As someone who has grown up in a restaurant family, I would say this is good information for many restaurants, but not necessarily WDW restaurants. Chef Mickey's continously gets bad reviews on the DIS - sure the DIS is only a small represenation of WDW travellers, but still an important representation, as far as I'm concerned. I have spoken to several character meal managers over the years, and nothing much can be done:
Characters - Managers will get the character handler for you and have characters come to your table if you have been forgotten about. But, if it is super busy, as it is usually is at Chef Mickey's and O'Hana (we've had major character issues at both), their hands are tied as the characters need breaks, etc.
Food - The food is what it is. The sundae machines are always broken at CM's because people let their kids play with them, what do you expect a manager to do? The food is bad for many of us, but not for all, so what again, do you expect the manager to do? If it's cold, then the he/she can have the chefs replenish, but what else can be done?
Wait times - CM's is so overcrowded because families spend too much time keeping the characters at their tables, kids running around unattended, etc. The check-in line at CM's is horribly long, and then you have at least another 30 mins (every time this has been our experience for 3-4 people) wait to be seated. The wait times are a problem due to the amount of people, and the families who feel that they are the only ones there in attendance. The only thing the restaurant manager can do is speak to the character handler. Remember too, that there are many special occasions celebrated at CM's as well, so this also takes up time.
Dirty & noisy - Again, too overcrowded and way too many unattended kids. Managers can speak to parents, but I imagine it's hard to figure out whom kids belong to. I have seen managers speak to kids who are unattended at times at the buffet as they were sticking their fingers in the food, but it hardly happens and CM is one place that I have seen kids do disgusting stuff to the food (and yes, I have told CMs about it).
I guess for me, not much can be done as these problems are the nature of the CM beast. Food quality can be improved, but I am betting they won't do it as they are booked solid. Wait times and noise are dependent upon your crowd, and so with lots of young babies/kids, this is to be expected.
Good luck to all those eating at Chef Mickey's, Tiger
). Was really excited to go back in 2008, but was disappointed. Food was great, but the characters barely spent any time with us. Just enough time to sign my autograph book and take a very quick picture and they were off. I wanted to retake a couple pictures that turned out poorly, but they were gone before I could check my camera. I tried to talk to them, and they'd gesture a quick response and then off they went. I was really disappointed, especially since we were there as things were settling down and people were leaving and not entering. Our ADR was around 10:50 and we weren't seated until about 11:10, I think. I did see several of the characters just hanging around and playing with a few families and/or groups in the back side room that has the best view of the MK. Oddly enough, that's where we sat the first two times, and where we had the best interaction with the characters. 
