Walt Disney World has revealed the complete menu of meals, drinks & desserts coming to the most recent restaurant on the Poly, Wailulu Bar & Grill. This shares the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus of this lounge situated within the Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, together with our commentary and ideas on the locale.
For starters, Wailulu Bar & Grill is the brand-new, informal walk-up pool bar and grill that might be calling the brand new Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows residence when that new Disney Trip Membership enlargement opens its doorways on December 17, 2024. You’re most likely aware of this polarizing addition, however in case not, seek advice from New Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort: Opening Date, Timeline & Progress Images.
As you absorb breathtaking views alongside the water’s fringe of Seven Seas Lagoon at Wailulu Bar & Grill, you’ll be surrounded by Polynesian-inspired paintings that was crafted solely for this location. Some items have even been made with recycled supplies and reclaimed fishing nets. For these eating because the solar goes down, Wailulu Bar & Grill will function firework views from Magic Kingdom.
In line with Walt Disney World, your style buds might be happening a journey at Wailulu Bar & Grill whether or not you’re having fun with specialty espresso and on-the-go morning pastries for breakfast, or venturing over for lunch or dinner. The brand new Wailulu Bar & Grill menu celebrates the flavors of Polynesia with influences of the Pacific Islands, from Easter Island and New Zealand to Fiji and Guam.
A few of the cultural highlights embody the Candy Potato Hummus with Breadfruit Tostones, Spiced Ham Musubi, and Chocolate Cake with the essence of Kona espresso. The beverage menu is masterfully crafted, combining trendy flavors of the Polynesian Islands with basic elements like hibiscus flowers, sake, yuzu, pandan, oolong tea, espresso, and passionfruit. Some stand-out sips embody cocktails, the Pandan Gin Gin Mule and Passionfruit and Pineapple Daiquiri, and non-alcoholic specialty drinks, the Hibiscus Iced Tea and Yuzu Oolong Tea Lemonade.
The title even attracts inspiration from these cultures, too! Wailulu comes from the Hawaiian phrases “wai,” which implies water, and “lulu,” which implies calm.
Right here’s a take a look at the meals menus for Wailulu Bar & Grill at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort…
Wailulu Bar & Grill Menu
Meals Objects
- Candy Potato Hummus, crispy chickpeas, espelette pepper mud, and breadfruit tostones
- Ahi Tuna Crisps: Marinated ahi tuna, crispy fried wontons, avocado crema, sriracha-aioli, and soy glaze
- Grilled Shrimp, smoked paprika, black garlic emulsion, garlic-lemon butter, and crispy garlic
- Spiced Ham Musubi with glazed spam seasoned with conventional furikake and served with crispy rice pearls
- Crispy Rooster Wings: Adobo-marinated, soy glaze, and tomato-fresno pepper relish
- Wayfinder Burger: Two pressed patties, American cheese, onion jam, volcano sauce, and candy bun served with mac salad or candy potato fries
- Beef Quick Rib Loco Moco: Shiitake mushroom gravy, crispy rice cake, and fried egg
- Grilled Fish of the Day: Inexperienced curry broth, jasmine rice, chickpeas, and candy potato
- Poke Bowl: Sushi-style rice, pickled cucumbers, greens, spicy poke sauce, and macadamia nuts with alternative of ahi tuna, grilled teriyaki rooster, or grilled tofu
- Chow Mein Salad: Charred cabbage, shishito peppers, hearts of palm, pickled candy potato, and sunflower butter dressing with alternative of sauteed shrimp, grilled teriyaki rooster, or grilled tofu
- Sticky Pork Ribs, salt-cured inexperienced cabbage, jicama slaw, and pineapple chips
Youngsters Meals
- White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese
- Grilled Teriyaki Rooster
Desserts
- DOLE Whip Sundae with hibiscus meringue and keenness fruit crispies
- Chocolate Cake with salted caramel ganache and Chantilly cream infused with the essence of Kona espresso
Breakfast
- Pineapple-Coconut Bread (Obtainable for breakfast solely)
(I believe it’s attention-grabbing that they’re particularly noting this might be out there for breakfast solely. My fast thought when seeing it was that it might develop into the following craveworthy Walt Disney World snack. Possibly they assume so too, and wish to get forward of off-menu requests? Both approach, if it is good, I’m wondering how lengthy the ‘breakfast-only’ factor lasts.)
