The title might seem like a question that answers itself. After all, if it’s the most iconic character dining experience at Walt Disney World, doesn’t it stand to reason that it’s an awesome meal? How would an awful restaurant even get so popular?!
Beats me. But I also know that Tomorrowland Speedway and Pinocchio Village Haus are quite popular despite being quite bad. Maybe people just have poor taste? This one is more of an open question though, as we revisit breakfast at Chef Mickey’s for the first time in a while to determine whether this Walt Disney World institution and rite-of-passage restaurant is worth your time, money, and stomach space.
It’s no secret that we are, historically, not the biggest fans of this establishment. For years, Chef Mickey’s made our list of the Things We’ll Never Do Again at Walt Disney World. We removed it last year after having a daughter and realizing we’d almost certainly be doing more meals (plural) at Chef Mickey’s in the years to come. Even before that, we noted that it was dinner at Chef Mickey’s that was uniquely bad. It’s not that we loved breakfast, but we definitely preferred it to dinner…
Let’s start with the basics for those reading this review cold (…just like one of the ‘hot’ dishes on the dinner spread at the buffet). Chef Mickey’s is a character meal at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, which is located near Magic Kingdom. The restaurant is in the open-air Grand Canyon Concourse, with guest rooms and the monorail overhead. It’s a cool setting.
Chef Mickey’s participates in the Disney Dining Plan as a 1-credit table service meal. Dinner is one of the absolute best options if you’re trying to maximize your value on the Disney Dining Plan, but breakfast is still a very good value–especially if you order a specialty drink. We were paying out of pocket for our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s, so we’ll be judging it on a cash basis.
Chef Mickey’s is the most iconic character dining experience in part because it’s been around so long. I have pictures from this meal when I was a kid, back when it was hosted at what’s now Rainforest Cafe in what’s now Disney Springs. It’s been a staple of Disney’s Contemporary Resort since the mid-1990s, and there are now other Chef Mickey’s outposts at the international parks. Goofy even gets in on the action at Disneyland, where Goofy’s Kitchen is a similar concept.
It’s also iconic because it features Mickey Mouse and friends in culinary costumes. There are a lot of memorable and creative character outfits, but it’s tough to top the tried and true appeal of Chef Mickey’s. It just works. About the only other character meal that comes close to having the ‘legacy’ of Chef Mickey’s is Cinderella’s Royal Table, but being a princess meal, I don’t think that has the same appeal.
With this long legacy, it’s worth noting that Chef Mickey’s is very much an “old school” character dining experience from a different era. There are newer and more modern character dining experiences, most of which we prefer. If you want to cut to the chase and read about our top picks for breakfast and dinner, read the following:
Those are our three favorite character meals at Walt Disney World right now and, spoiler alert, breakfast at Chef Mickey’s does not surpass any of them. This isn’t to say we don’t recommend it–or that Chef Mickey’s won’t be better suited for your family. We’ll cover pros & cons in this review.
Among longtime Walt Disney World fans and even casual guests, Chef Mickey’s has developed ‘rite of passage’ status. Many guests form great memories dining at Chef Mickey’s and want to return with future generations as a result. We all want to go back to the places where we made great memories.
This somewhat describes us! As mentioned, I dined here as a kid (albeit at Disney Village) and now I want to bring my daughter here. Honestly, I don’t remember eating at Chef Mickey’s when I was a kid, but my parents have photographic evidence and they don’t know how to use those new-fangled AI image generators, so I’m going to assume it actually happened.
And there’s a reason why Chef Mickey’s has become a rite of passage character dining experience. There’s something to be said for eating in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary with monorails passing overhead. All the while, you have Chef Mickey Mouse and other Fab Five in cool costumes. It checks several boxes for being a quintessential Walt Disney World experience, before even talking about the food.
Let’s take a quick look at the decor of Chef Mickey’s. Most of the atmosphere is courtesy of the monorail overhead, and the open-air nature of the atrium. The restaurant’s interior just consists of colorful designs, character pop-art, and a Mickey head motif.
