Lisa F
is a very wise woman
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
DAY 5: DOWN DAY! 'Ohana Breakfast
So after going at it super hard for the first 3.5 days, I had a scheduled "down day" today. It wasn't so much of a down day though honestly, because we ended up spending a lot of the time at Disney Springs and we were on our feet... but we did have our first late start with a 9:30 ADR for 'Ohana breakfast.
This is another one of those that gets mixed reviews. I have noticed that 'Ohana tends to seat in shifts... like there will be a ton of empty tables and all of a sudden they are full again. I wonder if this is what leads to some of their service issues and also the wait time issues... they have ADRs every 5 minutes like every place else but seem to seat an entire section at once.
Anyway we arrived, and we got our pager and it appeared to go off about 10 minutes later, so I'm thinking "WOW, this is AWESOME! So much for the long waits!" But as it turned out it did not go off, it was warning about a low battery so I, along with another 5 families, stood around waiting for new pagers. I was dubious that it would not somehow impact us getting seated but it didn't - we were seated about 15 minutes later. So while the 25 minute wait was by far the longest wait we had for a table, it was far from the horror show some people report.
Also, the first thing I noticed when we were seated is that they serve the full booze menu in the morning... just in case it matters to anyone. I abstained because if you remember from my TH breakfast review, I'm pretty much addicted to the POG juice... and I won't lie... the free-flowing POG is not that far down on the list of reasons I picked this place.
'Ohana was another repeat from our 2014 trip. Buffets were hard with kiddo in 2014, less hard in 2016, but less hard still is having your food served to you. 'Ohana was one of our best experiences in 2014 because of that... mom got to sit and chill and relax and wait for the characters to come around. Also... I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but I LOVE breakfast. Like, I love everything in this platter and didn't mind having similar a few times.... even though I got distracted by the chicken curry at Tusker house and didn't really have a typical breakfast there... I LOVE breakfast food. I love to cook but I hate making it... I think I am just not functional in the morning or something, lol. But I LOVE when someone makes me breakfast, and that includes the chef in the kitchen of whatever restaurant I am in.
When we were seated they were out of the bread but the waiter did show up with fruit, juice and coffee and the hostess followed behind pretty quickly with the freshest of fresh bread. Our service was adequate. I mean, our waiter was dealing with his however many tables all seated in rapid succession so while he didn't really have a chance to stand around and chit chat, on every pass he made past our table he made himself available to be asked for something more and never acted bothered about it. He wasn't super warm and friendly but we never wanted for anything for more than a few seconds either. The kid does not like the POG juice so they brought him an apple juice that he was happy to have... often with breakfast he drinks chocolate milk (when we go out that is, I let him have it as a treat... he doesn't have it at home) but I think the unseasonably warm December had us both craving lighter drinks... him juice over milk and me frozen grownup drinks, lol (actually sometimes I was so hot I couldn't even stomach the booze. what a shame!)
So anyway, here are some photos:
Is this the welcome bread or is the dinner bread the welcome bread? Well no matter, this bread was DELICIOUS. It tasted kind of like those kings hawaiian rolls and was kind of like a crazy pull apart bread with little bits of very finely chopped pineapple in it and a very very light glaze on it too. It was sticky and not too sweet and it was super duper fresh and I am pretty sure this is what they use to make the bread pudding. I'm not sure I remembered from last time how good this was or maybe it was just so good because it was so fresh. It was super delicious, not as sweet as a pastry but not totally savory either.
Here is the fruit platter they brought out:
I'm not embarrassed to admit I finished this whole entire thing. I was starving and it was so refreshing! Ok so maybe I am a LITTLE embarrassed. I have a bit of a sensitivity to pineapple so I can't eat too much of it or my mouth starts to itch. But I was able to handle the amount on this platter... it can be a little bit of a problem in supermarket cut fruit where they put a lot of pineapple and it isn't the ripest (the less ripe it is the more it bothers me... figure that out). The pineapple on this plate was on the riper side and sweet and juicy. The melon was ok... they are out of season so they were a little on the crunchy side (Which I don't mind in general in fruit, I often eat underripe peaches, but they have to be sweet and crispy and not mealy) and not the most meloney flavored melon ever but they were not tasteless or unripe tasting either. It was decent off season melon... not the "OMG THE JUICE IS DRIPPING DOWN MY CHIN" kind but nothing I'd complain about. The raspberries were raspberries. I appreciated that they were whole and not pulverized and I visually enjoyed the bits of red on the plate. I'm a designer, stuff like that tickles me.
