Can anyone compare to Goofy's Kitchen (DL) to Chef Mickey's?

[Sacha_L]

I keep hearing awful things about Chef Mickeys and was wondering if it compares to Goofy's Kitchen in DL which we did a few years ago. We had a great time at Goofy's and while the food was not amazing I thought it was good. Anyone done both?

 

[toomanycars]

We have a great time at Chef Mickey's, but the food is so so. Breakfast is better than dinner. The characters coming to your table makes this fun. With that said we have a ADR in June, my kids love it.

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

I think you will be very disappointed unless things have changed greatly at Goofy's since Jan 2010...I was amazed at the food at Goofy's.. The 2 times we have been to Chef Mickey's- I thought the food was just disgusting and not many choices either. The buffet at WDW that is the closest in quality to Goofy's is Tusker House but again- I think lacking compared to Goofys'..

 

[jenjersnap]

Yes, we've done Goofy's a few times and CM many times. Both breakfast and dinner.

Goofy's food leaves Chef Mickey's in the dust (DLR food is so much better than WDW's despite - or because of - WDW's larger scale). We just find the variety and quality better at Goofy's; I mean, they are both buffets so neither are knock-yer-socks-off, you know? CM's does have divine parmesan mashed potatoes at dinner. Breakfast is very basic to us with nothing "special" (LOL) like the yummy PB&J pizza at Goofy's!

They both have a similar "modern" decor, but CM's has the big advantage in the monorail. My kids love when we are seated in an area where the monorail is visible!

Another advantage of CM's is that you can see all the original characters in one spot. BUT, one thing we loved about Goofy's was the sheer variety and number of disparate characters ... they just seem to keep coming, LOL, and we've seen characters there that I've never seen before out in the parks: Max, Goofy's son, Pinnocchio and Geppetto, for example.

They have very similar parade-type, swing your napkin, activities.

I would say give Chef Mickey's a try. It is not my favorite character meal at WDW by any means but my boys request it every time.

Hope that helps!

 

[rrbar]

Yes, I agree about the characters at Goofy's. We see different characters each time. We have had discussions with the mad hatter and others. Different years, we have seen various princesses. My son loved Jasmine a few years ago. About 6 months ago we went and we met Mulan. I have never met her before. She really was Asian but I couldn't tell if her heritage was really from the same exact country. She spoke so carefully and precisely to my boys and asked them questions about themselves. We really enjoyed meeting her and enjoyed her spending the time with us. The food is always adequate and the family is happy there. Some friends who have been passholders for years just went for the first time on our advice and really enjoyed it- the relaxed pace of it all and food that filled us up and made the kids happy. Love that peanut butter pizza for the kids!

 

[Castillo Mom]

The food at Goofy's Kitchen is much better than at Chef Mickey's. We enjoy going to both though for the character interaction. If you must go to Chef Mickey's I'd recommend breakfast which is ok, dinner not so much.

 

[Sacha_L]

Ok Thanks guys...I was looking into it for two reasons, first the character interaction (we don't really like to stand in line to see the characters) and two because I needed another dinner on a MK night. here is my current (15th revision ) dinner plans. We are on the regular DDP
Arrival day: dinner Crystal palace
day 2 : AK Tusker breakfast OOP, Boma dinner
day 3: DHS Prime Time Cafe dinner
Day 4: Epcot Chefs de France dinner
Day 5: MK Need TS dinner
Day 6: sleep in Pool day WCC dinner
Day 7: MK Tony's Town Square dinner
Day 8: Epcot Coral Reef Dinner
I guess I could move WCC to day 5, so what would you guys reccomend for our sleep in day? I am leaving that day open as far as park planning so we can just do whatever we feel like that day (no hoppers) so my ADR needs to be at a resort. I tried to suggest 1900 park fair but was denied

 

[pixie08]

Where are you staying? Do you want to be closer to your resort, or does that not matter?

There are a lot of great options for character interactions, but many of them imo are breakfast. The castle is great for princesses, crystal palace for pooh. Mickey and gang at Chef m's, cape may and Tusker house.

Not sure why but the character dinners all fall flat, but you can still have a great meal on MK night if you are willing to leave the park. O'Hana, Kona Cafe, the Wave and GF Cafe all have nice reviews. Ohana is a lot of fun if you can get a ressie. They are accessed by monorail, so you can go take a dinner break and then head back.

In MK for dinner we stick to Liberty Tree Tavern, but it is out of convenience. My family doesn't mind the food (thanksgiving type of dinner) it is ok, but the connivence is great. For a good meal I would head to one of the other monorail places.

 

[Sacha_L]

We are staying at POP and I am planning on taking a taxi to an early dinner and then the bus to whatever park we decide to visit that night. I don't really care if it's close to our hotel just so long as it's not in a park so I can let everyone "vote" that afternoon on which park to go to. And I made a mistake on day 2 I have plans for Ohana not boma

 

[ZZUB]

We've done both Goofy's Kitchen and Chef Mickey's. I'm going to disagree with several PPs; generally speaking, the food at WDW is head and shoulders above DLR. However, Goofy's Kitchen is one of the exceptions. It was one of the best meals we had at DLR. We've eaten dinner there two times and both times the food was really good. Also, it's a fun place to eat.

I think at WDW Chef Mickey's is the closest counterpart. I'm also going to disagree with several PPs re: the food. We've eaten dinner there several times and in 2008 we ate lunch there when it was briefly offered during Free Dining. We've never had a bad meal. We were there as recently as last summer and again the food was very good. It's true the quantity of choices has diminished some over the last years (welcome to the modern era WDW). But the quality has not diminished at all.

Moreover, for sheer atmosphere, I'm not sure there's a better character meal(as distinguished from Princess meal) at WDW. It's a fun place to eat and you can hop the Monorail over to the MK when you're done.

While it's true that your mileage may vary, I think you'll find more people have enjoyed their meals at CM then didn't.

 

[Sacha_L]

I just wanted to thank everyone for all their help!

 

[SunPatch]

I'm surprised we went to Disney in April 2009 and Chef Mickey's was our absolute favorite restaurant we ate at. Not for the character interaction but for the food.

Some of the other restaurants we ate at include:
We ate breakfast at the Crystal Palace, I thought it was disgusting.
We had lunch at Askerhaus (sp) this food was so awful my family literally couldn't finish our meals.
We had dinner at Coral Reef which the food was good, but we had ADRs and still had to wait over an hour, we got seated in the back and couldn't see the aquarium and it took a long time to get our food, so the overall experience wasn't great.
We ate at Liberty Tree Tavern which was just ok.

Of all the places we ate at during our last Disney trip, Chef Mickey's is the only one we are going back to.