Goofy’s Kitchen is a character dining restaurant located at the Disneyland Hotel. The restaurant offers a full breakfast buffet in the morning and a lunch/dinner buffet in the afternoon/evening. Goofy’s Kitchen allows you to dine with the Chef Goofy himself, Minnie, Pluto and Chip and Dale.
We love Goofy’s Kitchen and over the years have dined here numerous times for breakfast and dinner. Is the food outstanding? No, but we don’t care as we love the characters. The food is good and the character interactions are great and fun.
This review will look over the food, character interactions and the overall quality of the experience. Although we’ve dined for both breakfast and dinner, this review will focus on the breakfast experience.
The Food
Goofy’s Kitchen is a full buffet with a ton of different items available to eat. After being seated, your server will take your drink order. Coffee, tea, juices and soft drinks are all included with your meal. Alcoholic beverages can be ordered but are extra (drinks average between $12 – $15). Once your drink order is placed, your server releases you to the buffet. Breakfast items include the following:
- Create-Your-Own Omelet Station
- Mickey Mouse Waffles
- Eggs Benedict
- Pastries
- Fresh Fruit
- French Toast
- Scrambled Eggs
- Bacon
- Ham
- Muffins
- Bagels
- Soft-Serve Yogurt
- Chicken Nuggets
- Peanut Butter Pizza
- Cookies
The buffet provides plenty of different options for a wide variety of eaters. As I said above, the food is good, not great, but it is all you can eat! The scrambled eggs and bacon are reminiscent of something you would find at a college dining hall. The omelet station is better as a chef will make an omelet from scratch from ingredients you select. The eggs benedict and chicken nuggets are average and can be found under heat lamps.
Goofy’s Kitchen is known for its peanut butter pizza. The pizza reminds me of a peanut butter sandwich on pizza crust. The peanut butter is the “tomato sauce” and jelly is the “cheese”. It isn’t bad and is worth a taste. If not, pepperoni and cheese pizza are also available.
All in all, don’t expect the best meal of your life here but it gets the job done. I would rate it on par with the Embassy Suites in terms of quality and selection. My recommendation: build an omelet, grab some ham and potatoes and a cup of coffee. And if it’s a particularly hard morning, maybe splurge on a Bloody Mary. Or two.
Character Interactions
Goofy’s Kitchen has outstanding character interactions. After you pay and before you are seated, you will be ushered to take a picture with Chef Goofy himself in his chef costume. The interaction is fun and if it’s a slow day, you can spend quite of bit of time with him. Photopass photographers are on hand to take pictures.
Once you are seated and eating, the rest of the characters will begin making the rounds to your table. As I said above, the current lineup includes Minnie, Pluto and Chip and Dale. In the old days, the character lineup used to include Alice, Princess Jasmine and Peter Pan. However, they were all removed several years ago to the current line up of the classic Disney characters. I wish they didn’t remove the face characters as they were all lots of fun especially since they could talk back!
With the character line up today, each character is in a chef costume as each one has a role in the kitchen. This streamlines the experience as gives it a sense of story as it’s fun to believe Goofy is the head chef and the other characters work under him. Wonder what craziness happens in the kitchen!
The best part of character buffets is the amount of time you get with each character. Rather than waiting in line, the characters come up to you. Don’t feel rushed, you can take as long as you want with each character.
We like to ask the characters questions and then take a ton of different photos. Since you are paying a premium for this experience, make sure to get the most out of it. If you’re boring, the character will leave fairly quickly but if you really want to interact, they will stay for awhile.
And if you have small children, the characters will spend even more time with your family interacting with the kids and taking pictures. We recommend you have your autograph book ready.
Overall Experience: Is it Worth the Cost?
As for price, it is more on the expensive side for dining. With our passholder discount, the meal is about $45/person. This price includes the all you can eat buffet, non-alcoholic beverages and gratuity. You pay up front when you check in. If you do order an alcoholic beverage, your server will bring you a separate check before you leave. Just remember to pay it.
So, is it worth it? With the different character dining experiences at the Disneyland Resort, Goofy’s Kitchen is our favorite and we believe it is worth the price. Although the food isn’t award winning, it is still good and there are plenty of food options for any taste. Seriously, anybody can find something they like at this buffet. Don’t be shy, you can eat as much as you want.
But the main strength for Goofy’s Kitchen are the characters. The character interactions are great and fun. Dining here is an easy way to meet classic Disney characters for photos and autographs without waiting in line. And once the characters are at your table, they are all yours for awhile and there is no pressure to speed through the experience. Again, take your time with each character. Savor the experience, build a memory and get the most out of the experience as you can.
Final Reminders
Goofy’s Kitchen does take ADRs 60 days in advance. In our experience, we’ve never had an issue scoring a reservation. Lunch and dinner are even easier than breakfast. If you book your reservation a week before your trip I would say with high confidence you should be fine to grab a time that works for your schedule.
If you are just visiting the hotel without visiting the parks, guests dining at Goofy’s Kitchen receive complimentary self-parking or valet parking for three hours at the Disneyland Hotel parking lot. When you pay or before you leave, remember to get your parking ticket validated at the the check in counter.
Thoughts?
Thanks for reading our review of Goofy’s Kitchen! We hope you find it useful for your vacation plans. If you are staying at the Disneyland Hotel, please read our review of the Disneyland Hotel HERE and check out our review of the Disneyland Hotel’s Club Level HERE.
Have you dined at Goofy’s Kitchen before? What did you think? How were Chip and Dale? Did any characters make any kids cry? Let us know in the comments below!
