If you click on the links in this post, we may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post, at no extra cost to you. You can read the full disclaimer here.
Have you ever been to Chef Mickey?
That’s the restaurant at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. If you’ve ever taken a monorail back to the ticket & transportation center or to the Polynesian Resort or Grand Floridian Resort, then I am sure you’ve seen it before. You can get a great aerial shot of the restaurant while you’re on the monorail. You can also hear it going on if you eat at Contempo Cafe at Contemporary Resort, another restaurant you can see from the monorail (you can see our review for that restaurant here).
Seeing Chef Mickey from the monorail had been the extent of my experience with Chef Mickey. That is, until last week. Because then my family decided to go to Chef Mickey! It was my sister’s birthday and it seemed right to go to Chef Mickey’s. She has, after all, always loved Mickey Mouse. And my family was staying at Bay Lake Tower, which was the building built on to the Contemporary Resort (you can find out more about Bay Lake Tower, including how to save money on a stay, here).
Chef Mickey’s is open for breakfast and dinner. But we decided to try the breakfast option. So for the purposes of this review, we’ll be reviewing our breakfast experience at Chef Mickey’s.
And it was an amazing experience for me, for a lot of reasons. First of all, it was one of those things I wanted to check off of my Disney World bucket list so to speak. So did it live up to my expectations? Well, you will just have to keep reading to find out!
Getting a Reservation
It’s not always easy to get a reservation here. I wanted to get it on my sister’s birthday. I couldn’t find a reservation until only a day or two before. So keep checking on the app if you can’t find the time you want. It can always pop up at the last minute (though no guarantees, obviously).
By the way, before you book a reservation, you should probably know this isn’t exactly an affordable experience. The breakfast costs $45 per adult and $29 per child. But it is worth it? Well, again, keep reading.
First Impressions
So once it was time for our reservation, we headed over to Chef Mickey’s. Actually, we had to hurry a bit because I got caught up having fun that morning at Magic Kingdom. But we were able to take a monorail over here. This can work great even if you’re not staying at Magic Kingdom. You can take the monorail here from Magic Kingdom, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, or the Ticket & Transportation Center.
Once I got a text that my table was ready, we were taken to our table. Now, as I said earlier, I had already seen the restaurant from up above. So I thought that was the only place where you would be seated.
But I had never realized just how big this place is. There are rooms you can’t see from the monorail. All of them are beautifully decorated. One room I had never seen before was decorated like a celebration.
I really liked the room we got in though. We were right by the window. They have floor-to-ceiling windows in that room.
We got amazing views of (depending on where you sat) Cinderella’s Castle, Grand Floridian, the monorail, and Seven Seas Lagoon.
I also really love the fun decor at Chef Mickey, like the puzzle pieces on the wall.
I feel the whole atmosphere and decor are not only great for kids but also brings out the kids in all of us. Which is, of course, kind of the point of Disney World.
I should also mention that it was pretty hot here. They don’t have fans going like they do at other restaurants at Disney World. And since we were up against the window and the sun was bright, I think that added to it. So dress accordingly.
Family Style Meal
So right now Chef Mickey is a family-style buffet meal. What that means is that it is not a traditional buffet. You don’t get up and fix your plate and then go back when you want more. Instead, your server will bring out platters to your whole family with different food on it. If you like anything a lot, you can ask for more of a specific food (or foods).
The advantage of this is that you don’t have to get up. This is especially great in a character dining meal because you don’t have to worry you’ll miss the characters when they walk by. It’s also nice because let’s face it, you’re on your feet a lot at Disney World. Sometimes it’s nice to sit for awhile, enjoy your family’s company, and have someone serve you.
But, this will soon change. The buffet experience will come back on March 1, 2023. But if you get a reservation between now and then, you will enjoy the family style meal.
First Course
The bring out an assortment of foods for the first course. They bring you some seasonal fruit. When we were there, it was grapes, watermelon, pineapple, and melons.
The melons were a bit harder than I would prefer, but the rest of the fruit I thought was delicious, especially the watermelons.
They also brought out yogurt parfait.
They also had Fresh Fried Sweet Fritters with Vanilla-Cinnamon Sugar as well as buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy.
I loved the Fresh Fried Sweet Fritters. If you like donuts, you’ll love them. They were one of my favorite foods at the breakfast.
But I was sadly disappointed by the biscuits. Which is a shame, because biscuits are literally my favorite food ever. But they were too hard.
Second Course
We were barely into our first course when our second course came. I can’t say I was a big fan of this. I get that they probably overbook the restaurant, but it really felt like they were rushing us. It feels like this breakfast costs too much to be rushed. Especially since it is a buffet.
But anyway, this is when you get the bulk of your food.
