We were booked in for 7.45 on Valentines Day. I was so looking forward to it, as this was the first character meal we had ever done, as my husband does not see the point.
I could see a very long queue but was hoping this was made up of people who hadn't booked. No, they all had reservations and ALL of them were 7.45! There were about 30 people all with the same time and there were no tables free. People were getting quite cross, there was nowhere to wait in comfort and none of the staff were giving out any information. My sister wanted to go elsewhere, but I really wanted to do it for my daughter, as I knew we'd never get another chance. So we waited, more people arrived, with their 8 o'clock bookings and they waited too!
We were called, about 20 minutes past our time - we were seated upstairs and 4 characters had just come out, much to my daughter's delight. An hour after this 4 different characters came out, so in all she had 8 autographs, 8 cuddles and 8 photos and she was over the moon. That much made the whole night worthwhile. The staff were all very nice as well.
BUT..... the food was not much. Our starters were inedible - Fantasia mushrooms, which had obviously been made incorrectly. They were so salty that I can only assume they made them with salt instead of parmesan cheese. I noticed the woman on the next table sent hers back and got a different starter, but we had already had to send back my daughters drink (they brought coke instead of water) and I just couldn't bring myself to do the same with the mushrooms. We just left them instead. Our main courses were quite nice (steak) and my daughter enjoyed her pasta. My son said the fish and chips were good.
It wasn't easy to catch the waiter's eye for the bill, so we were hanging around for a bit after the meal.
I don't regret going there, as my daughter LOVED the character interaction so much, but unless that is your main reason for going there, I would give it a miss.