Baby Bricker’s First Birthday Brunch!

“The days are long but the years are short.” I can’t tell you how many times family, friends, and readers of this blog have shared this sentiment in the last year. At varying times, it struck us as everything from sage wisdom to a cliched quote (no offense). When you’re a new parent, it can be a bit of trial by fire as you struggle through those first few weeks or months, so hearing some saying like this while in the eye of the storm isn’t exactly helpful.

But as Sarah and I lied in bed after Megatron fell asleep on her first birthday, flipping through “one year ago today” photos, that saying just hit differently. As our scrolling progressed, we got into the holiday season and photos from the witching hour. The memories of sleepless nights of that infamous time had faded. As we looked at those happy photos with the benefit of hindsight, we actually missed those months of having a newborn!

The saying was front of mind as we looked (and laughed) at the photos. How had it been a year already?! It’s not possible that our sweet little daughter is no longer a newborn. She just started rolling over…sitting up…crawling…cruising. She can’t be a toddler already! Only yesterday we were enjoying a celebratory dinner at the hospital the evening after she was born. Today we’re celebrating her first birthday with brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen. The days are long but the years are short, indeed.

Suffice to say, the last year has been the greatest of our lives…but I’m also pretty confident there was some reverse Leap Year hijinx at play and it was only, like, 48 days. So really, our little toddler is still a little baby.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. Maybe it’s meaningful context for this review of Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween, which seems to be Disneyland Resort’s birthday bash central for small children. Perhaps not. It’s just something that has been on my mind a lot lately, so I figured I should share a small update on being parents. Maybe that would be better suited for a full post so it doesn’t clog up a character meal review.

With that out of the way, let’s turn to the main event–our brunch review of Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween…

Goofy’s Kitchen is a character dining experience in Disneyland Hotel offering a chance to dine with Fab Five Disney characters (minus Mickey Mouse); the restaurant serves breakfast, brunch, and dinner. Goofy’s Kitchen is arguably the flagship character meal at Disneyland Resort–it’s an iconic rite-of-passage offering that’s essentially the west coast counterpart of Chef Mickey’s at Walt Disney World.

Goofy’s Kitchen has also introduced seasonal meals throughout the year. We went for ‘Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween,’ which runs from late August through October 31. Disneyland has started doing new costumes for Mickey & Friends on Main Street each year at Halloween and Christmas, and Goofy’s Kitchen has received the annual hand-me-downs from Disneyland each of the last two years.

We opted for one of the last seatings of brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen, which was playing with fire because the tail end of our meal would come right around nap time. However, we had a good-but-not-great experience with Mickey’s Autumn Adventures Breakfast at Storytellers Cafe, and figured this would be putting ourselves in a better position with a less-crowded restaurant.

The check-in process for Goofy’s Kitchen was incredibly smooth, with no other guests waiting in the lobby.

You meet Chef Goofy–who is inexplicably in a costume in his kitchen–inside the entrance after paying. With a baby toddler, we have a newfound appreciation for this approach. It’s a way to knock out the meal’s iconic character in a controlled, well-lit environment and not worry that they won’t come to your table or that something will go otherwise go wrong. It adds an element of certainty and predictability to what could otherwise be chaotic or unpredictable–that’s a big win in our book, especially after Mickey’s Autumn Adventures Breakfast.

We also love the design and decor of the Goofy’s kitchen–the ‘set’ the character uses as a backdrop, not the actual restaurant. Hence the lowercase k. It’s cute and has a very 1990s Disney quality to it–in a good way.

This is as good of place as any to discuss the design of the restaurant as a whole, which is also very much 1990s Disney. Probably in a less-good way. I don’t necessarily mind the environment, but it’s definitely showing its age.

This is one of several ways that Goofy’s Kitchen is actually similar to Chef Mickey’s at Walt Disney World. There’s no soaring atrium with a monorail going through, so that’s a definite difference–and big point in favor of the Contemporary counterpart–but the art, carpet, and decor is similar.

Goofy’s Kitchen nevertheless is a ‘fun’ setting. Lots of colors and shapes in the decor, with a vibe reminiscent of the 90s. It seems like this aesthetic is coming back in style, so perhaps Goofy’s Kitchen won’t need a refresh anytime soon.

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d want it to get one. Disney’s two most common contemporary aesthetics are ‘repurposed warehouse’ or ‘crisp community college common area’ and neither of those would be great options for Goofy’s Kitchen.

I’m betting that if they did update the interior, they’d go the latter route, brightening everything up (too much) and modernizing (too much) because there are areas of the restaurant that can be a bit dark.

Point being, I’ll take this 90s look over the alternatives. The decor is well-maintained, the atmosphere is boisterous, and the design feels fun. It’s not the paragon of themed design, but it absolutely works for a character meal. There’s also a certain comfort and coziness to the style, which works well as a contrast to the high-energy experience.

