Aulani Restaurants - Book them or eat off site?

JT193

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Hello Disney Family! We are heading to Aulani at the end of the week. I’m seeking feedback on the restaurants on site at Aulani. We are a foodie kind of family and love to find “local” favorites, but also enjoy lazy days at the resort. Are the restaurants on-site a good choice for dinner or should we plan to eat off-site everyday?
 
The best on-site restaurant is Ama Ama. Nice location on the beach and good food. But that's mostly a one and done because of the price and somewhat limited menu. The buffet at Makahiki is pretty good as buffets go, especially for breakfast.
 
I agree with Ama Ama as a one and done. The buffet is fun for the characters, but it's something that once or twice is plenty. We eat a lot of meals at Monekypod across the street. We go to Aulani every November and have our Thanksgiving dinner at Monkeypod each year. Their food is amazing and something we look forward to.
 
There are too many great restaurants in the area to only limit yourself to Aulani. Monkeypod, Roy’s, Longboards.....and those are just in the Ko’olina area. Aulani has a great luau, and buffet, definitely do those, luau books up super early, so make reservations far in advance.
 


AMA AMA is by far the best of the bunch at the resort; it is also the most expensive. That said, it is absolutely worth it quality and view-wise. In 2018, we enjoyed an amazing dinner there and two great breakfasts. We are returning this summer and plan to enjoy two breakfasts, a lunch, and a dinner there. Makahiki is a decent buffet. We did both the character dinner and breakfast in 2018. We liked the variety, especially the Asian selections. This time, we are planning on the non-character dinner, which is a bit less, and one character breakfast. Ulu Cafe is decent. It's a mix of hits and misses, so see what looks good to you. The food at Off the Hook is VERY good too.

I cannot agree on Monkeypod. We tried it in 2018 and were rather disappointed with it. Not planning a return there this year and none of the other places in that shopping center appeal to us.

We are thinking about a lunch at the Four Seasons next door at Michal Mina's restaurant.

If you have a rental car, then definitely get away from the resort and try some other places. This trip we plan to head out two days and will hit Side Street Inn, Big Wave Shrimp Truck, Leonard's Malasadamobile, Liliha Bakery, Teddy's Bigger Burgers, and the Shirokiya Japanese Village Walk. There is a ton of great food both at Aulani and all around the island! Enjoy!
 
@gregf71 try the Banzai burger at Teddys! It has teriyaki sauce and a slice of pineapple and is delicious! I’m kind of a burger snob (DH farms beef) and would normally never consider pineapple on a burger, but it was really good. The portions are huge, too. My whole family really enjoyed it.
 
@gregf71 try the Banzai burger at Teddys! It has teriyaki sauce and a slice of pineapple and is delicious! I’m kind of a burger snob (DH farms beef) and would normally never consider pineapple on a burger, but it was really good. The portions are huge, too. My whole family really enjoyed it.

Mahalo for the recommendation cgattis! We are very excited to try Teddy's! We are going to hit the one up in Haleiwa after taking an excursion up there. I am a big fan of "Hawaiian" burgers, so I will highly consider it! Have you tried the Harris Ranch Angus Burger at Off the Hook? I had one for a poolside dinner one evening in 2018 and it was delicious! Harris Ranch is a famous cattle ranch, hotel, and restaurant in central California. They have excellent beef!
 
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Mahalo for the recommendation cgattis! We are very excited to try Teddy's! We are going to hit the one up in Haleiwa after taking an excursion up there. I am a big fan "Hawaiian" burgers, so I will highly consider it! Have you tried the Harris Ranch Angus Burger at Off the Hook? I had one for a poolside dinner one evening in 2018 and it was delicious! Harris Ranch is a famous cattle ranch, hotel, and restaurant in central California. They have excellent beef!
I did not—I think I had the fish tacos. But we went to Maui also, and drove upcountry to see the farms. We ate at Ulupalakulu Ranch to try their beef. Super fun and scenic way to get a great burger! I swore I wasn’t going to eat anything besides seafood for our whole 14 days, and I think those two burgers were my only exceptions!
 
Hello Disney Family! We are heading to Aulani at the end of the week. I’m seeking feedback on the restaurants on site at Aulani. We are a foodie kind of family and love to find “local” favorites, but also enjoy lazy days at the resort. Are the restaurants on-site a good choice for dinner or should we plan to eat off-site everyday?
I love eating at Makahiki for Dinner. The dinner has a lot of seafood options, and our family loves the seafood. My kid eats the basic kid food and loves the character. I enjoy it over the Makahiki breakfast.
 
We enjoyed the on-site restaurants for a meal each, but none of them were worth repeating IMO. We loved AMA AMA breakfast, and we enjoyed Makahiki dinner - we just did the regular dinner, not the character one, and it was much quieter and more relaxing. We also did the Makahiki character breakfast and it was chaotic.

