Óhana

I have eaten at Ohana a total of three times, including my most recent experience.  The first time, I was underwhelmed.  The second time, it was much better.  The third time fell back into that underwhelming category.  The experience wasn't all bad, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped.

Getting into Ohana is difficult to start with.  I spent the last few weeks trying to get the three of us in.  I checked ever day, multiple times.  Finally ,about a week ago, I got lucky.  I was going through the motions when a slot opened up for 5:05.  Awesome!

We arrived about five minutes late for our appointment, but we had no problems getting checked in.  All of five minutes later, our buzzer went off, calling us to dinner.  The gentleman seating us was very fun, naming my father the Bread Princess.*  He showed us where the meat was prepared and gave us a bit of a preview of what we were in for.

Our server was over a few minutes later, and she was quite nice.  There is usually a second person who assists the first, to keep the tables all covered.  It appears that they are responsible for a large area and many people.  Once our drinks were taken care of, we patiently awaited the food.

Not counting the bread that we were served as we walked in, salad was the first course.  It had a raspberry lime dressing, and it was my favorite part of the meal.  It was amazing.  The greens were crisp, and the dressing was the perfect level of sweet.

At this point, our drinks started to run a bit low, and our two servers were a bit more pressed.  I was going to order a fancy frozen drink for my dad, but the servers never gave me enough time to ask for one.  I finally just decided to walk over to the bar and order one.  By the time I got back, the next course had arrived.

The pot-stickers and noodles, some of my favorites from the past, were lackluster this time.  The pot-stickers were the better of the two.  Aside from being a bit crispy around the edges, the flavor was good, as was the temperature.  Unfortunately, the noodles were dried out.  It made them pretty much inedible.  I mean, I could eat them, but there was no point.  If you're not going to enjoy it, why eat it?

Ohana's main offering is various meats brought around on skewers.  They had chicken, steak, shrimp, and pork.  Except for the pork, we saw all of them twice.  We didn't see the pork for the first time until after that.  It was a bit disappointing, as we were full by then.  Some of the people brining around the meats were really fun.  Mom asked for two pieces of shrimp once she realized she like it, and she was informed they don't do only two.  He gave her seven.

The meats were all pretty good but not amazing.  My mother said the shrimp were great, with a buttery flavor. While the other meats weren't inedible, they were disappointing.  I was pleased that they weren't dried out though.

While the dessert tried to save the night, it wasn't quite able to salvage the experience.  The bread pudding, topped with ice cream, comes with the sauce on the side for you to put on.  It's quite tasty and well made.  Considering I don't like bread pudding, they did a pretty good job.

While the food is just okay, the service was not.  While I never felt the servers were particularly bothered by our needs, I never really felt like they were really our servers; they never stuck around long enough for me to make requests.  I'm not sure whether they're overworked or just don't care.  I hope it's the former, as the latter just makes me sad.

Right now, Ohana is a difficult reservation to land.  If they keep up this level of service and quality of food, that's going to change eventually.  For the amount of money it costs, Ohana just isn't worth it.


*Of course, that made me happy.