Storytellers Cafe at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel is offering the new Mickey’s Autumn Adventures buffet with seasonal menu items and characters in fall outfits. We reviewed the new breakfast/brunch buffet.
Mickey’s Autumn Adventures
The experience began on September 3 and will be available through November 18. Reservations are recommended.
Guests receive a button featuring Mickey in his fall outfit with the “Mickey’s Autumn Adventures” wordmark and Storytellers Cafe logo against a fall background.
Fall Decorations
Storytellers Cafe is decorated with autumnal garland and decorations. Bunches of red and orange leaves are attached to lanterns. Pillars feature fall leaves and sunflowers secured with blue plaid bows.
The garland is decorated with small fall storybooks, like “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Mickey & Friends Fall Costumes
Chip
Chip and Dale both wear yellow Henleys with embroidered vests. Chip’s vest is red-orange. Among his patches is one for Big Al’s Hayrides, a reference to Big Al from Country Bear Jamboree.
Dale
Dale has a two-tone vest of blue and red. It’s also dotted with patches, including one for Golden State Hayrides Est. 2001 — the year Disney California Adventure and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel opened.
Pluto
Pluto wears a pumpkin-inspired tag and a forest-patterned bandanna.
Minnie
Minnie wears a pumpkin-inspired beret, cozy sweater, red plaid skirt, teal tights, and brown shoes.
Mickey
Mickey was excited to pose in his new look. He’s dressed in layers, donning a T-shirt and two flannels. He has a yellow beanie, orange corduroy pants, and brown shoes.
Halloween Cocktails
There are two “Enchanting Halloween Potions” a.k.a. cocktails:
- Dark Comes The Night: Buffalo Trace, Domaine Canton Ginger Liqueur, Lemon Juice, Honey, Ginger Ale and Bitters – $19
- Halloween Espresso Martini: Flor de Caña Spresso Coffee Liqueur, Flor de Caña “ECO” 15 year Rum and Vanilla Wafer Garnish – $20
Storytellers Cafe Breakfast & Brunch Buffet
Breakfast and brunch are $65 per adult and $36 per child (3-9), plus tax. These prices are $10 more than what they were before the start of Mickey’s Autumn Adventures.
Disneyland advertises that the buffet would feature favorites like croissants, muffins, danishes, beignets, seasonal sliced fruits, fresh berries, Mickey Waffles, Bananas Foster French Toast, pork carnitas chilaquiles, hand-carved meats, custom-made omelets, fish of the day, assorted flatbreads, and bread pudding.
Note that buffet items are subject to availability.
Hash Browns
The standard breakfast items, like the hash browns, are exactly what you expect them to be. They were tasty, but there was nothing particularly special about them.
Scrambled Eggs
These are the typical dehydrated eggs that you can find at other dining locations at Disneyland Resort.
Sausage
The sausage is good. It’s real pork sausage instead of typical frozen breakfast sausage.
Bacon
The bacon was nice and crispy but not burnt.
Mac & Cheese
If you really like cheese, then you’ll love this. The cheddar sauce is so thick. It wasn’t our favorite mac and cheese, but it’s good.
Roasted Vegetables
These are on the oily side but are still nicely done. They remind us of the Bengal Barbecue vegetable skewer but these are better seasoned.
French Fries
These are solid fries. They aren’t your typical quick-service offering. They have a thick coating and a nice crunch. One of the better items available.
Chicken Tenders
These are great Disney chicken tenders. Nicely fried and full of chicken, they’re everything you could want from the standard item. When they’re done right, who doesn’t like chicken tenders? And these are done right.
Fruit
The seasonal fruits include watermelons and blueberries. The strawberries and blackberries are a standard offering at Storytellers Cafe.
There are also bananas and apples. During our dining experience, Mickey insisted that Tom eat one of the apples.
Barbeque Chicken
This chicken is tender and juicy. We were very pleased that they didn’t overdo it with the BBQ sauce.
Salmon with Braised Lentils
The salmon is cooked well. It’s flaky with a good flavor.
Carving Station
The carving station offers top sirloin and roasted turkey. Accoutrements include creamy horseradish, cranberry sauce, and salsa molcajete. The horseradish has a little but of a kick, but’s fairly tame overall.
Top Sirloin
This beef is spectacular. It’s worth the price of admission alone. We were worried because we weren’t handed a steak knife, but it’s so tender, we could cut it with a butter knife. It’s cooked perfectly with a charred exterior. It’s the best beef we’ve had from any Disney buffet.
Roasted Turkey
This varied from dry to juicy depending on the bite, but it was pretty good. Compared to the other meat offerings, you could probably skip this unless you really enjoy turkey.
Mickey Waffles
These are allergy-friendly whole-grain Mickey waffles, which might throw some off. They can also vary depending on how fresh the batch is, but we found them fantastic. They were cooked well with a crunchy exterior.
Maple syrup, butter chips, and berries are all available as toppings.
Bananas Foster French Toast
The sign didn’t label this as bananas foster French toast but we knew from the online menu, and it’s pretty obvious once you take a bite. There’s a strong banana flavor. We enjoyed them, but if you don’t like bananas, definitely stay away from this.
Pork Chilaquiles
This is spectacular. It’s super spicy, so if you’re sensitive to that, stay away. And if you do stay away, we want to thank you for leaving more for the rest of us. It’s tomato-heavy but there are still plenty of other flavors.
Omelet Station
Guests can get a custom omelet with their choice of the following ingredients:
- Whole eggs, egg whites, or vegan eggs
- Cheddar Jack cheese or vegan cheese
- Proteins: bacon, sausage, chorizo, ham, soyrizo
- Vegetables: onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, jalapenos, tomatoes, avocado, spinach, black olives
Assorted Pastries
The pastries included croissants, chocolate croissants, chocolate muffins, danishes, scones, and cinnamon rolls. They were mostly okay to very good, and some were more standard than others.
The blueberry scones were surprisingly good. Maybe we’ve never had a good scone before — they’re usually stale at a continental breakfast — but these were soft, delicate, flaky, crumbly, and moist.
We weren’t sure at first what these red pastries were. We figured they were donuts and thought they might be apple cider-flavored for fall. We were surprised to find they were raspberry-flavored. They weren’t bad, but were still a surprise.
The strawberry madeleines had strawberry pits, which was weird. That was the only real miss of the meal. But the other three were good.
There are also cupcakes for dessert.
Bread Pudding
This is a deadly delicious bread pudding. It might be better than the bread pudding at ‘Ohana, which is the highest praise we can give. It has the right amount of sweetness. It’s soft and melts in your mouth.
Though not labeled on-site, the online menu lists it as having caramel sauce and crème anglaise, which are delicious. It’s the perfect bread pudding.
Overall
Some items are better than others at Storytellers Cafe, but everything is good to great. The one failure was the strawberry madeleine. Mickey’s Autumn Adventure is fun and five characters for a character meal is a good amount.
That said, $65 is a lot. We think the bread pudding and top sirloin are worth it but only do this if it really interests you.
Rating out of 7: 6
Will you be trying Mickey’s Autumn Adventures at Storytellers Cafe? Let us know in the comments.
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