Chef Mickey's is really that bad?

I think it’s fine for breakfast (just outrageously expensive). In fact, I think the food on the breakfast buffet is slightly better than Crystal Palace, which generally gets much higher ratings on this board.

That being said, Tusker House is my favorite character breakfast buffet (with Boma being my overall favorite breakfast buffet).

We generally don’t go to buffets for meals other than breakfast (just too many other, better options for those meals).
 
I've only been once before for a mid-morning breakfast (but I plan on going back for my upcoming August trip!). Look, don't go in expecting some sort of 5-star, Michelin quality food - it's a buffet catering to families. It was, simply, easy comfort food. If paying out of pocket, I can see people having sticker shock ($$$$$ for such basic food!?). I found the atmosphere fun and energizing - again, I wasn't expecting any sort of calm, peaceful meal. I think like most things, personal expectations need to be realistic. Go in with an open mind, and try it! In my mind - a day spent dining at Chef Mickey's is better than a day cooking for myself at home and then cleaning up...
 
Great!
Big thanks for every comment and reply!
We're excited to go! We're big eaters but we're going for the whole experience, not just the food. Plus since we're not from USA and we LOVE north american food, I guess it's gonna be all right.

About the noise and it been party loud, we're from São Paulo, the most chaotic city in Brazil, our NYC lol
we're used to chaos, rush, noise and parties. it's okay about that.

I'll try to do a full review after we come back :)
 
My daughter wants to eat there and we are staying at the Contemporary, so I could not see a way to skip it yet again. We have a sort of quest to meet Donald in as many outfits as possible, so we obviously have to do this. :D
 


Is the food worth the money? No. Do we make a point of going every time we are at Disney? Yes. We love CM. The food isn't horrible, but it's also not gourmet. You're paying for the experience. You get to meet all the characters, and the atmosphere is so much fun.
 
I agree with other posters that Tusker House is awesome. That said, my family and I were at Chef Mickeys for breakfast in Feb and I thought it was great. Food was yummy and the characters were fun. I saw absolutely no dirty or unappetizing food. To give some perspective on my opinion, I live in NJ right outside of Philadelphia so have plenty of access to high end restaurants but I’m also the kind of person who can enjoy wings at a dive bar. Don’t let anyone get you down about it. I read the same kinds of reviews before we went and I left wondering what people were talking about.
 
We took the kids there when they were younger. I don't think I would go back now. In saying that tho, if I had never been, I would go. It's fun to watch the interactions and then you have seen it and be content. If it will make you happy, it's only one meal. I'm sure there are a few things that are yummy at least.
 


Hello guys!

We're going this October to our 4th WDW trip, and we've never been to Chef Mickey's before.
We're 3 adults, big eaters, and I'm Mickey Mouse fan #1.
We always wanted to eat at Chefs Mickey because of the food buffet (never been to a Disney buffet before) and specially because of the Characters with Chef Costumes.

We have a brunch reservation for a Tuesday in October, but I've been reading constantly a lot of negative reviews and feedback about the quality of the service and specially the food.

Do you guys think it's a bad idea to have brunch there or since is our first time at a Characther/Buffet restaurant we gonna be fine?

I'm asking this because we're from Brazil and US Dollar costs a LOT OF our money so it's all gona be very expensive (like 3.7x more expensive than US dollar). I'm afraid to have a bad experience since y'all are giving a lot of negative feedbacks...

thanks in advance, and sorry for my english. :)

It's a buffet so it's not the greatest. I won't go back though. It really is so loud that you have to shout to hear the person next to you. I much prefer Ohana which is if I remember corectly is family style. Used to be a buffet. Might still be. The best breakfast buffet as far as my family is concerned is with Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace in the MK.
 
Hello guys!

We're going this October to our 4th WDW trip, and we've never been to Chef Mickey's before.
We're 3 adults, big eaters, and I'm Mickey Mouse fan #1.
We always wanted to eat at Chefs Mickey because of the food buffet (never been to a Disney buffet before) and specially because of the Characters with Chef Costumes.

We have a brunch reservation for a Tuesday in October, but I've been reading constantly a lot of negative reviews and feedback about the quality of the service and specially the food.

Do you guys think it's a bad idea to have brunch there or since is our first time at a Characther/Buffet restaurant we gonna be fine?

I'm asking this because we're from Brazil and US Dollar costs a LOT OF our money so it's all gona be very expensive (like 3.7x more expensive than US dollar). I'm afraid to have a bad experience since y'all are giving a lot of negative feedbacks...

thanks in advance, and sorry for my english. :)
Chef Mickey's is fine. People exaggerate both good and bad things about restaurants on these boards.

Some people just don't like buffets so that skews their opinions. Others don't like being around lots of kids, so that affects their opinions.

Chef Mickey's serves basic food buffet-style, will have lots of families with kids there and a "Disney fun" atmosphere. It's clean and attractive. It isn't a quiet, gourmet restaurant, but I've been multiple times and never had a hard time talking & hearing at our table, and I've never had bad food there.

It's a great place to meet characters. If you're interested, you should go.
 
It is as bad as everyone says. I too doubted it could be that bad and went last trip to dinner at Chef Mickeys. Never again. The food was bad (horrendous compared to the other great food options at Disney, below average compared to any average buffet restaurant around your local town). The character interaction was ok, but still the worst compared to all the other ones we've been to.

