Dining at 'Ohana, and Baby Updates.

 So, for the non-Disnerds who have stumbled into this backwater blog: 'Ohana is a legendary dining experience at Disney World. It's REALLY hard to get a reservation, like, if you're a day tripper there's nothing available 30 days out. You basically have to be staying at a Disney resort when you get the 60 day reservation window to get a reservation. It's one of those legendary dining experiences everybody recommends and does as a family tradition, and as a local I'd never been able to get a reservation. 

Correction: I did get a reservation years ago, had to cancel due to an incoming weather event. I can't remember which hurricane. 

Anyway, I'd never had the opportunity to eat there, so when someone in one of my Disney Facebook groups had made a reservation for 3 for herself (because reservations for 1 are virtually impossible) she offered the other two seats to members of the group, and I and another lady snagged them.

I was curious and very happy for the chance to check it out. I went in expecting a Disney family style meal, where the food is brought to the table on platters and you ask for more of whatever you want. I've done that in other venues on property and truly enjoyed them, they have been great! And this was 'OHANA! The Holy Grail of hard to get reservations!

I'm guessing you know where this is going: 'Ohana was a hellaciously expensive "one and done" for me. Seriously, I was so unimpressed with the food, the service (indifferent is the nicest way we could describe it) and the atmosphere. (Which, BTW, looks nothing like the photo on the page I linked above. It was not dark and exotic. It was loud and unimpressive, like a roadside attraction restaurant.)

The two women I dined with were good company, and we laughed off the weirdness and agreed we'd not do it again. Both were from the UK and it would have been fun to talk to them more than was possible, but it was so freaking loud we could barely hear each other. Yes, family style dining at Disney is hardly intimate and we were all Disney veterans so we managed. 

But the food was barely okay. I had been really excited about trying the "legendary" 'Ohana noodles, but the reality was a letdown. My neighborhood Chinese restaurant would put them to shame. The chicken wings were good, with a bright, fruity sticky glaze. The potstickers were okay. The peel and eat shrimp listed on the menu weren't peel and eat, were basically unseasoned, and were rubbery. I ate one and a half. The grilled chicken thighs were so dry they were hard to cut. (Yes, they managed to turn juicy chicken thighs to chicken jerky.)The beef was nicely pink inside and the flavor was nice, but weirdly rubbery and also hard to cut.  The vegetables were undercooked. The salad dressing was good, but the salad itself was mostly endive, and mostly the stem part of the leaf. I'm a huge salad eater and even I was done with it after 3 bites. 

Service was slow and indifferent. I ordered a margarita for $17, and yes, I'm used to Disney prices, and even I, a long time veteran of the price of Disney cocktails, was stunned by the small rocks glass it was served in, and it was mostly rocks. 

Entertainment was a pleasant guy singing and playing the ukulele. Before Covid I think they had entertainment here. I'm familiar with character dining and such, and if you're paying $62 a head for a meal like this either the food should be fabulous, or the entertainment should be the draw. I'm mystified about why it's so hard to get a reservation here, because it was neither entertaining nor great food. 

The bread pudding at 'Ohana is another one of those Disney legends, and I held out hope that it would be the saving grace of a very expensive and disappointing meal. Nope. Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge still has the bread pudding of my dreams. 

So yeah, I'm all Bitchy and Judgy about dinner at 'Ohana, it was NOT worth the price or the difficulty of the reservation. My dining companions were staying (separately) on property and didn't want the leftovers we had, and we didn't order seconds on anything. I took small samplers home for my daughter, to serve as a terrible warning. 

The service also sucked. It took forever to get the check and a bag for the few leftovers I was taking home. Our own server was rarely seen, and the guy running the food to us looked like he hated his life. He never asked how we were doing, whether we wanted more of anything (nope) he dropped food and walked off. Our server brought plastic containers for leftovers but no bag and it took a lot of asking to get one. One of the women finally flagged down another server and very politely asked if someone could please bring a bag, and he groveled so sweetly and promised to do it, and did not. I was ready to go raise hell at the desk when our server finally brought one after 3 requests and about a half hour. 

When we left the line to get in was insane, and I can't imagine that the service gets better when it gets really busy - there's a fireworks view from some tables and that's a big draw, so those who can book later aim for when it's getting dark.

I hate sounding like one of those Disney Foodie snots who complain for the sake of sounding like I'm a freaking food critic, but seriously, I am baffled by the legend around this restaurant! I've had SO many better Disney dining experiences with great service, great food, and entertainment and character interactions for that price. I don't get 'Ohana. I'm glad I did it to confirm that I have no need to ever do it again.

So, somebody turned 1 month old yesterday! He's about nine and a half pounds and over 21 inches, and working on holding his head up and such. He decided his own big boy self that he didn't need that stupid oxygen thing and has the manual dexterity to rip it out already, so that's just on standby if he shows signs of needing it. It's been at least a week and he was right. They're still monitoring his 02 levels and he's doing FINE without it. He saw his pediatrician who said yeah, just let the pulmonologist know, so whatever. I believe he'll see the cardiologist at the end of the month, but he sure seems to be in normal baby mode.

He does have patches of dry, flaky skin, which is probably related to how he was picked slightly before he was ripe. He's otherwise perfectly gorgeous and bright and delightful.