As far as character dining experiences go, Chef Mickey’s can’t be beat! You’ll find Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, just a short monorail ride away from the Magic Kingdom. You can have breakfast or dinner here, both meals are buffet style. Before you are seated, you are led to a Mickey Mouse in full chef gear to pose for a picture. This can be added to your Photopass card, and a castmember will be around to your table sometime during your meal to offer you a photo package. In your photo package, you get one 5×7 picture as well as some 4×6 prints. It’s a great souvenir! Also, when you enjoy a meal at Chef Mickey’s, you’re guaranteed an autograph and picture with each of the Fab Five! This will save you time in line to meet characters at the parks.
For breakfast, you’ll find fresh fruit, pastries, and of course classics like Mickey Waffles. For dinner, there is seafood, chicken, salad, soups, pasta, and an amazing dessert section! Of course the best part of Chef Mickey’s is the character experience. As you help yourself to the buffet, the “Fab Five” make their way from table to table to visit with your family. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck will sign autographs and pose for pictures.
Some things to keep in mind when dining at Chef Mickey’s:
- You need advanced dining reservations and this will count as one TS credit per person on your Disney Dining Plan.
- Have your autograph book and pen ready for autographs to save time. There is a cast member traveling with each character to make sure everyone is respectful of others’ time.
- It’s a fun touch to wear your favorite character tee shirt or Mickey ears during your meal.
- This is a very kid friendly experience. The atmosphere is lively and energetic, and every so often the characters and cast members perform a musical number-and guests are encouraged to wave their white napkins. Such fun!
- Chef Mickey’s is a fun place to find Hidden Mickey’s.
Overall, we give Chef Mickey’s an “A”!
Chef Mickeys is a really fun experience for the entire family. We were there at dinner, a party of 4 with 3 adults and 1 child. One adult is diabetic and found plenty of options to satisfy. It was really nice too because my 3 yr old was never a big eater until she was starving to the point of tears, so I could say “eat 2 bites of this for Minnie!” and she would hurry up and cram it in there while Minnie watched. We try to be courteous to others by not hanging on the characters so that they can continue on. TIP FOR OTHER PARENTS: Please keep your kids in their seats and waiting for the characters to come to them. Its very upsetting for other children who HAVE been patiently waiting, when a group of kids runs over and tries to take over the character that was visiting them. If kids stay in their seats and wait, the characters can rotate much faster throughout the restaurant and get back again for a second or third visit.
I absolutely love Chef Mickey’s! We went multiple times during our Spring Vacation in May a couple years back and our wait wasn’t very long at all. We had ADR’s the first 2 times and waited about 5 to 10 min’s to be seated and the last time we went was right after we checked out of the resort the last day of our vacation and we went up to the podium and asked the hostess if there was anyway possible we can wait to be seated, explained that we were going home after breakfast and simply wanted to leave with Chef Mickey’s being our last stop because we loved it so much and it was our favorite restaurant…. The hostess explained it would probably be a long wait, that she couldn’t really promise anything, but that she would try her best….. After a 20 min wait, no joke! She got us in and we loved it just the same if not more than the very 1st time we went. <3 The food was delicious! The entertainment with the characters, singing 'Come Celebrate' and the napkin twirling was just memorable.. I love the character experiences.. On that vacation we got all the character's autographs and pictures with no fuss at the character dining experiences we had and didn't have to stop and worry about getting in line at the parks.. I totally recommend it! But I will advise.. Chef Mickey's get booked up quick. I got lucky getting seated with no ADR that day, but I recommend doing an ADR and way in advance of your trip because it's a popular one.
5 stars may not be enough for Chef Mickey. I love the convince of not having to wait on characters. I love the food, and I love the unsanitary birds flying around that come in through the monorail hole. I do not love that it gets booked at 180days.
My family and I loved Chef Mickey’s only complaint was our reservation was for 9:30 and we did not get our table until about 10:30 and by then we were straving but too tired to eat and it was our last night, so we could not even make it to Magical Hours. Food was good and characters were awesome.
It is very loud in Chef Mickey’s. The food is fine…not outstanding but a decent meal and the character interaction is great.
My hubby and I had the breakfast buffet at Chef Mickey’s while we were dating. It was one of the most fun character dining experiences I’ve ever had. The food is wonderful and the characters are so playful and fun! My hubby likes to tease Chip and Dale and call them the wrong names (Chip gets very upset), it always makes for a fun time! Highly recommend eating here!
This is a must every single trip. I just love getting to see all the fab 5 while we eat wonderful food. Mickey waffles for my hubby and daughter and french toast for me!!!!
