Ultimate Review of Kona Cafe and Reasons to Eat Here
When I’m asked to name my favorite restaurants at Walt Disney World, I suggest longstanding favorites like Be Our Guest, Akershus, and California Grill. I even push people toward The BOATHOUSE, a place that has treated my friends and family wonderfully over the past few years. I have a couple of less obvious favorites, too. Recently, I had the opportunity to take a party of five here to eat. Here’s my review of the current menu at Kona Café.
The Location
Kona Café is one of the easiest restaurants to find at Walt Disney World. Step one: Board the monorail. Step two: exit at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Step three: turn left at the door. Voila! You’re at the restaurant.
Amusingly, a lot of people don’t think about Kona Café’s convenience. There’s a good reason for this. Guests have blinders on when they come to eat at the Polynesian. Many of them are headed toward ‘Ohana, the beloved restaurant that mirrors Kona Café on the second floor of the hotel. ‘Ohana books quickly, often months ahead of time. Kona Café rarely does, which is a net positive. When you’re feeling indecisive about where to eat, you can always hop onto the monorail and grab a table at Kona Café.
The Bias
I’m a pretty simple guy. I like the things that I like, and – like most men – I fear change. Over the years, I’ve developed a standard routine at Walt Disney World, one that’s bled into my personal life. Two restaurants here are my favorites to the path that my perfect birthday is eating at one for lunch and the other for dinner. Kona Café is the dinner choice. Suffice to say that I’m incredibly biased toward it, not the least of which because the Polynesian is my favorite Disney resort, too.
Before I start the review, I should discuss that bias for just a moment, though. Disney recently changed the menu at Kona Café, and a couple of the items they removed were a personal affront to me and mine. They no longer sell scallops, a dish that both my wife and my sister-in-law chose every time that they ate here.
More importantly, Kona Café took their Miso-Buttered Strip Loin off the menu. Why is this such a big deal? On Theme Park Tourist, I’ve described this strip loin as the best steak at Walt Disney World. In its place, Disney has introduced a Kona Coffee-rubbed Filet. I must admit that this steak is more thematic with the restaurant, whose Kona Coffee is probably the best in Orlando (come at me, Starbucks fanatics!).
The question I had prior to sitting down for dinner at Kona Café is whether I would like this steak as well…because I’m certainly not ordering something other than steak here. I believe strongly in tradition. And again, I fear change. So, my standing bias toward Kona Café is somewhat counterbalanced by my dissatisfaction with recent menu changes. We also brought three guests who had never visited the restaurant before. They’re the neutral opinions here, as my wife is totally in the tank for Kona Café, too.
The Setting
My favorite aspect of this restaurant is its setup. The tables are open-ended and many of them face the monorail exit area. It’s a terrific place for people-watching. Disney leans into this with the design. Some of the tables are sofas, giving you the opportunity to kick back and relax while you appreciate all of the people smelling that fabulous fragrance at the Polynesian.
Generally, we ask the host/hostess for one of these sofa seats, frequently offering to wait extra time for one to come open. On this particular evening, the other party arrived first, and we didn’t want to make them wait for a table they might not enjoy as much. So, we sat on the opposite side of the restaurant than normal, the side closest to the sushi counter.
I strongly recommend that you give the sofa tables a try the next time that you visit. The ones located against the wall have an unobstructed view of Moana Mercantile Souvenir Shop. I’m entertained by watching the people shop and think you might be, too.
The Meal
Some of the cast members embrace the theme of the Polynesian more than others. This particular evening, a delightful woman referred to our party as cousins, a sure sign of someone who understands the spirit of ohana. She made fast friends with the youngest member of our party, a pre-teen girl, who also happens to have the best palate at our table. It’s a running joke that she’s going to be a chef since she’s been sampling daring cuisine since she was old enough to walk.
Her parents have fine palates, as well, and her mother was starving since that particular overachiever had run in the Disney marathon that morning. She was beat and would head to bed immediately after the meal, making Kona Café almost a late-night snack for her.
My wife also has a strong palate while I stress once again that I have the palate of a particularly dull four-year-old child. I’m more likely to order chicken nuggets than anything interesting, which is why my adoration for Kona Café is something of a surprise. The recipes here are advanced for Disney and would seem right at home at the World Showcase.
Our meal started with a round of sweet bread, the delicious pineapple-flavored concoction offered at all Table Service restaurants at the Polynesian. I built it up too much, pointing out that the special macadamia honey-butter is the best I’ve ever tasted. Alas, the chefs were having an off-night with the butter and bread, the former of which wasn’t nutty enough while the latter was too mild. We were off to a shaky start, and I noticed exchanged glances between the other members of our party about whether they’d chosen wisely with this meal.
