Walt Disney World has revealed the full menu of food, drinks & desserts coming to the newest restaurant at the Poly, Wailulu Bar & Grill. This shares the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus of this lounge located in the Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, along with our commentary and thoughts on the locale.
For starters, Wailulu Bar & Grill is the brand-new, casual walk-up pool bar and grill that will be calling the new Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows home when that new Disney Vacation Club expansion opens its doors on December 17, 2024. You’re probably familiar with this polarizing addition, but in case not, refer to New Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort: Opening Date, Timeline & Progress Photos.
As you take in breathtaking views along the water’s edge of Seven Seas Lagoon at Wailulu Bar & Grill, you’ll be surrounded by Polynesian-inspired artwork that was crafted exclusively for this location. Some pieces have even been made with recycled materials and reclaimed fishing nets. For those dining as the sun goes down, Wailulu Bar & Grill will feature firework views from Magic Kingdom.
According to Walt Disney World, your taste buds will be going on a journey at Wailulu Bar & Grill whether you’re enjoying specialty coffee 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 include the Sweet Potato Hummus with Breadfruit Tostones, Spiced Ham Musubi, and Chocolate Cake with the essence of Kona coffee. The beverage menu is masterfully crafted, combining modern flavors of the Polynesian Islands with classic ingredients like hibiscus flowers, sake, yuzu, pandan, oolong tea, coffee, and passionfruit. Some stand-out sips include cocktails, the Pandan Gin Gin Mule and Passionfruit and Pineapple Daiquiri, and non-alcoholic specialty beverages, the Hibiscus Iced Tea and Yuzu Oolong Tea Lemonade.
The name even draws inspiration from these cultures, too! Wailulu comes from the Hawaiian words “wai,” which means water, and “lulu,” which means calm.
Here’s a look at the food menus for Wailulu Bar & Grill at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort…
Wailulu Bar & Grill Menu
Food Items
- Sweet Potato Hummus, crispy chickpeas, espelette pepper dust, 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 traditional 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 sweet bun served with mac salad or sweet 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 sweet potato
- Poke Bowl: Sushi-style rice, pickled cucumbers, vegetables, spicy poke sauce, and macadamia nuts with choice of ahi tuna, grilled teriyaki chicken, or grilled tofu
- Chow Mein Salad: Charred cabbage, shishito peppers, hearts of palm, pickled sweet potato, and sunflower butter dressing with choice of sauteed shrimp, grilled teriyaki chicken, or grilled tofu
- Sticky Pork Ribs, salt-cured green cabbage, jicama slaw, and pineapple chips
Kids Meals
- White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese
- Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
Desserts
- DOLE Whip Sundae with hibiscus meringue and passion fruit crispies
- Chocolate Cake with salted caramel ganache and Chantilly cream infused with the essence of Kona coffee
Breakfast
- Pineapple-Coconut Bread (Available for breakfast only)
(I think it’s interesting that they’re specifically noting this will be available for breakfast only. My immediate thought when seeing it was that it could become the next craveworthy Walt Disney World snack. Maybe they think so too, and want to get ahead of off-menu requests? Either way, if it is good, I wonder how long the ‘breakfast-only’ thing 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 terms of commentary, I only have a couple of major thoughts. First, that the menu at Wailulu Bar & Grill looks strong. By lounge standards, it has a reasonably wide variety of food choices with some crowd-pleasers (with fun twists) as well as a couple more inventive items. It also looks fairly on-theme to the Polynesian, so that’s a win.
It seems like this has been the recent ‘formula’ for new lounges at the domestic Disney parks. That’s not to say recent lounge menus have been formulaic, as they absolutely are not–quite the opposite. This reminds me a bit of both Palm Breeze at Disneyland Hotel and Bar Riva at Riviera Resort. Probably not a coincidence since those are the two newest large-scale Disney Vacation Club properties.
Next, I can’t help but wonder how busy Wailulu Bar & Grill will be.
On the one hand, other recent lounges like this have not been bursting at the seams. Again, I’ll come back to Palm Breeze and Bar Riva, two places where we dine quite frequently. Despite neither being particularly large, they’re usually more than sufficient for accommodating demand. Same goes for other locales at Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, and Wilderness Lodge.
On the other hand, the Poly is a totally different beast. Unlike the aforementioned hotels, the Poly is a destination resort. It’s one where many off-site and on-site guests staying elsewhere do dinner to get a taste of what’s arguably Walt Disney World’s most iconic resort.
I would argue that restaurant capacity was already too low for Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and that was before Island Tower. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens when all these rooms are added to the mix. Will Wailulu Bar & Grill be enough to serve the added capacity? Will the views of Magic Kingdom result in even more demand than normal?
I’m hoping the answers are yes and no, but I’m guessing they’ll be reversed. I just have a really hard time believing anything at the Polynesian can not be busy. This is also one of my bigger fears about Island Tower in the first place–that the resort and monorail infrastructure is insufficient to support the new room inventory (unless the resort goes on lockdown, which would be a very controversial move). I guess we shall see.
Finally, we have heard a chorus of complaints over the last several years that is, essentially: “Walt Disney World only builds bars! They need to focus on more family-friendly stuff!!!”
To each their own, but I think that’s no longer a fair criticism, and hasn’t been for a while. Sure, when Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, Jock Lindsey’s Hanger Bar, The Edison, and a handful of other locations that were very clearly aimed at adults–and only adults–it was true. Especially during the peak years of the Downtown Disney reimagining into Disney Springs. There was also validity to the grousing when more bar kiosks were popping up or a greater emphasis was placed on alcohol on restaurant menus.
That hasn’t been the trend of the last several years, though. Instead, Walt Disney World has added a slew of family-friendly lounges that are more food-forward. These are more fairly categorized as restaurants than bars (or at least “and grills”), and are oozing inviting atmosphere and have robust food menus that arguably surpass some of the regular restaurants at their respective resorts.
We know this because we have kids (well, kid, singular) and dine at these locations with regularity. This includes 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, again, both Bar Riva and Palm Breeze).
Point being, we’d highly recommend giving these so-called bars a shot before dismissing them as only for boozehounds. I’d go as far as to say we actually prefer lounges in a lot of circumstances because they tend to be more laid back and lower stakes. If we eat at Bar Riva or Banana Cabana, it’s pretty easy to step out or expedite the process in a way that just isn’t possible at Topolino’s Terrace or even Sebastian’s Bistro, for example.
All of this to say we’ll be frequent fixtures of Wailulu Bar & Grill (assuming it isn’t always bonkers busy, undercutting this paragraph) and will have a full review at some point to let you know how this menu stacks up to the fairly formidable lounge competition around Walt Disney World.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the menu at Wailulu Bar & Grill? Expect this restaurant to be significantly busier than its counterparts at other recent resorts due to the Poly factor or its views of Magic Kingdom? Or do you think there’s an upper ceiling on bar demand at Walt Disney World, and this should be fine? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment that this type of “and grill” lounge is really more restaurant than it is bar, and is a good type of addition to Walt Disney World? Is it somewhere you’ll make a point of checking out next time you’re staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort or doing a monorail crawl? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
