chef Mickeys or rainforest...HELP!!!!!

[hedberg1661]

I agree with you on the Rain Forest, but the same thing can be said for Chef Mickey; you can get frozen buffet food like CM at Golden Corral or just about anywhere as well. Neither one of these restaurants is very praise worthy when it comes to the food.

Agree however, if I must pick one I guess I will take my chances with CM. And yeah the price isn't worth it at all for either but that is Disney.

 

[coozieman]

I have adrs set for both..for Thursday...the next morning we are doing our first full day at magic kingdom. 7AM! So we're getting up at 5! I booked CM at 180 days out...then discovered horrible reviews and grabbed what was available at DS since we plan to go there anyway. Maybe I should give up both and do a quick service so we can get back to our rooms earlier?

Trust me when I say that you will love Chef Mickeys. The posters that are saying the food is horrendous must be spoiled It's no different than any other buffet. I had salmon (amongst many other items) last year - and it was fantastic.

The characters interaction is great and you're able to get pics, autographs and a full belly all under 1 roof!

 

[willowsnn3]

Opinions, opinions, opinions!

Chef Mickey is one of our favorites, have eaten there many times and last Sept arrival day dinner was really, really good. Character interaction has always been great too. If you have never been then you need to try it at least once.

Contrary to popular opinion Rainforest is not EVERYWHERE! The closest one to me is 436 miles, which happens to right outside Animal Kingdom park, lol. It is a must on our AK day. Always enjoyable, never had a bad meal there. Never been to the one at Disney Springs.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

As an adult, I would probably prefer RFC. It is our only "local" location (well, one of the two at Disney). CM gets some iffy reviews and it would cost more than RFC where I can share a plate.

My kids would likely prefer CM. they like buffets and if this DIS says it is mediocre, odds are my kids would enjoy it.

But it depends on the purpose of the resteraunt choice. If both were chosen with kids in mind, I would lean to CM.

I would almost prefer Contempo cafe unless I had a TS DDP Dining credit to use.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We waited for a long time to try CM because of bad reviews. We finally tried it for breakfast. My favorite characters are there & I really liked it! We have now repeated it a many of time for breakfast & I think it's good. ( we aren't buffet people so I doubt I'll ever know what supper is like there.
RFC is really neat & the plates are huge. However, we really didn't like our food vey much. We have eaten at RFC in Grapevine & SanAntonio which we thought were better. If you haven't ever eaten at one ...the restaurant is interesting.
Myself, I would pick CM of those two. Other choice, I would go withOhana that night. I love that place!

 

[goofy4prez]

Trust me when I say that you will love Chef Mickeys. The posters that are saying the food is horrendous must be spoiled It's no different than any other buffet. I had salmon (amongst many other items) last year - and it was fantastic.

The characters interaction is great and you're able to get pics, autographs and a full belly all under 1 roof!

By saying that someone who doesn't like CM is spoiled is about as ridiculous a statement as one could make (perhaps you are trying to be humorous). Sorry there are some who don't agree with your opinion. Neither someone who loves CM or hates CM is wrong... It's opinion and has nothing to do with being spoiled if they don't like it or having low standards if they do like it.

 

[ZoeysMommy0308]

Thank you all so much for your input. When I initially planned this trip my daughter didn't know about it. So now that she does...I just let her decide. Of course she chose DINNER WITH MICKEY!!! Fingers crossed for a good night!!

 

[boltfan]

The food is okay at both restaurants, but at least at Chef Mickey's you can walk around. The tables were so jammed in at Rainforest Cafe that people kept bumping into our chairs. And it was so loud! We went once about 4 years ago and never went back.

 

[Tam&Sam]

Let's be honest, there are no gastronomy served at any of these locations. I personally hate the food at Rainforest cafe, it's subpar at best! Although CM isn't fantastic either I found the food to be just slightly better and you do get great interactions with the Fab Five characters which is a huge plus!
Apart from the food, you need to consider where you'll be coming from and what you plan on doing that first night and if you're relying solely on Disney transportation or not. What is nice about CM is the location, you can take the opportunity to ride the Monorail and watch the fireworks from the hotel or ride the resort boats that goes from CR to WL to FL, and watch the Water Pageant. These are a few free and relaxed activities that can make for a magical first night.

 

[LovesTimone]

We enjoy CM, but we know its not signature dinning, what we do know is it's a buffet with characters.. the FAB 5. While not a gourmet meal, it's fine for buffet and does offer some tasty choices. The character interaction is great and what's not to love about that.

RF - is fun, especially if your child likes animals, but it is loud in there so you might want to be prepared for that. As far as the food and service goes, we think its fine but again you have to look at it and compare it apples to apples and not apples to oranges... sorta thing.

Here are some things to consider.

