Chefs de France vs. Garden Grill

[WDWspider]

We have a 2 year old and one wish left to plan for. We will spend the morning before our plane trip home at EPCOT in Future World. We thought Coral Reef, but after reviewing the Menu decided to pass. We then had a big debate over where to go (so many choices). I want Garden Grill for Nicholas, plus it has characters, is in Future World, and sounds like good food. Wendy wants Chefs de France. This will be for Lunch. I do not know much about the French restaurant. What would be best... experience another "new" food spot or go with the close by Character meal? We will be going to Chef Mickeys, so Chip and Dale will be new at GG. Please give pros and cons for either or both, and input, thanks. I'm game for either one, but time is a factor too.

 

[Mitzer]

That is a hard decision. We have eaten at both, but never had a 2 year old along with us. Here is my opinion...hope this helps. They are both very good, but very different. GG does have the characters, but is a more "home" cooked meal. You get a skillet with meats, fish, vegetables, potato, salads, bread (which was great by the way :slurp: ), dessert, drinks...the standard all-u-can-eat family place. It is nice and we usually do it while we are there (just my husband and I). Chefs de France is wonderful. The food is very authentic. The atmosphere is great, nice decor and it is a more upscale dining experiece. The last time we ate there, my husband had beef wellington and it was very good. It is a better way to us a dining flex feature for sure. The cost is going to be much higher for the meal, but if you are going on a prepaid dining feature, I would say try the CdF. I have seen many children (2 and younger) in this restaurant and as always, they have standard children dishes. If you are going to simply please your palate...go CdF. If you wants something that caters more towards your child, then GG. Good luck on your decision and hope this helps some...either way, they are both good...you can't go wrong.

 

[Horizons38]

Good post Mitzer, i would pick Garden Grill since you will be there with your child and my niece loves that restaurant

 

[CREEKWAYNE]

Originally posted by Mitzer
That is a hard decision. We have eaten at both, but never had a 2 year old along with us. Here is my opinion...hope this helps. They are both very good, but very different. GG does have the characters, but is a more "home" cooked meal. You get a skillet with meats, fish, vegetables, potato, salads, bread (which was great by the way :slurp: ), dessert, drinks...the standard all-u-can-eat family place. It is nice and we usually do it while we are there (just my husband and I). Chefs de France is wonderful. The food is very authentic. The atmosphere is great, nice decor and it is a more upscale dining experiece. The last time we ate there, my husband had beef wellington and it was very good. It is a better way to us a dining flex feature for sure. The cost is going to be much higher for the meal, but if you are going on a prepaid dining feature, I would say try the CdF. I have seen many children (2 and younger) in this restaurant and as always, they have standard children dishes. If you are going to simply please your palate...go CdF. If you wants something that caters more towards your child, then GG. Good luck on your decision and hope this helps some...either way, they are both good...you can't go wrong.

Well said! Took the words right out of my mouth except I do have a 2yr. old!:sohappy: Stick with Garden grill.

 

[GenerationX]

We went to both restaurants last July. All five of us preferred the food at Garden Grill over Chefs de France.

At Chefs, I had the steak (which had "gristly" fat tentacles throughout, yuck) and my wife had the salmon (which was average at best). The kids had chicken fingers and spaghetti (which were both pretty good!). The service and atmosphere were wonderful.

At Garden Grill, the food was uniformly excellent. My wife and I literally tried everything they served, and we loved it. The kids did, too. We made a full rotation around (about 45 minutes) and were visited by characters 4 or 5 times. This was probably our favorite meal of the trip.

Our youngest was still 2 at the time, and he vastly preferred Garden Grill.

 

[WDWCook]

Garden Grill is defently more Kid friendly(with the charicters and all) Chefs is an great restaurant with some of the best food in epcot. But may I also throw out Le celler if you want an very good meal with an great kids menu ;-)

 

[Disneynutcase]

Two points I'd like to make:

1) Chip & Dale visit guests at both Chef Mickeys and Garden Grille. I think the difference is Donald (@CM's) and Pluto (@GG).

2) My evil two cents on the matter. Having had two 2 year olds, I can say that eating at noisy family-oriented kid-friendly places can get old. Lord knows I've done my share of Dennys and Chuck E. Cheese's. In other words, isn't that the kind of restaurant you do in the real world all the time when you're with your kid? No way can you do upscale-ish dining dragging a two year old along, not without getting glares from other patrons. But at WDW, particularly at Epcot, those rules don't apply. Therefore go with Chef des France. You won't be the only ones there with small kids. And you'll see plenty of characters on your trip--trust me they are everywhere now. But when can you really go out for decent French food with real French waiters and fancy service and such with a 2 year old?

Hope this helps.

By the way, Coral Reef is actually a very cool restaurant and with pre-paid meal plans, its pricey menu shouldn't put you off. If you're looking for distractions, that fish tank is pretty neat. And the food was pretty darned good when we were there this past April.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Garden Grill :slurp:

 

[kennyj29]

Garden Grill

Hands down, much better for a 2 year old.

 

[WDWspider]

Originally posted by Disneynutcase


By the way, Coral Reef is actually a very cool restaurant and with pre-paid meal plans, its pricey menu shouldn't put you off. If you're looking for distractions, that fish tank is pretty neat. And the food was pretty darned good when we were there this past April.

Nah, we printed their menu, nothing appealed to us dispite the wish option in place, and I would only have considered it if we had a tank table. But it requires two wishes anyway, so we finally decided just to go eat two times instead of once.

On a side--- with our time restriction, it appears that all you can eat style is better for us as well, although I do see your points. We took my son to Jikos las year and I would not have done that anywhere else except Disney.

Good to know about Chip n' Dale though, that really makes the decision hard again. We have Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's as definites.

 

[Disneynutcase]

Ah! See, now you're bringing up different rules. Time restrictions, huh? Then you're probably better off at Garden Grille or going no farther than Mexico or Canada on WS--both of which have interesting restaurants.

But...if it were me. And if my family opted for Garden Grille when we also have Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's, I'd probably opt out on Chef Mickey's and instead do Ohana's or the new Cinderella Dinner at 1900 Park Faire, just to break things up.

Then again, I've done Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace (an absolute not-to-miss fave for lunch), and Garden Grille. And I have yet to try Ohanas (and really want to) and 1900 Park Faire. So perhaps I'm biased.

Both Chef Mickey's and Garden Grille are good places. The character interaction is similar, costumes are a bit different (chef's aprons and hats vs. farmer looking gear), and the food is actually kind of similar despite different ways of presenting it. I found Chef Mickey's to be loud and hyperfrenetic where Garden Grille seems much more serene. Plus it has the revolving into the ride thing going on.

So my new 2 cents, do Garden Grille and do something else besides Chef Mickeys since it's kind of redundant. At least that's the way I'd do it...

 

[WDWspider]

Originally posted by Disneynutcase
Ah! See, now you're bringing up different rules. Time restrictions, huh?

This was stated in my first post at the end. No one was mentioning it, so I thought I'd mention it again. Nothing changed. Really.

 

[doombuggy1983]

My two cents. We ate at Chef's de France while we were there in December. I was sick for the whole next day. Whether it was the filet with rosemary (lots and lots of rosemary) or the French Onion soup, I don't know, but it hit me about an hour after we ate dinner. I will never go there again.

I would second the LeCellier. The staff was really nice and friendly, and the food was great.

Another good Epcot place is the Italian restaurant.

 

[hadleybarth]

Garden Grille is one of our all time favourite restraunts. The food, although basic, is always excellent and it is by far the mellowist character meal (when our kids were toddlers they needed a break from the constant bombardment of excitement and noise). We prefer it over even Chef Mickey's. Both of my kids (now 6 and 4) ask to eat there every trip. I think you'd be better to go there for sure.

 

[kennyj29]

La Cellier

That is my 2nd favorite restaurant in Epcot besides the Coral Reef but we are talking about a 2 year old. Canada really doesn't have much for a two year old. Coral Reef has the huge tank to look at and Garden Grill has characters so if your trying to keep interest for a 2 year old, those are probably the best two places. Germany would probably keep his interest also.