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 will probably be calling the brand new Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows dwelling when that new Disney Vacation Club enlargement opens its doorways on December 17, 2024. You’re in all probability acquainted with this polarizing addition, however in case not, confer with New Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort: Opening Date, Timeline & Progress Photos.
As you soak up breathtaking views alongside the water’s fringe of Seven Seas Lagoon at Wailulu Bar & Grill, you’ll be surrounded by Polynesian-inspired art work that was crafted completely 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 characteristic firework views from Magic Kingdom.
According to Walt Disney World, your style buds will probably 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 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.
Some of the cultural highlights embody the Sweet Potato Hummus with Breadfruit Tostones, Spiced Ham Musubi, and Chocolate Cake with the essence of Kona espresso. The beverage menu is masterfully crafted, combining fashionable flavors of the Polynesian Islands with basic substances 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 identify even attracts inspiration from these cultures, too! Wailulu comes from the Hawaiian phrases “wai,” which implies water, and “lulu,” which implies calm.
Here’s a take a look at the meals menus for Wailulu Bar & Grill at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort…
Wailulu Bar & Grill Menu
Food Items
- Sweet 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 Chicken 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 Short Rib Loco Moco: Shiitake mushroom gravy, crispy rice cake, and fried egg
- Grilled Fish of the Day: Green curry broth, jasmine rice, chickpeas, and candy potato
- Poke Bowl: Sushi-style rice, pickled cucumbers, greens, spicy poke sauce, and macadamia nuts with selection of ahi tuna, grilled teriyaki hen, or grilled tofu
- Chow Mein Salad: Charred cabbage, shishito peppers, hearts of palm, pickled candy potato, and sunflower butter dressing with selection of sauteed shrimp, grilled teriyaki hen, or grilled tofu
- Sticky Pork Ribs, salt-cured inexperienced cabbage, jicama slaw, and pineapple chips
Kids Meals
- White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese
- Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
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 (Available for breakfast solely)
(I feel it’s fascinating that they’re particularly noting this will probably be obtainable for breakfast solely. My speedy thought when seeing it was that it may change into the subsequent craveworthy Walt Disney World snack. Maybe they suppose so too, and need to get forward of off-menu requests? Either manner, if it is good, I ponder how lengthy the ‘breakfast-only’ factor lasts.)
Beverages
- 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 Passion Fruit Orange Guava Juice, pineapple, and lime
- Pandan Gin Gin Mule: Pandan-infused Fords Gin, lime juice, and ginger beer
In phrases of 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 extensive number of meals decisions with some crowd-pleasers (with enjoyable twists) in addition to a pair extra creative gadgets. It additionally seems to be pretty on-theme to the Polynesian, in order that’s a win.
It looks as if this has been the current ‘formula’ for brand new lounges on the home Disney parks. That’s to not say current lounge menus have been formulaic, as they completely aren’t–fairly the other. This jogs my memory a little bit of each Palm Breeze at Disneyland Hotel and Bar Riva at Riviera Resort. Probably not a coincidence since these are the 2 latest large-scale Disney Vacation Club properties.
Next, I can’t assist however marvel how busy Wailulu Bar & Grill will probably be.
On the one hand, different current lounges like this haven’t been bursting on the seams. Again, I’ll come again to Palm Breeze and Bar Riva, two locations the place we dine fairly continuously. Despite neither being significantly giant, they’re often greater than ample for accommodating demand. Same goes for different locales at Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, and Wilderness Lodge.
On the opposite hand, the Poly is a completely totally different beast. Unlike the aforementioned accommodations, the Poly is a vacation spot resort. It’s one the place many off-site and on-site friends 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 fascinating to see what occurs when all these rooms are added to the combination. Will Wailulu Bar & Grill be sufficient to serve the added capability? Will the views of Magic Kingdom end in 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 extremely arduous time believing something on the Polynesian can’t be busy. This can also be considered one of my greater fears about Island Tower within the first place–that the resort and monorail infrastructure is inadequate to assist the brand new room stock (except the resort goes on lockdown, which might be a really controversial transfer). I suppose we will see.
Finally, we’ve got heard a refrain of complaints over the past a number of years that’s, basically: “Walt Disney World only builds bars! They need to focus on more family-friendly stuff!!!”
To every their very own, however I feel that’s not a good criticism, and hasn’t been for some time. Sure, when Trader 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. Especially 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. Instead, Walt Disney World has added a slew of family-friendly lounges which can be extra food-forward. These are extra pretty categorized as eating places than bars (or a minimum of “and grills”), and are oozing inviting environment and have strong meals menus that arguably surpass a few of the common eating places at their respective resorts.
We know this as a result of we’ve got youngsters (nicely, child, singular) and dine at these places with regularity. This consists of Geyser Point Bar & Grill at Wilderness Lodge, Three Bridges Bar & Grill at Coronado Springs, Nomad Lounge at Animal Kingdom, the reimagined Banana Cabana at Caribbean Beach (and, once more, each Bar Riva and Palm Breeze).
Point 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 really desire lounges in quite a lot 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 manner that simply isn’t attainable 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 all the time bonkers busy, undercutting this paragraph) and could have a full evaluate in some unspecified time in the future to let you know the way this menu stacks as much as the pretty formidable lounge competitors round Walt Disney World.
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Your Thoughts
What do you consider the menu at Wailulu Bar & Grill? Expect this restaurant to be considerably busier than its counterparts at different current resorts as a result of Poly issue or its views of Magic Kingdom? Or do you suppose there’s an higher ceiling on bar demand at Walt Disney World, and this needs to be wonderful? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation that such a “and grill” lounge is de facto 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 help you reply? Hearing your suggestions—even whenever you disagree with us—is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!