Chef Mickey or Liberty Tavern?

[disneyobessed]

Ok we have CM booked but Ive read so many bad things about it... looking into possibly changing it to Liberty Tavern for dinner.. thoughts..??? I wish they brought the characters back to LT!!

 

[TivoQueen]

If your looking for the characters I would keep Chef Mickey's. Liberty Tree has better food, but the characters are no longer there. The buffet at Chef Mickey's is very ordinary, nothing great, but its not horrible. The atmosphere is loud and busy. The characters do come around but they don't spend a lot of time. They will take time to sign an autograph, give a hug, take a pic. Kids love Chef Mickey's.

 

[sydneysmom]

I would skip CM , but that's just me. We thought it was horrible, dirty and unorganized. We won't go back.

You might want to also look at Lelo and Stitch breakfast at the Poly (very fun) or at the GF, they have Mary Poppins / Alice / Mad Hatter breakfast and Cinderella and the Step Sisters at Dinner...both of those are fantastic !!! (the step sisters are a riot!!)

For a character meal in MK, Crystal Palace can't be beat. The food is fantastic, and who doesn't love Winnie the Pooh !!!

LTT I can't give you much advice on, as we've not been, but I have heard good things about the food...

 

[Rox.jea]

Ok we have CM booked but Ive read so many bad things about it... looking into possibly changing it to Liberty Tavern for dinner.. thoughts..??? I wish they brought the characters back to LT!!

Hey I'm reading reviews on Allears right now. Even 1 bad review can make u wanna change ur mind. But. Chef Mickey's is awesome!!! & LTT Is my #1 fav b/c the food is really good.I love the salad & bread @LTT. I'm a big salad & bread eater @ WDW. But the main courses are really good too, I just don't eat a ton of meat. Both places are great for "normal good food" The desert bar @ CM is like a candy store. Even my eyes light up when I fix my desert b/c of all the choices. I would never be able to pick 1 or the other I do both.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Chef Mickeys was absolutely disgusting in every way. I would never go back. First off, the food was awful. It was lukewarm, not warm!! The quality itself was horrifying. The atmosphere reminds me of a school cafeteria. For such a nice hotel, what were they thinking? You have to run to the buffet and hurry back cause you might miss the characters.....although scratch that, the characters took FOREVER to come around. So thats not an issue i guess. I sat at my table for 1/2 hour AFTER eating just to wait for the characters!!
Overall, that place was chaotic, noisy, and the service was lousy too. Most important, the food stunk.

Liberty Tree dinner is one of our faves. I LOVE the thanksgiving style feast. I also heard that their lunch is great too (for lunch you order off the menu). Its a tradition to come here every trip. Im sure you wont be disappointed!

 

[goofyintoronto]

Hey I'm reading reviews on Allears right now. Even 1 bad review can make u wanna change ur mind. But. Chef Mickey's is awesome!!! & LTT Is my #1 fav b/c the food is really good.I love the salad & bread @LTT. I'm a big salad & bread eater @ WDW. But the main courses are really good too, I just don't eat a ton of meat. Both places are great for "normal good food" The desert bar @ CM is like a candy store. Even my eyes light up when I fix my desert b/c of all the choices. I would never be able to pick 1 or the other I do both.

ha ha, thats my solution too. If you cant decide, just do both!!!

 

[photofreak]

We've done Chef Mickey's and I agree, the food was mediocre... We have done Ohana (fantastic food if you like that selection and excellent character interaction), Tuskers (awesome food too, some unique selections, it was loud but fun and characters were good, my DD10 loved Daisy and this is the only place to see her) but by far the best food was at 1900 Park Fare at GF. Food was phenomal!! and the characters were FANTASTIC... My daughter dressed like the Mad Hatter and he was amazing to her.... Best memory ever!
All of these places are the same price so I'd highly reccommend going where you'll enjoy the food!!!

 

[mavdav]

Agreed, the food is terrible, but my DS4 loves loves loves the characters! We endure the food for the characters. We always do breakfast b/c as DH says, "you can't screw up breakfast too bad" However, I do prefer Donald Breakfast at Tusker House over CM. We do love the food at LTT. I guess it all depends on how bad you want to eat with the characters.

 

[beckysmith]

Liberty Tavern!!
Most delicious meal I've had in a long time!

That was definitely one of our magical moments on my most recent trip. After going to like 5 other restaurants in MK looking for a not-too-long wait for dinner, we happened upon Liberty Tavern, and when we asked if the wait was under a half hour, the CM smiled and said, "How about five minutes?" And we turned to take a seat and before we could even sit she called up back because our table was ready!

Anyway, the food was SO DELICIOUS!
It was like Thanksgiving- yum! Even the dessert was wonderful! It was like apple crumble with ice cream on top- or something like that, but it was completely deeeelicious!

 

[dismichael]

CM is probably the best Disney characters' meal, very fun. Food is mediocre, except breakfast. Breakfast is a little expensive, but is quite delicious. Liberty tree is good, but there are no characters. It is a normal sit-down restaurant with an Americana theme. Food has been good when we went, but we go for lunch.

 

[MissElizabeth]

I very much perfer LTT. We had fun both places, but we were disgusted by CMs. We noticed there were birds flying around and eating off the floor, perching on tables, flying over the buffet. Yuck. The characters came around twice while we were there and we have some great pictures of our kids with the characters, but there's not a ton of interaction, just smiles, hugs, pics and autographs.