On balance, it’s not as thematically strong as Storytellers Cafe, but the vibe is every bit as good. Maybe even better depending upon where you’re seating. Perhaps an odd conclusion to draw based on the appearance of both, but that’s how we feel about them.

Fun is going to be a throughline of this review, and that continues with the food portion of this Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween review.

The ‘creative pizza station’ is a fan favorite at Goofy’s Kitchen and I had been anxiously awaiting a chance once again enjoy Goofy’s Famous Peanut Butter Pizza. Look, I cannot explain why or how this is delicious. On paper, it’s simply an open-face PB&J sandwich presented on doughier than normal bread. But it’s inexplicably fantastic.

I actually enjoyed the s’mores pizza a bit more–but it’s another option that has no right to be as good as it is. I did miss the bananas foster and the creme brulee pizzas, which were my favorites last time. I know the other inventive options change from time-to-time, so I’m not sure of what’s standard at Goofy’s Kitchen.

In addition to these dessert pizzas, there were regular ones. I did not try them–they looked straight out of an elementary school cafeteria. In fact, that could describe a decent amount of the cuisine at Goofy’s Kitchen. There were also options like mac & cheese, chicken tenders, bacon, and other basic breakfast and lunch options.

After a recent diagnosis of high cholesterol, I was unable to do the very important research of eating multiple slices of s’mores or PB&J pizza. Or even every single dessert, for that matter.

This resulted in ordering a more ‘diverse’ selection of foods, such as more salmon (fantastic) and less sirloin (also excellent). Just remember that ‘less’ is a relative term. I still had about a dozen cuts of sirloin, which was a reduction as compared to what I had at Storytellers.

Sarah agreed that Goofy’s Kitchen has a strong spread. From the omelet station to salads to eggs benedict, most of the offerings were tasty. Even the grilled vegetables and fruit were surprisingly good–it all tasted fresh, even at the last seating.

Supposedly, the brunch buffet includes all the menu items available for breakfast—plus a carving station with assorted artisan sausages and Chateau Sirloin. I’m not sure whether this is true now that Disneyland raised the price of breakfast to match brunch–I’d hope that both offer the carving station, but if not, you should definitely book brunch. The carving station is a difference-maker.

This isn’t to say all of the food is good at Goofy’s Kitchen, as that is definitely not the case.

The scrambled eggs and bacon, in particular, appeared to be simply the ‘fake eggs’ and ‘paper bacon’ that plague the counter service restaurants. Other breakfast staples were similarly uninspired.

Reasonable minds may vary on this, but it didn’t bother me too much. We simply skipped the dishes that did not appeal to us, and there were enough unique or delicious dishes for us to get our fill. It’s a best of both worlds kind of deal–crowd-pleasers for those who want them, and more ambitious ones for guests who want those.

With its well-rounded food options, Goofy’s Kitchen delivered.

The dessert spread was formidable, and unquestionably the best of any of the character meals we tried at Disneyland Resort. If focusing on the delicious desserts, your kids (or you–we’re not here to judge) will be riding a sugar rush for the rest of your trip!

With all of that said, Goofy’s Kitchen definitely lags significantly behind Mickey’s Autumn Adventures Breakfast at Storytellers Cafe from a non-dessert perspective. There’s a lot of overlap, to be sure, but there are unique dishes, salads, and savory entrees that are all superior at Storytellers.

This is as good of a place as any for a quick comparison between Goofy’s Kitchen and Storytellers Cafe.

On paper, Storytellers wins in so many regards. The setting in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel is fancier; the interior design and ambiance of the restaurant itself is nicer–better themed design and a lighter and brighter look; the food is more ambitious; the character costumes are new and unique, rather than being recycled from last season on Main Street.

If you want the no-nonsense version of this review and are unswayed by emotion, nostalgia or anecdotes, Mickey’s Adventures at Storytellers is superior. It is the objectively better character dining experience on paper.

Goofy’s Kitchen is more fun. The spread is goofy (lowercase g) and the restaurant oozes joyousness. I’m not sure whether that’s a thing, but I say this as someone who has no childhood emotion for Goofy’s Kitchen (our first meal here was less than a decade ago). I also normally favor character dining experiences with elevated cuisine.

Playing the “fun card” might seem like a way to go easy on Goofy’s Kitchen without actually explaining what makes it good. (If you’ve read our Chef Mickey’s Review, you’re aware we pull no punches when it comes to character dining.) What I mean is that Goofy’s Kitchen is not the epicenter of Disneyland’s culinary scene, but it has some delicious surprises and creative indulgences.