As with the rest of the Grand Canyon Concourse, Chef Mickey’s is loud and chaotic. If anything, the rest of the atrium has this vibe because of Chef Mickey’s, not the other way around. It’s a colossal character venue that draws families with young children. You do the math on that.
Honestly, I go back and forth on the interior design on Chef Mickey’s. It is unabashedly 1990s, but I think there’s also a certain appeal to it. This is especially the case at night, when there are colorful lights and you don’t notice the old carpet, tile, or ceilings quite as much.
During breakfast, all of this stuff sticks out a lot more–making for a far less favorable impression. Chef Mickey’s felt more tired than it ever has, and this wasn’t simply a matter of the passage of time.
Here are a few more photos to give you a feel for the several seating areas at Chef Mickey’s:
As a general matter, the Grand Canyon Concourse is an absolute visual hodgepodge and Chef Mickey’s is no different. There are nearly a half-dozen different styles of carpet and 4 different types of tiles. This is not purposeful, and these are not part of a coherent aesthetic.
They’re the result of Disney’s Contemporary Resort having visual clutter added over the course of several years, with more and more stuff (PG term) added over the years without any cohesive vision. It has been literal decades since the Contemporary has had a top to bottom overhaul. Instead, junk has been added in a piecemeal approach over the years.
It all looks garish, dated, and most certainly not Contemporary. This is all critique of the Grand Canyon Concourse as a whole and although Chef Mickey’s takes up a sizable chunk of this space, it’s probably the venue where this is least noticeable. The 1990s vibe more or less works. (“More” at dinner; “less” at breakfast.)
Another reason so many Walt Disney World fans love Chef Mickey’s is because the characters are consistently excellent.
The best way to describe Chef Mickey’s is organized chaos. It’s like one of the paint-splatter pieces of pop art on the wall–if you watched the artist create that, you’d probably never expect it to turn out so great. And yet, it does. Same idea with Chef Mickey’s. Everything about the restaurant–from check-in to seating to the character procession–seems disorganized and dysfunctional.
Despite all outward appearances, it comes together in perfect harmony. There must be a method to the madness, because I can’t think of any character dining experience that is as much of a well-oiled machine as Chef Mickey’s. It actually, unexpectedly functions almost flawlessly.
This didn’t completely sink in until our most recent meal at Chef Mickey’s, when we were the first guests in one of the seating areas. Within minutes, all of the other tables were filled. Shortly thereafter, the characters arrived one-by-one with an appropriate gap in between. We had just enough time to make a pass of the buffet before they arrived, and plenty of time to eat without interruption afterwards. Our seating area then emptied out, with every party finishing at roughly the same time.
More importantly, the characters were attentive to each table and offered satisfying and unique interactions with every guest. It wasn’t just a matter of posing for photos and moving along. They were fantastic with Baby Bricker, but that’s par for the course with fur characters. It helps that our daughter is enamored with them (until she falls asleep), wanting to grab their noses, play peek-a-boo, and so forth.
Of course we love that they give her so much attention and offer rewarding interactions, along with great memories and photos for us. That’s what makes us want to keep shelling out the big bucks and doing more character meals. But for the purposes of this review, I was more interested in watching how Mickey & Friends engaged with other guests in our seating area. They were fantastic, all-around.
More Chef Mickey’s character photos:
None of the characters phoned it in, they all were playful and good at “reading” guests to know what kind of interaction would work. Families with small kids are the obvious low-hanging fruit; more telling are how the characters interact with couples, “Grumpy” dads, and grandparents.
The characters at Chef Mickey’s get high marks all-around for this. In fact, it was downright fun to watch them make their way around the room, as no two characters did the same thing, and no two tables got the same interaction. It adds a bit of a ‘show’ component beyond the little cavalcade.
We also appreciated the presence of character attendants. There was always a Cast Member in the general vicinity who we could ask to take family photos of us all together. This isn’t always the case at character meals, so we really appreciated it. About the only downside is that it’s difficult to get photos with “clean” backgrounds, but that’s a problem at all character meals. It’s just exacerbated at the popular ones, especially when tables aren’t spaced out (as is the case at Chef Mickey’s).