Here is the breakfast platter they brought out:
I'm not sure I have to say what all is on it... as I'm pretty sure everyone can recognize the basics. This was the amount brought out for two of us. They have ginormous ones for larger tables, I saw one go by.
And here is my plate:
I ended up actually putting the biscuit back because I'm not all that into biscuits (except under sausage gravy and except as a method of making an already unhealthy mcmuffin sandwich even LESS healthy) and it didn't seem like a judicious use of stomach space, especially when I'd demolished all that fruit.
so now, my review of the food. As I said, the bread in the basket was delicious. Don't let that little piece on my plate fool you, I had more.
Next to that is the link sausage. Honestly, I kind of fell in love with the Disney breakfast sausage here and that love affair lasted the entire trip. It is pretty consistent across property and it was consistently good whenever I had it. It tastes like breakfast sausage but was perfectly crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside (pork fat rules) and I loved the flavor of it. Sausage is not usually my go-to but I went!
The bacon was crisp and not limp (sometimes a problem with Disney bacon) and a mini skillet FULL of bacon was quickly brought out by our waiter when we requested more.
The eggs were scrambled eggs but as you can maybe see were scrambled perfectly... not runny certainly and they were not dry. They came out hot and fresh and tasted like.... scrambled eggs. Which is fine by me since I like scrambled eggs. The one thing I wish I had was sriracha for my eggs... I LOVE sriracha on eggs and it would have seriously jazzed up the plain scrambled eggs. I might have to get myself one of those sriracha keychains.
The potatoes were the big surprise here. I am actually super fussy about my breakfast potatoes and don't really like home fries much. I like them crispy on the outside and even when I ask for well done here at home, they never come that way.... except the one time they came out like little charcoal briquettes and the waitress set the plate down, looked at it in full sunlight, and picked it back up again apologizing and saying she wouldn't serve those. Anyway these potatoes were PERFECT. I think they deep fried the little chunks of potato because I think that is the only way you can get that even golden brown crispy deliciousness on every exposed surface. I didn't remember them being THAT good last time but they were THAT good this time. Even the kid ate a big pile of them, and this is the kid who used to not eat delicious fries at the black dog bakery because there was, and I quote "too much potato" in the fries. Back in those days the picky kid had a very narrow window of acceptable ratio of crispy outside to soft inside for his fries ranging from a cape cod potato chip (yes I am specifying brand because if they were any thicker it was a no-go... even delicious house made potato chips!) to McDonalds size fries. I was shocked he ate these because it is the closest thing he has ever eaten to a real potato and not a fry.
And the waffles were disney waffles. I offered the kid the choice between stitch and Mickey. He picked stitch. We got a few more of those too. He ate about 3 waffles, a LOT of damn bacon and about half of the potatoes on the original platter.
And here are a few character shots with the kid. The character interaction was decent, but the kid was (and I was too) a little disappointed that Stitch didn't seem to notice that we were both wearing Stitch shirts and once the kid pointed it out, he did not seem to care that much. But the kid got autographs and hugs and a kiss on the head from Lilo and it was all good in his world. I just have to share a few of those pictures:
he seems happy to be getting a kiss from Lilo
and a high five from Stitch... and now that I think of it, this may be in response to the kid pointing out his shirt to Stitch... but he didn't notice mine! But I think I need to put on my big girl pants and deal.
and Pluto was playful as always.
On our next trip I wanted to do a character meal before we leave for the cruise and I thought maybe since we've never done it, we might do Chef Mickey's. Tonight the kid says to me "isn't it kind of loud there?" and I said yes, it can be loud. "isn't it kind of messy there?" and I said yes, it can be messy. "well why don't we just do 'Ohana again?" If I get a reservation at the Poly at 7 months I think we just might. No it is not gourmet, no it is not huge variety, but everything we got was just about as well prepared as it could have been and the service was good if not overly warm. And they bring us the food. and POG juice. And Stitch. Yeah, I kind of like the sound of doing 'Ohana again myself.
