Kona Cafe

I have eaten at a number of restaurants at Walt Disney World.  As I am a creature of habit who is somewhat afraid of change, I will often frequent the places that I know have food I like.  I've dined at Kona Cafe for both lunch and dinner before.*  This time, we tried out Kona Cafe for lunch.

Mark and I spent the weekend in Orlando, celebrating our anniversary.  Before heading home today, we decided to venture over to the Polynesian Resort, which just so happens to be where we were wed.  Lucky for us, even though we had no reservation, walk-ups were only experiencing a wait between 30 and 45 minutes, according to the young lady we were connected with when we called.  Armed with that information, we drove to Disney property for a nice breakfast.

Getting to the Polynesian when driving yourself is a little weird, and since you have to get there for breakfast at the Kona Cafe, I feel it's pertinent to comment on.  Usually, when we visit Disney, we stay on property, so we are able to use the bus system to get around.  If you have to drive yourself there, you actually have to pass the gates for the Magic Kingdom where you pay to park.  Luckily, letting them know we were heading to the Polynesian kept us from having to pay.  They just directed us to a lane to the right that lead away from the Magic Kingdom parking lot.

When we pulled up to the Polynesian, the lady on guard was very nice.  Mark explained our situation, and she directed us to the correct parking lot.  See, they have to be careful, as some people have attempted to park at the Polynesian or Contemporary to get out of paying for parking to visit the Magic Kingdom.  Luckily, they didn't give us a hard time.

After parking, we had a short walk into the Polynesian.  Let me just say that the Poly has a beautiful lobby area.  There is a large centerpiece featuring water, rocks, and exotic plants.  I'm not doing it justice, and I didn't take pictures of that.  I have some from when we got married, but it seems like a lot of work to find them.  Just trust me that the setting is wonderful.

The two full service restaurants are located upstairs, so we headed for the staircase.  For the tired, there are elevators, which we later used.  At the moment though, we were so excited to be there that stairs were no problem!  No stairs would keep me from noms!!

Upon checking in at the podium, we were told the wait was about 25 minutes.  Luckily, the beepers are good for anywhere on the top floor.  This allowed us to wander over to the smaller gift shop.  In less than five minutes, the buzzer went off.  It was sweet, sweet music drawing us toward food.

While the hotel as a whole is beautiful, the Kona Cafe is pretty simple and basic.  It's full of earthy colors, very mellow.  There are regular tables, as well as tables that have chairs on one side and a bench on the other.  We were seated between two other tables, but it didn't feel cramped.  We had plenty of room and didn't bump elbows with our neighbors.

Our server immediately came over to greet us and offer to take our drink orders.  Once the authenticity was verified, I ordered chocolate milk**.  Mark opted for hot tea.  When our drinks came, they were both just fine.  Mark was smart enough to order water when he ordered his tea, but I forgot to order a water for myself.  Since there was no refill on the chocolate milk, this would be a problem later.

The server, whose name escapes me, answered some questions for us then left us to make our decisions.  Mark ordered the Samoan, which was poached eggs drizzled with a Hollandaise sauce, which are then served over a hash made from smoked pulled pork.  Due to my indecisiveness, I picked the Big Kahuna, which consisted of two half pieces of french toast, two small pancakes, scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, ham,  and bacon.  Upon consulting the menu, I notice it should have come with sausage, as well.  I will have you know there was no sausage present on my plate.  I probably didn't notice because I ate very little of my meal.  I've been ill recently, and eating is making me urpy.


Mark's Samoan was very good.  He didn't eat all of it, but he enjoyed it.  The hash, which he is used to having made from corned beef, was unique because it was made from pork.  I thought the hash tasted okay, but I don't know if it actually tasted like hash, as I haven't really eaten hash before.  Mark didn't finish his plate, and he assisted me with mine.


My food was pretty good.  There was something on the french toast that gave it a unique taste, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.  The pancakes weren't your usual fair, as they were covered with macadamia nuts, pineapple sauce, and chunks of pineapple.  They had good flavor, but I had a hard time handling all the different textures at once.  Mark loved the pancakes.  As I have learned to like eggs again in the past few years due to Disney, I was happy to get my scrambled eggs.  I'm not sure what Disney does to their scrambled eggs, but they are amazing.***    The bacon was pretty good, not too crispy, and the ham was pretty basic, no amazing favor.


All in all, I think Mark enjoyed the breakfast more than myself, which makes sense.  I've never been a huge breakfast eater.  When you factor in the I felt unwell, that just cemented my lack of appetite.  The meal was good though. 


What was less than good was our service.  By the time we arrived to the restaurant, it was by no means crazy busy.  I try to be forgiving of poor service.  By that I mean I will try to attribute their failings to forces outside their control.  Unfortunately, there were no apparent forces keeping our server away from us.  I mentioned that I forgot to order water earlier in the meal.  When she took our orders, I made sure there were  no refills on the chocolate milk then ordered a water.  She told me it wouldn't be a problem, but she never brought it.  I'm sorry; she did bring me a water when I was done eating.  I acknowledge that she apologized, but I am a heavy drinker.  I will go through four to six glasses of whatever I'm drinking at a meal.  I had a single glass of chocolate milk.  I held out for a while before I started stealing sips of Mark's water.  The point is that should never have happened.  She walked by our table multiple times, but she wasn't paying attention.  She was nice, but I was thirsty.


There has been a great deal of speculation on whether or not the service levels have dropped in Disney restaurants due to the meal plans.  When we first utilized the dining plans, they actually included the tip.  Servers were guaranteed a percent due to the meal plan.  Shortly thereafter, Disney took the tip out of the plan.  Because a great deal of people have free dining due to promotions, the theory is that servers don't care about service, believing people to be cheap.  I've read people claiming that those paying out of pocket are likely to get better service.  I can now say that is not the case.


All in all, I was so happy to be there with Mark that the service wasn't that big of an issue.  I enjoyed my breakfast and my morning.  We walked out to the actual site of our wedding and had a moment.****  In short, regardless of the service, I'll return to Kona Cafe.  I'll probably go for lunch, rather than breakfast, but that's just because I'm not much of a breakfast person.




*Lunch is by far a superior meal.  There is a steak with mango salsa that is best described by the word "sploosh".

**I am well aware that all chocolate milk starts as white milk with a chocolate syrup mixed in.  Real chocolate milk is not created on the spot.  If you're mixing the syrup into the milk in the on site kitchen, you're doing it wrong.  Brink me chocolate milk that arrived at the restaurant in that state.  You can dump your impostor chocolate milk down the drain.

***I'm sure their secret is that they're not actually eggs.

****There was crying, and Mark is amazing.