Florida Guide > Dining
The Kona Café at the Polynesian Resort Hotel
This is a restaurant that we often eat in as the range of food on offer is excellent. I suspect that many overlook it on their first or even second visit to the hotel. The Kona Cafe is located on the second floor of the hotel, to the left as you enter the lobby. As with all Disney restaurants it is not cheap but does seem good value due to its location. As the name suggests the Kona Café tries to give the atmosphere of a Hawaii restaurant. As you make your way to the restaurant you should get into the Hawaiian spirit. The lobby area is decorated with tropical plants, a rushing waterfall and even their own tame birds. The restaurant itself is decorated in a reddish wood with a gold coloured scheme running throughout as you will see from the attached photos.
If you feel like a break from the Magic Kingdom in the heat of the afternoon then I can defiantly recommend a late lunch here. The monorail provides easy access so you can leave the park for a couple of hours and return ready to face the crowds again. If you are coming from outside then parking is right outside the hotel without any worries.
The Kona Cafe serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner and reservations are not always necessary here. This is particularly true for a later lunch when we have been able to walk right in with no wait. It also means that your meal is presented in relative peace and quiet. However for dinner the queue tends to be longer and I would recommend having reservations especially if you have younger members of the party who do not want to hang around.
If you go for an evening meal then you can make the wait more enjoyable if you plan ahead. Outside the restaurant looking down on the central plant themed area is a lounge. They offer a good range of ‘Island style’ drinks along with all the normal favourites. We often plan to spend half an hour here with a drink before our table is due to be ready. The staff will give you a pager so you can sit and relax while waiting for your table and not needing to keep on checking.
Once you are called make sure you do not go directly to the table. Directly behind the entrance way is the open cooking area and in front of this is the dessert display. You need to walk by this so you know how much room to leave for later.
We have always found the service is friendly, good and quick while not hurrying you
We have never eaten breakfast here so I cannot comment on that part of the day. The two other serving sessions have much the same menu but on balance again I prefer the one at lunch time.
It’s always hard to recommend actual items on a menu as everyone has different tastes. I prefer red meat while my wife will more often go for fish or chicken. This does allow us to taste lots of different items. So here is a list of some that we have both enjoyed and are worth a try.
Appetizers/Starters
Glazed chicken wings with a tangy mustard drizzle and toasted sesame seeds.
Lump Crab Cakes served with Asian tartar sauce.
Entree/Main Course
Beef Teriyaki Salad
Polynesian Plate / Pan fried chicken with coconut and mango sauces
Polynesian Plate / Grilled steak with grilled pineapple salsa.
Drinks
Island Sunset - A blend of spiced rum, coconut rum, melon, and peach combined with passion fruit juice.
Kona Cool Sundown - A blend of vodka, Chambord liqueur, and cranberry juice.
All that remains is for you to try it for yourself.
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