Now let’s take a look at the food on the breakfast buffet:
Chef Mickey’s has one of the biggest breakfast spreads in all of Walt Disney World, and the only reason I’m hedging with “one of the” is because it’s been a bit since we’ve done Crystal Palace or Cape May Cafe (we’ll be rectifying that soon) and I’m not 100% sure Chef Mickey’s has more options. I think it does, but can’t say that with complete confidence.
In any case, I’m not going to go dish by dish and review every single item at Chef Mickey’s. For one thing, because I didn’t eat them all. I’d still be in a food coma if I had. For another thing, I doubt anyone is really sitting on pins and needles waiting for me to review grapes, pineapple, tomatoes, hash browns, and other stuff. Some of these dishes speak for themselves.
I do want to start with some general rules of thumb that we’ve learned from many meals at Chef Mickey’s and other character buffets over the years. The first is that Chef Mickey’s favorite ingredient is butter. Similarly, his second favorite ingredient is salt. If a dish is sweet instead of savory, you can expect it to be very sweet.
Basically, Mickey’s three favorite ingredients are butter, salt, and sugar–and that cocktail of ingredients (coupled with the requisite overindulgence) means you’ll likely leave restaurant feeling bloated and icky. Suffice to say, Mickey isn’t much of a chef. Good thing it’s only his side hustle.
Another thing to be mindful of is that, like any buffet, how good or bad a particular dish is can largely depend upon how fresh it is. Did you catch a brand new batch, or has what you’re about to scoop up been slow-cooking under a heat lamp for hours.
This isn’t usually a problem at Chef Mickey’s as the restaurant is huge and turnover is quick. But it does happen. One strong piece of advice is prioritizing whatever is fresh and avoiding the ‘stale’ looking trays until they’re replaced. If you see something that looks good, don’t pass it up. Chef Mickey’s is so busy that what’s there on one pass could be gone the next, which can be a good or bad thing. And it’s mostly pre-prepared, so there’s nothing to say a new batch will actually be fresh.
A prime example of this from our most recent meal was the Carved Pit Ham. This is one of the purported highlights of the breakfast spread, but it looked more like slow-aged ham jerky than carved ham. (The photo above doesn’t do full justice to how bad one batch was–scroll up to the buffet spread photos and take a second look at that.) This was an unforced error on my part, as I passed over an earlier batch of ham that did look better.
Finally, quality is an issue at Chef Mickey’s. The Big Rodent lobby would like you to believe that anyone can cook, but Mickey has been at this for decades and still hasn’t gotten any better. These dishes are largely comfort cuisine, and even the ones that aren’t are not on par with what you’d find at a table service restaurant.
A few years back, Walt Disney World’s CFO discussed cutting costs by changing suppliers and substituting ingredients. Chef Mickey’s is basically the poster child for that. Some dishes are good; most are comparable to what you could get at counter service restaurants. One prime example of cost-cutting is the removal of the carving station–you can no longer get beef brisket, and the ham is a shadow of its former self even when it hasn’t been slow-cooked under the heat lamp.
Our “solution” to this is going for the tried and true ‘high-value’ items. You’ll notice just about every photo of our plates has smoked salmon on it. We eat a lot of smoked salmon at Walt Disney World buffets. It’s pricey (relative to other items), and not sugary or buttery like a lot of other dishes on the buffet. For me especially, it offers nice balance to all the sweet stuff I ate at Chef Mickey’s. And even though it’s boring, fruit is another strong option from buffets.
Speaking of sweets, my favorite items from the Chef Mickey’s breakfast buffet were the Croissant Beignets and House-made French Toast with Bananas Foster.
The Croissant Beignets defied the logic of Chef Mickey’s. They were soft and crispy on the exterior, giving way to a doughy and flaky interior. It felt like these were prepared with care, being a higher-effort dessert executed better than anything else at Chef Mickey’s. These Croissant Beignets are also buttery and cinnamony–just flat out delicious. There’s sauces to accompany them, but I’d ignore those, save for the bananas foster.
