Storytellers Café at the Grand Californian Hotel is open daily for a character breakfast, and for a non-character meal dinner. The character breakfast is unique in that you can choose the buffet, or order directly off the menu. The characters generally don't come to your table here either, but will parade around with the children. Storytellers Café is a well-liked casual dining experience.
The following review was provided by Hazertmed of the DisneyMouseLinks.com forums.
We ate dinner at the Storyteller's Café for my daughter's 10th birthday. We arranged priority seating the night before and when we arrived we had a brief 5 minute wait before our table was ready. It was raining all day and it seemed everyone decided to enjoy a sit down dinner this evening. People were waiting inside and outside under the covered walkway. The interior was decorated staying with the Grand California theme of a rustic type lodge. The tables were large which provided plenty of room for everyone at our table. My wife loved the interior and kept commenting on the decor. We stayed at a rustic lodge type retreat over the winter and it reminded her of that. The wood touches gave it a warm comfy type of feeling.
The menu had enough offerings to satisfy everyone in our party of 6, and required a few choices to be made. The prices were reasonable for a restaurant of this type, just a tad higher than an average type restaurant. They offered a dinner buffet, but no one in our party had the appetite to take it on. Our waitress did a great job of getting our drinks, bread and dinner salads rather quickly. The restaurant was fairly busy since we made our reservations for 6p, but the service was top notch.
Our food arrived soon after we were finished with our salads, and I was surprised with the portion size. They were all on the large size, enough to appease a healthy appetite. I ordered the pasta dish that came with some garlic bread. It was very tasty, probably the best meal I ate our entire trip. Our waitress did a good job of keeping our glasses full and frequently coming over to check to see if we needed anything.
We ordered a Birthday bucket for my daughter to end our meal. Our waitress and about 4 other staff came over and sang a birthday song which my daughter enjoyed very much. They offered some deserts but I was too full from my pasta to indulge.
Overall the Storyteller's Café turned out to be a great place to eat and relax. It was the best tasting dinner of our trip and the service was outstanding. The little extra attention they gave my daughter at dinner was very nice and stayed on par with the service I expect at the Disneyland resort. When we go back to Disneyland this will be one of our dinner stops.
The following review was provided by disneydreamer of the DisneyMouseLinks.com forums.
This is a review of just the Restaurant... not the character meal.
This restaurant was beautiful just to look at, the carvings & photos actually reminded us of home (Oregon, from the logging areas).
We had a very sweet waitress who took drink orders & then returned to take our meal order. They had a good variety & the prices ranged from $8.00- $18.00 per plate depending on your tastes. The servings were huge & it was impossible to get thru your entire plate. Anthony enjoyed the mini burgers & again received a plastic cup & lid to keep. The restaurant was quiet, but not family-unfriendly, we felt very at home here & didn't have to worry if Anthony made a loud noise. There were a number of families there & we enjoyed a very relaxing lunch.
On a scale of 4 stars, I would rate this 3 3/4 stars. Very good food, good service, huge portions & for 7 people it ran us $90.