Chef Mickey's Restaurant Review

Chef Mickey’s Restaurant is a fun place you can meet five classic Disney characters in the Contemporary Resort which is just a few minutes outside the Magic Kingdom on the monorail.

meeting and hugging characters in the middle of chef mickey character dining at disney world

Check out more of our family’s Disney experiences and fun family vacations.

Chef Mickey’s Restaurant

With an all you can eat menu for one price this is one of our favorite restaurants for the experience at the Walt Disney World Resort. The food is fine, but the premium price is justifiable because you can meet, interact with, get pictures with and signatures from five characters. Chef Mickey’s is a fun restaurant for families, especially with younger kids.

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto are all of the characters that rotate through the dining area at Chef Mickeys. They stop at each table on each rotation and are very willing to sign autographs and post for pictures as of May 2022.

Five characters driving the monorail through contemporary resort to chef mickeys

If you prefer not to get individual autographs a post card autographed by the characters is given to each party.

Mickey mouse, minnie mouse, goofy, donald duck and pluto character signatures on a chef mickeys postcard

There are announcements and a song about how everyone can cook so the characters all have aprons and cooking attire. When the song plays the characters will stop and have a quick dance party.

The sister restaurant at Disneyland is Goofy’s Kitchen Restaurant.

Is Chef Mickey’s Worth It?

Chef Mickeys is expensive with our total bill was $246 for two adults and two kids including two special lemonades ($10 each) and a tip.

We recognize that we are paying for the experience and entertainment of meeting characters in addition for the food. The food is not worth $246 alone, it is the entire experience that is special.

On a strict budget I would easily skip this meal. I look at extras like this as fun to save up for or to use credit card points to purchase. We all have different ways of justifying spending money and that is my personal strategy.

Hugging and getting pics with Minnie Mouse with monorail in the background

Chef Mickey’s Dinner Menu

The menu at Chef Mickey’s has a variety of good foods that people enjoy.

Dinner at Chef Mickey’s cost $55 plus tax and gratuity per adult and $36 plus tax and gratuity per child.

When we first visited this restaurant in 2018 it was a buffet style. As the sanitation rules have changed in our country the restaurant has transformed into a family style all you can eat meal.

After being seated and drink orders taken bread is quickly brought to the table. A fountain drink is included in the cost of your meal.

Your group will be served at your table. Items are quickly replenished upon request.

The former buffet area is now a staging area that is continuously filled with full plates of food that are ready for the wait staff to grab and serve quickly.

A Basic Kids Meal

Mac and cheese
Tater tots
Corn dogs
Broccoli
Chicken fingers

Kids meal with mac and cheese, broccoli, chicken fingers, hash browns and corn dogs on a red plate

First Course

Seasonal plant-based salad
Chef Mickey’s Caesar – nice Caesar you would get at any restaurant
Citrus-poached Baby Shrimp on a creamy cilantro-lime broccoli slaw, greens, avocado and tomato
Pastry chef’s bread selection

The dressing does come already mixed into each small dish of salad.

Salad served in small bowls family style

Plated Signature Items – Side Dishes

Potato gnocchi with roasted mushroom cream, baby spinach, parmesan, herbs – tasted fine, but is sort of a filler
Farro wheat fried rice – fine, but definitely a filler
Roasted garlic gratin potatoes – ours needed to cook longer, also felt a bit like a filler

The gnocchi is served separately in a small dish.

Potato gnocchi in small black ceramic serving dish with spoon and parmesan cheese

Vegetable Side Dishes

Baby carrots
Asparagus – we were served green beans

Side dishes and vegetables served family style in metal dish

Main Dish – Protein Selections

Prime rib
Roasted salmon
Roasted turkey breast
Tofu bowl is available upon request

The prime rib was excellent and definitely the highlight of the meal for me. Since there is plenty of meat this is my favorite course to put in a baggie to snack on a little later.

Salmon, turkey breast and prime rib served in a metal pan

Desserts

Mickey mousse dome – has amazing chocolate mousse on an Oreo cookie with small pieces of chocolate for the ears
Strawberry cream cake
Apple crumble tart
Chocolate chip cookies

Special 50th Anniversary Drink

This cute Earidescent Sip-A-Bration is non-alcoholic Minute Maid premium lemonade with fruity strawberry punch served in a souvenir 50th celebration cup with a surprise character that has a little bit of magic.

The character head can stirred into the lemonade for fizzy fun magic and flavoring. The drink is $10 per glass and no refills are provided.

Strawberry flavored mickey mouse shaped sugar on side of souvenir Walt Disney world 50th anniversary cup of lemonade

Magic lemonade with strawberry flavoring for 50th anniversary celebration

Alcoholic drinks are available for an additional charge.

Chef Mickey’s Breakfast

We like to go to a character meal like this at the end of the breakfast hour for a brunch or possibly early lunch. It makes us feel like we’re getting more bang for our buck.

Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s cost $42 plus tax and gratuity per adult and $27 plus tax and gratuity per child.

Colorful salad bar in middle of chef mickey

Is The Food Good?

My friend pointed out when our salmon was a bit dry that if Mickey had been in the kitchen doing his job instead of parading around the restaurant the food might have been higher quality. So, the food is not the highest quality Disney has to offer, but it still tastes good. And there’s a good variety so most people will find a few menu items they enjoy.

We are glad that we spent the money to take our daughters since we only had one day at the parks. This was a great way to meet Mickey and have a big event on our free day exploring Disney.

We left straight from the Contemporary in an Uber for the airport to head home. This experience was the perfect way to wind down our Disney trip that included staying at All-Star Movies Resort and enjoying lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant while visiting the Magic Kingdom.

Contemporary look of chef mickeys restaurant where servers pick up food

Does the Disney Credit Card Discount Work Here?

No, the 10% off your restaurant bill for having a Disney credit card does not work at Chef Mickey’s.

Art work on outside of elevator shaft in Disneys contemporary shaft over looking dining in the atrium

Are Reservations Hard to Get?

Reservations can be made in the My Disney app or on the website 60 days before your first day at the WDW resorts.

While it is important to plan ahead it is not incredibly difficult to get reservations at Chef Mickeys. If you can’t find any keep checking weekly or daily. Check several times the last few days before you want to dine as people often cancel reservations last minute.

This is a good restaurant to plan at the beginning of your trip in terms of being able to secure the reservation. Then the more hard to get reservations can be planned for the end of the trip because they can be scheduled 60 days from your day of arrival.