Alii Luau
The Polynesian Cultural Center's luau is all-Hawaiian. I like their new Luau facility, it is huge. I heard that they now have 3 luaus every night.    [24 Aug 2004 04:05:29]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: kalua pig and pipikaula (sp?)

     ­christina wilson   wilsonc at hawaii dot rr dot com

Alii Luau is a joke
If you think attending a cheesy wedding for people you barely know with over 500 guests is fun, then this a the place for you. This place is lame from the start as you get charged $5 just to park in the parking lot (which started the tone of the evening...$5 for this and $10 for that). We were seated in a huge covered outdoor auditorium for dinner at which point the obnoxious dinner "entertainment" began. We could barely see the stage from where we were seated...like I said, there were at least 500 people there and not everyone can sit in the front row. First they took a "pig" out of the "ground" of the stage that was supposedly what we were going to eat. I have no reservations saying that I seriously doubt this was a real pig at all and there was no way this was the pig they served at dinner. Also, there was no way it was actually cooked in the ground of the stage...it wasn't even warm or steaming when they took it out of the "ground".

The food was not bad but certainly not great....very ordinary and not very warm. It tasted like it had been sitting in warming trays for a while....think Denny's or Hometown Buffet. I would have also liked to have had a drink with dinner but this place is strictly no alcohol which may have something do with the fact that it is owned by the Mormon Church and not a state sponsored cultural center as the name implies. The shrimp shack on the side of the road on the way to the luau was more cultural than this place. In their defense, I heard the various sessions during the day had some educational/cultural significance but even these seemed quite limited (like if you think weaving a fish from a palm leaf is cultural).

There was at least an hour to hour-and-a-half break between dinner and the evening show. In this time, there was nothing to do but browse at the various shops which were mostly overpriced versions of every other souvenier shop around the island. I found this a real turn-off because this was obviously orchestrated as an opportunity to peddle more souveniers to the people like us who didn't leave after dinner and were still holding out hope that the show would have to be better.

I can only comment on the first half of the evening show because we left at the intermission. The show was fine but it just seemed to be more of the same after the first 10 minutes....it just went on and on and on. I could not imagine sitting through a second half of a well-rehearsed equivalent of a high school musical. The final straw was being peddled a scoop of pineapple ice cream for $5 right at the beginning of the intermission...we just kept walking out the door.

I was extremely disappointed that we spent $65/person + $5 for parking on this lame excuse for a luau and cultural center. I would much rather have spent this on a nice dinner at a local restaurant on the beach.    [02 Sep 2006 16:58:35]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: pork was good

     ­Anonymous   

Think before you call something a
Don't know what the previous review was about. The Polynesian cultural center luau was awesome... apparently we were in the same outside theater that Elvis performed on in Paradise Hawaian style. And for the pig... it was real. They cook it in the emu. I purposely went up and asked the waiters if it was real, and he said they have to handle it because it is served. I asked about the wire mesh around the pig, and they said it was so the meat didn't fall off and get wasted. This was the real deal folks.

The dancing was only Hawaian, but I found out that luaus are only supposed to be Hawaian. But the evening show made up for no tahitians in the luau. And there were like 6 fire knife spinning dancers on stage. I went to two other luaus in my three trips to Hawaii, and they all had only one on stage. These guys had 6! The firewalkers in the show are the bomb. Leaving at intermission is like leaving a broadway show in intermission... you've got to be someone who doesn't recognize a great show if you leave at this show's intermission.

And $5 for everything... yeah that's true, but its for the students to get through school. It isn't some rich company getting richer. These guys put like a thousand kids through school every year or something like that. I'd buy a $5 ice cream if it were going to put a Samoen kid through school. If you think this place is lame, you gotta get out more.    [30 Apr 2007 04:36:24]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: the smoked meat in the luau. Teriyaki chicken. All the desserts. The pork is good too.

     ­frequen 2 hawaii   

Luau experience
Well, I kind of agree that the food wasn't so great, just okay and there were no alcoholic drink serve at this feast. The price though should've been less because of that. Not to mention when I got to the table I have no choice of what kind of drink I wish to have due to water and soda was already serve on the table. But I want the juice...the server said they didn't have extra bottle to put it to. Also, I felt uncomfortable when they have to pray before the meal for one is I don't understand what they're saying and for that matter praying is a sacred matter to where people should understand. I do pray before meal though on my own.    [17 Jun 2007 13:27:56]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: poki tuna,

     ­Anonymous   

Polynesian Cultural Center: Cultural Experience or Commercial Objective?
General: This place is a marketing machine. They should be up front and sincere about their mission of providing financial aid to BYU via a 'cultural experience.' I would feel better signing a $500 dollar check donation rather than failing basic expectations of of what the title suggests. This place represents a small theme park that charges from parking to over priced market items 5 times the cost of other locations on the island.

Food: acceptable but not for the price. The place settings were a joke, plastic dishes and dirty short glasses like as though it was lunch at a nursing home or elementary cafeteria. No alcohol should equate to a lower price. The wait staff were untrained. Someone should teach these kids about the rules of turning your fork down signifying that you are finished eating.

Alii Luau: This was a good show representing talented people carrying on their cultural traditions. After this experience, I would scrap the Hometown Buffet dinner and plan on attending only the luau.    [18 Jun 2008 04:39:21]

Food: -   Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 

     ­Anonymous