Chef Mickey's

[MissionMouse]

Thanks everyone - will be keeping our reservation and trying it out!

Good idea, since every Disney restaurant has bad reviews. Some are better than others for food, service or atmosphere. Chef Mickey' is a character buffet, so it does have the character gimmick category. Service isn't an issue here as you service yourself, except your drinks and getting dishes cleared from your table. Other guest are usually the variable making it a good dining experience. Hopefully, people are doing the right thing as they come in contact with food. Chef Mickey's Breakfast is usually the calmest, except for the families who think their schedule rules and rush through breakfast. Dinner at Chef's is best early as you remember it draws lots of families with really young kids. Some people run their kids all day, so Chef Mickey's gets loud at dinner. So parents run their kids too many hours at Disney to get their money's worth, so Chef Mickeys can often be loud at dinner the later you dine there as kids are starting to go into melt down mode. We always found dining early at Chef's for dinner was best.

 

[richkaryn]

I say if you really want to try, go in with low expectations based on the bad reviews like we did. (I was hoping to be proved wrong, but it was worse than my low expectations even). We personally thought it was worse than school cafeteria food in quality and our character interaction was less than stellar. I wouldn't have even gone but it was DS's bday and he wanted to. BUT, that was our experience, and there seem to be those who have had good experience with either/or the food and character interaction. At least if you go in with low expectations, it won't be as big of a let down if it's bad.

 

[brockash]

Hi!

First trip to WDW this summer and looking at dining. We currently have a reservation at Chef Mickey's but have been reading some negative reviews.


Anyone that has eaten at Goofy's kitchen over in California, is the food quality about the same? Also, in lots of photos I have seen Pluto but he's not listed as being regular. Does anyone know if Pluto is a regular at Chef Mickey's?

Thanks

We've always seen Pluto, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Donald - we've always done dinner and have done it every year for the last 8 years. Overall, if you're going for the food, skip it, but if you're going for the characters then it's not a bad meal.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I've been to Chef Mickey's a couple times. The food has always been fine, though the characters and atmosphere are the reasons to eat here. For food alone I wouldn't recommend eating here, just because there is much better food elsewhere, but it is a really fun experience. And Pluto has been there every time I've eaten there.

 

[addiln]

We were there in August last year and the entire fab 5 were there. This was our first night there and since we were not going to the parks that day I thought this would get us in the Disney mood. The food was nothing great and I would not go back there again. It was nice getting all the pictures and autographs done there instead of the parks so we did not have any lines to deal with there. As far as buffets go this one ranks low on my list of WDW buffets.

 

[boxer]

We took a few years off, and just went back last November for a late dinner (I think it was 8:45ADR). I gotta say it was one of our favorite dinners from the trip. I LOVED the food, and was even a better selection than it was a few years ago. Beef tips, mashed potatoes, lobster spaghetti, carved beef, etc---ALL were excellent. It was so good we tried to book another dinner on the trip while we were there!

I'll be making our November trip ADR's, and will most certainly book CM again.

 

[KarenAylwood]

We just went to Chef Mickey's on Friday for brunch and loved it. We had an 11am ADR so we were really more in the brunch crowd (starts at 11:30am). I had been a few years ago for dinner and remember it being just OK and we had said we wouldn't be back. However, we were staying at BLT and knew our 2 year old DS would get a kick out of the characters so we got an ADR. It was such a pleasant surprise!! We all loved the food (even my super picky father) and the character interaction was great. I couldn't say more good things about it. We wouldn't hesitate to go back but we'll do brunch from now on.

 

[Mom24Princesses]

We've been for dinner 5 times over the past 20 years. We always like it but it is a lot of $$$$. Well take GKs someday.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We were there Fri for dinner and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of food options. They had a lot more than other Disney buffets. I did find the quality to be very inconsistent. The caprese salad was tasteless and the California rolls were pretty awful but the beef was really good and there were other good options too. I can see where two people could go to the same buffet on the same night and have 1 say it was awful and the other say it was good based on what they tried. But there is a lot to choose from so if something isn't good try something else.