Chef Mickey’s Breakfast – October 2021

Like all of the other character meals at Disney World, Chef Mickey’s went through various stages of reopening after the Covid shutdown.  Prior to the pandemic shutdown it was a character meal which was served buffet-style and was priced at $50 for adults and $33 for children age 3 – 9,  But when the restaurant reopened in July 2020 there were no characters and the food was served family-style at the table and was “all you care to eat”.  Without the characters and with less food choices (than what had been available at the buffet) the price was reduced to only $25 for adults and $14 for children. 

Here’s what the spread looked like then (per the Disney Food Blog)…

 

Then in December of 2020 Chef Mickey’s entered Stage 2 and brought their characters back, but it was called a “modified” character experience because they did not come to your table. Though they remained socially distanced, they would pose for photos and interact with the guests as best they could without getting close to them. The meal was still served family style and AYCE but they cut out some of the options. Oh and they increased the prices…by a lot! During this stage their breakfast was priced at $42 for adults, $27 for children. That’s a 68% price increase for adults and the children’s price almost doubled.

It was during this stage that we had breakfast at Chef Mickey’s on October 27, 2021.

Here is a quick review of the food from our breakfast, starting with the Breakfast Pastries…


On the left were Harvest Sweet Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing that was supposed to be poured tableside (per the menu description) but that didn’t happen for us. They were brought to the table already iced. On the right were Fried Sweet Fritters topped with Cinnamon Sugar. Neither the rolls nor the fritters were served warm and both were rather dry. So in our opinion they were a complete fail and we rated them accordingly with a 1.

Next on the menu were Fruits of the Season and Mini Yogurt Parfaits. This is what we got…

The fruit bowl (watermelon, cantaloupe, red grapes and pineapple) was what we were expecting but the small bowl of strawberry yogurt topped with mini chocolate chips was a weird surprise. Per the menu description of “Mini Yogurt Parfaits” and after seeing a Disney Food Blog review, I was expecting individual yogurt parfaits topped with granola and fruit like the one pictured here…




But instead we got one small bowl of yogurt to share?? So anyway, the fruit was fine so we gave these a combined rating of 2.

The next section of the menu was named Traditional Selections. All of these items were served together in a skillet…

Half of this skillet was filled with Scrambled Eggs. Then there were both Chicken and Pork Sausage Links (2 of each), two Mickey Waffles, and a small amount of Beef Brisket which was hidden underneath a pile of Bacon. While we could have asked for more of anything, nothing was really good enough to warrant a request for second helpings. We gave the contents of this skillet a combined rating of 2.

The last menu section was named Chef Mickey’s Signature Selections. There were three items included in this section and thankfully they were each served on separate plates. The first of these was the…

“Loaded” Potato-Cheese Casserole

This was actually really good, which was not a surprise considering the amount of cheese and bacon in this potato casserole. I think this was the same as the super popular Cheesy Potato Casserole that used to be served on Chef Mickey’s breakfast buffet. The Mickey-shaped hash brown crisp was a super cute addition. We gave the potato casserole a rating of 4.

Another winner was the…

Banana Bread French Toast topped with Espresso-Mascarpone Whipped Cream, Toasted Bananas, Chocolate Crumbles, and Chocolate Sauce

If you like banana bread then you would probably like this. We do and we did! It was pretty sweet (like having dessert for breakfast) but that didn’t stop us from enjoying it. We rated this a 4.

The last item we were served was a…

Celebration Mickey Pancake

While this looked like a “5”, sadly it tasted like a “1”. It was cold and had a weird flavor that I couldn’t identify.

The characters here were (and still are) Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto (aka The Disney Fab 5)…

Unfortunately my phone malfunctioned when Minnie was posing for us so I didn’t get a posed photo of her but she was looking as cute as ever…

Since our visit in October 2021 Chef Mickey’s went through another stage in the process of returning fully to its former self. The full character interaction returned in 2022 with Mickey doing a formal Meet & Greet again and the other four visiting guests at their tables to take photos with them and sign their autograph books. And then finally on March 1, 2023 the buffet returned. The current price (as of Feb. 2024) for breakfast is $54 for adults and $34 for children. This is currently the most expensive character breakfast at Disney World.

So in summary, based on the food that we had I am in no hurry to return to Chef Mickey’s, even now that it is a buffet again. Especially since the two items that we thought were good, the banana bread french toast and the cheesy potato casserole, appear to be missing from the current buffet menu. The one thing that Chef Mickey’s has going for it is that it’s the only character meal at Disney World where you can see all of the The Fab 5. However you have to pay a premium price to do so. Chef Mickey’s charges $5 – $7 (per adult) more for breakfast than any of the other character breakfasts. Is it worth the extra money? You be the judge.