Things like the peanut butter and jelly pizza won’t win Goofy’s Kitchen a Michelin star (although perhaps the tire company should reconsider their standards and introduce a PB&J pizza curve), but gawrsh if you don’t find yourself sneaking seconds, impressed by how good it tastes.

This brings us to the character interactions, which are the highlight of meal.

This is why we opted for Goofy’s Kitchen over Mickey’s Autumn Adventures breakfast for Megatron’s birthday in the first place. Well, that and because we’re more confident that Goofy’s Kitchen will be around a decade from now, allowing us to potentially turn this into some sort of birthday tradition.

In the past, we have had nothing but exceptional character interactions at Goofy’s Kitchen. They were so good and unrushed even as a couple that we’ve long preferred Goofy’s Kitchen to Storytellers despite the cuisine here being less ambitious (also true historically, not just for the Halloween meals).

This was undoubtedly aided by our later seating, as the restaurant was already half-empty (or half-full?!) when we arrived.

The free-roaming characters–Chip, Dale, Minnie, and Pluto–each came to our table, initiated interactions, and hung around for prolonged exchanges. I’m only “grading” Goofy’s Kitchen on the first of these character appearances as I suspect that’s all we would’ve had with a normal seating.

However, every single character visited for seconds later in the meal. We noticed similar encounters with the characters at the tables around ours, too. They had clearly finished making their rounds, and were in very playful spirits. At the very end of the meal, this even included Goofy!

This was a good thing for us, as photos have become increasingly difficult. Megatron loves playing with the characters–grabbing their noses, peek-a-boo, that sort of thing. She’s less-than-enthused when we pause the fun for posed family photos. She either keeps looking at or grabbing for the character, or shows her visible disdain for the break in the action.

We far prefer the spontaneous special moments, so it’s a good problem to have–and not really much of an issue, since we don’t post photos of her whole face, so her looking away from the camera and at the characters works out well. It would just be nice to have a few keepers of all three of us posed with the characters. But I digress.

The characters at Goofy’s Kitchen are unrivaled–better than the Mickey’s Adventures meals at Storytellers.

Truth be told, I don’t know how they’re so consistently good. Goofy’s Kitchen isn’t exactly a small restaurant, but it feels like the characters are always around, taking their time to make every guest feel important. The interactions are organic, free-flowing, and never feel rushed–like the characters are racing to the next table to meet hourly throughput quotas.

This was not just our experience during this brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen, as guests with a birthday girl at the last seating. That certainly helped, and is why this was the best-ever meal at Goofy’s Kitchen for us. But we’ve never had a bad meal here–it’s always been like this.

That was the consensus among other families at the tables around us, all of whom arrived earlier and left before us.

Megatron made fast friends with the other kids in our seating area, which was basically birthday central at Goofy’s Kitchen. All of the other parents we chatted with mentioned how much fun it was and how great the characters were at Goofy’s Kitchen.

It seemed like a similar story with the other tables we observed from afar. Fantastic and formidable interactions that were worth watching, as they were different from ours. Our dining room felt alive and inhabited by the characters, which truly elevated the experience.

This is another way that Goofy’s Kitchen feels stuck in the 1990s. This time, in the best way possible. The Cast Members and characters here seem to embrace the old ‘every guest is a VIP’ mantra that made so many Disney experiences special. I don’t know how Goofy’s Kitchen manages to nail this so well, but it does.

Here are more character photos from Baby Bricker’s Birthday Brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween:

Ultimately, that is why we love Goofy’s Kitchen and chose the Halloween version of the meal for Baby Bricker’s first birthday brunch. It’s impossible to articulate why we enjoy this character dining experience so much, but suffice to say, Goofy’s Kitchen is pure Disney magic.

It’s one of those “if you know, you know” type of things. And for those in the know, calling Goofy’s Kitchen pure Disney Magic is really all that needed to be written in the first place. And if you don’t already know, you might never know. Perhaps you’ll instead deem this review a colossal waste of time because what I’ve described in terms of theme, cost and cuisine does not match the conclusion.

But if you don’t know, perhaps you’ll “trust me bro.” So many things at Disneyland do come down to the magic–or intangibles, if you’d prefer–and Goofy’s Kitchen has that in spades. Failing all else, the bottom line is that I happily signed that bill at the end of the meal–even after doing a double-take on the eye-popping $65 per adult cost. We’re already debating whether to do the holiday meal at Goofy’s Kitchen this Christmas. We’ll absolutely be celebrating Megatron’s second birthday at Goofy’s Kitchen, which should tell you everything you need to know.

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Your Thoughts

Have you done breakfast, brunch or dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen? What about the seasonal versions of the meal for Halloween, Christmas, etc? What did you think of the meal? Is it worth the $65 per person cost? Any standout pizzas or other foods from the buffet spread? What about the character interactions? Do you agree or disagree with our review of Goofy’s Kitchen? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!