We went to H&V in December 2016 so it was a while ago at this point, but I had read that the characters there were great and figured that something like that didn't happen with any kind of consistency BUT the character interaction was GREAT. It was the best we had the whole trip, with Daisy miming a whole conversation with my son about Pokemon and Pikachu on his shirt and the others spending a lot of time. The food was ok, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great. It was buffet food. The desserts were surprisingly good and I am not a dessert person (or a peppermint person). I found more than enough to eat that was better than acceptable, as with any buffet there was some good, some less good.
Chef Mickeys looks like hell on earth to me with the chaos and the napkin twirling and I don't find the chef outfits to be all that interesting. I'd pick H&V hands down.