Drinks
- Hibiscus Tea: Hibiscus flower-infused tea with lime and agave nectar (Non-alcoholic beverage)
- Kula Strawberry Sake: Wildflowers Junmai Sake, Campari Liqueur, Rockey’s Botanical Liqueur, and wild strawberry
- Passionfruit and Pineapple Daiquiri: Ten to One Caribbean White Rum, Minute Maid Ardour Fruit Orange Guava Juice, pineapple, and lime
- Pandan Gin Gin Mule: Pandan-infused Fords Gin, lime juice, and ginger beer
When it comes to commentary, I solely have a few main ideas. First, that the menu at Wailulu Bar & Grill seems to be sturdy. By lounge requirements, it has a fairly large number of meals decisions with some crowd-pleasers (with enjoyable twists) in addition to a pair extra creative objects. It additionally seems to be pretty on-theme to the Polynesian, in order that’s a win.
It looks like this has been the latest ‘components’ for brand spanking new lounges on the home Disney parks. That’s to not say latest lounge menus have been formulaic, as they completely are usually not–fairly the other. This jogs my memory a little bit of each Palm Breeze at Disneyland Resort and Bar Riva at Riviera Resort. Most likely not a coincidence since these are the 2 latest large-scale Disney Trip Membership properties.
Subsequent, I can’t assist however surprise how busy Wailulu Bar & Grill might be.
On the one hand, different latest lounges like this haven’t been bursting on the seams. Once more, I’ll come again to Palm Breeze and Bar Riva, two locations the place we dine fairly steadily. Regardless of neither being significantly massive, they’re normally greater than ample for accommodating demand. Similar goes for different locales at Caribbean Seashore, Coronado Springs, and Wilderness Lodge.
Then again, the Poly is a completely totally different beast. In contrast to the aforementioned accommodations, the Poly is a vacation spot resort. It’s one the place many off-site and on-site company staying elsewhere do dinner to get a style of what’s arguably Walt Disney World’s most iconic resort.
I might argue that restaurant capability was already too low for Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and that was earlier than Island Tower. So it’ll be attention-grabbing to see what occurs when all these rooms are added to the combo. Will Wailulu Bar & Grill be sufficient to serve the added capability? Will the views of Magic Kingdom lead to much more demand than regular?
I’m hoping the solutions are sure and no, however I’m guessing they’ll be reversed. I simply have a very onerous time believing something on the Polynesian can’t be busy. That is additionally one in all my larger fears about Island Tower within the first place–that the resort and monorail infrastructure is inadequate to help the brand new room stock (until the resort goes on lockdown, which might be a really controversial transfer). I assume we will see.
Lastly, we now have heard a refrain of complaints over the past a number of years that’s, primarily: “Walt Disney World solely builds bars! They should give attention to extra family-friendly stuff!!!”
To every their very own, however I believe that’s now not a good criticism, and hasn’t been for some time. Certain, when Dealer Sam’s Grog Grotto, Jock Lindsey’s Hanger Bar, The Edison, and a handful of different places that had been very clearly aimed toward adults–and solely adults–it was true. Particularly throughout the peak years of the Downtown Disney reimagining into Disney Springs. There was additionally validity to the grousing when extra bar kiosks had been popping up or a better emphasis was positioned on alcohol on restaurant menus.
That hasn’t been the development of the final a number of years, although. As a substitute, Walt Disney World has added a slew of family-friendly lounges which are extra food-forward. These are extra pretty categorized as eating places than bars (or at the least “and grills”), and are oozing inviting environment and have sturdy meals menus that arguably surpass among the common eating places at their respective resorts.
We all know this as a result of we now have youngsters (properly, child, singular) and dine at these places with regularity. This contains Geyser Level Bar & Grill at Wilderness Lodge, Three Bridges Bar & Grill at Coronado Springs, Nomad Lounge at Animal Kingdom, the reimagined Banana Cabana at Caribbean Seashore (and, once more, each Bar Riva and Palm Breeze).
Level being, we’d extremely advocate giving these so-called bars a shot earlier than dismissing them as just for boozehounds. I’d go so far as to say we truly desire lounges in a variety of circumstances as a result of they are typically extra laid again and decrease stakes. If we eat at Bar Riva or Banana Cabana, it’s fairly simple to step out or expedite the method in a approach that simply isn’t potential at Topolino’s Terrace and even Sebastian’s Bistro, for instance.
All of this to say we’ll be frequent fixtures of Wailulu Bar & Grill (assuming it isn’t at all times bonkers busy, undercutting this paragraph) and could have a full assessment sooner or later to let you understand how this menu stacks as much as the pretty formidable lounge competitors round Walt Disney World.
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Your Ideas
What do you consider the menu at Wailulu Bar & Grill? Anticipate this restaurant to be considerably busier than its counterparts at different latest resorts because of the Poly issue or its views of Magic Kingdom? Or do you assume there’s an higher ceiling on bar demand at Walt Disney World, and this ought to be nice? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation that such a “and grill” lounge is basically extra restaurant than it’s bar, and is a good sort of addition to Walt Disney World? Is it someplace you’ll make a degree of trying out subsequent time you’re staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort or doing a monorail crawl? Any questions we may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions—even if you disagree with us—is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