Skip it entirely or if you have to go, go during breakfast. I assume even Chef Mickey's can't screw up waffles, egg and bacon.
 
We ate there for years because my son and daughter were young and loved it. It was great for them. That being said, if I didn’t have young children I would never have gone more than once. There are far better character buffet options. It is very basic food and is extremely chaotic.
 
We've gone 3 times. Once for breakfast and twice for dinner. We enjoyed each meal very much. Food has always been fresh and the buffet was never disgusting. Our breakfast was around 10:30 am and our dinners were once at 6:30 and the other at 5 pm.

Last trip DS15 requested it as his must do. I went along with it since it was my SO's first trip also. We paid OOP that trip and that $200 price tag wasn't pretty. I doubt we will do Chef Mickey anytime soon or ever again. It's a pricey meal and now that the kids are older it's not so much of a must do. If the kids requested a character meal again I would be all over Tusker House breakfast. We LOVED our breakfast there.
 
Hello guys!

We're going this October to our 4th WDW trip, and we've never been to Chef Mickey's before.
We're 3 adults, big eaters, and I'm Mickey Mouse fan #1.
We always wanted to eat at Chefs Mickey because of the food buffet (never been to a Disney buffet before) and specially because of the Characters with Chef Costumes.

We have a brunch reservation for a Tuesday in October, but I've been reading constantly a lot of negative reviews and feedback about the quality of the service and specially the food.

Do you guys think it's a bad idea to have brunch there or since is our first time at a Characther/Buffet restaurant we gonna be fine?

I'm asking this because we're from Brazil and US Dollar costs a LOT OF our money so it's all gona be very expensive (like 3.7x more expensive than US dollar). I'm afraid to have a bad experience since y'all are giving a lot of negative feedbacks...

thanks in advance, and sorry for my english. :)

We enjoyed the food (brunch) & character interactions enough last trip to book again for our next trip. Reviews are subjective, I find you need to try everything for yourself at least once and make your own opinion.
 
It's hard to say, I mean, I've eaten breakfast there several times and it's not like it's a disaster or anything like I understand the lunch or dinner can be, quality-wise - like it's pretty hard to mess up stuff like eggs and Mickey waffles at WDW, wherever you go, it will be a decent buffet. So, yeah, as food goes, it's a fine, tasty breakfast, it's just...well...that being said, that still makes it the worst breakfast, quality-wise, you can get at any of the sit-down or buffet eateries.

But of course, people go here for the characters, right? But...you can see these same characters, more or less at other breakfast buffets throughout WDW and get better quality food, better service, better seating, better cleanliness, better comfort, better atmosphere, and less chaos, less noise, and less mess and confusion.

I mean, it is what it is, everyone at least does this place once or twice because it's in Disney Flagship Resort and it's "Mickey's" place. Not sure what the brunch entails, food-wise, though.

I wouldn't deter you from checking it out, at least once, it's kind of par for the course of a Disney experience to at least try it. I feel I've done my time there, haha, so I'm not going back, but I don't regret going there or anything.
 
Sorry, it ranked right up there with our top worst meals ever at Disney, (just behind Tony's Town Square)

That's a little offensive to Chef Mickeys, IMHO. :-) I'm not arguing with it being near the bottom of your list, but it's certainly edible in some form. Canned tomato chunks (with extra acid added) and undiluted soup food mix concentrate formula are not generally served at chef Mickeys, so it's far above Tony's Town Square even if it is pretty much a typical hit-or-miss theme park resort buffet.
 
We have been to Chef Mickeys several times over the past few years. We found it to be really enjoyable and a good meal....both breakfast and lunch/dinner.
 
Hello guys!

We're going this October to our 4th WDW trip, and we've never been to Chef Mickey's before.
We're 3 adults, big eaters, and I'm Mickey Mouse fan #1.
We always wanted to eat at Chefs Mickey because of the food buffet (never been to a Disney buffet before) and specially because of the Characters with Chef Costumes.

We have a brunch reservation for a Tuesday in October, but I've been reading constantly a lot of negative reviews and feedback about the quality of the service and specially the food.

Do you guys think it's a bad idea to have brunch there or since is our first time at a Characther/Buffet restaurant we gonna be fine?

I'm asking this because we're from Brazil and US Dollar costs a LOT OF our money so it's all gona be very expensive (like 3.7x more expensive than US dollar). I'm afraid to have a bad experience since y'all are giving a lot of negative feedbacks...

thanks in advance, and sorry for my english. :)
Like everyone says.....quality isn't the best....but the experience is AWESOME! GO....enjoy....you'll eat lots of good to mediocre food....but the location and characters are awesome!
 
We never missed having dinner there around the turn of the millennium.

My son grew up, and they stripped the dessert bar down to lousy cake squares so we stopped going. But we used to enjoy the carving station—back in the day, it was always prime rib which made hubby happy. The soup and salad bar was always very good too.

I am trying brunch for the first time on Thursday of this week with my four baby great nieces who are crazy for the Classic Disney characters. I think it’s going to be loads of fun and something great to do if it’s pouring rain.
 

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