Which do you prefer & why? Chef Mickey or Garden Grill?

[junebug]

I am trying to decide between these two restaurants for our upcoming trip. We have been to Chef Mickeys before on numerous occasions but never to Garden Grill. I have a 4 year old boy in the party who loves Mickey, but figure that one of these reservations should give him his fix. So which would you choose for dinner & why? Thanks!

 

[whitney37354]

Since you've already been to CM, I'd choose GG. The atmosphere is more relaxed, meal served family style, & the characters come to you. The kids meals are separate from the family style. Kids meal for DD was a baked chicken leg, sweet potato fries & broccoli. I don't recall what her dessert was or if it was the same as we had. It wasn't our best meal of the week, but we all enjoyed the atmosphere. DD still talks about the restaurant that moved, & we went in June 2010, when she was 5.

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

I may be going against the grain, but, I would say Garden Grill. Chef Mickey's is just to crazy and rushed for us. Garden Grill is a must do every trip. We will take the boat ride in the Land and then eat at the Grill. The character interaction seems more personal and they come around more often. The best part is it's quite.
Enjoy which ever you pick.

 

[Mamu]

I would pick GG not a fan of CM.

Food is good and character interaction in awesome.

 

[Conan the Librarian]

I enjoy Chef Mickey's, but, the Garden Grill is MUCH more fun. Fewer screaming kids, and the characters are much more fun. On more quiet days, you make get to interact with them two or three times before you are done.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We always do both But we think the food is much better at GG. The service was great too.

 

[Chelley00]

We MUCH prefer Garden Grill. The food is better, no kids running back and forth to the buffet (and sticking their fingers in the food ) The character interaction has always been great at GG, and you have pretty scenery to enjoy if you while turning if you are on the bottom row.

DD always makes us do Chef Mickey's because she loves Minnie Mouse. It's gone so downhill the last trip or two.

 

[canadianmom2three]

oooh tough call! We were there a few weeks ago, and it was our first time at BOTH GG and CM.

I had heard some negative reviews about CM, but we had a blast, and the food was great (at least for a buffet imo). Everyone loved the desert area, the kids had fun with the napkin twirling and the characters all came round in a timely manner.

However, we were stunned by the GG. The food was really really good (our best meal of the 10 days!) and the characters doted on us, coming around 2 or three times, and really had fun with the kids. It was really neat the way the restaurant revolved, and really peacful since you are basically very private and not facing other tables. The server was fantastic (DD broke her glass when she dropped the butter dish on it, and they had the table cleared, cleaned and re-set with new dishes, drinks and bread basket in literally about 2 minutes!). I would highly recommend this one!!

 

[dimndgal1]

We love GG and are all set to do it on our next trip. I love the setting and the characters are some of the most personalized I have ever seen... lots of QT and photo ops.

Also, we tend to grab a FP for Soarin' and top a meal off with a flight!

 

[LuvsTinker]

We prefer GG. More relaxed, food brought to the table, characters are good about coming around timely. Added benefit of rotating over some of the The Land scenery.

CM is too chaotic for me.

 

[Queenofthecastle]

Garden Grill for sure. The food is excellent!!!

 

[AshleeH]

I'm so glad to read this thread! I had no idea GG even had Mickey! I thought it was just Chip and Dale (who I love, but my boys could care less about). I really wish Disney would be more informative and descriptive on their website so you don't have to search for information (and more pictures wouldn't hurt either!). Looks like I'll be making a reservation at Garden Grill when my 180th day comes around .

 

[Alexander]

Garden Grill unless they move Chef Mickey's back to downtown like it originally was and then it was the best place ever!

 

[mjwheelerali]

We just got back and ate at both, too. Garden Grill was one of our favourites from the whole 8 days of eating on the deluxe dining plan!!! We absolutely loved the freshness and wholesomeness of the food there - they actually grow some of that food right on-site! We ordered more beef and fish, as well as the salad since everything was SO delicious!!!

We loved having our three year-old able to eat without any distractions as we were on the bottom row and we moved around looking at the scenery. The characters (Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto) came by frequently and played around with our son....signed autographs and took a lot of time for us to take a variety of pictures!

We were thrilled to get into Chef Mickey's one night, as I just happened to call the Dining Reservations from our resort to check *one more time* and there had been a cancellation! Loved that the monorail brought us right into the resort. It was very loud and quite the party!! Twirling our napkins around almost every 15-20 minutes and the characters always seemed to be coming by. Great fun, but not a whole lot of eating being done by our distracted child!!! The buffet was quite good...especially the soup, roasted meats and any/all of the desserts.

Both were great choices, but Garden Grill suited us much more and we'd likely skip Chef Mickey's next time to eat at Garden Grill twice! Or maybe we'll try Chef Mickey's for breakfast...don't think we could let it go completely!

 

[amykathleen2005]

Never been to Chef Mickey's but my mom and I went to GG together (two adults).The food is not bad (I don't really like fish so that was a bit lost on me). the restaurant rotates around in a circle so you can see some of The Land portions where the food may have grown, which is cool.Very quiet and peaceful for restaurant. The characters were nice and it was good not to have people walking past all of the time like at a buffet. Everyone has their own little nook of a table so you barely even see the other restaurant guests. Also because it is in Epcot it isn't as much of disruption to your day. Go early, get Soarin' Fast Passes and then enjoy the other attractions in and around that area. Come back later, eat and enjoy Soarin!

 

[dogbert03]

Like most others here, my family and I also prefer Garden Grill. In fact it is one of the restaurants that we always include in our trips. You won't go away hungry, and it always seems like the perfect amount of character interaction. The size of the restaurant is such that you definitely get to see all the characters, but they aren't around so often that you can't enjoy your food. We haven't enjoyed Chef Mickey's as much in recent trips.