Hi Kevin (and anyone else interested!) I recently had a nightmare experience at Ohanas which I thought you would appreciate. (I also crossposted it on the dining board, but I wanted to post it here as well to make sure you see it, because I think you'll relate after your review!)
We always go to Ohanas, every trip, for years. Recently though, the changes on the menu and the extremely rushed service have made me rethink this, and I had planned to skip it this year. Plus, your podcast review reinforced my thoughts about this place. However, dh was nostalgic and asked me to add it back on to our PS list, so I did. What a mistake- after the experience we had this time, it's officially off my list of places I will dine in WDW. Here's the short list of problems we encountered; our main issues this time were with service:
- Food Allergy Carelessness: I always make sure to tell our server about dd's peanut allergy. In the past, the chef would always come out and talk to us about it. This time? Right after I tell our server, the food delivery man (for lack of a better term) plunks down the dipping sauces on our table, with the peanut sauce literally right in front of my daughter!!! I was stunned! If I had not seen that and known it was peanut sauce from previous visits to Ohana, this could have been a life-threatening 'mistake'!
- Dry, unappetizing food: The food was somewhat dry, as it has been over the past years, but the sausage took the cake. Wow, was that sausage or wood? I long for the days of salmon being an option. Also, the peel and eat shrimp was so appetizing when you looked closely and saw that it was not pre-cleaned (evident by the shrimp poop line intact within the shrimp). Yummy! I decided to skip the shrimp and sausage and wait for the pork and steak, which rolls into my next issue...
- Spotty food delivery people: For some reason, the food delivery people never brought over steak or pork, even though we asked for it multiple times. Finally, after about 15 min of waiting, the busboy started taking our plates. I had to stop him and say, "You are not taking our plates until we get the other 1/2 of our meal!!!". Finally they brought the steak and pork. It's a good thing I knew we were supposed to get it, or we would have missed out!
- Dessert Disaster: After they brought the steak and pork, the waitress came over and asked if we wanted dessert. Another show was starting, and my parents, daughter and I were getting up to join in. I told the waitress that we were all getting up, and to please hold the dessert until the show was over. We came back, and there was our dessert on the table, all melted and having sat there through the whole show I am sure. This was the final straw for me. I know Ohana is busy, but the other problems could have just been mistakes as the servers rush around. However, I specifically asked her to hold the dessert, and she just totally ignored my request to try to turn over the table faster. I had to act with my wallet and leave her a poor tip.
... and of course this list does not mention the wait time to be seated, crouded atmosphere and rushing service, since those are to be expected at Ohanas. I guess Disney has finally bled the rock dry with this formerly great restaurant. I just wonder how long people will keep going there- I guess they may not know or remember how truely great this place used to be.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully it did not give you any bad flashbacks to your own dining experience there!
We always go to Ohanas, every trip, for years. Recently though, the changes on the menu and the extremely rushed service have made me rethink this, and I had planned to skip it this year. Plus, your podcast review reinforced my thoughts about this place. However, dh was nostalgic and asked me to add it back on to our PS list, so I did. What a mistake- after the experience we had this time, it's officially off my list of places I will dine in WDW. Here's the short list of problems we encountered; our main issues this time were with service:
- Food Allergy Carelessness: I always make sure to tell our server about dd's peanut allergy. In the past, the chef would always come out and talk to us about it. This time? Right after I tell our server, the food delivery man (for lack of a better term) plunks down the dipping sauces on our table, with the peanut sauce literally right in front of my daughter!!! I was stunned! If I had not seen that and known it was peanut sauce from previous visits to Ohana, this could have been a life-threatening 'mistake'!
- Dry, unappetizing food: The food was somewhat dry, as it has been over the past years, but the sausage took the cake. Wow, was that sausage or wood? I long for the days of salmon being an option. Also, the peel and eat shrimp was so appetizing when you looked closely and saw that it was not pre-cleaned (evident by the shrimp poop line intact within the shrimp). Yummy! I decided to skip the shrimp and sausage and wait for the pork and steak, which rolls into my next issue...
- Spotty food delivery people: For some reason, the food delivery people never brought over steak or pork, even though we asked for it multiple times. Finally, after about 15 min of waiting, the busboy started taking our plates. I had to stop him and say, "You are not taking our plates until we get the other 1/2 of our meal!!!". Finally they brought the steak and pork. It's a good thing I knew we were supposed to get it, or we would have missed out!
- Dessert Disaster: After they brought the steak and pork, the waitress came over and asked if we wanted dessert. Another show was starting, and my parents, daughter and I were getting up to join in. I told the waitress that we were all getting up, and to please hold the dessert until the show was over. We came back, and there was our dessert on the table, all melted and having sat there through the whole show I am sure. This was the final straw for me. I know Ohana is busy, but the other problems could have just been mistakes as the servers rush around. However, I specifically asked her to hold the dessert, and she just totally ignored my request to try to turn over the table faster. I had to act with my wallet and leave her a poor tip.
... and of course this list does not mention the wait time to be seated, crouded atmosphere and rushing service, since those are to be expected at Ohanas. I guess Disney has finally bled the rock dry with this formerly great restaurant. I just wonder how long people will keep going there- I guess they may not know or remember how truely great this place used to be.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully it did not give you any bad flashbacks to your own dining experience there!
I usually let things go but I think after all of that I would have asked for a manager. Sorry you all had such a bad experience there. Thanks for sharing with us.
