Aloha Vegan Disney Food friends! ‘Ohana recently reopened with some new and returning options for dinner. We already covered the vegan breakfast at ‘Ohana with a video review too, so be sure to check that out. But now, let’s explore:
Vegan Dinner Review at ‘Ohana in Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
aka…Dinner with Hawaiian Hospitality.
What does ‘Ohana mean? ‘Ohana means family. That’s exactly what you’re going to get when you dine at this signature restaurant inside Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World. Family style vegan options that everyone can enjoy.
The Polynesian Resort is a classic beauty and one of Walt Disney World’s originals. It is situated along the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon directly across from the Magic Kingdom theme park. The hotel is connected to Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center via the monorail line which makes ‘Ohana easily accessible.
The theme in the Polynesian is tropical and fun with natural stone, dark woods and tiki sculptures adorned with exotic plants and flowers.
Be sure to look for the classic Hidden Mickey in the stonework floor upon entering the resort. Currently, the monorail station is still under construction as they redo the entire porte-cochere entrance area, but the rest of the resort is completely reopened as of now.
‘Ohana is located on the second floor of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. There are two massive stairways on either side of the rear of the lobby as well as an elevator near the east stairwell. You can find the restaurant adjacent to Kona Café.
Guests check-in for dinner service at a podium and then can settle into the seating area or grab a rum infused cocktail at Tambu Lounge while waiting for their table. You can also check in using your My Disney Experience app, 20 minutes prior to your reservation time.
‘Ohana has two meal services per day, breakfast and dinner. During breakfast service you get the opportunity to mingle with Disney characters such as Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. Dinner offers entertainment which includes a wandering ukulele player and is all you care to eat.
You can see the breakfast option here: Vegan Breakfast Skillet at Ohana in Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
‘Ohana Atmosphere
The ‘Ohana dining room is extremely large with a central focal piece being the grill and wood-burning oven. The restaurant typically serves guests looking for Churrascaria style dining and although this location is meat centric your vegan dining experience will be unparalleled.
‘Ohana Vegan Dinner Eats
Remember this dinner service is going to be all-you-can-eat so pace yourself. That said, let’s get into it.
After you order drinks, the first round of nibbles will be bread service. Nothing exciting here, but at least there’s an option. Vegan and gluten-free rolls with Earth Balance butter.
Next up is the salad course. With the reopening and the vegan-specific plant-based service, you don’t have to worry about asking for vegan dressing, they will bring it to you when you let them know you want the vegan service.
The salad served here used to be a mix of greens and kale with dried cranberries and crispy chow mein noodles but now it’s a pretty basic salad with no frills.
But you’re not here for the salad. Trust me and read on…
In the past, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing dinner service at ‘Ohana on several occasions and only once has this ever happened, but I have been presented with a vegan sushi roll course. Your mileage may vary, and probably won’t be offered now that there is a vegan-specific dinner service. We’ll share our photos just so you can see what happened in the past.
This was a cucumber roll topped with thinly sliced avocado and mushrooms garnished with sesame seeds and served with wasabi and ginger.
The next course coming your way is a riff on chips and dips.
A while back, you used to get two types of chips here. One was a buttery and lightly crisp pita chip and the other were the crunchy wonton crisps the resort is famous for. Both chips were accompanied by roasted red pepper hummus and baba ghanoush.
Prior to closing, guests were previously offered a very small amount of plain hummus with purple potato chips. Be warned, if they are out of the house-made chips, you may receive some basic chips with your hummus. Sad but true.
With the reopening in 2021, the restaurant replaced this offering with a much more scaled down version of the original chips and dips. At least we get the fried wontons again!
Try not to eat all of these. It’s going to be hard, but you’re going to need to leave some empty space for the killer noodles coming your way.
The entree here is a vegan skillet. It has been modified slightly from what was served prior to closure in 2020.
The skillet is now composed of the noodles I mentioned before, broccoli, pulled jackfruit, Beyond sausage and a seasoned vegan chicken.
The main draw for me when dining here are these teriyaki lo mein noodles. I have never had anything so delicious! The noodles are where it’s at.
I definitely miss the stir-fry, which was beautiful and composed of broccoli, mushrooms, onions, red bell peppers, carrots, baby corn, and water chestnuts.
Unfortunately, the vegan chicken had been microwaved or overcooked somehow, so it turned to stone pretty quick and you could’ve hammered a nail with it. The beyond sausages were also overcooked, which seems to be an issue lately with Disney.
Remember, this restaurant is all you care to enjoy so if something stands out for you on the skillet simply ask your server to bring you a second serving of it.
Dessert here is vegan cinnamon sugar donut from Erin McKenna’s Bakery in Disney Springs topped with dairy free (Tofutti) vanilla ice cream.
The atmosphere inside ‘Ohana at dinner time can be described as somewhat chaotic so if you’re looking for a quiet spot, this is not the place. It is also on the pricier side as far as full-service restaurants go at the Walt Disney World Resort. If you time your meal correctly you will have a great view of the “Happily Ever After” fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. They do pipe the music into the restaurant. Reservations are extremely hard to come by so I suggest booking as far in advance as possible.
Special thanks to my friend Amanda for sending over some of the updated images in this post.
Wondering when the vegan options are at neighboring restaurant Kona Cafe? Check out this post: Kona Cafe Vegan Menu Items at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
LOOKING FOR VEGAN OPTIONS IN THE THEME PARKS, WATER PARKS AND DISNEY SPRINGS?
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