I had not been to ‘Ohana for dinner in almost 10 years. Why, you ask? Because my last dinner there had left a bad taste in my mouth. Not literally though, as the food was fine, but figuratively. My family of 5 met up with another family of 4 when we last had dinner at ‘Ohana. This was my first trip after Disney had implemented the policy of automatically charging parties of 6 or more an 18% gratuity. Since we were a family of 5 I hadn’t really paid much attention to the policy. So that is why when they brought us our two separate bills, I did not take note of the fact that they had assessed the 18% gratuity onto our dinner bill for 5 people. Therefore I added an additional tip of 20% (making the total gratuity paid to our server a whopping 38%) and returned the signed bill to our server to complete the process. We then continued to talk with our friends at the table for a bit before leaving the restaurant, so our server had time to bring the mistake to my attention but did not. I actually didn’t discover my error until I was preparing for my next trip to Disney by emptying the old receipts from my Disney bag (used only at Disney). By this time it was much too late to do anything about it, so I chalked it up to a “lesson learned the hard way” and now am much more careful when looking over my checks at Disney. But I also vowed to never return to ‘Ohana. However, over the years my resolve weakened and I returned for breakfast there during my October 2016 trip. So having broken the ice, I decided to give dinner another go during this trip when we were celebrating my son’s birthday. I remembered that he had enjoyed the dinners we had had there years ago…
And that brings me to this review of our dinner at…
Our dinner began by ordering cocktails (which are not included in the dinner price). My daughter had had her first taste of a Lapu Lapu when we had dined at Kona Cafe during her college graduation trip in May 2015 and really liked it so that is what she ordered…
The Lapu Lapu is quite possibly the most famous cocktail at Disney World and at $14.00 it is one of the most expensive. So what’s inside that hollowed out pineapple?…
Answer: 2 parts Myers’s Dark Rum, 2 parts pineapple juice, 3 parts orange juice, 1 part sweet and sour mix, topped with Goslings 151 rum floated on the top.
I tried this for the first time on my last trip, during my visit to the Tambu Lounge. Thankfully I shared with my friends, Paula and Hunter…
…because it was pretty potent stuff!! 
As for my son, he ordered and enjoyed a Pina Colava…
How do you make the Pina Colava, a standard cocktail which appears on many of the Disney drink menus?
Pour 1.5 ounces Bacardi Razz Rum in a 12 ounce Hurricane Glass and fill the glass with Piña Colada mix and ice. Mix everything in an ice cream/slushy machine until you have a creamy texture. Pour the drink back into the Hurricane Glass and swirl in a dash of Sweetened Raspberry Purée (make sure the seeds have all been removed). Serve with a pineapple wedge on the edge of the glass.
Now on to the food, which starts at ‘Ohana with a loaf of Welcome Bread (aka freshly-baked pineapple-coconut bread)…
Next came the bowl of Mixed Greens Salad with a Lilikoi dressing…
This seemed like your standard Asian salad with romaine lettuce, red cabbage, mandarin oranges, edamame, red pepper, wonton strips, etc. One unexpected ingredient though was the mushrooms. Though I normally like fresh mushrooms in my salad, they seemed out of place in this salad. As for the Lilikoi dressing, it was tasty.
Here is the recipe that I found online:
Ohana Lilikoi Dressing
Ingredients:
3 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 small shallot
1 small garlic clove
1 T lemon juice
1 tt Worcestershire sauce
1 tt Dijon mustard
1/2 tt honey
Pinch of Salt
3/4 C Canola oil
1/3 C pog juice (Passion fruit, orange, guava)
1 T fresh parsley
Now on to the hot food, which begins with the delivery of this platter…
Included are Lo Mein Noodles tossed in Teriyaki Sauce and Stir-fried Vegetables (broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn, etc.).
But the stars of this platter are the Honey-Coriander Chicken Wings…
…and the fried Pork Dumplings tossed in Garlic-Ginger Sauce.
This platter of food was my favorite part of this dinner. I especially loved the dumplings, and could have easily made a meal with just these. Served with Peanut (my favorite) and Sweet-n-Sour Sauces, these were delicious!
Then the oak-fired grilled meats began to arrive, brought to our table by our server on giant skewers…
Szechuan Sirloin Steak
Our server would ask each of us how many pieces we would like and then placed the requested amount on our dinner plate for us.
The other meat served here was Sweet-n-Sour Chicken…
In addition to the two meats, there was also Spicy Grilled Peel-n-Eat Shrimp…
The meats and shrimp were all fine, nothing particularly noteworthy about them.
When we’d had our fill of all of this food, it was time for dessert…
…which at ‘Ohana is Bread Pudding à la mode!
So while this meal was good, at $43 per person I’m not really in a hurry to return. Even with the 20% Tables in Wonderland discount, I still feel like they are pricing themselves out of the “casual, family-style served dinner” market. But it seems like I’m in the minority with this opinion because ‘Ohana continues to be one of the most difficult dining reservations to get at Disney World.
And that just leaves the ratings. Yelp reviewers have rated ‘Ohana 4 stars and I would agree. Trip Advisor reviewers though have given it 4 1/2 stars and ranked it as the 89th best restaurant of the nearly 3,000 Orlando area restaurants reviewed.
Taste of Disney 