Chef des France

tink33

Active Member
Original Poster
So I'm going to take some me time while my husband & daughter do the Epcot Aqua Seas Tour. I booked lunch for myself at Chef des France. I've never been and my family won't eat the food there. So I figured, why not! Has anyone been? Any opinions?
 

kap91

Well-Known Member
It's fantastic. Granted I don't know anything about authentic French cooking so I can't help on that account but the onion soup, macaroni, and sorbet are all some of the best I've had. Especially the onion soup. It's worth the $9.

Now you have me wanting to go actually.
 

tink33

Active Member
Original Poster
It's fantastic. Granted I don't know anything about authentic French cooking so I can't help on that account but the onion soup, macaroni, and sorbet are all some of the best I've had. Especially the onion soup. It's worth the $9.

Now you have me wanting to go actually.

Great! I've always wanted to eat there. The family's tour is 2 1/2 hours, so I don't have to rush. I love my husband & daughter. But a little time alone is heaven. Especially with good food. :)
 

belledream

Well-Known Member
We went for the first time last year and enjoyed our meal. It wasn't overly French, the desserts were absolutely scrumptious, and the interior decor was very pretty. :)
 

jlsHouston

Well-Known Member
It's fantastic. Granted I don't know anything about authentic French cooking so I can't help on that account but the onion soup, macaroni, and sorbet are all some of the best I've had. Especially the onion soup. It's worth the $9.

Now you have me wanting to go actually.

AHHH we had practically the same thing! This was my very first meal when we arrived on property the summer of 2012. I unpacked and walked from the BC through the IG and into this restaurant and had a late lunch around 2:30. The french onion soup was awesome as was the mac&cheese. I wanted to finish it but I couldn't. I had to have room for creme brulee. That's the only thing we differ, is the dessert. The creme brulee was excellent.
 

kap91

Well-Known Member
I actually think they overbrown the creme brûlée at les chefs but maybe it's just my tastes. I actually like the one at seasons better. *gasp*
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
This may sound odd as a choice in a French restaurant (and also we are not big burger fans), but the burger on brioche with Bernaise sauce is out of this world! It comes with a side of crisp, skinny French fries and my daughter and I deem it the perfect lunch.

Recently we have followed that lunch with a scoop of chocolate cinnamon ice cream from the juice bar in Morocco...yummy :hungry:
 

armyfamilyof5

Well-Known Member
We really like the onion soup, escargot and the have a little flat bread type app with bacon and it's really good. The mac&cheese is made with gruyere I believe and has nutmeg in it, quite good! We had a macaron ice cream sandwich at the shop behind the restaurant and it was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth.
 

tink33

Active Member
Original Poster
Thank you everyone! I can't wait to eat there. I was wondering, on the 3 price fixed course menu, can you get any dessert? I'm torn between the creme brûlée and the profiteroles.
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
I didn't like it at all. And now that Remy is gone, there's little reason to visit. The service was terrible, the food was decent at best.

I won't be going back any time soon.
 

EvilQueen-T

Well-Known Member
Here's a few pics I have of food from Chefs. It's to bad your family won't try it. There are easily recognizable and approachable items on the menu like the chicken is just roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, and a veggie. There's a hamburger. The croque monsieur is basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. They don't have to eat escargot lol. We prefer the venue for lunch but that's just us. I have an addiction to the goat cheese on their cheese plate and several times they've accommodated me by giving me an all goat cheese cheese plate. The food is good but it's not a signature venue. The seating is a little crowded for my liking but the atmosphere is otherwise pretty and with all the windows you get a nice view of people wandering around world showcase.









This is the cheese plate but obviously not their standard. It's all goat cheese...for me that's pixie dust :)
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
From my 2012 trip report.

Off to Fr-ah-nce! As we were walking, my kid asked about Kim Possible, and started chattering about how much she loved it, and asked if we could do it again this year. I said, of course, but it wasn't Kim Possible anymore. Now it's Perry the Platypus. She's a huge fan of the show, so I expected excitement. Instead, she frumped about how Perry doesn't talk and all he does is fight Doofinshmirtz and how Kim was so much more fun.

I commented that she now has her first Forgotten Disney moment, that Disney is always making changes, and there were several things that I wish they had never changed either. It didn't do much to change her mood, but in the back of my mind I pictured a middle aged version of her taking her children to Disney would remember and wish was back to the original.

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.


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jlsHouston

Well-Known Member
From my 2012 trip report.

Off to Fr-ah-nce! As we were walking, my kid asked about Kim Possible, and started chattering about how much she loved it, and asked if we could do it again this year. I said, of course, but it wasn't Kim Possible anymore. Now it's Perry the Platypus. She's a huge fan of the show, so I expected excitement. Instead, she frumped about how Perry doesn't talk and all he does is fight Doofinshmirtz and how Kim was so much more fun.

I commented that she now has her first Forgotten Disney moment, that Disney is always making changes, and there were several things that I wish they had never changed either. It didn't do much to change her mood, but in the back of my mind I pictured a middle aged version of her taking her children to Disney would remember and wish was back to the original.

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.


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Excellent review..I had a late lunch there once and the place was dead. So my service was about as prompt as I would expect from the french. I had a fairly attentive server, young kid and I can't help myself I just love a french accent. I left 10 dollar tip....
 

tink33

Active Member
Original Poster
Thank you all for the help and pictures. It will be nice to have lunch at a table service place. We got the QS dining plan and are paying for Be our Guest ( just eating appetizers & dessert) & my lunch out of pocket. There were a lot of openings for the day I picked. So hopefully it won't be crowded. My husband & daughter are very picky eaters. So it may just be dessert at BOG. :) Now I just need to decide what to get. I leaning towards the pefiteroles. Then I'll go see them snorkel in the tanks at the living seas.
 

DisneyDebNJ

Well-Known Member
I just booked an ADR for Chef de France for this Fall. NOW I'm excited! We have never dined here before. Thank you, all who posted pics, I can't wait!!!!
 

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