Goofy's Kitchen has been my favorite DLR restaurant for 17 years (if you check out my Trip Report - the link is in my signature below - which also includes lots of pictures from many DLR trips over the years, you will see a lot of stuff from Goofy's Kitchen going back to 1992 and up to 2008), but I understand that I have been lucky with my experiences there. I have only had a couple of off days at Goofy's in all these years. A few other folks on the DIS were not satisfied with their Goofy's experience because they felt the character interaction was lacking, or there were not too many characters around. I think it all depends on what you require from a character meal. For some folks, they require equal parts good food and good character mingling. Others are paying the big bucks to eat there mainly to hob-knob with characters and the food is secondary. Others want the best meal possible. And it does depend a LOT on whether you have kids with you, too, and what they like. I don't have kids, so whatever my requirements and my friends' requirements have been for a character meal have been met at Goofy's. But I always say that since it IS a lot of money to spend, if you have had an experience there that you weren't satisfied with, you may want to just try a different character meal next time and not risk wasting your money again on something you don't feel is worth it. Unless you know for sure that you like or will like a certain character meal, it is a LOT of money to take a gamble on. You might as well go someplace new and maybe have a better experience. I happen to also love the food there, both in variety and quality, and I am satisfied with the characters, but it is not for everyone.
The 'regular' characters there are Goofy, Baloo, Pluto and Chip and Dale. They are always there. Then there is a revolving cast of characters which include Belle, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Aurora and the Prince, Jasmine and Aladdin, etc. They seem to alternate days. One day might be an Alice/Mad Hatter day and the next might be a Jasmine and Aurora/Prince day. You never know for sure. (In my Trip Report, you can see that Goofy's has had all kinds of characters over the years, depending on what was popular at those times.) Sometimes not all of those characters are out and about at the earlier seatings in the morning, and you have to wait and hour or 2 before the rest of them show up. Also, the slower it is in the restaurant, the fewer characters there seem to be. So if it is a slow period in the morning (or the off-peak season), you may only see Goofy, Baloo, Pluto and Chip and Dale, but as the day progresses and dinner rolls around (when it is really busy), you may see more characters. I much prefer the Goofy's breakfast/brunch over dinner, so I just deal with whatever characters there are then, but you may see more if you go at dinner.
The Storytellers Cafe meal with Chip and Dale is breakfast only, but it also allows you to order from the menu if you don't want buffet. In addition to Chip and Dale, you will see Koda and Kenai from Brother Bear, often times Meeko from Pocahontas and sometimes Rafiki from Lion King. I think Baloo sometimes makes an appearance - it is basically as many of the 'woodsy' or 'jungly' Disney characters they can scrounge up, but the only regulars that I know of for sure are Chip, Dale, Koda and Kenai.
Lilo and Stitch is one I have not been to yet, but it seems to be very popular among the DIS'ers here. You may want to try that. And Minnie's seems to have a great selection of characters - and a lot of them - so that may be the best option. WazowskiLOVER's Trip Report (The Wazowski Report) features a lot of her pictures taken at Minnie's, so you should check it out!! And Princess fans really love Ariel's!
We had the same negative experience at GK that you did. We won't go back.....
