Recent Chef Mickey Dinner Experiences......

[joy13]

We ate dinner there in 2007 and really liked it so we are going again in October. I just read a live report of someone who ate there this week and said the food was really bad, but the service was great. She has eaten there in the past and loved it. I'm just curious if it was a bad night or if the food quality has gone downhill?

 

[soccerchick]

We ate there 8/15 for dinner. We had previously eaten there in 2005 and it was terrible. We didn't go back until this trip. This trip the food was very good. Fruit, vegetable side dishes, and carving station in particular were good. Can't beat the dessert bar. My only complaint about the food was the broccoli was covered in cheese.

Characters were VERY SLOW getting around. Well, Minnie was good, the rest were slow. I understand Mickey getting tied up, but jeez people. We were done and I would have been happy to leave but the kids wanted to wait for Pluto, the last one we needed to see.

 

[valeriemouse]

We ate there 8/15 for dinner. We had previously eaten there in 2005 and it was terrible. We didn't go back until this trip. This trip the food was very good. Fruit, vegetable side dishes, and carving station in particular were good. Can't beat the dessert bar. My only complaint about the food was the broccoli was covered in cheese.

Characters were VERY SLOW getting around. Well, Minnie was good, the rest were slow. I understand Mickey getting tied up, but jeez people. We were done and I would have been happy to leave but the kids wanted to wait for Pluto, the last one we needed to see.

We were at Chef Mickey's on 8/23 and we had to wait for Pluto as well! After we were done with our dinner and dessert we still had to wait a good 15 minutes, but we just had to see Pluto, who really took his time getting to us. Also as you said, Minnie was excellent! First character we saw!

Anyway, I loved the food, as always. Those mashed potatoes are to die for, yum. I'm definitely planning on going back next year.

 

[MarkinNM]

Thanks for your review as I was a bit nervous on CM with some of the reviews here on the DIS. Good to hear that CM’s is a good buffet……

 

[gregokdisney]

and the food was delicious! The only problem was that the chocolate soft serve ice cream machine was dispensing soup instead of chocolate ice cream. Other than that, it got an A+ from all of us, including my kids!

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

We ate at Chef Mickey's the first week in June; we have been many times before and always been impressed. However, this time the service was horrible (food was good though). We kept waiting for the characters(for over an hour) and eventually had to leave before we saw them all. It was my birthday and nothing special was done at all.... so disappointing. My kids were so upset. Maybe it will be better when you go. Good luck

 

[kazfloyd]

CM is one of our must do's. This was our 4th time there and I was very disappointed. I found this to be the worst meal overall out of everyhwere we went.

The pictures at the begining were horrible. The CM's were rude when I asked for a pic of the 5 of us and then one of the 7 of us. When they brought them to us, they only brought the one of the 5 of us. When I asked about the one of the 7 of us, the CM was arguing with me and said they only took one pic of us and there was no 2nd pic. He finally brought it over to us. We have a pic there from every year there so I knew I wanted to buy it.

We were a party of 7 and they had us at 2 different tables. We were on the bend though of the bench so we were very far apart. Then they had parties of 4 and 5 come in and sit at the large tables with 2, 3 and 4 empty chairs. Very weird. The service was not very good at all, and this was a buffet. Our waitress was seldom around and the bus boy did a great job cleaning up most of the dining room. When the waitress ran our KTTW card, my husband told her to charge the tip to the room too. He had to keep asking for the slip for him to sign off on, which we never got either. We had to wait for the characters too. Very slow coming around.

I am sad that it went downhill so much from last year. I was hoping to hear some good comments and it was an off night.

Oh, and our waitress brought our daughters cupcakes for their birthday out when we were eatting our soup and salads.

 

[tlenzendorf]

We ate there a couple weeks ago. The food was good(not great), the service was good and the character interaction was good. All in all a nice meal. Not the best we had, definetly not the worst.

 

[joy13]

Thanks for all the opinions everyone - keep them coming! It's good to know that some have had good experiences. Sounds like it takes awhile for the characters though - the good thing is our ADR is the last thing we are doing, so we will be in no hurry.

 

[tlenzendorf]

For us it was the other way around, we didn't have to wait for the characters at all. Goofy was waiting for us while we were getting seated. That part felt a little rushed and ackward. I guess it could be because our ressies were for 5:10 and not much was happening in the restaurant yet.

 

[themerriemonarch]

There's obviously a wide range of opinions on this one. Here's mine.

Having just eaten there last week (for the first time in 2 years), I think the food quality is pretty mediocre. I did not have a problem with character visits -- within an hour, "everyone" came by. Service was fine. The noise level is generally high, but typical of most Disney restaurants. The location "in the lobby" of the Contemporary is nice -- especially now that renovations are complete.

That said, unless you have kids under 9 -- or have some particular interest in "meeting" the characters while you dine -- you should not eat at this buffet. The food quality at Boma's is SEVERAL notches higher, so if you want a buffet, that's where to go. Not only is the Boma food much more interesting (along with plenty of familiar food for the kids), even the basics -- like the carved beef -- are executed SO MUCH BETTER at Boma. It's like night and day.

Having eaten at other mediocre character buffets (like the one in the Grand Floridian), it seems pretty obvious to me that Disney feels like that can sacrifice food quality a bit when the characters are around. I guess the theory is you go to a character buffet mostly for the characters, and not for the outstanding cuisine.

I think most people -- except character "fanatics" and parents of young children -- would trade better food for characters at dinner. There are plenty of places to get your photo taken with the characters in the Parks -- heck, in 5 days, my kids got personal photos with at least 20 characters (including Mickey) and we never waited more than 2 minutes (we don't wait on long lines for character visits).

If you want "entertainment" with your meal at Disney, the best place I've found is Ohanas. The food is very good there, you are properly served by waiters (but it is all-you-care-to-eat), and they have very pleasant Hawaiian-themed entertainment (geared toward kids) during the meal. It is a particularly good value under the DDP because you get plenty of appetizers, full entree (lots of grilled meats and sides) and a delicious desert included in your meal credit. I think 9 out of 10 people -- including kids -- would prefer dinner there to dinner at Chef Mickey's, and it's just as convenient on the Magic Kingdom monorail.

 

[tami82]

I do have to say that i was happy with the food. After reading some reviews was a bit nervous but i will be honest that the food at CM was much much better than 1900 Park Fare. 1900 Park Fare was a disappointment. There was a good assortment of food at CM. The only thing i wasnt impressed with was the ice cream (it was more of an ice milk) but other than that it was very good.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I think the food it terrible and not worth the price at all.

 

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

We're having dinner at CM for the first time on our trip next month (I get to say "this month" tomorrow!!! ). We've had breakfast, and it was good.

That said, I like to check out the restaurant board to get an idea of what to expect, but I never let anyone's opinions sway me one way or the other. Everyone has different tastes and opinions, so I say go and check it out for yourself.

 

[joy13]

Thanks again for all the opinions everyone! I've decided to keep the ADR at CM's - though I'll keep taking people's opinions and reviews!

 

[reducereuserecycle]

waitress brought our daughters cupcakes for their birthday out when we were eatting our soup and salads.

oh, my...guess that ruins the healthy part of the meal for most kids!

 

[NuttyDisneyMom]

I guess the theory is you go to a character buffet mostly for the characters, and not for the outstanding cuisine.

This statement couldn't be more on the money!

 

[GSDRescuer]

We ate there the first week of May. It was very good. The food was good and the characters came around enough. Service was good, too. We will be going back there again on our next trip. DH liked it alot.