The French Toast is less remarkable, but still fantastic. This is also perfect by itself, but the bananas foster adds a lot and takes it to the next level. In general, I was more impressed with the desserts than the entrees at Chef Mickey’s. Even simple pleasures like Mickey Waffles and pancakes were shockingly good.
With that said, there were actually some entrees that I really enjoyed. The Corned Beef Hash wasn’t as ‘desirable’ as the now-gone Beef Brisket (even if that was often too fatty or tough), but it’s really good. In fact, for what each dish is (meaning judging this against other corned beef hash and that against other brisket), this is the objectively better dish. I’d still rather than have carving station with subpar beef brisket, but to each their own.
I also really liked the Andouille with Peppers and Onions. This was a sharp contrast to the hybrid rubber and paper bacon or the subpar sausages on the buffet spread. The Andouille is quality meat with great flavor, and the peppers provide a nice bit of punch. Not amazing, but also above the ordinary meats at Chef Mickey’s.
And maybe I enjoy the simple pleasures a bit too much, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the potatoes and beer cheese sauce. Perfect execution of a straightforward dish, with cheese that was addictively good and noticeably better than normal ‘plastic cheese’ served at Walt Disney World. The hashed browns were likewise good enough, as were the premade omelets.
All things considered, the breakfast buffet spread at Chef Mickey’s was largely mediocre…but it also was large. Thanks to that, I was able to find about a half-dozen or so items that were good to great, focusing my stomach space on those and walking away satisfied (but with way too much butter, sugar and salt in my system).
Ultimately, this is not a ringing endorsement for the cuisine caliber or atmosphere at Chef Mickey’s, as should be obvious. When it comes to the food quality, Chef Mickey’s is okay at best. And that’s only if you’re strategic, careful about what you select, and time the restocks right. There’s a strong emphasis on quantity over quality. By any other objective metric, no case can be made for Chef Mickey’s being awesome.
On paper, it’s in the bottom half of character meals at Walt Disney World. Arguably closer to awful than awesome. This is especially once you factor price into it, as Chef Mickey’s just increased in price to $58 per adult and $37 per child (another increase is likely in October 2025, if you’re planning ahead). That’s exorbitant for a breakfast no matter how you slice it–and that would be true even if the food were good. (It makes a compelling case for a late seating, as we prefer, as then breakfast comes brunch or lunch–we left this meal at Chef Mickey’s in the early afternoon.)
However, it’s also fair to say that the average guest is not assessing character dining experiences based on a checklist of objective criteria. These meals are, as the name suggests, experiences. As such, there’s necessarily a subjective side to things that is arguably much more important. From this perspective, it is exceedingly easy to understand how Chef Mickey’s became a rite of passage meal in the first place and a source of fond memories and nostalgia for so many families.
Our past reviews of Chef Mickey’s acknowledged this, so it’s not like we were oblivious to all of this and had some epiphany the moment our daughter was born. However, it’s also fair to say that we massively underestimated the subjective significance of this when doing character meals as a couple who favored food quality over quantity and didn’t put as much weight into character interactions.
As I sit here today writing this Chef Mickey’s review, the memories of the mediocre food are already fading. As is the sting of that $100+ bill at the end of the meal. In another month or two, they’ll be all but forgotten. Sure, I’ll cringe at the cost for only-okay food the next time I book an Advance Dining Reservation for Chef Mickey’s, but I will book one.
Those moments when Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck took the extra time for meaningful and fun interactions with our daughter are indelibly etched into my mind. In another decade or two, they’ll still be as fresh as they were the day they were made. And that right there is precisely why we’ll be booking Chef Mickey’s again (and again) in the years to come, without regard for what my objective checklist dictates I write in this review you just read.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you done the breakfast buffet at Chef Mickey’s? What did you think of the food? What about the character interactions? Do you agree or disagree with any of our review? Does this character meal look appealing to you? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