The situation turned when the appetizers arrived. With my wife and I on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan, we ordered appetizers for the entire table. On more than one occasion, we’ve ordered five apps for a party of five. On this occasion, we only purchased two, forcing a tough choice. We settled on the Pot Stickers and Sticky Wings.
After maybe three bites, I feared that a cutlery fight might break out as our companions started warring over every last morsel of both appetizers. The Pot Stickers were the consensus choice, but it wasn’t a unanimous vote. Everyone agreed that both apps were graded 10 out of 10. In hindsight, the other members of our party gave away their 10s too fast, as their favorite part of the meal was yet to come.
Oddly, I’m not speaking about the entrees. Don’t get me wrong. All five dishes were huuuuuge hits. Our choices included Asian Stir Fry, the Kona Sushi Sampler, two of the Kona Coffee-rubbed Filets, and Togarashi-cured Salmon. The biggest hits here were the stir fry, sushi, and the salmon. Both men agreed that the coffee flavor of the steak was a bit much, not quite overpowering but stronger than needed.
The sushi merits special mention. Any shortlist of best sushi places in Orlando must include Kona Café. Their sushi bar is oftentimes mobbed, the one part of the restaurant area that has noteworthy crowds. People grab-and-go here, and they leave satisfied.
Sushi is the house specialty, and our chef-in-training felt it was one of the best meals of its kind she’d ever had. This statement is important since she lives in the Washington, D.C. region of the country, one of the cooking hotbeds of America.
The salmon was an exercise in carb-loading more than anything. Our overachieving runner had burned more calories in a single day than anyone ever should. She needed fish to replenish her fuel tank. The Asian Stir Fry is an almost comically large entrée, one my wife describes as a “stupid amount of food.” When you’re hungry, it’s an ideal choice, probably even more than the salmon.
The star of our dish, however, didn’t arrive until the end. Our table ordered a round of desserts, and the resulting food left us smiling as we walked out the door. We picked Kilauea Torte, Te Fiti’s Island Mousse, Mango Cheesecake, and a pair of Kona Kones.
I’ll start with the Kona Kone, one of the most absurd desserts at Walt Disney World. It’s an open waffle cone filled with scoops of vanilla and (sometimes) chocolate ice cream. The ice cream receives a chocolate drizzle and sprinkles on top plus an edible chocolate Mickey Mouse on top. Depending on when you visit, you’ll either have M&Ms or a plateful of cotton candy surrounding the “Kone”. It’s decadent.
As our party of five sampled all of the desserts, an oddly intense debate ensued. A couple of us chose the Kona Kone as our favorite while two others favored the Kilauea Torte. The Mango Cheesecake also received a vote. The humorous part occurred when a father and daughter traded desserts.
Papa couldn’t believe the rich depth of flavor of the torte while the candy nature of the Kona Kone made up for the fact that his daughter missed out on Trick-or-Treating while at Walt Disney World on Halloween. The two of them effectively licked the plate of each other’s desserts, and our youngest guest finished off my Kona Kone, too. Ultimately, the memory that everyone will have of our meal is that dessert, which consisted of four very different but all incredibly delicious recipes. Also, cotton candy. Every dessert should come with superfluous cotton candy, right?
The Conclusion
Whenever a party of five comes together, it’s difficult to know when someone is being honest or polite with their commentary. As we parted ways for the evening, our traveling companions professed gratitude for our choosing Kona Café. Despite being frequent Disney vacationers, they’d never eaten here before.
I wasn’t sure of their sincerity until, oddly, after we’d returned home from our trip. A couple of days later, I received a text from one of them. It was a picture of them dining at Kona Café. Their planned meal at a different Disney restaurant hadn’t worked out.
When they debated back-up options, the three of them unanimously decided to return to the place where we’d taken them. They actually stated a bit of disappointment with the choice, as the server wasn’t quite as good, and the lunch options weren’t as satisfying as what they’d eaten at dinner with us.
The important point here, however, is that they loved their initial Kona Café experience so much that they tried to duplicate it again inside of 48 hours. That’s the highest praise possible for a restaurant, right? They weren’t just return customers. They basically walked out one day and walked back in a couple of days later. This statement speaks volumes about the quality of a Kona Café dining experience. In my opinion, it’s the true hidden gem of all Walt Disney World restaurants.
I doubt that any of your group will be anxious to get back into Kona Cafe with their new menu and prices. I mean ‘Really’, a $95.00 steak? I don’t think so!