Late Chef Mickey's Dinner

[TexasTSL]

Has anyone had a late dinner at Chef Mickey's? My son and I wanted to do dinner on arrival day, but the only thing open is a 9:25 p.m. That's right at closing. I was wondering if food quantity and quality is particularly low late at night.

I know Chef Mickey's gets a lot of bad press, but we actually enjoyed it for the first time last year, although we ate at an earlier time. I can't remember exactly, but I think last year we had dinner around 7:30 or so.

Thanks!

 

[GC&S]

We ate there last week. Our ADR was for 8:10 and we were seated about 8:30. It was wonderful. Maybe because kids and families were tired but it was so quiet. we are used to CM being quite loud. It was my dd's birthday and our server was very attentive. The characters spent a lot of time with us probably as the room was not full. The food was hot and they replaced it often. There were two people who were cleaning up the food area. Nothing looked messy and it was very clean. The downside was that we missed Mickey when we got there and had to wait about 1/2 hour after we ate for him to come around. It was worth it but we wanted to get to MK. Our server brought out a card, cupcake, lit a candle and sang to DD. No complaints about the food or service.

 

[xwewhisper]

Not at Chef Mickey's but a similar timing at H&V. We were one of, if not the very, last party to be sat. As we ate the restaurant did start clearing out and they closed one side of the buffet (same food was served on both sides). HOWEVER the food we ate was continually fresh and yummy and at no point did we feel rushed out. We got some extra time with the characters and enjoyed the extra space around us for some great pics. If you can wait that late to eat, I'd say go for it!

 

[Mom2Stitch]

We have dined that late and never had a problem at Chef Mickey's. It is our traditional first night meal if our DS is with us. For our upcoming trip I had planned on it being just DH and myself, a couple of weeks ago DS decided that he wanted to join us. Since he's now 21 I asked him if he wanted Chef Mickey or somewhere a little more "grown up"--he rolled his eyes and said "Really Mom!?!" The only Chef Mickey I could get at that point was a late one, but I used the reservation finder over on touringplans.com and ended up with an 8PM, which is perfect since we don't get in to the airport until after 5PM. I would give that a try if you are interested in finding an earlier time, you do not have to be a member to use this.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

Okay, in the past I disagreed with all the bad press that CM got. We always had a great time whenever we went. I thought the food wasn't that bad for a buffet either. Our last trip (November 2015), my husband and I did not want to go, but our kids did. I think this was our 8th time to CM. Our seating time was really late - 8:15 pm - but my kids are night owls and stay up late at Disney anyway. Well, we were seated way after our reservation time. I can't remember how long it was exactly, but I'm thinking 30-45 minutes. Our server was pretty much non-existent. She got our drinks and brought our bill, but didn't do refills or clear plates. The restaurant was still pretty busy. This day Pluto was greeting by the plate. I'm not sure how we missed him. Maybe I had to take a child to the bathroom, and we never got to meet him. I don't know what happened. It took quite a while for the characters to come around. That is no big deal to me, but it makes going up to the buffet without worrying about missing the characters a little stressful. Also, if you've been to a character meal before, you know you always want to have the signature book ready or the camera or video camera. And when you are taking care of kids, it's not exactly a relaxed experience. I would have to agree that the food has gone down hill over the years. I would say it's on par to an Old Country Buffet. The mini desserts make sense and you get to try a lot of different things, but I didn't think anything was special.

We had been there a really, really long time, and we still had not seen Donald. Two of my kids were falling asleep at the table. Character meals can take around two hours (a lot of Disney meals take a long time). I'm not sure what was going on, but CMs kept pulling characters over to a wall to the side to meet people. After that, Donald finally came to our table and we were able to leave.

That being said, I don't care if I ever go back. My kids could beg and beg and I would do my best to talk them into something else. However, your experience could be completely different, and you could have a great time. So, if you do go, I do hope you have a great time!