Chef Mickeys Comparable To......?

[lovinpoohbear]

HI! WE HAVE A RESSIE FOR CHEF MICKEYS DINNER AND SINCE WE'VE BEEN READING MIXED REVIEWS HERE ON THE DIS.....WE ARE WONDERING WHAT TO EXPECT. IN YOUR OPINION, CHEF MICKEYS IS COMPARABLE TO WHICH CHAIN RESTAURANT......IS THE FOOD QUALITY LIKE PONDEROSAS, GOLDEN CORAL, HOMETOWN BUFFET???? BETTER OR WORSE? OPINIONS PLEASE!!!!

 

[Bob NC]

Chef Mickey's food is comparable to a public school lunch program. If you go there, keep in mind you are going for the characters, not for the mediocre, luke-warm food offerings.

 

[sha_lyn]

LOL Bob....... I'd compare it to the Golden Coral near here that keeps getting shut down for food poisoning. The food at CM's when we ate there was so luke warm it had to be a hazzard. We left starving. Nothing was eatable. The food was over cooked, gray and luke warm. The Dessert looked like kids had been making sand castles in them. The characters .... LOL what a joke. Aparently they only visit the main dining room and have no idea the other rooms exist. We were in the area above the buffet which has windows looking down on the main room. We werre there for 1 1/2 hrs watching the character visit down there 3 or 4 times. DD and the other kids seated up there were in tears. We couldn't complain to our server because he never came back. Another table finally complained enough times to their server so we finally got to see about 1/2 the characters.

 

[DiscussDisney]

Chef Mickey's dinner is a must do for our family on every trip. In fact, it is always our first dinner. I would consider the food typical buffet food, some items better than others. We always go early to ensure the food is fresh and hot. We find the character interaction great. Beats waiting in line at the parks for sure. Like any other restaurant, opinions will vary. Go and decide for yourself and, most important, have fun!

 

[sha_lyn]

For Mickey and the Gang (minus Minnie) we prefer Donald's breakfastosaurus. Never had a bad meal there. Food has always been fresh and hot and the character interaction wonderful.

CM's gets much better breakfast reviews. We might give breakfast a chance next trip but doubt we will ever have the nerve to do dinner again.

 

[brooke1]

I cant speak for CM dinner but have heard the same thing (yuk).....but i will say that the breakfast rocks and the character interaction was great.

Brooke

 

[cocodog]

Food is not good at dinner, by any stretch of the imagination. I can't even compare it to any chain, as I would not think of eating like that. You go for the characters, period.

 

[tar heel]

Golden Corral -- not very good.

 

[bcinohio]

Chef Mickey's for breakfast if a must for us. We just got back from WDW and we had a great breakfast there. The food was very good and we ate so much that we didn't have to eat lunch that day. The characters were very good too. The kids just love going. I would say switch to breakfast!!

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Would you say that the Liberty Tree Tavern would be better?

 

[GoofyBanker]

Chef Mickey's food is comparable to a public school lunch program. If you go there, keep in mind you are going for the characters, not for the mediocre, luke-warm food offerings.

I think this assessment is a bit harsh, our family has always enjoyed Chef Mickey's both for the characters and the food. No the food is not the best, but it is NOT school lunch either. I would rank it alongside any of those chain buffet style restaurants like Golden Coral, Quincy's, Bob Evans....etc....
But the main difference is you don't get a mickey character coming by at the Golden Corral.

 

[NY Disney fan]

You guys are killin' me! I made ADR for Chef Mickey's for dinner and now am considering changing it Lukewarm food is not cool.

 

[sha_lyn]

no it isn't school lunch. The schools around here serve food 10X better than CMs. Like I said we left staving. The food could not be eaten, and even if it could have, it was too luke warm to be eaten safely.

 

[Stacy_C]

We have always enjoyed that characters and meals at Chef Mickey's. I love the atmosphere, too!

 

[StephaBabe50]

We always make time for CM when we are at Disney. I can't believe some of the posts that I just read. We have never had a bad experience. No problems with food, character interaction has always been wonderful. I, too, say go and try it for yourself especially if you have little ones, but even if you don't.

 

[Mouse-n-Mini]

Those of you who hated CM's offerings...did you go for dinner or breakfast? I originally had Breakfastosaurus booked, and saw bad reviews for it so then I switched to CM's...don't tell me I made yet another mistake!

 

[DiscussDisney]

What everyone needs to realize is that these "dining opinions" are just opinions. Some will hate, some will be indifferent and some will love. Chef Mickey's is one of the places that falls into one of those categories. Some hate it, some love it and some think it's just so-so. That goes for MOST restaurants in general. Everyone has different tastes and expectations. JMO

 

[LAWalz23]

IMHO, you should experience a restaurant for yourself before deciding. Restaurants at WDW, just like the rest of the world can have off nights once in a while. Mama Melrose's usually gets very good reviews but the 1x we were there we just did not enjoy it, not sure if we will go back because we have found other favorites and are partial to NY Italian. Another restaurant that we just don't care for is Crystal Palace but we go because my sister's twins (boy/girl age 7) like it. Personally, Chef Mickeys is our family tradition that we do on our first night at WDW. It gets us in the mood and sure beats standing on line to get pictures and/or autographs. Have the meals always been super, no, but they have not been bad either. Both adults and kids (ages 7-72) always find something that they like and we never leave hungry. Their desserts are usually very good. So are the characters. My mom picked Chef Mickeys to celebrate her and my father's 50th anniversary with the family last year. Don't be afraid of trying a restaurant because of a few bad reviews on the boards, it is your vacation and you should do what you want.

 

[nanalisa]

My family doesn't like everything they offer either but we can always find something we like. They have a nice salad bar and carving station and good mashed potatoes. And of course the kids have a bar with the chicken strips and mac and cheese. It's not gourmet cuisine, but it's not horrible either.

 

[bellarella]

I agree that you should take opinions on food with a grain of salt, as everyone's tastes differ.

HOWEVER with CM's the thing that would concern me is the number of reviews saying the food is not hot, fresh, or turned over fast enough. That's not a matter of taste, but rather of poor service and staffing and will across the board make the food bad.

Unfortuantely I didn't heed these warnings and went to CM's for dinner. I had a very hard time finding food that I wasn't worried about getting food poisoning from. Things were very obviously not being kept fresh (grease pooling and then solidifying on food, shrimp that were room temp and floopy from having sat in a bowl of water (ice long since melted), crust forming on mashed potatos, etc.). I found the food in general to be mediocre, but that's just MHO and I wouldn't slam a restaurant for that. Not keeping the buffet up though, will draw my harsh criticism. CMs was also the only buffet restaurant at WDW that we ran into this problem with. All the others we went to were very fresh and well maintained.

Character interaction, however, was very good when we were there and our DD's enjoyed that very much.