englanddg
One Little Spark...
It probably didn't help that my last name is England. (if you know your history)
I ran restaurants for years, waiters are not assigned based on the youth or cuteness of the girls at the table, though sometimes waiters will trade table tops, any manager worth half their salt nips that practice in the bud very quickly.
I had the escargot (which was ok, snails tasted canned, which isn't unexpected, but canned snails can still be made to shine...I think my primary gripe was that it was obviously precooked and reheated by a stressed kitchen, which then tried to hide the overcooked snails with a garnish of way to much parslay. If I wanted that, I could do it better at my house).
Anyhow, here's my exerpt from my report at the time.
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We arrived about 10 minutes early to our Chefs reservation, and I went and got our name on the list. I noted that, unlike the other restaurants we've visited so far, they were using paper and printouts instead of a computer to look up our reservation. The hostess would write your name on the list, and then every few minutes would run the list back to what I assume was the Front of House Manager, who would call you for seating.
I should also mention, they were packed. All of the seats in the entrance were full, and people were camped out on the fountain outside waiting. We grabbed a seat at the fountain as close to the front door as we could so I could hear if our name was called. After 15 - 20 minutes, I became concerned. We hadn't been called, and the Manager's accent was extremely thick (all the accents tonight were thick) and his voice wasn't very loud. I gave the kid my cel phone and she started playing a game, and I moved about 10 feet away, right by the front door. After 30 minutes had elapsed, I was really concerned that I had missed our seating call, so I went back to the hostess.
She couldn't tell me, as she'd already handed off the seating list that had my name on it and was working on a new one. So, she went off to ask the manager, and came back to indicate that yes, our name had been called and we were already seated. I explained that we obviously had not been seated, and asked if we could get back on the list. I wasn't in a rush, so I didn't really mind the extra wait, but I did want to get in.
She went off again, and when she returned, she asked that we follow her. At the entrance to the restaurant, another hostess started to collect our menus and get us ready when the manager walked up, and barged into the conversation. I use this term, because that's exactly what he did. He asked my name, I told him, and he said we had not been seated, and had not been called. By now there were 2 more cast members who had "joined" the conversation, and they all started chattering in French. The interaction ended with the manager obviously chewing them out in french, and then turning to me and, with the fakest polite face I've ever seen, and asked me to sit in the corner (literally...but there were chairs there). I was amused with all of this, thinking to myself about how I've heard about the unintended rudeness of the French, and quietly chuckling that Disney was so detail oriented that they made sure to include that as well!
After a short wait, we were seated behind a pole. Illuminations was about to start up, so I took the pole seat, and gave the kid a good view of the window. I could still easily work around the pole, and if you ever get a chance to snag a window seat on a not crowded night, I can imagine that the view is a lot of fun.
Our waiter was polite, but he carried with a running theme I'd seen so far. All of them have extremely thick accents, and they all speak rather quietly. In addition, I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but they apologized constantly for everything. So much that it started to annoy me.
I could barely understand him, and when he tried to interact with the munchkin, I had to translate everything for her. However, his attitude was fun, and I could tell the restaurant was getting slammed tonight, so even though he was a bit inattentive (my drink went empty several times, and service was very slow...the whole meal took 2 hours), I give it a pass.
When you are on the Dining Plan, Chefs won't let you order off the whole menu. You have a 3 course option, or you can choose an item off the regular menu, but none of the appetizers (except for the soups). You can, however, add whatever you like as long as you are willing to pay for it. I was craving escargot. You don't find snails on american restaurant menus very often, so I opted to pay extra and get that. This meant that I had 2 appetizers, and I chose the lobster bisque for the second. Before I go on, here are translations of what I listed in the summary up top:
Me
Cassolette d'escargots de Bourgogne au beurre persillé (Casserole of Burgundian escargots baked in parsley and garlic butter)
Bisque de homard (Lobster Bisque)
Plat de côte de boeuf au cabernet avec pâtes (Beef short ribs braised in Cabernet with pasta, pearl onions and mushrooms)
Fraisier sur coulis de framboise, sorbet fraise (Fresh strawberry and cream cake, raspberry sauce and strawberry sorbet)
Kid
Friand au Fromage (Cheese puff pastry)
Croquette de Boeuf en Brioche (Ground beef steakon a brioche bun, served with French fries...a.k.a. a hamburger)
Choix de Glace ou Sorbet (Choice of Sorbet, she chose Vanilla)
The escargot was very good, but I have had better. I think it needed a bit more garlic and salt. For 12 bucks, I'd do it again. Also, I enjoyed dipping the french bread in the pools of garlic butter and letting it sop up all that heart stopping goodness!
The Lobster Bisque was ok. It was put together well, but nothing noteworthy. In retrospect, I wish I'd done the French Onion instead. The fresh shredded lobster in the middle was a nice touch.
The cheese puff pastry did not interest my kid at all, and I took a few bites as well. It was ok, but I could see why she didn't care for it. It could have used a touch more cheese, and a tad less puff pastry. The salad greens that accompanied it though were very good, and the kid finished them (this from a kid who normally doesn't do salads).
The beef short ribs are a signature dish of the restaurant, and I was eagerly anticipating them. I am sad to report disappointment. The dish had several high points. The short ribs were perfectly cooked fork tender. The noodles were amazing, and they could have just given me them tossed in butter and I would have been like a pig in the mud (with the gut to match!). The onions were unnoticable, but the mushrooms had great texture and flavour.
So, you may be wondering what ruined the dish for me? The sauce. It was bitter and undersalted. It had an aftertaste, almost as if it hadn't reduced enough. The dish wasn't bad, but hardly what I had expected, and I wouldn't order it again. I only ate half, which concerned my waiter, but I didn't complain because, since so many elements of the dish were nailed, and I had nothing to compare it against, this may just be exactly how the dish is supposed to taste. It not agreeing with my palette is not a reason to complain, in my book. I'm sure there are plenty of people who love it.
The kid's frenchburger was good, and the fries were fantastic (first thin fries I've seen at Disney, and they were gone quickly. She had to chase me away from "taste testing" them!) They were so good that the kid didn't even want the ketchup, and instead used it on her burger.
On to dessert. Her vanilla sorbet was fantastic, but my dessert is the best I've had so far on the trip, and the kid and I ended up splitting it. The dessert is a wash of texture, temperature and taste variations. The cake is very soft, with a whipped heavy cream layered to add to the pillowy texture. This is broken up with fresh quartered strawberries, so you end up with a wonderful crunch with every bite. The cake also sticks very well to the strawberries, so if you aim for them, you end up with a great bite. There's a raspberry sauce on the side that adds some wonderful tang, and the sorbet was delicious. They also had white chocolate shavings under the sorbet, which was a wonderful touch. Though I wasn't overly impressed so far, this dessert is now on my "must do" list for future visits. I wonder if they'd just let me in for dessert and coffee!
I was a bit upset we didn't see Remy, but I should have done some more research before making the ADR. I had assumed (wrongly) that Remy would be a consistent feature, like a character breakfast. He isn't. Rather, he does a few shows a day, and the last one was around 5:30p.
, we have decided to not eat in parks for meals but snacks. any ideas on that?