Chef Mickey's or Liberty Tavern Character Meal

[Monkey Bum]

We are going in June with a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Which do you suggest, Chef Mickey's or Liberty Tavern, for the entire exprience for a character meal?

 

[kabbie]

I vote for Chef's Mickey's for the party atmosphere which would be perfect for a 2 and 5 year old. Liberty Tree Tavern has good Thanksgiving fare, but is very stiff.

 

[AStamm]

Chef Mickey's can get very chaotic. It's much larger than Liberty Tree, which is broken down into a number of small rooms with approximately 6 tables per area. I loved the food at Chef Mickey's during our June 04 trip but thought it was just ok during our November 05 trip. Liberty Tree was delicious both times we ate there. In my opinion, there is definitely more character interaction at Liberty Tree--the small size of the restaurant lends itself to frequent visits.

If your children are anything like my son, the sooner the food is out, the better. Buffets usually top his list since he can be eating a few minutes after sitting down. While Liberty Tree is family style, it can't possibly get much faster. On our first trip to Liberty Tree in July 05 I was videotaping my son when we sat down and within one minute the server was at our table. Within five minutes she was back with drinks, salad, and rolls. Our first trip there the ham was a little dry, but everything else delicious. On our last trip, everything was phenomenal.

 

[NC State]

I vote for Chef Mickey's even though I haven't tried it yet. We ate at LTT and hated it. The Charcters are great, the food is bad, it reminded me as frozen food reheated. I'm sure there's families that would say it's great. I will try CM for the first time come Oct. I just know that we will never try LTT again, on vacation I want food that I can't in the frozen section at Food Lion.

 

[lovedvc]

I vote for Chef Mickey's. I've had both breakfast and dinner there. The food at the Liberty Tree Tavern is disgusting, the turkey is processed and the side dishes are all microwave foods.

 

[Sinderelli]

Chef Mickey's! We've eaten at both, and although we liked LTT we have not made an effort to revisit on subsequent trips. We ate at CM for the first time in Sept., and are going again for this trip. We ate at LTT in Nov 2003, and although it was good- it was not spectacular. JMHO

 

[tidoublegger]

Chef Mickey's for sure!! The environment is fun for your kids age group and the food is better IMHO. The monorail runs through CM's and the kids will love seeing that too! I'd make a PS for 5:00pm, right when they start serving dinner so the food is fresh and the crowds are a bit smaller so you can make the most of the interaction!

 

[Nikki_Mouse]

Chef Mickey's was our fav meal in September. We arrived at 7:15 without a PS and were seated immediately. Obviously not busy! The characters spent a great deal of time at our table with both of my kids aged 4 and 7. They loved it! The food was good and my picky 7 year old actually ate. Try it you'll love it. The monorail riding by was another highlight for us!

 

[Hollyster2]

Chef Mickey's is great, but we always go to Liberty Tree. We love the atmosphere and we don't have Liberty Square here in Disneyland. It is just different, and the characters wear Colonial costumes. We also love how they announce our family name as we are called to be seated.

 

[cruisin'Mike]

I'm actually a fan of both restaurants. As long as you don't think your 2 yr old would be overwhelmed by all of the activity and commotion, I think I would recommend Chef Mickey's. To me it seems a little more of a "Disney" experience, and there are more food choices at the buffet.

Either way, have fun!

Mike

 

[pozey]

We've eaten at both. Our family (me, DW, DS(9), DS(7), and DD(2)) voted 3 - 2 in favor of Liberty Tree Tavern.

Both places are great.

 

[jarestel]

It's ok to like more than one place, it doesn't always have to come down to "x is great, y stinks". Been to CM many, many times because the grandkids like it, but we ( DW and I ) prefer LTT when they let us have our own way. Either way, you won't go away hungry, and the food is serviceable but not fancy, so don't worry too much about which to choose. Try one this trip and the other next time.

Have a great trip!

 

[Wendy31]

Wow! That's a hard choice!!

Our family starts our trip w/ dinner at LTT and ends our trip w/ breakfast at Chef Mickey's.

I guess, though, if I could only choose one, I'd choose Chef Mickey's for 2 reasons:

1. Mickey Mouse is there!! Along w/ Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, & Dale normally, & I think Donald is there for dinner. At LTT, Mickey's not usually there - it's only Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, & Dale

2. The fun atmosphere at Chef Mickey's - napkin twirling, cheerful music, the monorail running through... it feels very "Disney".

W/ that said, however, I will tell you that, last year, our family had much better character interaction at LTT than we did at CM's. At CM's, the characters (especially Mickey) rushed by all the tables, barely staying long enough at any table for even pics - much less any "interaction". At LTT, we had much better experiences w/ the characters - Pluto played around w/ our DS, Minnie was perfectly darling...

My DH also preferred the food at LTT (served family-style) than the food at CM's (buffet).

However, I think both of those things (character experiences and food quality) are "hit & misses" - sometimes, you go to the restaurant on a good day, and, sometimes, you're there on a not-so-good day.

So I'd still choose Chef Mickey's!

 

[shoegirl1020]

I also vote for CM for a few reasons. 1. The selection of food 2. The characters 3. the monorail and 4. The taste of teh food. We just returned from 6 days and ate at CM and LTT for the first time. I had eaten breakfast at CM before and enjoyed it. It was a little busy but really had taht "disney" feeling. I think the kids also need to "up get and stretch their legs" during dinner and choosing thier own food was very impressive to them. Our server at LTT was a great guy and we actually had to tell the characters that we'd seen enough of them! I wasn't too crazy about the food at LTT, it was good, but like a previous post, it could have been frozen foods, what I really enjoyed was our seating time.

We booked 7:20, to see Spectromagic at 7:00. The park closed at 8:00 that night. However, Spectro was late. We watched it from the steps at LTT and walked right in. Since we were late there were only a few other families (I actually only saw 2 other families). We were also celebrating my ds 7th bday. The table was decorated with Mickey confetti and streamers. Then, at the end the server and characters came out singing with a cupcake and candles. But, the best part was when we were ready to leave, bc MK was closed the Hostess needed to walk us out. It was soo fun walking past everything but only seeing a handful of other people. I think we got some really great shots of the castle.

 

[scrubnurse]

Another vote for Chef Mickeys!!! We ate at both on our last trip and we enjoyed CM so much more than LTT. In fact our party of of six decided that LTT was our least favorite meal of our entire Disney trip. It wasn't horrible, just not great. The service was good and the atmosphere was fun, but like previous posters have stated, it was like frozen food heated up. The mac-n-cheese is advertised as stoffer's, like the frozen kind you buy in the grocery store. Chef Mickey's on the other hand had it all: great food (I can't wait for those parmesan mashed potatoes....) and such a neat atmosphere. And there is a much bigger variety of food at Chef Mickey's, with the buffet. LTT just has a family style platter, with no other options. Just my two cents. have fun where ever you choose!!!

 

[handicap18]

Put me down for Chef Mickey's. I thought the character interaction at CM was much better. I liked having more choices for food. I thought the food was ok at LLT. I went up for 3rds at CM. The prime rib was great and I love the parmasian potatoes. We also had our "priceless" Disney moment at CM with Minnie Mouse. She was so awesome and single handedly brought DS out of his fear of the characters. Plus Mickey Mouse is there.

 

[Monkey Bum]

Thanks.