Across the street, we visited Monkeypod twice. Loved it there. We ate the rest of our meals off-site depending on where we were touring that day. Also, check out the restaurants at the Marriott and the Four Seasons. Both are easily walkable from Aulani.
 
Also, check out the restaurants at the Marriott and the Four Seasons.
Good friends have tried the happy hour at the 4S next door and rate it very highly. We are going to try it on our next visit.
 
We go to aulani every year for 10 days, going for the 7th time in may. We go to Ama once, the character breakfast once and the luau. We go across the street to Monkeypod, which Is fine, Just Tacos, again ok and a pizza place.
Next door is the four seasone with a few restaurants. We like to go happy Hour at The Fish House, sit on the terrace with a drink and an appetizer. It’s from 3 to 5 every day.

we also like Longhi at the Marriott just one lagoon over. Good food and service, well priced and if you go on their luau night...which was Tuesday last year...you can sit on their terrace and listen to or even watch their luau, depending on where you sit.

Many people like Roy’s, just down the street. We are not fans...overpriced just ok food and so so service. We have been disappointed both times we went and vowed not to return. But lots of people disagree.

kapolei which is a five min drive, has many chain restaurants. But we like Assagio an Italian place. You usually need reservations. Good Italian food and welcoming service. Just around the corner from Assagio is a pizza place, brick oven pizza, which doesn’t have any atmosphere but we really liked the pizza.

we have been all over the island so we don’t tend to leave aulani except to go to kapolei for dinner. We also stop on the way from the airport and get groceries. We always have a one bedroom with a kitchen s we make breakfast every day, and sandwiches for lunch which I bring to the pool.
 
We go to aulani every year for 10 days, going for the 7th time in may. We go to Ama once, the character breakfast once and the luau. We go across the street to Monkeypod, which Is fine, Just Tacos, again ok and a pizza place.
Next door is the four seasone with a few restaurants. We like to go happy Hour at The Fish House, sit on the terrace with a drink and an appetizer. It’s from 3 to 5 every day.

we also like Longhi at the Marriott just one lagoon over. Good food and service, well priced and if you go on their luau night...which was Tuesday last year...you can sit on their terrace and listen to or even watch their luau, depending on where you sit.

Many people like Roy’s, just down the street. We are not fans...overpriced just ok food and so so service. We have been disappointed both times we went and vowed not to return. But lots of people disagree.

kapolei which is a five min drive, has many chain restaurants. But we like Assagio an Italian place. You usually need reservations. Good Italian food and welcoming service. Just around the corner from Assagio is a pizza place, brick oven pizza, which doesn’t have any atmosphere but we really liked the pizza.

we have been all over the island so we don’t tend to leave aulani except to go to kapolei for dinner. We also stop on the way from the airport and get groceries. We always have a one bedroom with a kitchen s we make breakfast every day, and sandwiches for lunch which I bring to the pool.
 
We go to aulani every year for 10 days, going for the 7th time in may. We go to Ama once, the character breakfast once and the luau. We go across the street to Monkeypod, which Is fine, Just Tacos, again ok and a pizza place.
Next door is the four seasone with a few restaurants. We like to go happy Hour at The Fish House, sit on the terrace with a drink and an appetizer. It’s from 3 to 5 every day.

we also like Longhi at the Marriott just one lagoon over. Good food and service, well priced and if you go on their luau night...which was Tuesday last year...you can sit on their terrace and listen to or even watch their luau, depending on where you sit.

Many people like Roy’s, just down the street. We are not fans...overpriced just ok food and so so service. We have been disappointed both times we went and vowed not to return. But lots of people disagree.

kapolei which is a five min drive, has many chain restaurants. But we like Assagio an Italian place. You usually need reservations. Good Italian food and welcoming service. Just around the corner from Assagio is a pizza place, brick oven pizza, which doesn’t have any atmosphere but we really liked the pizza.

we have been all over the island so we don’t tend to leave aulani except to go to kapolei for dinner. We also stop on the way from the airport and get groceries. We always have a one bedroom with a kitchen s we make breakfast every day, and sandwiches for lunch which I bring to the pool.
Thank you for the helpful tips and advice! We like simple and local - not a fan of high priced meals that don’t fit the bill. I’m sure we will visit many of the same spots you recommended. Thanks!
 
I love eating at Makahiki for Dinner. The dinner has a lot of seafood options, and our family loves the seafood. My kid eats the basic kid food and loves the character. I enjoy it over the Makahiki breakfast.
Awesome! Thanks - good to know about the seafood options. Who doesn’t love seafood??
 

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