Disney Reviews: Restaurant Edition #7 - Kona Cafe
Since I'm on a roll, let's continue on with a resort restaurant, shall we? Like I mentioned in my Polynesian Resort review, we'd eaten at Kona long before staying there. I'm not really sure how it came about, probably something as simple as we needed a sit-down restaurant that was close enough to the Magic Kingdom as to make it convenient to eat at for a Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party night.
Kona is located in the Main Ceremonial House at The Polynesian Resort, on the second floor.
It's a rather small dining area and can get quite loud at times. It has an open kitchen:
and some seating tends to be extremely close together:
We managed to get a separate table in 2007, but ended up in the, what I like to call, community seating in 2010:
Of course, because it is the Poly and it's Hawaiian based, there does tend to be a bit of Lilo and Stitch hanging around, especially during Halloween time (but I don't mind, seeing as how Stitch is second only to Donald in my eyes):
if you'll notice, the chocolate statues of Lilo & Stitch were there in both 2007 and 2010...I just hope they weren't the same ones (although I have the feeling they were, even if they still smelled of chocolate in 2010)!
2007
2010
But anyhoo, on with the good stuff! Apparently, even though they aren't included in the dining plan anymore and you have to pay out of pocket for them, I'm a definite fan of appetizers because I seem to get them everywhere (and given a choice, I'd much rather have an appetizer versus a dessert anyway, but that's a rant for another day).
The bread is very sweet, and, if not for the butter, I probably wouldn't eat it at all (and I don't usually have much of it), but it has always been fresh:
Where Kona excels is with their sticky wings!
I don't typically like bone-on chicken (despite my love of cow blood, the sight of chicken blood, raw or cooked, turns my stomach and wings tend to have a lot of cooked blood on their bones). I just try not to eat all the way down to the bone. The sauce on them is AH-MAZ-ING! You do literally lick your fingers!
My Sister, our resident beer aficionado, is quite fond of the Fire rock Pale Ale. She first had it at the Food & Wine Festival and fell in love. It's one of her favorite beers ever.
I much prefer my drinks in a pineapple!
Again, I'm not a fan of different kinds of food, which has always been a sore spot between Kona and me. They do tend to change their menu up a lot and there is really only one thing that I can get there that I like to eat, and that's the steak. It's not always on the menu though, so I've had to cancel many a ressie to Kona because of it. Despite how much we enjoy eating there, I'm just not a fan of mixing sweet and savory. But luckily, both times we've been there, they have had cow.
2007
2010 (at least the pineapple wasn't infused in the steak and I was able to scrape it off)
We did dessert in 2007, but not 2010 (and I'm not sure why). I went with the cheesecake, which was extremely tiny, but really good, and thankfully didn't have a graham cracker crust (which I absolutely HATE on cheesecake...either cookie or none, graham crackers ruin the flavor of the cheesecake):
Am had the Banana creme brulee:
Well, that was a short one, but since we've only been there twice, my pictures are a bit limited!
Kona is located in the Main Ceremonial House at The Polynesian Resort, on the second floor.
It's a rather small dining area and can get quite loud at times. It has an open kitchen:
and some seating tends to be extremely close together:
We managed to get a separate table in 2007, but ended up in the, what I like to call, community seating in 2010:
Of course, because it is the Poly and it's Hawaiian based, there does tend to be a bit of Lilo and Stitch hanging around, especially during Halloween time (but I don't mind, seeing as how Stitch is second only to Donald in my eyes):
if you'll notice, the chocolate statues of Lilo & Stitch were there in both 2007 and 2010...I just hope they weren't the same ones (although I have the feeling they were, even if they still smelled of chocolate in 2010)!
2007
2010
But anyhoo, on with the good stuff! Apparently, even though they aren't included in the dining plan anymore and you have to pay out of pocket for them, I'm a definite fan of appetizers because I seem to get them everywhere (and given a choice, I'd much rather have an appetizer versus a dessert anyway, but that's a rant for another day).
The bread is very sweet, and, if not for the butter, I probably wouldn't eat it at all (and I don't usually have much of it), but it has always been fresh:
Where Kona excels is with their sticky wings!
I don't typically like bone-on chicken (despite my love of cow blood, the sight of chicken blood, raw or cooked, turns my stomach and wings tend to have a lot of cooked blood on their bones). I just try not to eat all the way down to the bone. The sauce on them is AH-MAZ-ING! You do literally lick your fingers!
My Sister, our resident beer aficionado, is quite fond of the Fire rock Pale Ale. She first had it at the Food & Wine Festival and fell in love. It's one of her favorite beers ever.
I much prefer my drinks in a pineapple!
Again, I'm not a fan of different kinds of food, which has always been a sore spot between Kona and me. They do tend to change their menu up a lot and there is really only one thing that I can get there that I like to eat, and that's the steak. It's not always on the menu though, so I've had to cancel many a ressie to Kona because of it. Despite how much we enjoy eating there, I'm just not a fan of mixing sweet and savory. But luckily, both times we've been there, they have had cow.
2007
2010 (at least the pineapple wasn't infused in the steak and I was able to scrape it off)
We did dessert in 2007, but not 2010 (and I'm not sure why). I went with the cheesecake, which was extremely tiny, but really good, and thankfully didn't have a graham cracker crust (which I absolutely HATE on cheesecake...either cookie or none, graham crackers ruin the flavor of the cheesecake):
Am had the Banana creme brulee:
Well, that was a short one, but since we've only been there twice, my pictures are a bit limited!
Comments
Linda