The food you get here includes:
- Scrambled Eggs
- Pork Sausage Links
- Chicken Sausage
- Slow-roasted Beef Brisket with Mushroom Ragoût and Roasted Onions
- Smoked Bacon
- Mickey Shaped Waffles
- “Celebration” Mickey Pancake
- “Loaded” Potato-Cheese Casserole
- Banana Bread French Toast with Espresso-Mascarpone Cream, Toasted Bananas and Chocolate Crumbles
Food Review
So let’s start with what we liked the best. I really loved the eggs. They were some of the best eggs I have had at a restaurant, perhaps ever. I happily got seconds of the eggs.
The banana bread French Toast was also a hit. It was more bread than toast, but really good. The topping on the French Toast was great, too. The sausage was good as well. I also liked the Mickey Waffles.
Then there were some dishes that were mixed. The potato casserole was mixed and was split evenly on my table as to who liked it and who didn’t like it. We had never had a potato casserole quite like it, so they may have added to the mixed opinions. The taste is not what you expect when you bite down.
The opinions on the brisket were mixed, too. Though brisket isn’t a food my family eats a lot.
The bacon was mixed too in that some of the bacon was crispier and some was chewier. So it depended on which piece of bacon you got if you like it. On the plus side, if your family is torn on how they like the bacon, there would be enough variety to please everyone!
The item that was universally disliked was the celebration pancakes. They were a huge disappointment. Which was disappointing since they were actually what I was looking most forward to. I love pancakes and I loved the idea of special celebration pancakes. And when I saw pictures online they looked like full-sized pancakes with lots of sprinkles and whipped.
But instead, they were small pancakes with very little sprinkles. The pancakes themselves tasted like microwave pancakes that hadn’t been cooked properly. They were really hard in certain parts and hard to chew. And even the whipped cream was disappointing, which I didn’t even think was possible. Definitely avoid this item.
Character Interactions
You get character interactions with five classic Disney characters: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. They make their way around the restaurant so you have a chance to interact with each one during your meal. You can get their signature and get photos with them or just of them – whatever you would like.
Overall our interactions with them were quite positive, especially Pluto who was very sweet. They can be interactive without being intrusive.
However, the one negative here with the character interaction is that there weren’t that many of them. When we went to Minnie’s Holiday Dine a couple of months ago, we got the characters almost immediately. But here, we got a few interactions and then waited a long time until we saw any of other characters. And for all, we thought Donald Duck was never going to make his way to our table.
But on the plus side, our server came over and asked us towards the end of the meal if there was any character who hadn’t made their way over to us. When we told them Donald, she passed that along and soon enough, Donald Duck was at our table. So we did get interactions with all of them.
One fun thing that happened at the meal was that at various points, the characters danced for us.
Mickey may have been the best. He even moonwalked for us and hit some Michael Jackson moves. But Donald Duck cracked me up the most. That seemed fitting for both characters, don’t you think?
Birthday Cupcake
One nice, unexpected thing happened towards the end of our meal. So you know how I mentioned that it was my sister’s birthday? Well, when I checked into the restaurant I indicated we were there celebrating a birthday. I wasn’t sure if they’d do anything for it.
But then they brought out a free cupcake for her!
I thought this was a really nice, special touch. It’s special touches like this that can elevate an experience to one you’ll look back on fondly.
Conclusion
Chef Mickey’s was a restaurant my family always wanted to go to. Visiting there was a bit of a mixed bag.
Plusses:
- Some of the food was delicious
- Got to interact with five classic characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy)
- Fun atmosphere
- Characters would dance from time to time which added to the fun
- Great location
- Great extra perks like brining out a free birthday cupcake unexpectantly
Negatives:
- Some of the food wasn’t as good
- They rushed us a bit
- Didn’t get that much interaction with the characters
- It’s really expensive
As you can see, there really are more positives than negatives. The price alone might be enough to dissuade you. But if you’ve always wanted to go, I think you will really enjoy it.
Visiting Chef Mickey’s
Now as I said, I was staying at Bay Lake Tower. Staying at Bay Lake Tower and the main Contemporary Resort are the most convenient for eating there. You can find out how to save money at Bay Lake Tower here and how to save money at Contemporary here.
You can also easily get to Chef Mickey’s via the monorail from Polynesian (find out how to save money there here) and Grand Floridian (find out how to save money there here).
And you can easily get to the restaurant via monorail from Magic Kingdom or the ticket and transportation center.
If you are planning on staying somewhere else on Disney property, you can click here to find out how to get a cheap rate for a deluxe Disney hotel.
And you can click here to find out how to get cheap Disney World tickets.
Save this for later – pin it to Pinterest!
