Outdoor seating
Live Floor Show: Polynesian Revue with girls doing the hula in grass skirts and men dancers dressed like island chiefs.
Most popular drink was Planter's Punch
In the 1960's a full dinner including drink and desert cost under $4
1969 Menu specialty: Polynesian food. Capacity: 285
From Disney University Food Showmanship Disney Style 1973:
In the Tahitian Terrace, Walt Disney artists have 143 recreated a Polynesian island paradise. Irresistible South Seas delicacies are served beneath the huge Disney dendron eximus (an "out of the ordinary" Disney tree), as a spectacular waterfall parts, creating a liquid curtain for the Polynesian floor show. In Disneyland's New Orleans Square, visiting guests may enjoy a recreation that is cleaner and less expensive than the real New Orleans, while diners choose from the most elaborate eating complex in the Park. Dixie is the theme for dinners along the Orleans river front.
From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968:
Captures the excitement of the South Seas in both exotic setting and irresistible delicacies. Unique and colorful elements of this restaurant include a spectacular waterfall that parts to serve as a liquid curtain for this colorful island show, flames that dance on the waters, and a rare species of tree, the Disneyodendron Exiums (an "out-of-the-ordinary Disney Tree")
From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:
Believed by many to be the source of the park's best food, this establishment also gives diners plenty of atmosphere and, at dinner, a fine, hip-wriggling Polynesian show. The coral tree onstage and overhead is a special Disney creation-it wouldn't do, after all, to have one that would shed leaves on your plate. The tree trunk was built on location, the limbs made on a back lot, and the 14,175 leaves and bright flowers were grafted on by hand. During the construction process, Walt Disney saw the tree, decided it was "too low," and ordered it raised three feet, with cranes, to its present 35-foot height. To this backdrop, add a curtain of falling water, footlights that look like fire, and a handful of sarong-clad, grass-skirted dancers who play with fire and twitch and sway their way through the dances of the South Pacific. It's a first-rate show. The food is a pleasant surprise. At dinner, there's chicken or steak marinated in teriyaki sauce; pork back ribs in a delicious Polynesian barbecue sauce; deep-fried mahi-mahi, a dolphin fish, topped with a sweet and sour sauce; shrimp tempura; a beef-pork-and-spinach dish called laulaus that's wrapped in ti leaves; rum cake (one of the Disneyland pastry shop's best products); and flaming desserts-either vanilla ice cream doused with chocolate syrup or coconut pineapple ice cream topped with strawberries. What's amazing is that the waiters and waitresses manage to lay out this spread in the almost no-time-flat between shows, which are presented at 5, 6, 7:15, 8:30, 9:35, and, on Saturdays during summer, Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving periods, at 10:30 P.M. as well. (Seats for the first of these shows are available up to 15 minutes ahead of performance time; for all others, it's a good idea to arrive an hour in advance because the later shows are more popular and seating is first come, first served.) Lunchtimes are also pleasant here, because not many people know that the restaurant is open then (albeit with- out a show), and tend to pass it by. The lunch entrées are scaled-down versions of what's served later in the day, with the addition of Monte Cristo sandwiches and an elaborate chicken salad, scooped into a pineapple boat and garnished with almonds, shredded coconut, and orange slices. The fruit salad (served at both lunch and dinner) is a showpiece, and the Tahitian Terrace punch, made with grape, pineapple, lemon, and orange juices and then spiced with grenadine, is considered by many the best drink in the park. Presented by Kikkoman International, Inc. Serves Lunch, Dinner.
