Would you trust Goofy with a hot stove? During our recent trip to Disneyland we continued what has become a tradition for us—a “goodbye” breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen to wrap up our trip. How does this out-of-the-parks character meal fit into a Disneyland trip? Read our review to see why it makes sense for us and to decide whether a Goofy meal might be right for you!
Goofy’s Kitchen Basics
Goofy’s Kitchen is located in Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Resort. Specifically, it’s located in the building between the Fantasy Tower (the main lobby tower) and the new DVC Discovery Tower.
For this meal, we had breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen. Breakfast is buffet and costs $55 (plus tax and gratuity) for adults and $33 (plus tax and gratuity) for kids 3-9. Gratuity is compulsory for all parties, so the actual totals come to something like $69 per adult and $41 per child. Annual passholders get discounts.
Reserving Goofy’s Kitchen
You can reserve Goofy’s Kitchen on the Disneyland website. Dining reservations for Disneyland generally open at 6AM Disneyland time 60 days in advance.
I say “generally” above because I’ve definitely encountered more scheduling oddities in booking Disneyland dining than Disney World. For the most part this isn’t an issue because Disneyland dining isn’t as popular as Disney World, but it’s something to be aware of. I use MouseDining to track dining availability on both coasts.
For this particular trip, I had help from our travel advisor, Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC. Lauren was able to book this restaurant (along with the more popular brunch at Lamplight Lounge) for us when reservations opened for booking.
It’s become an annual tradition for us to visiting Goofy’s Kitchen on our departure day. Owing to flight schedules between New York and the west coast, an 8:30AM breakfast on departure day makes perfect sense for it. I wouldn’t usually take time out of a park day to come all the way to Goofy’s Kitchen (but I don’t blame anyone who does).
Our Goofy’s Kitchen Experience
Like it’s Disney World counterpart, Chef Mickey’s, Goofy’s Kitchen is as straightforward as a character meal comes. It’s a buffet with an assembly line of characters who swing by your table to say hey—nothing more, nothing less.
On the food front, you’ll find a pretty complete breakfast buffet—pastries, fruit, egg varieties, meats, waffles, pancakes, and even pizza. I’m never one to comment much on food and a breakfast buffet isn’t going to change that. But here are some words…
I’m a huge fan of hotel breakfasts, and I’d say that this breakfast buffet is as good as any. The variety at least had me returning several times to the buffet. But if you’re staying at another local hotel that has a standard included breakfast, the marginal value of Goofy’s Kitchen food might be low.
Not to mention, the Denny’s on Harbor Boulevard is higher rated on Google and, y’know, at Denny’s prices.
All this is to say you shouldn’t be here for the food. (Eat the food, because what do we always say is the most important thing? Breakfast.) What you’re here for is the characters.
(While we’re here…I’m a huge believer in kids belonging everywhere. But please, please, teach your kids basic sanitation before just letting them run wild on the buffet.)
We had an 8:35AM reservation for Easter (characters were in their seasonal outfits, fyi). Leaving our Harbor Boulevard hotel at 7:55AM we were at the restaurant at 8:18AM. We had to pass through security and Downtown Disney to get there, but there were no delays and this is 10/10 the option I’d always go with (rather than driving or Ubering to the front of the hotel).
We were called to join the short queue of entering guests, taking our pre-meal photo with Goofy at 8:33AM:
Once inside and seated, you’ll need to be on the lookout for characters. You don’t want to be gone from the table when they come by or you might have to wait a while (we had a similar issue—not our fault—at Tusker House Restaurant our last visit).
Chip was the first to come by, at 8:44AM, about ten minutes after we were seated. We had a long gap after that, waiting until 9:08AM for Dale, then 9:14AM for Minnie and 9:19AM for Clarabelle.
These are all costume characters. Some of them will interact more than others, and you’ll have to give as much as you take if you really want anything out of the interactions. On the plus side, this keeps them moving from table to table.
Of course, our wait for the characters was still non-zero. I think having the characters visit within 45 minutes of being seated is acceptable, but it can get a bit awkward for you and your server if you’re a quick eater and just sitting waiting for a bit.
Conclusions
My bottom line for Goofy’s Kitchen is that we’ve personally lucked into a situation where it just barely makes sense to eat there.
With Goofy’s Kitchen costing $70 per adult, we absolutely would prefer the price-food balance over at Denny’s. And the location—relatively remote for anyone who isn’t staying at a Disney hotel—won’t make sense for guests on anything but the longest trips. It doesn’t make sense to lose park time (walking time plus meal time) at such a high dollar cost.
People delude themselves into thinking it might make sense to eat at Goofy’s Kitchen, but it never does. But it might work for us…
We’re usually heading out of LAX or SNA on an afternoon flight that gets into JFK quite late due to the time change. Accounting for meals is a real challenge in this case. We could spend an extra few hours at the parks (the marginal day of tickets, plus a quick service breakfast, is probably right around the cost of the meal), but it would be rushed.
Instead, Goofy’s Kitchen offers us the opportunity to fill up before our flight, over a relaxing morning, with some great character greetings to boot. It basically lets us stretch the “Disney” of the trip without having to fight Zoe to leave the park after only a few hours.
I think this accords with the general vibe of the experience. Like Chef Mickey’s, Goofy’s Kitchen does a poor job of hiding the ball. There’s almost always a sense of impatience and urgency due to the characters having places to be. I don’t think this is a huge problem, but it certainly brings Goofy’s Kitchen outside of “core” Disney experiences. The Magic is not all there. That leaves it good enough for a departure morning breakfast, but I could trade a second in the parks to be here.
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