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Category: Disney Food

Kona Cafe versus ‘Ohana

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In Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World, there are two table service restaurants available for your Disney dining pleasure. Located basically next to each other on the second floor overlooking the lobby are Kona Cafe and ‘Ohana. These two restaurants are nearly complete opposites, but which one is the best for your family?

Kona Cafe

tonga toast kona cafe

Kona Cafe serves all three meals each day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, all three meals are a la carte, and are available with one table service credit on the Disney Dining Plans.

  • Breakfast is home to the world famous Tonga Toast, banana-stuffed sourdough french toast rolled in cinnamon sugar. If you haven’t had Tonga Toast, you haven’t been to Disney. In addition to Tonga Toast, it also serves other Polynesian inspired entrees such as Macadamia-Pineapple Pancakes, the Big Kahuna (French Toast and Pancakes topped with Pineapple Sauce and Macadamia Nut Butter, Eggs, Home-fried Potatoes, Ham, Bacon, and Sausage) and my favorite, The Samoan (Poached Eggs with Hollandaise served over Smoked Pulled Pork Hash). If your mouth isn’t watering right now, there is seriously something wrong with you. Oh, and don’t miss the “Liliko’i Juice”, I wish I could bathe in that stuff.
  • Lunch features Asian and Polynesian inspired appetizers and entrees. My favorite appetizer is the Steamed Pork Buns, crazy good. Entrees include a Grilled Ahi Tuna Sandwich, Barbecue Pork Tacos and Polynesian Plate Lunch with either pan fried chicken or teriyaki steak. Don’t forget dessert, so many delectable options.
  • Dinner is the hidden gem of Kona Cafe. Appetizer options are similar to lunch, but with the addition of Sushi to the many. Entrees are much more dinner like, and feature Pan-seared Duck Breast, Grilled Curry-crusted Lamb Chops and Kona Coffee-rubbed Pork Chops. I dream of the Banana-Chocolate Crème Brûlée dessert.

Kona Cafe is a fantastic, hidden gem of a restaurant. The food is top notch, and it makes for a great break from the Magic Kingdom.

‘Ohana

ohana mickey waffles

‘Ohana serves both breakfast and dinner, and is one of the more popular non-theme park restaurants at Disney, both breakfast and dinner are available with one table service credit on the Disney Dining Plans. Reservations are very hard to come by for both breakfast and dinner

  • Breakfast is an all you can eat, pre-plated meal that includes scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes and some magical bread that you just can’t get enough of. This is not a buffet, but is all you can eat. Just ask for more of whatever it is you want, and they will keep bring it to you. Along with the food, you also get Disney characters! Lilo and Stitch host you for breakfast, and even stop by your table to say Aloha. Please note, if you are crunched for time, DO NOT plan on breakfast at ‘Ohana. For some reason, they always seem to be behind, and wait times can be 60 – 90 minutes, even if you are on time for your reservation.
  • Dinner is also all you can eat, and like breakfast, is brought to your table. I have never had to ask for more of anything, but you always can. Dinner starts with an amazing pineapple-coconut bread that would suffice me for my entire meal. Whoever makes the bread for ‘Ohana must be using dark magic. Appetizers feature Pork Dumplings and Wings, followed by skewers of Sweet-n-Sour Chicken, Spicy Grilled Peel-n-Eat Shrimp and Szechuan Sirloin Steak. You better leave room for dessert, because it is the highlight. The Bread Pudding à la mode with Bananas-Caramel Sauce is world famous, and not to be missed. While there aren’t any characters at dinner, there is some nightly entertainment that usually involves kids walking around the restaurant to music.

‘Ohana is a great place to eat where you will get a wonderful experience with your family, not have to make too many choices and you will get some of the best bread and desserts known to man.

Kona Cafe versus ‘Ohana

While ‘Ohana is without a doubt more popular, Kona Cafe is the better restaurant.

