Ohana seating requests

[Beacon Joe]

This may be an odd one, but bear with me. My wife keeps floating a dinner at Ohana during our next visit. While I enjoy Brazilian-style meat-on-skewer places, I have my misgivings due to:

1) Some friends' recent visit. They loved the food, but absolutely hated the experience of getting bumped by people doing some sort of race around the restaurant and having the strolling entertainment interrupting their meal. The husband's best comment was, "I loved the food, but hated having people's butts in my face for an hour."

2) I grew up in Hawaii so I've had my lifetime fill of an overbearing aunties wielding weaponized aloha spirit. Call me a sourpuss, but that's the situation.

So... if we end up going, are there tables I could request that are relatively more quiet and out of the way where we could simply enjoy the decor, view, and food? Or is this a restaurant I should simply cross off our list?

 

[Weather_Lady]

I'd ask for a quiet, corner table, away from the coconut race route, which takes up just a small area of one side of the dining room. (Just ask the check-in CM, and confirm with your server -- they'll know which tables fit the bill, and will be happy to accommodate a request if you make it clear you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes if necessary.) The restaurant can still be a little noisy at times (the ukelele player/singer has a body mic), but we've never found it unpleasant. In fact, we've always just happened to be seated far from the action, ourselves, so getting bumped by others -- or even SEEING the activities that were going on -- has never been an issue for us.

 

[Beacon Joe]

Thanks! Glad to hear that there are some tables that fit the bill.

 

[Minthorne]

I always request to be seated in a chair.

 

[Kevin_W]

Interesting. We ate at O'hana in June for the first time ever. I didn't see a coconut race or anything else unusual - perhaps we just missed it or weren't paying attention. It certainly wasn't distracting from the meal! Adn that was one of my favorite Dinsey buffet-style meals I've had.

 

[Souvenir]

Interesting. We ate at O'hana in June for the first time ever. I didn't see a coconut race or anything else unusual - perhaps we just missed it or weren't paying attention. It certainly wasn't distracting from the meal! Adn that was one of my favorite Dinsey buffet-style meals I've had.

Are you sure you were at 'Ohana? It's not a buffet and there is definitely a lot going on.

 

[Kevin_W]

Are you sure you were at 'Ohana? It's not a buffet and there is definitely a lot going on.

Yep, quite sure. I meant buffet only in the "unlimited-quantity" type. We did have the ukelele player wandering around, but I didn't notice anything else. Looking at the description on WDW's website, it seems we either weren't paying attention or were perhaps just away form the action. We were around the corner from where they prepare the food.

 

[Souvenir]

Yep, quite sure. I meant buffet only in the "unlimited-quantity" type. We did have the ukelele player wandering around, but I didn't notice anything else. Looking at the description on WDW's website, it seems we either weren't paying attention or were perhaps just away form the action. We were around the corner from where they prepare the food.

Your observation certainly shows that the experience is very much influenced by where you are seated.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Your observation certainly shows that the experience is very much influenced by where you are seated.

We've had family dinners there 3 times, and so far, have always had similar experiences to what @Kevin_W described. We could hear the ukelele player, and were vaguely aware of some activities she was facilitating in between songs (a coconut race, and some hula instruction, which my daughter dashed off to join), but we were in far corners or on the far side of the open kitchen, such that we couldn't see the action, and it couldn't interfere with our conversation at the table or our peaceful enjoyment of the meal. Apparently there is, as you noted, a wide range of noise and chaos available at 'Ohana, depending on seating assignments (and, very possibly in my case, depending on the number of Lapu Lapus that one has enjoyed prior to the meal...)