Aloha from Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa!

Aulani is a Disney Vacation Club Resort located in Ko Olina, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. This resort is breathtaking and is home to some good eats as well as touches of Disney! Just like Disney World, Aulani offers a character meal during breakfast at their family-friendly restaurant, Makahiki — The Bounty of the Islands.

If you have ever wondered what it is like to dine with Mickey and the gang in Hawaii, we are taking you along with us for a review of Makahiki! Let’s go!

Atmosphere

Makahiki is themed after the seasonal celebration of the harvest, Makahiki. During the daytime, Makahiki is brighter for breakfast as it is an open-air restaurant and is also more laid back. Meanwhile, for dinner, the lighting changes, which makes it feel a bit more upscale. The walls are decorated with murals representing Makahiki, and the lighting fixtures also reflect the harvest.

While reservations are not required, they are highly recommended and can be made 30 days in advance. When you check in at the host stand, they send you straight into a line to meet Mickey, like a traditional character meet and greet with a cute photo-op spot.

When it is your turn to meet Mickey, a PhotoPass photographer will be there to take your picture.

During your meal, a Cast Member will come around to ask if you would like to buy the photo package. They show you your picture, and you can get a digital download as well as a printed picture. This package costs $45. Don’t worry, you can still get pictures taken on your phone!

Before we were officially seated, they had us swing by to meet Chef Goofy. This was similar to the photo-op we had with Mickey. After meeting Goofy, we were seated at our table.

Then both Max and Pluto came around to our table.

They came around to our table three times, and the interactions were fantastic! Although they came around a lot, it did not feel like they were interrupting our meal.

As we mentioned, dining during breakfast is a little more casual as your table is just set with rolled silverware, whereas during dinner, our table was set with a placemat, plate, and multiple utensils.

In addition to meeting characters, there was also live music!

Menu

During both breakfast and dinner, Makahiki offers a three-course prix-fixe menu. You get two starters, followed by your choice of an array of entrees.

Drinks

Of course, no Disney breakfast would be complete without ordering a glass of POG, which is pineapple, orange, and guava juice. It tasted a bit different than the POG juice we are used to getting at Disney World, as it was a bit lighter. Nonetheless, it was still refreshing!

Eats

For our first starter, we got the Seasonal Fresh Fruit. It was good, but there was a lot of it! The fruit rotates based on the season, but when we dined we got pineapple, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

In our opinion, we felt that this meal was a bit fruit-heavy as some of the entrees also come with fruit.

Along with the fresh fruit, we got Malasada. This is described as Hawaii’s favorite Portuguese sugar donut. It was super soft and dougy and pulled apart nicely. It was not glazed and instead just coasted in sugar.

Each of these is counted as a separate course, and we feel like this meal should not really count as a three-course meal when it counts as a donut and fruit course.

For our first entree, we ordered the Belgian Style Waffle, which came with fresh berries, country cream, and warm Vermont maple syrup, as well as the choice of bacon, pork link sausage, Portuguese sausage, chicken apple sausage, or ham. We swapped our Belgian Style Waffle for Mickey and Minnie Waffles instead!

The waffles were classic from what you would expect, fluffy, doughy, and crispy on the outside. The Mickey Waffles were just your classic waffle, whereas the Minnie Waffles were red velvet. They were a bit more richer and had a slight chocolate taste. This was a pretty substantial portion for us.

If you are looking for a special Hawaiin dish, this is not it, but still, it is fun to get Mickey and Minnie Waffles!

We did make sure to get a Hawaiin-geared dish and ordered the Hawaiin-Style Loco Moco with fresh ground hamburger steak, two eggs sunny side up, Portuguese sausage fried rice, and Maui onion gravy.

Our egg was well-cooked, nice, and runny. We also really liked the gravy; it was savory and peppery. This was a nice Hawaiian comfort food meal. This dish actually has some history as it was made as an alternative to a burger!

Overall

We really enjoyed this meal and honestly liked it better than dinner at Makahiki. You get a good amount of food and fantastic interactions with the characters. Plus, it is a great way to start your morning out on the patio. Overall, this is one of our favorite dining experiences at Aulani!

Nosh or Not

You are going to want to head on over for Makahiki for breakfast if you…

• Want to have a character meal. It was a cool experience to get to meet the characters in Hawaii, and we got to have a lot of great interactions with them.
• Want to try out some Hawaiian breakfast dishes. While we did order Mickey and Minnie Waffles, we really enjoyed trying the Hawaiin-style Loco Moco as well as Malasada.
• Want to enjoy breakfast in the Hawaiian sun. Part of the reason we loved this experience so much is because we felt like it was a great way to wake up and start our day.

You may want to have breakfast elsewhere if…

• You do not like character meals. Although we did not feel like the characters were interrupting our meal, if you don’t like to interact with characters, you may want to skip out on this one.
• Want a more upscale meal. Breakfast at Makahiki is a bit more laid back than dinner, but still, overall, the restaurant is more casual when compared to Aulani’s signature restaurant, AMA‘AMA.

RECIPE: Learn How To Make Mickey-Shaped Musubi From Disney’s Aulani Resort at Home!

Have you ever visited Aulani? Let us know in the comments!

The post REVIEW: RED VELVET MICKEY WAFFLES and Characters (MAX!!) Make This Disney Breakfast a Must-Do first appeared on the disney food blog.