MyWDW Restaurant Review: Les Chefs de France

Cuisine: French

Lunch (12:00 PM - 3:00 PM):
Service: A la Carte
Price Level: $15-$35 per person

Dinner (4:30 PM - 9:00 PM):
Service: A la Carte
Price Level: $15-$35 per person

Special Note
During the dinner hours, fans of the Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille may get a chance to meet the head chef himself, Remy. There's no guarantee, but most days he comes out every now and then to make sure his patrons are enjoying their meals.

Appetizers

Cassolette d'escargots de Bourgogne au beurre persille Casserole of burgundian escargots baked in parsley and garlic butter $11.75

Soupe a l'oignon gratinee The classic onion soup topped with gruyere cheese $6.75

Entrees

Lasagnes de legumes du soleil a l'huile d'olive au thym zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers baked into thin layers of pasta $14.75

Plat de Cote de boeuf au cabernet avec pates beef short ribs briased in cabernet with pasta, pearl onions and mushrooms $22.95

Desserts

Croustillant feuillantine, douceur au chocolat, glace noix de coco, tartare de banane Crispy cake with chocolate milk mousse, coconut ice cream and bananas marinated in rum and lemon juice $7.25

Creme Brulee Vanilla creme brulee served with a Madeleine $7.25

When my girlfriend and I arrived for our lunch reservations, we were asked to take a seat near the entrance to the restaurant, and were called to come in to be seated about five to ten minutes later (we had arrived about twenty minutes early, so we still were seated before our reservations). The atmosphere in Les Chefs de France is pleasant, and quite elegant without feeling too "upper class" to be comfortable. Not far from where we were seated was the area where the desserts were transitioned from the kitchen to the diners, and everything coming out of there looked quite spectacular.

Our server was very pleasant, and not at all the stereotypical snooty Frenchman - in fact, everyone who stopped by our table was quite pleasant and charming. My girlfriend and I decided to order Oranginas - a drink billed as a popular French soda. When we received the bottles we noted, with some amusement, that the drink was produced in Texas. A bit disappointed, I enjoyed the drink anyway, but decided to later research it, and the drink is, in fact, French in origin, with limited distribution and production in the United States - so I felt a tad less deceived.

For lunch, my girlfriend chose Gratin de Macaroni, a baked macaroni and cheese dish featuring gruyere cheese and cream, off the vegetarian section of the menu, and I selected a filet of salmon with smashed potatoes in a tomato-red pepper sauce. The server informed me that it would take about fifteen to twenty minutes to prepare my particular meal, which I was quite all right with.

The food came out fairly promptly after that particular time limit was up, and at first I felt that my portion a decent amount of salmon and a good amount of potatoes, though there was a lot of negative space on the plate, which was filled nicely by the sauce, but it didn't seem like a lot of food. My girlfriend's macaroni looked quite delicious, and I definitely enjoyed sneaking a bit or two of hers - she dubbed it the best macaroni and cheese she'd ever had.

As far as my dish went, the salmon was excellent - very lightly seasoned and perfectly cooked, tender and moist, and definitely fresh, as it had absolutely no fishy flavor, and went extremely well with the sauce. My potatoes were tasty, however, they were a tad on the cool side, and it seemed they may have been waiting for the fish to be ready to be plated, though all together, everything was quite delicious.

Four and a half stars for Les Chefs de France - mostly a flawless meal for a slightly, but not too damagingly so, high price point. Very pleasant, prompt, and attentive service complimented by delicious food - though with a few points off for lukewarm potatoes, definitely makes this an excellent choice for those wanting to add a little elegance to their Disney dining without needing to adhere to a dress code.