REVIEW: Makahiki Dinner at Disney's Aulani Resort

Disney’s Aulani Resort combines a Disney vacation with Hawai’i, which means you can experience meeting Mickey Mouse in a tropical setting!

©Disney

Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, is located on the island of Ko Olina, Hawai’i, and it offers all kinds of Disney fun for guests, including characters, activities, entertainment, pools, and more. We’re always on the lookout for new discounts and foods to try, and now we’re back with a restaurant review!

Atmosphere

Makahiki — The Bounty of the Islands is located on the first floor of the main building of the resort, right next to the ‘Ōlelo Room. You can opt to sit outside on the lanai overlooking a koi pond or head inside to eat!

Makahiki — The Bounty of the Islands

Makahiki serves a character breakfast from 7AM to 11AM, and dinner is from 5PM to 8:30PM.

They serve dinner and breakfast

When we arrived at the restaurant, we first stopped by the front desk to check-in.

Check-in area

After that, we were brought to our table. Makahiki is named for the traditional Hawaiian celebration of the harvest, and the restaurant celebrates the Makahiki season with local artwork and cuisine.

Seating at Makahiki

Inside the restaurant are beautifully detailed and colorful pieces of art that show the story of the Makahiki season, with glass designs and jewel-toned murals placed around the restaurant.

Beautiful!

Although Makahiki was a buffet restaurant prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is currently serving a three-course prix fixe meal for dinner. The buffet is still technically inside the restaurant, although right now they have artificial food displayed.

Buffet area

Now let’s check out the menu!

When it comes to the menu, there are three courses available to choose from, and diners may select one starter, one entree, and one dessert. Starters include Corn Soup, Caesar Salad, and Caprese Salad, and there are seven different entrees to choose from, including the local catch of the day, Farm-Raised Salmon, Roasted Breast of Chicken, Shrimp and Fettuccine, Plant-Based Pasta, New York Steak, and Rib Eye Steak.

For dessert, choose from Roasted Pineapple Cobbler, Waialua Chocolate Toffee Brownie, or Kona Coffee Cheesecake.

Makahiki Menu

We actually visited Makahiki on Thanksgiving, which offered some additional menu options, including a special turkey dinner.

Thanksgiving Makahiki Menu

Dinner costs $70 per adult and $30 for children ages 9 and under.

Eats

We started out with the Corn Soup, which was made with kahuku sweet corn, cream, and herbs and it was delicious!

Corn Soup

The New York Steak came with potato puree, grilled asparagus, baby radish, and lemon-chive butter, and you can also order your choice of sauce, whether you want Hawaiian Chili-Pepper Chimichurri or Bourbon Barbeque.

New York Steak

On the Thanksgiving menu, we ordered the Butternut Squash Ravioli as our starter, which was really good but also very rich.

Butternut Squash Ravioli

And the other Thanksgiving menu option we tried was the Roasted Tom Turkey and Farmer John Guava-Glazed Ham, which came with whipped potatoes, traditional stuffing, haircot vert and ali’i mushrooms, giblet gravy, and ginger-cranberry sauce.

Roasted Turkey Tom and Farmer John

For dessert, we tried the Roasted Pineapple Cobbler, which came with macadamia nut cinnamon streusel and haupia gelato.

Roasted Pineapple Cobbler

And we also ordered the Waialua Chocolate Toffee Brownie, which was served with a Waialua chocolate fudge brownie, toffee brownie brittle, and dulce de leche ice cream. Both desserts were amazing and we loved the hidden Mickeys on each dish!

Waialua Chocolate Toffee Brownie

So should you dine here?

Overall

Makahiki is a family-friendly restaurant but if you’re hoping for a buffet experience, you may want to skip it for now. Also, it’s on the pricey side of the spectrum at $70 per adult, but you can opt to get breakfast instead (which includes characters!) for $48 per adult and $29 per child. Everything we ate was excellent, however, so if you feel the urge to splurge, this is a worthy spot to visit.

©Disney

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Heather Sievers is DisneyFoodBlog’s Dining in Disneyland columnist! Check out more of her adventures at @DininginDisney on Instagram!

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