Ohana=Overrated!

Guess we have just been lucky. Over 15 times for dinner and it’s still by far my favorite restaurant at Disney.
15 times? That is awesome! I wish our meal was good enough to spur that type of loyalty.
 
It must have been a off night. The bread we had was wonderful. Some of the best I’ve ever had (and I haven’t held back on voicing my displeasure with most of the food we ate that trip. But the bread....if I could have just replaced the rest of my meals with that bread, I would have been a happy camper. :faint:)
Have you had the Kona Cafe bread? Was it similar?
 
Our experience at Le Cellier was as bad as yours at Ohana. Burned steak, slow service, tiny tables crammed together. Way overpriced for what you get. Some people love it, but I can't recommend it. The Yachtsman is in a different league.
Everyone in my family (except for me) has eaten there at least once and the more recent visits seem to echo your same sentiment. My parents go to Epcot every few years to celebrate their anniversary and I plan on recommending The Yachstman to them!
 
We adore Ohana, its a hit and miss at times and Ive never liked the bread never understood why ppl raved about it always seemed dry and weird consistency
 


We ate there once years ago and said never again. We were put at a table behind where they do the cooking. Service was so terrible we skipped desert as we were already there 2 hrs. We were next to the window but you couldn't see out as the trees completely covered the window.

Fast forward and DDIL wants to take DGD so we are again planning to eat there. As we had such a terrible table the last time, can we request a table in the front of the restaurant? I know my 5year old DGD would enjoy watching the cooking and participating in the extra activities that they have.
 
Ohana's is my families favorite restaurant, we eat there twice every trip but that being said a server can make or break your experience at any restaurant. And we never eat there early I make our ADR's to coincide with the Magic Kingdom fireworks as close as I can. And if you ever give Ohana's another chance do what I have done once. When a waiter tried to leave us stuff early, I said No and when the server brought it over I sent it right back.
 
Guess we have just been lucky. Over 15 times for dinner and it’s still by far my favorite restaurant at Disney.

Totally agree with you - except our 2nd favorite!
We go every trip, and have for years, and have never had a bad experience. Everything is always yummy and the service is excellent.

Seems some people think the food comes out too quick, but actually, it's served family style and meant to come out that way. We don't have a problem with it. Most times the bread and salad comes several minutes before the other dishes anyway.

Guess it's mostly on the Dis that people comment on not liking it as reservations are very hard to come by! Looking forward to our next ressie in April. We always dine early, preferably at opening.
 


Totally agree with you - except our 2nd favorite!
We go every trip, and have for years, and have never had a bad experience. Everything is always yummy and the service is excellent.

Seems some people think the food comes out too quick, but actually, it's served family style and meant to come out that way. We don't have a problem with it. Most times the bread and salad comes several minutes before the other dishes anyway.

Guess it's mostly on the Dis that people comment on not liking it as reservations are very hard to come by! Looking forward to our next ressie in April. We always dine early, preferably at opening.
Agree we love to get the first opening ADR. No time to get behind on seating, everything is fresh. Servers still in good mood. Maybe that’s the difference. We also love the opening song. We are also looking forward to our ADR there next month.
 
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 believe that the servers & cooks on a shift can greatly make a difference in someone's experience. We've been to Ohana for dinner once and it was amazing (and that was with 8 of us and 3 having food allergies). We had 2 totally different experiences with Kona Cafe for breakfast. The first time, it was hands down my favorite meal all trip so we were excited to take the whole family on the next trip. Our table was meant for 6 people & we had 8 with one being in a wheelchair (which was mentioned in the reservation). My meal was served with raw egg whites. They replaced it but it didn't make it out to our table until everyone else had been done eating for 10 minutes. My son's meal had about half an egg shell in it. Both of those things are not very appetizing. The service was very slow and they seemed quite annoyed when we pointed out raw egg and the egg shells. I was sad because the first trip it was good. I think it was just the luck of the draw on CM's that morning. We're skipping it this next trip but I will give it a go down the road.....hopefully you'll give Ohana dinner another shot some day.
 