  • Much wider choice of food – Kona Cafe offers quite a few options for all three meals each day, and everyone in your party can choose exactly what they want rather than everyone at the table having to eat exactly the same thing. We do that at home every night, this is vacation!
  • Better food – Since ‘Ohana serves everyone the exact same thing, they obviously make everything in super large batches, while Kona Cafe hand makes your meals, and you can tell.
  • Tonga Toast – While the Mickey Waffles at ‘Ohana are ok, they are nothing compared to the Tonga Toast at Kona Cafe. They are a right of passage for all Disney fans, and for many, a MUST EAT every single trip.
  • Easier reservations – ‘Ohana is quite hard to get in, unless you want to take your little kids over to the Polynesian at 9:45 at night for dinner. No one wants that.
  • In and Out – I have rarely waited to get into Kona Cafe, and service is usually very quick. ‘Ohana on the other hand always has a lengthly wait, and meals there seem to take forever.

Well, there you go, Kona Cafe is my winner. Which restaurant do you choose and why?

 

magic kingdom restaurant

Best Restaurant for Adults in the Magic Kingdom

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While most visitors to Walt Disney World are families of some sort, there are quite a few adults that travel without kids to the parks. It is true that everyone loves a good character meal, but if you are without kids, it usually isn’t the first option for most adults, they are more likely to choose a place that has decent food and is a relaxing experience.

Disney has done a nice job of adding a few more dining options in the Magic Kingdom that don’t feature characters as the main attraction. Both Be Our Guest and Skipper Canteen have opened recently, as well as the dining options added to The Diamond Horseshoe. These restaurants are great for adults and kids alike, and I would love to see more of these as the Magic Kingdom and other parks expand their dining options. But which of the Magic Kingdom restaurants is the best for adults in the Magic Kingdom?

I couldn’t narrow this down to just one, so here are my top three Magic Kingdom restaurants for adults

be our guest

  1. Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen – If you are a big fan of the Jungle Cruise, this option may jump up the list for you. Skipper Canteen is open for lunch and dinner, both have similar menus and both lunch and dinner are considered a table service credit on the Disney Dining plans. Skipper Canteen features some unique food for Walt Disney World including Rice Noodle Bowl with Duck, Curried Vegetable Crew Stew and an adult macaroni and cheese (Skip’s Mac & Cheese) that  includes spicy ground beef, pasta and béchamel sauce. Yum! Along with your delectable meals, you also get awesome Jungle Cruise decor and an ample supply of cheesy jokes. Skipper Canteen has only been open a few months, so expect the menu to change as some entrees are weeded out and others are added, but expect Skipper Canteen to always be a great place to eat.
  2. Liberty Tree Tavern – Lunch is a la cart from the menu, and dinner is served family style and includes Pot Roast, Roasted Turkey and Ham with vegetables and mashed potatoes. From the decor to the food, everything about Liberty Tree Tavern screams “comfort”, it is just a nice, fun, relaxing place to eat. Both lunch and dinner are considered a table service credit on the Disney Dining Plans. While some old timers might remember that characters were once a staple of Liberty Tree Tavern, that has not been the case for a few years, so colonial goofy won’t be hanging over you while you try to finish off that third serving of ham.
  3. Be Our Guest – OK, this may seem like a strange choice, but bear with me. Even adults can dream of dining with Belle in the Beast’s castle, and now you can. Breakfast and lunch are considered a quick-service restaurant and dinner is considered a table service restaurant on the Disney Dining Plans. Reservations are REQUIRED for all meals. For adults, dinner is the best option, as it doesn’t seem as rushed and the food is better, though if you can’t get in for dinner, lunch is awesome. Be Our Guest features roasted lamb, braised pork coq au vin style, grilled strip steak and an awesome ratatouille, though I wish it was double the size. And don’t miss the grey stuff for dessert, it is delicious. Be Our Guest features three rooms, a huge ballroom that is a replica from Be Our Guest, complete with falling snow outside the window, a second room that is the castle gallery that is nice and bright, and then the West Wing, home to the Beast, is very dark and foreboding, complete with lightening, paintings that change from the beast to the prince and back and the enchanted rose. I always try to sit in the West Wing, but it is tiny and hard to get. You can even stop by and see the Beast near the entrance if you desire.