LTT- we went for lunch- had quite tasty food, a cozy atmosphere, good service, was cool dark and peaceful in the middle of a very hot day. Best of all we each bought a mug there. Ask your server, the mugs are only $5 and they have Mickey, Goofy and Donald as the Spirit of '76- adorable.

I've kind of learned my lesson; I will never do another character buffet. I really enjoyed Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner becuase the characters were awesome, but mostly I find these experiences consists of running to get food at a time that the characters are no where close so that you don't miss them. Then once your table is all piled up with food and you have a mouthful of prim rib and a kid crying for mac and cheese, Goofy wants a hug, know what I mean? All in all we found character buffets to be perfectly adequate food wise, but it was not restful or peaceful at all. We are going to try Belle's breakfast as Askerhus and the Lilo an Stitch breakfast at Ohana this time, since they are family style. Hoping for more peaceful, leisurely experience that way.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I very much perfer LTT. We had fun both places, but we were disgusted by CMs. We noticed there were birds flying around and eating off the floor, perching on tables, flying over the buffet. Yuck. The characters came around twice while we were there and we have some great pictures of our kids with the characters, but there's not a ton of interaction, just smiles, hugs, pics and autographs.

LTT- we went for lunch- had quite tasty food, a cozy atmosphere, good service, was cool dark and peaceful in the middle of a very hot day. Best of all we each bought a mug there. Ask your server, the mugs are only $5 and they have Mickey, Goofy and Donald as the Spirit of '76- adorable.

I've kind of learned my lesson; I will never do another character buffet. I really enjoyed Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner becuase the characters were awesome, but mostly I find these experiences consists of running to get food at a time that the characters are no where close so that you don't miss them. Then once your table is all piled up with food and you have a mouthful of prim rib and a kid crying for mac and cheese, Goofy wants a hug, know what I mean? All in all we found character buffets to be perfectly adequate food wise, but it was not restful or peaceful at all. We are going to try Belle's breakfast as Askerhus and the Lilo an Stitch breakfast at Ohana this time, since they are family style. Hoping for more peaceful, leisurely experience that way.

Ha ha!! Your so right about character breakfasts. You nailed it. You have to sprint to the buffet line and run back just so you dont miss any characters. And just as one of the characters is approaching, your kid asks for something from the buffet line. LOL! Its not the most relaxing meal. I agree. I prefer family style (such as ohana breakfast).

 

[Rox.jea]

Wow I'm surprised to see the bad reviews for CM I think it has been very clean. The 20x that I have been there & never once saw a bird flying around. lol!! Wow, IDK know, I'd give it a shot. I only noticed a messy buffet @ 1900 park fare & was turned off by that.So I can understand if people had a bad experience. But I will say the messy buffet was during free dining & I believe there were more guests that they we're not used to.It was overly busy. + This was a late 8pm res when it was just my husband & I. He loved it. I saw a differance. The food was the same but disappointingly messy.Course he prob loved it b/c Cinderella asked him to dance,lol!!!!

 

[3pletprincesses]

The food wasn't the greatest at Chef Mickey last fall. It was warm but not hot and blend. When we started talking about Disney we asked the girls where they would like to go and the mentionned anywhere but Mickey Place (Chef Mickey) and the little Einsten place (H&V) We did 9 caracter meals last fall and that the no go for this coming trip.

 

[mjp12831]

CM is pretty poor - I always equate it to a Golden Corral in food quality. Then add in that it's uncomfortably overcrowded and the bathrooms are a mile away.

Food at LTT was excellent.

As others have mentioned these are very different experiences, but imo CM isn't worth it even if Walt himself was brought back to make table visits.

 

[Catie.Hiltz]

People are always so hard on Chef Mickeys

I personally LOVE Chef Mickey's, I DO agree that the food isn't the best in Disney, but I've never had anything bad, its kid friendly and seems fresh enough, and I love the ice cream bar!

Liberty Tree Tavern's food is great (its where I discovered Apple Butter when i was a kid lol), and I love the atmosphere of the restaurant

If you have kids....Chef Mickey's for sure, its a great way to meet all the 'classic' chracters...but if your kids are older or no kids, Liberty Tree Tavern is the better choice...

 

[goofyintoronto]

CM is pretty poor - I always equate it to a Golden Corral in food quality. Then add in that it's uncomfortably overcrowded and the bathrooms are a mile away.

Food at LTT was excellent.

As others have mentioned these are very different experiences, but imo CM isn't worth it even if Walt himself was brought back to make table visits.

OMG thats hilarious!!! .........I agree thou.

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We have never had a bad experience at Chef Mickeys. We wnet for breakfast. It was good...they had lots to choose from..

 

[Steph01002]

Chef Mickey was great for the kids, we are actually going back there for breakfast again on our next trip. The lines for the basic Mickey characters were long, so the kids were able to meet the characters and get signatures at Chef Mickey's without standing in line. We waited in line for nearly an hour to get Ariel's signature, so Chef Mickey's saved us a lot of time in a busy hot summer week.
Breakfast food was average, but the character interaction was great for the kids. I wouldn't bother with CM if we didn't have kids.
Have not been to LTT.

 

[jdisnut]

I agree with all the criticism of Chef Mickey's. The food is pretty disgusting, and I have no intention of returning. There are plenty of other ways to meet characters without wasting the time on money and a bad dinner. Liberty Tree Tavern is viable substitute. I haven't been there since the characters went on vacation, but I have never had a bad experience at this restaurant. The menu is simple, but everything is tasty and well-prepared.