Dining at Disney

[Schielke]

Steve Klc mentioned that Disney had a great serious food program. I was curious to hear which places at disney are worth the trip. What are everybody elses thoughts or experiences?

Ben

[Steve Klc]

They do have a serious program Ben--but it is not "great" across the board. Breakfasts uniformly disappoint and you really have to search out an interesting lunch--most of the finer dining restaurants are dinner only. For lunch, you're probably best in Epcot--most notably Living Seas, then Canada or Japan. In fact, for dinner, perhaps only three restaurants have chefs, wine and service programs that I'd say were excellent or close to great right now--California Grill, Flying Fish and Living Seas--as of my recent visit in November 2002. (I haven't eaten at V & A--but that is regarded as the best on property.) Great is an over-used or misunderstood word, so I don't want to mislead you. Here's an old post of mine:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=5627&hl=disney

But there are unknown chefs at "lesser" restaurants, like in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot--not considered a prestige property--that can cook their ass off, create interesting wine pairings and do this in a volume restaurant, like Canada, in a theme park, open for lunch and dinner, and at a lesser price point. I asked the chef at Canada to cook us a tasting menu with wines by the glass when I was there in November and it rivalled anything I've had on property since I've started dining there--so over the past 3 years. So it was as good as when Cliff cooked at the California Grill (before he left for Darden.) This year we also had an excellent dinner from the menu at the Wilderness Lodge--a beautiful, understated and under-appreciated fine dining property. Lots of wine from Oregon and Washington State, new GM and new chef. They're on the rise as well.

Jiko supposedly has improved since my disappointing meal there in 2001.

I should also qualify this somewhat--I was dining at these restaurants as a known chef, and my wife and I were guest chefs of Disney ourselves--we were down there doing among other things a wine dinner with Chalk Hill and cooked with the new chef of the California Grill, John State. Most of the time we didn't order off the menu--instead asking the chefs at California Grill, Living Seas and Canada just to cook for us. But we made it clear we wanted their signature dishes, what they were most proud of, and to pair wines. Most of what we had were on menu--meaning our meals would be similar to what anyone ordering from the menu would receive--except our portions were smaller--and we had more of them. In the case of California Grill--we sat at one of the many chef's tables--really counters--like at a sushi bar--and where you can dine with full view into the impressive open kitchen, with different views depending on where you sit--sushi bar, cold station or pastry station. The best counter seats are just to the left of the passe. On your right you see everything going out, every ticket piling up, every screw up by the runners or sous chefs and right in front of you is one of the sushi chefs. I'd make priority reservations in advance--and follow up with the restaurant directly to specify these seats.

And if any foodie is perhaps re-considering going to Disney as a result of my enthusiasm--I'd recommend you plan to visit during what they call the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, which runs for several weeks in the Fall. The whole place is just abuzz with food and chefs and little tastings and seminars and special dinners--with a mix of guest chefs and chefs from property.

[IsItSoupYet?]

Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge is definitely worth a visit. My husband and I had our anniversary dinner there during a week-long trip, and we loved it (and considering that my husband normally dislikes "serious" food, that's saying something). Here's a recent menu:

Artist Point

The food at the California Grill is always good, but the service can be very spotty, which is why I hesitate to recommend it. Here's the menu anyway:

California Grill

I haven't been to the Flying Fish Cafe, but since so many people love it I give you the menu to judge for yourself:

Flying Fish Cafe

The breakfast buffet at Boma (in the Animal Kingdom Lodge) is considered the best on property. I don't know whether it's "serious" food, but we enjoyed it. The menu:

Breakfast at Boma

And I do have to agree with Steve on Le Cellier in Epcot's Canada pavillion. It gets overlooked a lot, but the food is extremely good and the prices very reasonable for Disney. The cheddar cheese soup alone is worth the visit.

Le Cellier Steakhouse

[boaziko]

One of the first choices could be in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel l in LA. We had a most surprising, high quality dinner (much to my regret we had to be quick, as we did not reserve a place, which the kids didn't mind at all and wanted to rush back to the rides. we had a small selection of what is a great restaurant named Napa Rose, I can't recall what we had, but the meat dishes were superb, and we were terribly sorry we did not notice the place earlier.

We heard afterwards that it was highly rated by the Orange county Zagat. (but haven't seen that) .

A link to Napa Rose:

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland...ng/index?id=423

Well I guess that might be a rather long trip... sorry.

Edited December 22, 2002 by boaziko (log)

[Kikujiro]

Bizarrely enough, a thread on Petrus (the restaurant) on the UK board some time back mutated into a discussion of Disney food, after Cabrales asked about it. I think my own post is a little unfair on the California Grill, which I remember quite enjoying. I also realise that the phrase I was looking for was 'heirloom tomatoes'

[Malawry]

Surely, somebody on this board has dined at the Victoria and Albert's restaurant at the Grand Floridian resort. I've done a little poking around online and it sounds like it has an odd blend of "classic butler" service (does this mean things like deboning dover sole at the table and flaming crepes suzette, or am I missing the meaning here?) and the sort of menu I expect to see at the higher-end restaurants (with plenty of fresh ingredients and the goodies like an amuse-bouche and pre-desserts). (Apologizes for my run-on sentence. ) I've also read one place that all the servers are to be called Victoria or Albert depending on gender, but I sincerely hope this is a joke.