dining review Archives

Browsing Tag

dining review

How Would I Describe the Vegan Breakfast at Ohana Restaurant?

Restaurant Reviews By Jon Self December 18, 2022 Tags: breakfast, dining review, ohana, Polynesian Resort, vegan, walt disney world No Comments

I have a confession to make. I listen to lots of podcasts. Some of them are faith-based podcasts. However, most of them revolve around theme park discussions like dining vegan at Ohana for breakfast. As you might imagine, I tend to focus on the theme park podcasts that discuss theme park food the most. My confession relates to something more embarrassing than that obsession with podcasts. Apparently, I accidentally deleted a podcast during a rather hectic week in my life, when it was released. In between returning from a “work” trip to Orlando and discovering an employment change regarding my “real job”, I deleted an important podcast in my tiny little world of theme park food. I discovered after checking my social media feed that I must have deleted a podcast episode released on September 28^th, 2022. I accept all the blame and criticism for this debacle.

If you are still reading this, you must wonder if I will ever get to talking about theme park food. Please stay with me. The reason this deletion possesses great embarrassment revolves around the fact that the guest for that show mentioned that Ohana, at the Polynesian Resort, recently became the most searched-for advance dining reservation according to users of his product. What product would that be? I suspect you can guess. Yes, Dustin Checketts, co-founder of MouseDining.com served as a guest for that episode. I joked in a social media group that this mistake would lead to an awkward conversation.

Since Ohana serves as focus of this dining review, I should mention that I noticed the same change that Dustin mentioned on the podcast about Ohana being most searched for advance dining reservation via MouseDining. Obviously, that relates to the fact that I use data supplied to me by Dustin to plan dining reviews. Based on that data, I have been testing over the last few days whether the reservation demand at Ohana involves just dinner or breakfast also. Using MouseDining, I saw some very limited reservation availability for breakfast as well as for dinner at Ohana. In fact, I have a reservation alert set with MouseDining right now or Ohana for breakfast and dinner. Because of that data, I wrote a recent article suggesting Sebastian’s Bistro as a less expensive alternative. Also, on MouseDining blog, I previously wrote about my recent experience at Ohana for breakfast.

During my most recent all you care to eat dining adventure, I ordered every vegan dining option available. Yes, I knew at some point I would write about the vegan breakfast at Ohana. This article serves as the fulfillment of that plan.

So how was breakfast at Ohana in terms of vegan dining? As someone who often dines vegan when doing theme park food reviews, I found the breakfast quite good. Of course, some weaknesses emerged as evident during that segment of the meal.

The vegan breakfast version here opens with fruit as the standard option does. Yet, instead of pineapple-coconut breakfast bread, vegan diners get a vegan/gluten free cinnamon sugar donut. I enjoyed the donut. However, many of my vegan and gluten free friends do not think highly of this donut.

The vegan skillet comes with scrambled “eggs”, “sausage”, fried island-style potatoes, and character-shaped waffles. Overall, I enjoyed this vegan skillet. Yet, my dining companions disliked it considerably. The vegan eggs came well prepared but lacked the cream that the non-vegan ones possess. The “eggs” worked fine in combination with everything else though. The vegan waffles tasted about as good as the non-vegan waffles. However, on this day, the vegan waffles only came in Stitch shape not Mickey. There seemed to be confusion about if that was always the case. I found the potatoes with the vegan skillet offered more flavor than the ones within the non-vegan skillet. The “sausage”, a vegan chorizo, functioned as only true disappointment for my dining experience.

All in all, even as someone not dining exclusively vegan, I felt this breakfast offered enough merit to be considered for vegan diners without hesitation. In fairness, I have several vegan exclusive dining friends that do not have as high of an opinion of this vegan meal as myself. I apologize for that detail adding confusion but want to state all facts available at the time.

One last note, character breakfast with Stitch and friends returned in September. When I visited, character dining had not returned for breakfast. My meal cost $25 plus tax and tip before characters. Now, the price has risen to $45 with characters included. If considering this solid breakfast option bear that in mind. If it were me, I would opt for Topolino’s Terrace breakfast over this one at that price point. Also, if expecting the old-style parade where your kid joins in with the characters, they currently do not do that. If going for a character breakfast, expect about a minute each with Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, and Lilo during the breakfast.