We dined for dinner in 2016, it was a good meal. We had 4:30 ADR last week and hardly took a breath between bread (stale), noodles/wings/pot stickers, and meat was already there. No hot towels (between main course and dessert?), rushed out in an hour. Meat was very well done, had to ask for more of steak (no questions of if anything else was needed). Server seemed annoyed, maybe an off night. Not sure we will go back (whenever that is).
 
@Tiffany_m15 I too had a similar experience at ohana/dinner. Food quality was NOT good. Dry meat, dry potstickers, slimy wings. Gross. I wont be back. No point really since there are far better restaurants around with much better food. To each their own.

PS: Yes the dessert was amazing. That was the only good thing about dinner.

PPS: We were on the dining plan. Had I paid in cash, I would've been so ticked spending all that money for a terrible meal.
 
We've been to 'Ohana twice. The first time was amazing, the last time not so much. It's a hit or miss and with it being so expensive, I don't want to risk a miss. we won't be back for a while.

This was our experience. The first time, which was actually a big, extended family trip, everything was great. When DW and I went back we remembered how much we enjoyed the experience and so we returned just the two of us. The food wasn't as good, the service wasn't as good, it was just...whatever. I won't say we'll never go back but there are a lot of place we'd much rather go in the meantime.
 
I have never enjoyed Ohana (besides breakfast) and never understood everyone's love for the place. I did like the salad, but I liked the salad at Whispering Canyon too and I don't plan on returning there either.
I will say that we left Ohana before getting dessert as we were fed up with the entire experience, so it sounds like I missed the best part. Much better places to go food wise.
 
Your server can make or break a meal that’s for sure.
Our party of 5 day was seated by a window overlooking the pool-and we had an excellent server (two actually). We never felt rushed, so I guess things came out as a good pace for us.
For anyone considering going, it’s worth trying once for yourself. And if you are not happy with something, speak up! It’s too expensive a meal to be unhappy!
 
I am always so torn by O'Hana. Sometimes the food is fantastic, serving wonderful shrimp, moist chicken and medium rare steak. Other times everything is dry and overcooked. Service is also hit or miss. When it is good, we love it. When it is bad we say we will never go again. Even though our last visit was good, we haven't been back in 7 years. For the same price, we will go to Ruth's Chris steakhouse for a wonderful pre fixe dinner.

One tip: go on a weekend. All of our bad experiences have been during the week.
 
The bread at Kona is better than 'Ohana. And the bread at Olivia's is better too, pretty similar to 'Ohana's bread, but fresher and softer.
'Ohana always gets mixed reviews. We've had good and bad experiences, and we haven't gone back in a while.
 
After watching the most recent Disney Dining Show and their review of O’hana, I thought it might be appropriate to add a comment here. Pete recommended that you tell your server that you do not want to be rushed. We did just that in the friendliest way possible and asked them to wait on the meat for us and instead of waiting and coming back our server insisted and said she would leave the meat “just in case”...then, much as they experienced, return service took too long and by that point all of the sides and sauces were cold or gone. All of their problems stem from them rushing you through dinner service. It was really disappointing and I would have definitely given them lower than 6.
 
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After watching the most recent Disney Dining Show and their review of O’hana, I thought it might be appropriate to add a comment here. Pete recommended that you tell your server that you do not want to be rushed. We did just that in the friendliest way possible and asked them to wait on the meat for us and instead of waiting and coming back our server insisted and said she would leave the meat “just in case”...then, much as they experienced, return service took too long and by that point all of the sides and sauces were cold or gone. All of their problems stem from them rushing you through dinner service. It was really disappointing and I would have definitely given them lower than 6.

I'll take it a step further and say the staff is being compelled to turn over more tables than they can adequately serve thus put the policy and it's solution directly on management's doorstep. Apparently, they are getting your response (a good one I might add) from enough guests and have come up with an answer (leaving the meat just in case) that would only work at a buffet type eatery. So I guess we as paying guests must anticipate this and say "No, don't leave it. I prefer my food to be hot when I eat it". Annoying on a certain level that the norm is something you must "fight" for but there we are.
 
I make my ADRs next week and Ohana isn't even on the list this time. It was just a big waste of time, money and too many calories for dried out food. I hope it gets better and maybe we will try it in 2019.
 

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