I recently stopped by Kona Cafe, at the Polynesian Village Resort, for lunch. It’s one of my favorite resorts and I’ll look for any reason to drop in. The lunch and dinner menu has recently undergone some changes. I’ve had some great meals here in the past and decided to try their new offerings. There’s really only one offering for vegetarians, a vegetable noodle bowl. It’s glass noodles, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, tofu and pineapple in a jasmine broth. I asked the waiter if it was vegan. He said that he was certain it was vegetarian, but not sure if it was vegan. I couldn’t spot anything that would be problematic for vegans in the description, but vegans should double check the ingredients.
We’ve also ordered some creative vegan sushi here too and asked if they could make anything for us while we waited for our entree. They were only able to make a simple cucumber roll. It was okay, but nothing very exciting or unique.
Our vegetable noodle bowl came out and it looked gorgeous. That’s about where my praise ends. Like the cucumber roll, it wasn’t bad just incredibly bland. It had no flavor at all. The tofu had a weird, soggy consistency and the broth had no flavor. We tried adding some leftover soy sauce and wasabi to it, but it just didn’t seem to liven up the dish. At $21, I felt like I needed to finish this dish and it was a chore to do so. It was a hefty price to pay for a meal that was neither enjoyable nor filling.
My recommendation to vegans and vegetarians is to save your money. Skip Kona Cafe for lunch and dinner and head over there for breakfast instead. Hopefully, they’ll eventually come up with something better for vegans and vegetarians in the future.