Could the return of characters be a reason for high demand in terms of advance dining reservations at Ohana? Does the variety of breakfast and dinner options lead to demand? Could it be some combination of both? I think all these work as factors. I would gladly go back and pay for breakfast here without characters at $25 I struggle to be thrilled to pay $45 for this breakfast no matter how cool Stitch and friends might be. However, if someone in your family is a big Lilo and Stitch fan, then the money may well be worth it. Stitch qualifies as a hard-to-find character in the parks, except for special events. Lilo pretty much only appears here. I hope this helps you understand the situation if searching for Ohana reservations. As always, eat like you mean it!

“New” Me Ma’s Best Chicken Raglan Road Disney Springs

Restaurant Reviews By Jon Self December 11, 2022 Tags: bell and evans chciken, dining review, Disney Springs, raglan road, walt disney world No Comments

Once upon a time, I sat in a chain restaurant having lunch. On that day, I looked much younger for a simple reason—I was much younger. On that day, an elderly couple sat down in the booth next to me. They discussed loudly what to order that afternoon. After some loud discussion, the gentleman said he did not see anything he thought he would like. At this point, the lady voiced obvious frustration saying “Just get the chicken. You like chicken.” As insignificant as that encounter might seem, I have never forgotten it. Thus, some days when I do not know what to order, I simply order the chicken. To facilitate this, Raglan Road in Disney Springs consistently offers excellent chicken entrees. A recent addition to their menu would be “Me Ma’s Best Chicken.” During my visit, I ordered this chicken entrée.

Me Ma’s Best Chicken will cost you $28. Included with that price, you receive an entrée described this way, “roasted Bell and Evans chicken breast with a chicken, spinach, wild mushrooms, and a leek pie in roast chicken jus, topped with herb stuffing crumble with champ mashed potato.” The overall presentation of this entrée should receive high marks. Now, the one I received when I dined there did not look like the promo photo. Still, when does dinner look like the promo photo? Anyway, I felt the presentation was good even though my photos may not reflect that. We were seated very close to the stages, so I did not want to endanger the performers with flash photography.

Promotional Photo from Raglan Road

On that evening I enjoyed this entrée, I had a 6:45 reservation on a rainy night. The organizational system at Raglan Road lacked the normal pattern. Eventually we were seated after waiting some time. Of course, when we were seated, we quickly got some of the Raglan Road soda bread.

After some appetizers, the main entrees arrived. As always here, the special brand of chicken served here comes very well prepared. I guess that is why I order chicken often here. In fact, I found all aspects of this entrée very well prepared. Any issues I may have with this entrée relate to ingredient choices not preparation by chefs.

The most unique facet of this entrée revolves around the leek pie. When ordering new items for a dining review, I scan the menu description briefly. Before dining, I do not usually examine menu description too intensely. This allows me to avoid anticipating certain flavors based on what I read in the description. However, when typing the review, I examined the menu description very carefully. The leek pie offered some of the best flavors at our table that evening. In fairness, when I tasted this that evening, i could not tell this was a leak pie. The pastry like shell holding it together looked and tasted good. I did not expect that before ordering this new menu item.

On the less positive side, this dish lacked a solid flavor profile. The chicken and potatoes were well prepared though. Yet, they lacked enough seasoning to be a stellar entrée. In simple terms, everything tasted a bit bland outside the leek pie. For perspective, I am comparing this to other entrées at Raglan Road. I respect the fact that this style of food might seem bland to some. However, I am comparing it to similar entrees on the same menu. Also, just so you do not think I am simply hiding behind a keyboard, I discussed this with staff there. Our table discussed this with the manager on duty, Steve, that evening. For the record, he showed great appreciation and interest in our thoughts.

I think a simple adjustment of adding the au jus directly on the chicken would enhance this entrée significantly. That goes against the usual preparation pattern at Raglan Road for their chicken though. All the components functioned nicely. This needed more power to the overall flaor profile. Once again, the entree preparation was great. In fact, the chicken tasted perfect for standard chicken but lack seasoning as its downfall. I desired more from Me Ma’s Best Chicken.

Even though I joked about the appearance of the promotional photo, that photo reflects a change in presentation and probably preparation. If you go visit Raglan Road deciding to order this, I would be curious what you think. Please leave a comment below if you do. As always, eat like you mean it!