Visited Chef Mickey last year for the first time in many years. What a pleasant surprise! During our first visit we were under enthused by the food offerings and the chaotic atomsphere. After having a much better dining experience, we hope to make this a regular part of our dining plan.
My family always went to Chef Mickeys every time we went to Disney. Even as we got older we loved it! My husband and I are going there this september for our honeymoon. I can’t wait to show him everything I Love about disney!
Love Chef Mickey’s for dinner. Last time we went (Feb. of 2012) it was my sisters birthday and my little 4 year old nephew’s first trip to WDW. They did very well celebrating both of them for us. If you but the photo package…keep the ticket they give you because you can add it to your Disney Photopass.
Chef Mickeys is a great place for kids of all ages. I have been there with my sister several times now and have thoroughly enjoyed it each time. The foods are fresh and cycled out fairly quickly. When the characters come out, they spend quality time at each table. Nothing is ever rushed. We went for my sister’s Bday one year and the characters made a special point of hugging and spending time with her. Great fun. Pricey but well worth it.
My favorite thing about this place is the character experience we had. The food was alright for the price. It was my son’s birthday and we ended up having him chasing minnie mouse and donald duck around the restaraunt because they kept running off with his presents. It was a blast.
We love going to Chef Mickeys for “brunch” We book the latest breakfast possible and since there is no lunch we slowly get the place and characters to ourselves! My daughter loves all the extra attention.
Great fun for everyone!
Love Chef Mickey’s AND the Contemp hotel!!
Cant wait to celebrate with Mickey and friends after I run Disney!
Chef Mickey’s was a favorite of ours…my 4 yr. old son still talks about this meal 2 years later! I think they only do breakfast and dinner here, but we scheduled and extremely late breakfast time (I think it was 12:00 p.m.) so it felt like lunch to us but was breakfast food. The breakfast smorgasbord of goodness was amazing…I loved the Mickey waffles with the different fruit toppings. We really liked the character interaction and getting to meet several of our favorites without waiting in line a bunch at the parks. A good tip for us: visit this early on in your trip. We did it very last, which was a nice ending, but all of our kids wanting to see the characters while visiting the parks the days before and we didn’t have the heart to keep telling them no. If you do this meal first, then you get the characters out of the way and can spend more time meeting other characters and riding the great rides.
Excited to go to our first dining experience at Chef Mickeys
Lots of fun with the characters. And lots of food.
We love chef mickeys. On our last trip, we had the last seating of the night and it was wonderful. The character interaction was awesome! The restaurant only had a. Few other families, but we got the whole edperience and it felt more like the characters were family. We’ve done it during the busy dinner times as well, but it wasn’t as fun and the interaction was ot nearly as long.
We really like this buffet. The food id pretty good, you get lots of time with the characters, and the service is outstanding.
Loved Chef Mickey! Would go again.
I have had dinner at “Chef Mickey” for my birthday every year for the past 5 years…and before that about every other year..Our family vacation/bday celebration would not be complete without a stop there..My son, who is 5 1/2 years old, looks forward to “celebrating mommy’s birthday” with all the characters and a special dance with swinging our napkins around..This restaurant has become as much a tradition as going to Disney itself..Look forward to seeing Mickey and the gang again soon!..
We have ate here for both breakfast and dinner and loved both. It has a great family atmosphere and wonderful food. We can’t wait to go back on our next trip.
We did Chef Mickeys Dec 30th,2011 for breakfast. Yummy food, though for the price I was expecting real maple syrup, but I guess your paying more for the characters then you are for the food. I loved all the healthy options available. The server was great! Definitely would return.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Chef Mickey’s! Mickey spend 10-15 minutes just with MY 17 month old son. He took Mickey’s hand and they went walking – I have it on video. I’m serious when i say it made me cry! 🙂
We ate at Chef Mickey’s twice on my last trip in Sept. 2011. Great time and I really enjoyed the breakfast buffet. I plan on going there for my honeymoon in Dec. 2012. Easy way for the kids to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald. They come to everyones table and interact with you, sign autographs and will take pictures. They do this dance section where everyone waves their napkin in the air. I could do without that but its for the kids.
We visited Chef Mickey’s in both 2009 and 2011. We have done both dinner and breakfast, we prefer the dinner. The only draw back this time was the table full of drunk (and yes I knew they were, I watched them order drink after drink) parents whose wild kids were running and screaming and throwing stuff. The food was good and the Characters came by twice and were pretty attentive. We will probably do dinner here again, but not breakfast, that we will save for Crystal Palace and Ohana’s!
