myself coming back before end of the year, probably around Oct-Dec and by this point, the menu kinks should be worked out. This hasn't changed based on the new food styles and offerings, I WILL come back most likely for Fireworks seating and possibly earlier dinner times, but idk Ohana, you MUST book this for fireworks, get up at 6am and book 2 months out or whatever length they set it to in the future. I'm trying hard to find a reason to book this place earlier than 8pm. Anything 8pm-915pm, book it and you're solid. Unless you're the type of family or vacationer that wants a pretty good Family Style experience close to the Magic Kingdom in an awesome resort, then sure, go ahead and book it and you can then grab a dole whip and fireworks for a nightcap on the beach. The Poly has always been my fav resort - lot of bar/drink options, food, music, smells, vibes, everything, it has it all. Now the food part (using the template from an earlier post):
Bread - Scones good, cheddar biscuits or whatever they were, definitely a hard PASS. I do love bread and cheese in general but these were just meh. I'm sure they can find something to replace them.
Salad - Seemed to be a huge portion for the two of us. No complaints except they should probably bring more dressing to the table. You can always request more
Wings - Sorta what I remember, they come out HOT and ready. Good flavor.
Roasted Chicken - Ehhh, idk, I don't feel like I NEED this chicken. It's whatever for me and my guest. We both were like ehhhh, not for us. This was the one thing we ate the least. Also, keep in mind, its two of us only, so tables of 3-6 people, I'm sure will devour that chicken, but idk, flavor-wise, ehhh, I've had better (i.e. Sebastians' chicken, mmmm)
Sausage - Pretty damn good
Beef - Hard and chewy, exactly how I remembered it from my last Ohana experience 2 years ago. I honestly am over this steak here. Maybe I can ensure to order it Med Rare next time, but idk, I may just ask them to skip it altogether. Save room on the table.
Dumplings - Great! Me and my guest are actually dumpling fans, we buy and eat a lot of them. Sure, they come seasoned and dry sorta, so I just moved them around the salad, dressing and the steak sauce from the beef and I was fine
Shrimp Casserole - I actually LIKED this dish. From what I read and saw, most do not like it, but idk, it came out HOT and it was tasty. I love a good casserole and this was no different. Sure, would I like the peel shrimp, flavored and seasoned ready to go? Yeah, but I honestly didn't care at this point because the Fireworks were popping off and I was stuffing my face with pure content. It was good! But I also won't miss it if they balk to the amount of people hating on it.
Pineapple Bread Pudding - Kinda how I remembered it. Good! And honestly compared to Sebastians' Coconut Bread Pudding, I think Ohana's Pineapple Bread Pudding is better, but Sebastian's is no slouch either. Both are fantastic! (pretty sure it was always Pineapple Bread pudding and not Banana)
Few tidbits:
- They brought out the bread and salad first and then the STEAK. Then after 10 min, the Wings and Dumplings, then the Chicken, Sausage, Noodles, Broccolini (didnt care for) skillet. Shrimp came out LAST, so kind of a weird order. I miss the old Ohana style of mostly apps first before any entree meat comes around, but they said they were still figuring things out, so I cant fault them too much on this. I would have wanted the Bread, Salad, Noodles, Wings and Dumplings first then everything else after, like it was before, if I remember correctly.
- Noodles were ok, a bit soggy for me, Not sure if I remember them this soggy of a noodle last time, but nevertheless, it was good.
- The best mix of flavor and feeling good was mixing the Salad + Cassserole + Dumpling + Noodles into one massive bite. That's my perfect Ohana right there. The casserole just adds that extra thickness and creaminess to it. You'll have the dressing, shrimp and dumpling seasoning in that one bite to satisfy you. No way I'd eat that steak again or mix it with other items, nor the chicken.
- Service was prompt and our server came around a few times asking what else we wanted. To-Go cartons are small, so dont expect to take much home. They know the score, they don't want you filling up for a week of food here. It's two tiny containers at the most, enough for a few dumplings, noodles and small side of casserole maybe, then the other maybe for leftover bread pudding.
- Tables were only about 75% capacity and did not feel rushed at all
So yes, I would book it again mainly for the fireworks experience. With the amount of variety you get, I think $55 is fair. Think about it... they can't offer this at like $42 or something lower, this does feel like a $55 per person experience. Whether you agree the food is great or not, the amount of food I think warrants $55/adult pricing in this setting at the beautiful Poly.
HOWEVER, you got Sebastian's here at WDW open now and knowing that it's ONLY $29/adult for a Family Style experience, and if you could only have 1 Family Style dining experience and you CANNOT book a fireworks seating at Ohana, then Sebastian's the better value. I can easily turn this into a Sebastian's review as well, but I'll quickly state the Steak at Sebastian's, you're getting high quality cuts cooked to order based on your temp preference. Meat is soft and what a steak should be, not the mess that is Ohana cuts of steak. The mojito relish on the steak at Sebastian's is SUPER SPICY the millisecond you put it into your mouth, so you can always ask for it on the side. The spice subdues as you chew, but overall, the steak, the carnitas style mojo pork, and the citrus-chicken mixed with that sweet mango sambal, mmmmm. Then you add the salad, rice and vegetables and curry and that's a HOMERUN meal!
I'm definitely MORE excited to go back to Sebastian's than Ohana, problem is Sebastian's is small and for now, only open 5 days a week (Thurs-Mon). I suspect Disney will return this place to 7 days a week AND up the pricing from $29 to $34, but I'd probably pay $42 for the Sebastian's experience. The $55 level is reserved for the experiences, unless Sebastian's changes locations, gets more seating and then a cool entertainment of music aspect to it, then Disney can charge $55 for this no problem, but man, at $29/adult, Sebastian's is a MUST!!!
I am a local, btw, so if that helps. I eat at a lot of
Disneyland and Disney World restaurants and can't wait to knock out the remaining I've never been to! I will be booking Ohana 2x a year at the most, especially if I have large family coming into town like for Xmas, we will try to book Ohana for SURE!!! If I booked Ohana Jan 1st, I'd say by June, I'd be asking and wondering, ok, I'm ready for Ohana again, so it's not that OMG I NEED TO GO EVERY CHANCE I GET type place. It's the type of place for me that I'll miss every six months, unlike my favs Wine Bar George, Sanaa and Homecomin', I wanna go once a week if I could! Sebastian's I can honestly go prob 8-10x a year, no joke, or more! So hope that gives anyone some perspective on my tastes.
So to sum it up, I'm so HAPPY Ohana is back despite its small shortcomings.