What time will you get up at home, also what does the day before look like schedule wise? There is always added stuff to do before vacation, so we would go to bed later than normal, especially me. Include all the travel time, traveling can and will wear out a adult, with small children it's even harder on them.

What time do you land? - This would be a deciding factor for me, if its later on in the day how will you and your family will feel after a day of traveling? You know them best so you have to make the call.

Are you using ME? - you will have to wait until the bus is almost full, and there could be other resort stops ahead of you.

Resort arrival and check in - sometimes its quick and sometimes with a lobby full of people it could take a while.

Finding your room, getting settled, and if you have a grocery deliver, or stroller rental to deal with.

After traveling most of the day how will your family feel about waiting for & getting on a bus, more traveling ?

If your plan is to go to Disney Springs I would stick with Rainforest, if your going to be going there already you will cut down on the bus riding.
You could play it by ear, if your family is completely wiped out. You could do some pool time, and QS at the Resort, and head off to bed early for rope drop the next day. If your sorta tired you could head for DS and get WPE or Earl of sandwich, and stretch your legs a while, and do some shopping.

However you decide, Have a magical trip

 

[Elsafever]

I'm glad to see at least some positive comments about Chef Mickey's since I've been seeing such horrible reviews lately. I have never been there, so it makes me apprehensive. We have reservations for our trip in June and are hoping for the best! I have 5 and 8 year old daughters and my 5 year old worships Mickey and friends. I even bought the girls the chef Mickey and Goofy Fisher Price Little People characters to surprise them with before we go. I think they'll love it no matter what and hopefully we can survive the food. I've also never eaten at RFC, but I would choose Mickey's because it's Mickey!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

While the food at Chef Mickey's dinner was vile when we went (breakfast is fine), the character interaction made it worth it. We have 3 RFCs locally, so there's nothing special about that to us, but Chef Mickey's...you can't exactly get that experience everywhere. So, if you don't mind taking the risk on the food, CM is the way to go IMO.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I would skip both of these, and if possible, go meet Mickey at a different character meal: Garden Grill, Tusker House, etc.

 

[VillainFavs]

The food at Chef Mickey is bad enough--think school cafeteria quality. But what got me was just how dirty the place was. There was food all over the floor. I mean ALL. OVER. THE. FLOOR. And the buffet area was disgusting. I saw kids up there unattended, reaching for food with their hands. Changing their minds, putting it back. Food was all mixed together. Spilled all over the buffet area. I barely ate anything. For some reason, parents just don't seem to care about supervising their children here. And I've been to plenty other character meals at Disney. None seemed as bad. And we tried three times thinking we had just one bad experience. Tried breakfast instead. Nope. Every time it was the same thing. Never again.

 

[monorailsilver]

I was not impressed with RFC partially because they didn't work with us with my son and his foo allergies and mainly because we ate at T Rex another trip and thought the food was so much better. The only good thing RFC had was a banana chocolate drink that I sucked down in minutes as it tasted like ice cream...I am not a big drinker and if I can't taste the alcohol that is a bonus! We also had $80 in free gift cards and T rex was being built then so we had no other option.

As far as CM, my kids are still asking to go, even my almost 15yo. They had so much fun there! I loved the crab claws or whatever they were called and ate my money's worth.

 

[MrsDuck]

Chef Mickey is the way to go.

 

[mikeyg1479]

Chef Mickeys- go for the characters if you have little ones with, but most certainly not the food. Expect the worst kind of Old Country Buffet food experience. Maybe not even that good. But it is easy access photo ops with Mickey and crew if little ones are along and that is a trip priority.

Rainforest Café is like an overpriced Applebees or TGI Fridays, but with nice scenery. I admit, I enjoy being in these restaurants, something about the ambience is just very inviting to me. But the food is chain restaurant faire at its finest- for better and worse. Not terrible, just nothing special. Another place the kids will probably enjoy. Their gift shop is actually reasonably priced (for Disney) if the kids like animal stuff.

 

[goofy4prez]

Chef Mickey is the way to go.

Yes, as in immediately the way to go is in the other direction and run, not just run, but run as fast as you can to another buffet if you must like Tusker House.

 

[ZoeysMommy0308]

We done mostly buffets for meeting characters. We ended up doing Chef Mickey's! The food was a strange mixture but it wasn't horrible! We had a ball! We also done crystal palace breakfast, 1900 park faire dinner, tusker house breakfast, hollywood and vine breakfast, Cinderella's royal table breakfast, and Be our guest dinner. We loved it all! We aren't hard to please though. Just happy to share the experience together!! It was awesome!!

 

[willowsnn3]

Ha! My family loves both, lol. Rainforest is a must for our Animal Kingdom day (haven't been to the one at Disney Springs). Love Chef Mickey's too. Sometimes the food at CM is better than other times but have really never had a bad meal there.