So after going at it super hard for the first 3.5 days, I had a scheduled "down day" today. It wasn't so much of a down day though honestly, because we ended up spending a lot of the time at Disney Springs and we were on our feet... but we did have our first late start with a 9:30 ADR for 'Ohana breakfast.
This is another one of those that gets mixed reviews. I have noticed that 'Ohana tends to seat in shifts... like there will be a ton of empty tables and all of a sudden they are full again. I wonder if this is what leads to some of their service issues and also the wait time issues... they have ADRs every 5 minutes like every place else but seem to seat an entire section at once.
Anyway we arrived, and we got our pager and it appeared to go off about 10 minutes later, so I'm thinking "WOW, this is AWESOME! So much for the long waits!" But as it turned out it did not go off, it was warning about a low battery so I, along with another 5 families, stood around waiting for new pagers. I was dubious that it would not somehow impact us getting seated but it didn't - we were seated about 15 minutes later. So while the 25 minute wait was by far the longest wait we had for a table, it was far from the horror show some people report.
Also, the first thing I noticed when we were seated is that they serve the full booze menu in the morning... just in case it matters to anyone. I abstained because if you remember from my TH breakfast review, I'm pretty much addicted to the POG juice... and I won't lie... the free-flowing POG is not that far down on the list of reasons I picked this place.
'Ohana was another repeat from our 2014 trip. Buffets were hard with kiddo in 2014, less hard in 2016, but less hard still is having your food served to you. 'Ohana was one of our best experiences in 2014 because of that... mom got to sit and chill and relax and wait for the characters to come around. Also... I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but I LOVE breakfast. Like, I love everything in this platter and didn't mind having similar a few times.... even though I got distracted by the chicken curry at Tusker house and didn't really have a typical breakfast there... I LOVE breakfast food. I love to cook but I hate making it... I think I am just not functional in the morning or something, lol. But I LOVE when someone makes me breakfast, and that includes the chef in the kitchen of whatever restaurant I am in.
When we were seated they were out of the bread but the waiter did show up with fruit, juice and coffee and the hostess followed behind pretty quickly with the freshest of fresh bread. Our service was adequate. I mean, our waiter was dealing with his however many tables all seated in rapid succession so while he didn't really have a chance to stand around and chit chat, on every pass he made past our table he made himself available to be asked for something more and never acted bothered about it. He wasn't super warm and friendly but we never wanted for anything for more than a few seconds either. The kid does not like the POG juice so they brought him an apple juice that he was happy to have... often with breakfast he drinks chocolate milk (when we go out that is, I let him have it as a treat... he doesn't have it at home) but I think the unseasonably warm December had us both craving lighter drinks... him juice over milk and me frozen grownup drinks, lol (actually sometimes I was so hot I couldn't even stomach the booze. what a shame!)
So anyway, here are some photos:
Is this the welcome bread or is the dinner bread the welcome bread? Well no matter, this bread was DELICIOUS. It tasted kind of like those kings hawaiian rolls and was kind of like a crazy pull apart bread with little bits of very finely chopped pineapple in it and a very very light glaze on it too. It was sticky and not too sweet and it was super duper fresh and I am pretty sure this is what they use to make the bread pudding. I'm not sure I remembered from last time how good this was or maybe it was just so good because it was so fresh. It was super delicious, not as sweet as a pastry but not totally savory either.
Here is the fruit platter they brought out:
I'm not embarrassed to admit I finished this whole entire thing. I was starving and it was so refreshing! Ok so maybe I am a LITTLE embarrassed. I have a bit of a sensitivity to pineapple so I can't eat too much of it or my mouth starts to itch. But I was able to handle the amount on this platter... it can be a little bit of a problem in supermarket cut fruit where they put a lot of pineapple and it isn't the ripest (the less ripe it is the more it bothers me... figure that out). The pineapple on this plate was on the riper side and sweet and juicy. The melon was ok... they are out of season so they were a little on the crunchy side (Which I don't mind in general in fruit, I often eat underripe peaches, but they have to be sweet and crispy and not mealy) and not the most meloney flavored melon ever but they were not tasteless or unripe tasting either. It was decent off season melon... not the "OMG THE JUICE IS DRIPPING DOWN MY CHIN" kind but nothing I'd complain about. The raspberries were raspberries. I appreciated that they were whole and not pulverized and I visually enjoyed the bits of red on the plate. I'm a designer, stuff like that tickles me.