My family and I last visited Chef Mickey’s for breakfast in December of 2009. Our group consisted of Grandma, Grandpa, DH, DD9, DS2months, and myself. Chef Mickey’s is located inside the Contemporary Resort. Our arrival at this iconic resort is always filled with excitement. We arrived at the check-in station and were immediately directed to have our picture taken with the giant plate and Mickey Mouse statue. After our picture we waited about ten minutes to be seated at our table. Our server was attentive to our needs. The buffet breakfast was varied and fresh. My favorite is always the Mickey waffles and syrup. There was also fresh fruit, boiled eggs, sausage and bacon. Yogurt, cereal and pastries. The biggest draw of Chef Mickey’s is of course, Mickey Mouse himself. We really enjoyed our interactions with all the characters, but especially Donald Duck. I have a picture of Donald, Grandpa and Daddy all standing with their arms crossed being, “bad.” It makes me smile :). Another unexpected aspect of Chef Mickey’s is getting to watch the Monorail go by as you eat. Chef Mickey’s is a very exciting and upbeat way to start the day. It is also hard to get an ADR, so make your reservations early!
we’ve eaten dinner there and it was wonderful! The food was good, the desserts too, and there were lots of character visits one after the other, great experience, one of my favorites
I am not a huge fan of Chef Mickey’s. The atmosphere is fun but the resturant is very large causing the character interaction to not be what we expected. It was also very loud in comparison to the other character breakfasts that we have had. The food was typical and nothing that we would go back for. This is not a place that we plan on eating again as there are so many more that we have enjoyed more.
We love the fun, napkin-waving atmosphere at Chef Mickey’s! We’ve had both breakfasts and dinners here but definitely enjoy the breakfast offerings more and will probably avoid dinner going forward as we found the food to be somewhat sub-standard. We’ve had to wait for our table each time – anywhere from 15-45 minutes so be prepared for the possibility of that.
The characters have always been great here in my opinion, never too much of a wait, and we’ve always seen them all.
Thanks for the b-day tip. We are going for my daughter’s b-day 😉
We did breakfast here (around 7:30 a.m.) on July 4, 2011. There were 5 in our party. Myself, my husband, our 4 year old son, our 13 yr. old nephew and 15 yr. old niece. They all loved it. Always plenty of food, you never have to wait for them to refill anything on the buffet.
I know if was the summer, and a busier time of the year, but we still had to wait a long time to see the characters.
Our waitress was nice, but busy. She said I have my birthday ears on and brought me a cupcake. We went here last year and they brought one and sang….no song this year…but that’s ok.
We have enjoyed both breakfast and dinner at Chef Mickey’s.The food is great and the characters are awesome. Love me some Mickey!
I wish I could edit my post as I just saw the typos…. The first sentence should read: “We had one of the last breakfast seatings (so it fell around lunchtime) at Chef Mickey’s, and the buffet was wonderful.” 🙂
We had one of that breakfast seatings (so it feel around lunchtime) at Chef Mickey’s, and the buffet was wonderful. I don’t think I have seen a more varied breakfast buffet. I was extra excited because we were there on St Patrick’s Day, and they even had a corned beef hash (not sure if that was special for the holiday or part of their regular menu). The food was amazing, and it was such a great experience to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto up close. Our table, while not the best view of the restaurant, had a great view of the Magic Kingdom, too. While this is a little pricey, I highly recommend it. This was our first trip to Chef Mickey’s but definitely not our last!! 🙂
Chef Mickey is really a must do when visiting Disney World. You get to interact with a vast array of characters dressed as cooks! Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy make at least two to three rounds of the enclosed restaurant interacting with each and every person at your table. Make sure to have your camera charged and ready for those photo ops. Whether it is each character one on one with each family member or a group shot. Our family has older kids, but they even loved it! Another great thing about Chef Mickey is that it is a buffet style dinner. You can move at your own pace and pick out a great array of items to eat! My 10 year old loved the dessert buffet….cookies, ice cream, etc is every kids delight! You definitely will leave feeling full and satisfied.
We had dinner at Chef Mickey – it was buffet style dinner – but the food was really good. I liked that there were several options so you could eat as “healthy” as you wanted. The kids in our family really liked the fact that Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Minnie and Goofy all stopped by the table to take pictures and sign autographs. If you have little ones in your group this is a great way to see the characters without having to stand in line.
Another thing our family liked was the group photo we had taken right before being seated. Of course we purchased one – one of the few times you’ll get 5 kids (7 and under) and 7 adults together…