Disappointing trip to Chef Mickey's

[Luthien_Rei]

My family and I had dinner at Chef Mickey's Last night. Overall I would say it was a disappointing experience. The characters and the fun atmosphere are great. If you're looking for a quiet or romantic dinner this is not the spot for you. If you can be seated by the entrance the view while sitting right in the concourse with the monorail overhead is great.

The food could have been much better. The Prime Rib was extremely chewy, so much so that it was almost hard to cut with the supplied knives, and the Roast Pork was very dry and had very little flavor. Many of the offerings were barely warm, bordering on cold. Many times when we went to get our food we found empty food stations, making it difficult to try some of the dishes. The waiters were horribly overworked but trying their best, rushing between tables and trying to catch up all night. Frankly, Disney needs to stop being cheap and hire more staff and hire someone to properly prepare and jazz up the food. It was dissapointing for such a hefty price, but at this place you are paying more for the characters, and "fun" atmosphere, than the food.

Overall, and I say this as someone who came to Disney yearly as a child, and for the last 12 years has been an annual pass holder and lived within 30 minutes of Disney, I feel that food quality at Walt Disney World is going noticeably down in recent years, and Disney is cutting far too many corners to warrant the ever increasing prices.


*EDIT/NOTE* Just to clarify a point and avoid any confusion, I was well aware of the type of atmosphere to be found at CM (I've eaten there many times over the years )and the comment about "quiet" was simply for ppl unfamiliar with the establishment. As stated in my review the "characters and the fun atmosphere are great", and had nothing to do with my disappointment.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I agree with you. We have tried for years to get in here (we do alot of last minute trips) and we finally tried it Oct 06. The characters were great but the food was terrible...we had a 5:30 seating so you think the food would be good and fresh.

I would not go back for dinner but I wouldnt mind trying breakfast.

 

[nollequeen]

Had brunch there last week and it was wonderful. So great in fact, that we went back again the following morning. The first day we could only get a reservation at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am and we really wanted to do a character breakfast. Luckily we were staying at the Contemporary, so it was only a question of dragging ourselves out of bed and to the elevator.

Food was great and hot. Although, now that I am thinking about it, maybe it was because we were there so early. Very good though, I particularly liked a cornbeef hash in cornbread casserole. Yum-o.

ALSO, the best cup of coffee I had at Disney's was at Chef Mickey's.

 

[Luthien_Rei]

Both your sentiments echo alot of what I've been hearing from many people lately: if you want to have a character meal at the Contemporary Resort, go for the breakfast buffet. I've heard good things about the breakfast buffet and plan to go again for the 1st time in years soon, but sadly I won't be going back to the dinner buffet until many changes are made.

For that price, and knowing how much many families save all year for their special trip, I really can't recommend the dinner buffet to anyone unless their 1st priority was simply seeing hard-to-spot characters like Minnie and Donald, who are rare to see at Disney character meals or without waiting in a long meet-n-greet picture line.

 

[Disney owl]

Sorry to hear it was a dissappointment

 

[matt&jakesmom]

We eat dinner and breakfast at Chef Mickey's every year on our trip. We have never had any disappointments with the food. However with any restaurant no matter where you go, sometimes it may be very good and the next time so so.

 

[jjk]

HOpe that its ok in July as have just booked this for DS 11th Birthday.

 

[ptrbryant]

We've had dinner at Chef Mickey's for the past 4 years and have never had a problem...in fact, the food was always pretty good for a buffet. We usually have an ADR for around 5:30...don't know if that makes a difference.

I agree the atmosphere is loud and boisterous, but in a fun way. I doubt anyone who has done research would go there for a quiet, romantic dinner.

That said, it does seem to be a restaurant that gets mixed reviews...it's just always been great for us.

Karla B.

p.s.jjk: I think it would be a PERFECT place for an 11 year old boy's birthday! Our DS just turned 11 in February, so it won't work out for our May trip, but otherwise, I'd do something there, too!

 

[disneyfanUSA]

Wow i love Chef Mickeys ive been there 7 times and loved it every time!!! sry it didnt turn out good 4 some of u's

 

[ObsessedwiththeMouse]

We love Chef Mickey's. Obviously, it is not a "romantic place". I suggest that if you're looking for a "quiet, romantic place" you go to the GF.

I have never tried breakfast there, but have eaten many dinners at Chef Mickey's.

We love it so much I am going to make reservations for our trip in December!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

We have eaten at CM's 3 times already and although I agree about the atmosphere, we have never been disappointed in the food. Standard buffet choices, pretty good variety and great parmesan cheese mashed potatoes!

We have an ADR for our fall vacation and the only thing making me question our reservation is the fact that Chip n Dale are no longer appearing at CM's. They are DD's favorite characters.... Otherwise, we love to start off our vacation at CM's, great reason to wave that napkin: Our vacation has officially started

 

[MeLaNie9]

Both your sentiments echo alot of what I've been hearing from many people lately: if you want to have a character meal at the Contemporary Resort, go for the breakfast buffet. I've heard good things about the breakfast buffet and plan to go again for the 1st time in years soon, but sadly I won't be going back to the dinner buffet until many changes are made.

For that price, and knowing how much many families save all year for their special trip, I really can't recommend the dinner buffet to anyone unless their 1st priority was simply seeing hard-to-spot characters like Minnie and Donald, who are rare to see at Disney character meals or without waiting in a long meet-n-greet picture line.

I would have to disagree with this - we have had both breakfast and dinner at CM's and had a terrible time at the breakfast. Dinner was much better. During breakfast, it was so crowded that we waited forever to be seated despite ADRs. The food trays were often empty and lines to get food were very long. There were kids running all over the place and cutting in front of people in the lines. The service was terrible, mostly because the servers were so swamped. The characters took a long time to get around to the tables (because it was so crowded) and we left before we met them all. When we had dinner there (mindful that we arrived right as it was opening) we could be seated immediately and all of the food was fresh and hot and there weren't things missing. We didn't find any culinary masterpieces, but what was available was good. We were able to meet all the characters (DS said that the one character he wanted to see was Donald) and then eat at a leisurely pace. We will never do breakfast there again, but will probably do dinner.

 

[Jaime]

We ate dinner there and will never again. It was the worst meal of our last trip! The food was horrible compared to CP and the service was really poor! The characters were very busy but alot of fun. We had ressies at 6:00 but it took a really long time to be seated...over an hour...than we never saw our waiter the whole time...had to go up front and ask for someone to bring us drinks and our bill!

 

[boxer]

Standard buffet choices, pretty good variety and great parmesan cheese mashed potatoes!

Is that is what in those??? I've been trying to figure that out for like 3 years now.......I go to Chef Mickeys for these ALONE.

I can't get the recipe off them for these---does anyone have it??

 

[dcgrumpy]

from allears

Ingredients:

3 large baking potatoes
3 Tbsp. butter
1/2 C. grated Parmesan
1 C. warm milk

Method:

Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks and boil about 15 minutes until tender. Mash, using a potato masher or a heavy fork. Put back in the pot with the butter, cheese and milk. Blend well, adding salt and pepper to taste

 

[boxer]

THANK YOU.............I just got my side dish for dinner tonight!!!