Here is the breakfast platter they brought out:
I'm not sure I have to say what all is on it... as I'm pretty sure everyone can recognize the basics. This was the amount brought out for two of us. They have ginormous ones for larger tables, I saw one go by.
And here is my plate:
I ended up actually putting the biscuit back because I'm not all that into biscuits (except under sausage gravy and except as a method of making an already unhealthy mcmuffin sandwich even LESS healthy) and it didn't seem like a judicious use of stomach space, especially when I'd demolished all that fruit.
so now, my review of the food. As I said, the bread in the basket was delicious. Don't let that little piece on my plate fool you, I had more.
Next to that is the link sausage. Honestly, I kind of fell in love with the Disney breakfast sausage here and that love affair lasted the entire trip. It is pretty consistent across property and it was consistently good whenever I had it. It tastes like breakfast sausage but was perfectly crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside (pork fat rules) and I loved the flavor of it. Sausage is not usually my go-to but I went!
The bacon was crisp and not limp (sometimes a problem with Disney bacon) and a mini skillet FULL of bacon was quickly brought out by our waiter when we requested more.
The eggs were scrambled eggs but as you can maybe see were scrambled perfectly... not runny certainly and they were not dry. They came out hot and fresh and tasted like.... scrambled eggs. Which is fine by me since I like scrambled eggs. The one thing I wish I had was sriracha for my eggs... I LOVE sriracha on eggs and it would have seriously jazzed up the plain scrambled eggs. I might have to get myself one of those sriracha keychains.
The potatoes were the big surprise here. I am actually super fussy about my breakfast potatoes and don't really like home fries much. I like them crispy on the outside and even when I ask for well done here at home, they never come that way.... except the one time they came out like little charcoal briquettes and the waitress set the plate down, looked at it in full sunlight, and picked it back up again apologizing and saying she wouldn't serve those. Anyway these potatoes were PERFECT. I think they deep fried the little chunks of potato because I think that is the only way you can get that even golden brown crispy deliciousness on every exposed surface. I didn't remember them being THAT good last time but they were THAT good this time. Even the kid ate a big pile of them, and this is the kid who used to not eat delicious fries at the black dog bakery because there was, and I quote "too much potato" in the fries. Back in those days the picky kid had a very narrow window of acceptable ratio of crispy outside to soft inside for his fries ranging from a cape cod potato chip (yes I am specifying brand because if they were any thicker it was a no-go... even delicious house made potato chips!) to McDonalds size fries. I was shocked he ate these because it is the closest thing he has ever eaten to a real potato and not a fry.
And the waffles were disney waffles. I offered the kid the choice between stitch and Mickey. He picked stitch. We got a few more of those too. He ate about 3 waffles, a LOT of damn bacon and about half of the potatoes on the original platter.
And here are a few character shots with the kid. The character interaction was decent, but the kid was (and I was too) a little disappointed that Stitch didn't seem to notice that we were both wearing Stitch shirts and once the kid pointed it out, he did not seem to care that much. But the kid got autographs and hugs and a kiss on the head from Lilo and it was all good in his world. I just have to share a few of those pictures:
he seems happy to be getting a kiss from Lilo
and a high five from Stitch... and now that I think of it, this may be in response to the kid pointing out his shirt to Stitch... but he didn't notice mine! But I think I need to put on my big girl pants and deal.
and Pluto was playful as always.
On our next trip I wanted to do a character meal before we leave for the cruise and I thought maybe since we've never done it, we might do Chef Mickey's. Tonight the kid says to me "isn't it kind of loud there?" and I said yes, it can be loud. "isn't it kind of messy there?" and I said yes, it can be messy. "well why don't we just do 'Ohana again?" If I get a reservation at the Poly at 7 months I think we just might. No it is not gourmet, no it is not huge variety, but everything we got was just about as well prepared as it could have been and the service was good if not overly warm. And they bring us the food. and POG juice. And Stitch. Yeah, I kind of like the sound of doing 'Ohana again myself.
Last edited: