sleepydog25
Been here awhile
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
When last we joined our intrepid tasting trio, they had been pleasantly surprised by the new selections at Roaring Fork and had been mightily pleased with their dinners at Brown Derby. If I was computer savvy, there'd be a nice little "link" to direct you to said reviews. Instead, you get this ugly one: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1135812
We now join our regularly scheduled broadcast already in progress.
Day 3: Though we started the day with EMH at Magic Kingdom (Kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. . .) , our dinner ressies were in Canada's basement, aka TRFKALeC. Having recently read numerous posts about the less than stellar service at Le Cellier, I was a bit nervous even though we arrived for our 6:30 ADR 20 minutes early (even tossing in a chance encounter with that ferocious grizzly Kenai; DD5 told us not to worry that she'd Power Rangerize Kenai if he got out of hand). However, my fears proved ungrounded as we were seated in less than 10 minutes. Our server Carla (who was very attentive and friendly) mentioned we were seated in the New Brunswick area. . .okayyy. I spent the rest of the night attempting to plumb the reason for assigning such sections when to my knowledge no one gets any different food or treatment. Now, if Carla had said, "you can only order food and wine off the part of the menu marked 'New Brunswick' it might have made sense. Wouldn't have had much choice, but hey, the seating would have made more sense. Yet, I digress once again.
Seat #1, er, I mean Princess Daughter had the child's appetizer to start, naturally it was the cheese soup. And her mother followed suit with an adult's portion. Me? I had the Prince Edward Island mussels that was served chowder style with bits of ham and potatoes--it was absolutely delicious! There was just enough of the chowder-like sauce in the bottom of the huge bowl of mussels to emphasize the smoky nature of the mussels. If you love mussels, order two bowls and make it your dinner. The cheddar cheese soup--drum roll, please--was just okay to me. The taste was good but far too salty for my personal desires. Still, the wife declared it "scrumptious." And then there are the much-ballyhooed pretzel breadsticks. Again, they were good, but not great to us personally.
Our entrees came a bit later (timing was excellent for those who keep track of those sorts of things), and once again the daughter chose chicken strips with corn. We made sure she ate the corn to offset the growing of chicken nuggets/strips out of her ears. C'mon Disney, offer a small steak and more grilled items on kids' menus, okay? My wife had steak again, this time the whopping 14-oz NY strip which was cooked just right--medium rare--that came with roasted Yukon gold potatoes. Very good as it should be in a steak house. I went with the prized (though often criticized) wild mushroom filet with mushroom risotto served with a white truffle & herb beurre blanc. I don't denigrate others' views about not liking this same meal, but mine was superb. The meat was tender, plenty big for a meal (News flash! Filets are not meant to be served in 16-oz portions.), and was made further wonderful by the dreamy beurre blanc. If anything, the dish is a bit too rich. I paired my steak with a glass of Charmes merlot, while the wife had the Triggs cabernet. Her cab was actually more appropriate for the meal than my merlot, though it was the suggested wine on the menu. Our daughter had a 2006 Sprite which had just enough body to cleanse the palate with her chicken. She did say it should age another year, however.
Speaking of wine, the wine list at LeC is good, but not terribly extensive. They feature a lot of Canadian wines (both of ours were such) with which I am not familiar. The wife's cab was luscious, full-bodied, and had plenty of berry notes. My merlot was a bit thin, though still good, but it didn't hold up well with the filet as one would hope. It needed a bit of that cabernet signature cedar taste with a bit more finish than it had. Overall, our service at LeC was excellent as was the food. We weren't rushed, had enjoyable conversations with diners next to us, and would certainly make this a repeat visit place without hesitation based on this one night.
Le Cellier:
Day 4: I'm throwing in another bonus review here: the PSB at Akershus. It remains one of our favorite breakfast meals. We always make 8:30 reservations, always arrive as early as possible, and we've had three consecutive good experiences. Expecting a crush of folks such as we had encountered each prior day (Monday & Tuesday), we were amazed to find how uncrowded the breakfast was to start. We were the second table to be seated and upon first entering the castle, we were greeted by Belle in her ball gown who was taking pics with each little girl (and a few grown women, too!). The food, as has been the case each visit, was hot, tasty (man, I gotta learn how to make those cheesy potatoes!), and plentiful. Our server was attentive and the character interaction was good. For the record, we had Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and Mary Poppins. Our little immediately pointed out how MP was NOT a princess, but we said she WAS magical, so that should count for something. PSB:
(out of four)
After bopping around EPCOT, we headed to the room for a quick respite before taking on the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (or as the daughter says, "bibbibi bobbibi booteek"). I know it's not a meal, but it's worth mentioning at this point since it DOES require a reservation. I will talk more about this profound experience in my trip report (yet to be filed), but suffice to say now that it is a very crowded venue and that you must allow lots of extra time should you be planning an ADR around it. Oh, yes. . .we had done just that!
We interrupt our reviews to allow Dad to go make breakfast for lovely princess. . .tune in soon to catch the final installment of "Had ADRs. Did Eat. . .Well!
We now join our regularly scheduled broadcast already in progress.
Day 3: Though we started the day with EMH at Magic Kingdom (Kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. . .) , our dinner ressies were in Canada's basement, aka TRFKALeC. Having recently read numerous posts about the less than stellar service at Le Cellier, I was a bit nervous even though we arrived for our 6:30 ADR 20 minutes early (even tossing in a chance encounter with that ferocious grizzly Kenai; DD5 told us not to worry that she'd Power Rangerize Kenai if he got out of hand). However, my fears proved ungrounded as we were seated in less than 10 minutes. Our server Carla (who was very attentive and friendly) mentioned we were seated in the New Brunswick area. . .okayyy. I spent the rest of the night attempting to plumb the reason for assigning such sections when to my knowledge no one gets any different food or treatment. Now, if Carla had said, "you can only order food and wine off the part of the menu marked 'New Brunswick' it might have made sense. Wouldn't have had much choice, but hey, the seating would have made more sense. Yet, I digress once again.
Seat #1, er, I mean Princess Daughter had the child's appetizer to start, naturally it was the cheese soup. And her mother followed suit with an adult's portion. Me? I had the Prince Edward Island mussels that was served chowder style with bits of ham and potatoes--it was absolutely delicious! There was just enough of the chowder-like sauce in the bottom of the huge bowl of mussels to emphasize the smoky nature of the mussels. If you love mussels, order two bowls and make it your dinner. The cheddar cheese soup--drum roll, please--was just okay to me. The taste was good but far too salty for my personal desires. Still, the wife declared it "scrumptious." And then there are the much-ballyhooed pretzel breadsticks. Again, they were good, but not great to us personally.
Our entrees came a bit later (timing was excellent for those who keep track of those sorts of things), and once again the daughter chose chicken strips with corn. We made sure she ate the corn to offset the growing of chicken nuggets/strips out of her ears. C'mon Disney, offer a small steak and more grilled items on kids' menus, okay? My wife had steak again, this time the whopping 14-oz NY strip which was cooked just right--medium rare--that came with roasted Yukon gold potatoes. Very good as it should be in a steak house. I went with the prized (though often criticized) wild mushroom filet with mushroom risotto served with a white truffle & herb beurre blanc. I don't denigrate others' views about not liking this same meal, but mine was superb. The meat was tender, plenty big for a meal (News flash! Filets are not meant to be served in 16-oz portions.), and was made further wonderful by the dreamy beurre blanc. If anything, the dish is a bit too rich. I paired my steak with a glass of Charmes merlot, while the wife had the Triggs cabernet. Her cab was actually more appropriate for the meal than my merlot, though it was the suggested wine on the menu. Our daughter had a 2006 Sprite which had just enough body to cleanse the palate with her chicken. She did say it should age another year, however.
Speaking of wine, the wine list at LeC is good, but not terribly extensive. They feature a lot of Canadian wines (both of ours were such) with which I am not familiar. The wife's cab was luscious, full-bodied, and had plenty of berry notes. My merlot was a bit thin, though still good, but it didn't hold up well with the filet as one would hope. It needed a bit of that cabernet signature cedar taste with a bit more finish than it had. Overall, our service at LeC was excellent as was the food. We weren't rushed, had enjoyable conversations with diners next to us, and would certainly make this a repeat visit place without hesitation based on this one night.
Le Cellier:
Day 4: I'm throwing in another bonus review here: the PSB at Akershus. It remains one of our favorite breakfast meals. We always make 8:30 reservations, always arrive as early as possible, and we've had three consecutive good experiences. Expecting a crush of folks such as we had encountered each prior day (Monday & Tuesday), we were amazed to find how uncrowded the breakfast was to start. We were the second table to be seated and upon first entering the castle, we were greeted by Belle in her ball gown who was taking pics with each little girl (and a few grown women, too!). The food, as has been the case each visit, was hot, tasty (man, I gotta learn how to make those cheesy potatoes!), and plentiful. Our server was attentive and the character interaction was good. For the record, we had Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and Mary Poppins. Our little immediately pointed out how MP was NOT a princess, but we said she WAS magical, so that should count for something. PSB:
(out of four)After bopping around EPCOT, we headed to the room for a quick respite before taking on the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (or as the daughter says, "bibbibi bobbibi booteek"). I know it's not a meal, but it's worth mentioning at this point since it DOES require a reservation. I will talk more about this profound experience in my trip report (yet to be filed), but suffice to say now that it is a very crowded venue and that you must allow lots of extra time should you be planning an ADR around it. Oh, yes. . .we had done just that!
We interrupt our reviews to allow Dad to go make breakfast for lovely princess. . .tune in soon to catch the final installment of "Had ADRs. Did Eat. . .Well!
I opted for the suggested pairing but I think the merlot just needed more structure, more depth to carry the truffle beurre blanc. Just my opinion, of course.
Our daughter had the delectable Chocolate Moose which was just as cute as the many pics I've seen of it on here. Wifey and I shared the Chef's Dessert Trio which was superb! Served on a single platter, the dessert consisted of a small slice of the Happiest Celebration on Earth Chocolate Whiskey Cake (henceforth known as HCECWC--no, that's too long, too. Call it Le Cake.) The Le Cake was moist, very chocolatey, though I didn't detect much of a whiskey note at all. The orange marmalade on top added quite a nice contrast of taste. Additionally, there was a maple creme brulee which was quite good, and a small scoop of raspberry sorbet which was the perfect complement to the other two heavier desserts. The price for the trio is $12 which we thought was a decent bargain given you get three for one. . .bargain being a relative term at Disney, of course. 