What is your favorite restaurants for adults in the Magic Kingdom?

character meals

Too Many Character Meals

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I plan a lot of Disney vacations. While you think you may go to Disney a lot, and do a lot of planning, I plan over 500 Walt Disney World vacations a year. I see every possible scenario you can imagine, everything from people on a tight budget to unlimited budgets, adults traveling by themselves to large groups of 50+ family members, you can’t imagine a scenario I haven’t seen. I am usually pretty flexible on requests, but there is one thing that clients insist on that I do not agree: character meals. While I am not against character meals, I do them with my family all the time even though my kids are teenagers now, I do have a problem with too many character meals.

Why I am not a fan of Walt Disney World character meals

  • Character Meals take a lot of time. The standard character rotation at most character meals is 60 – 90 minutes, meaning that if you want to see all of the characters, you have to wait at your table for 60 – 90 minutes. Most of the time that means wasted time just sitting around in order to Eeyore and Piglet.
  • Buffets. Just about every character meal at Walt Disney World is a buffet. For the most part, the food offerings at buffets are sub-par, you typically get much better food at non-character meal restaurants. If I can avoid a buffet, whether at Walt Disney World or at home, I do.

I have quite a few clients that insist on booking one or two character meals each day of their trip. I can’t imagine anything that will ruin your Disney vacation faster. Almost universally, every client that insists on doing that, does not do it on their next Disney vacation. They realize that after one or two character meals, their kids just don’t like it. Both adults and kids burn out pretty quickly on character meals. Meal time is a great time to take a break from all the over stimulation of the theme parks, but by adding characters to every meal, you never get that mental break.

My suggestions on Walt Disney World character meals

  • Make 1 or 2 character meals during your stay. If you don’t have little kids, you can skip them all together, but I do still think they are worth doing. Even though your teenage daughter will throw a fit at the mention of dining with princesses, deep down they still love it, and will have a blast, though you may never know it the expression on their face.
  • Spread your reservations out. Do one character meal early in your trip, maybe the first day as a start to your vacation. If you are doing a second, try to schedule it at the end of your trip, as a farewell to Disney meal.
  • Make your reservations for a late breakfast or early lunch time, that will give you a few hours in the parks to get things done, and you won’t feel rushed to eat and get back to the parks. That will also cover both breakfast and lunch for you in one stop.
  • Everyone loves Cinderella’s Royal Table, but consider doing Royal Akershush Banquet Hall Storybook Dining instead. It is half the price (when on the Disney Dining Plan), you still get to see all the princesses and I think the food is quite a bit better. You can meet Cinderella at dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Hollywood and Vine is doing some awesome seasonal themed dinners, and offers Star Wars themed meals during some months.
  • Don’t follow the sheep. While everyone loves Chef Mickey’s and Cinderella’s Royal Table, there are other character meals that offer better food and are more interesting.
  • Please note, Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom IS NOT a character meal. While Beast is there at dinner time, he only hangs out in a little alcove, and does not go table to table. If you didn’t know he was there you probably wouldn’t even notice him.
  • Make reservations at restaurants you wouldn’t normally do at home. Walt Disney World, and especially Epcot, offer some very watered down version of restaurant that you may not visit when at home. Not many people have a Moroccan restaurant near their home, but Epcot has 2 (3 including Tangierine Cafe, the quick-service restaurant). Just about every restaurant at Walt Disney World is kid friendly, it is Disney after all, the place is crawling with kids. I have taken kids as young as 5 to California Grill, Flying Fish and other nice restaurants. They expect kids on a daily basis, and know how to deal with them. Expose your kids to nice places or different cuisines at Disney, it is the perfect place to do so, and makes it much easier do to so at home as they have already had an easy experience at Disney.

Do you do character meals on your Disney vacation?