Storytellers Cafe
Storytellers Cafe is a buffet restaurant at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in the Disneyland Resort, California. It opened with the hotel in 2001 and is built around two ideas that run through the whole property: California Craftsman design and the telling of California stories. For most of the day it is best known as a character dining location, where the morning meal is hosted under the name Mickey's Tales of Adventure and, since 2025, the evening meal has been hosted as Donald's Tales of Adventure. No park ticket is needed to eat there, since the restaurant sits inside the hotel rather than inside a theme park.
History
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa opened on January 2, 2001, as part of the expansion that turned Disneyland into a multi-park resort, and Storytellers Cafe opened as its casual, family-facing restaurant alongside the more formal Napa Rose.[1]
For its first seventeen years the morning meal was the Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast, a quieter character meal hosted by Chip and Dale with a small cast of woodland characters who at various times included Pluto and figures from films such as Brother Bear and Pocahontas. Lunch and dinner in that era were served without characters, from a menu and buffet mixing California-inspired dishes with American standards.
In summer 2018 Disney replaced the Critter Breakfast with Mickey's Tales of Adventure, a breakfast and brunch buffet hosted by Mickey Mouse in explorer clothing.[2] The change put the resort's central character at the Grand Californian for the first time and broadened the line-up to Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale, all in matching adventure outfits.
The restaurant was refurbished in early 2025, reopening with a more open buffet area. On May 16, 2025, as part of the Disneyland 70th anniversary celebrations, it added a character dinner for the first time: Donald's Tales of Adventure, a campfire-style buffet hosted by Donald Duck with Daisy Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow and Pluto in explorer gear.[3][4] Seasonal versions have since followed for Halloween and the holidays, so guests should check the current offering rather than assume a particular character line-up.
Setting
Storytellers follows the hotel's Arts and Crafts, or Craftsman, language: heavy dark timber, stone, stained glass, metal cut-outs and earth-toned furnishings, arranged as a kind of library dining room. The storytelling theme is literal. Large murals around the room illustrate stories rooted in California, among them Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, as well as Zorro and scenes of early Californian settlers and pioneers.[5] A tile mural of a boy reading, reproduced from a Gladding, McBean design for a public library, anchors the buffet area, and a quotation from Geoffrey Chaucer greets guests in the waiting area. The effect is calmer and more crafted than the resort's other character rooms, which is a large part of its appeal to adults eating with children.
Cuisine
All three meals are now served as all-you-care-to-enjoy buffets, though the mix changes through the day. Breakfast and brunch centre on American morning staples given a Disney presentation — Mickey-shaped waffles, made-to-order omelettes, eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, pastries, fresh fruit and carved and griddled items — with the character cast circulating between tables in explorer outfits.
Dinner, under Donald's banner, leans toward a campfire barbecue register: salads and cold selections to start, hot dishes and carved meats, and a dessert course of tarts, cheesecakes and other small sweets. Earlier, non-character dinners drew more directly on California cooking, and elements of that broader, produce-led approach still show through in the salads and seasonal dishes. Because menus, prices and even which meal carries characters have changed several times since 2018, the current Disneyland app listing is the reliable source on the day of a visit.