Dinner - Chefs de France (EPCOT France)
This was a first time for us having heard/read good things. First up, the theming is perfect for the original World Showcase concept (pre Frozen etc.). It really does look like a French brasserie just with American service style service. In the attached chart our expectation was clearly set for a Posh Soiree although technically it met the criteria of a French Picnic
Another great server. We started by ordering drinks and appetisers. DD on Apple juice then a glass of champagne for DW and for me a rushed, panicky choice of a French martini.
EPCOT t-shirt Challenge 2/22
French Martini
The champagne was predictably excellent. Deluxe I guess comes into its own when you can get a quality drink like this included and only having one included in the deal reduces the temptation to have more or get a bottle. Mine was a poor choice, a nice enough cocktail with pineapple juice and a pleasingly sour citrus foam on top but I should have gone with my first thought of the best glass of red I could see on the list.
We also got a paper bag of some very nice rustic style French bread with salty butter. This disappeared.
I mentioned that we ordered starters at the same time as the drinks. Strategy here is I think fairly well known, basically it’s to beat the Disney table turnaround hustle by not ordering your main until the starter arrives. It worked a treat tonight in preventing us being Bonefished with the main course while still eating the starter
If the server insists you order the main just say you haven’t decided yet
and they should take the starter order
As her starter DW ordered the cheese plate (Plateau de fromages de France (Cheese Board) - Imported cheese board with raisin and walnut bread)..
EPCOT t-shirt Challenge 3/22
I’m not sure the waiter explained the cheeses but this came with Port Salut, a blue cheese, a soft goats cheese, brie and a hard cheese that may have been gruyeres. Also served with grapes and walnuts. Very good, she ate about half and the rest was boxed up for the room (there will be a lot of this going on). We didn’t try the raisin bread because DW won’t eat raisins and I had a job of work on with the French Onion Soup.
This is one of my favourite soups, done well can be divine. This was good, the broth was done right and my only complaint is that there was so much bread and cheese on the top that the soup was hard to dredge out. I only like to eat a little of the top stuff and there must have been a pound of bread and cheese which is way too much for the starter of a 3 course meal. Picked the soup out and left most of the rest but a good start anyway.
DD surprised us by ordering Tartare de saumon legerement fume, sauce moutarde - Tartare of raw salmon lightly smoked with cucumber Dill, honey mustard sauce and a homemade brioche bun. The waiter likewise wore a worried look when he put it down in front of her, think he was convinced it was going back for a portion of nuggets
They grow up so fast!
She did very well here, enjoying it and eating almost the whole dish. At the moment we’re re-assessing our understanding of what DD will eat on a daily basis!
As the starters came we ordered the mains. I selected Boeuf Bourguignon, linguine - Beef braised in Cabernet with baby onions and carrots, served with linguine pasta.
This was a lot nicer than it looks. I really should buy a camera
It may not be photogenic, at least not at my skill level but this was wonderful. Beef nice and tender, the richest of red wine sauces that I could have used a pint of (in fact if you have this dish try to get an extra jug of the sauce on the side). Onions and carrots were nice too, I ate all of the bits of the dish and a little of the linguine which was mainly there I think to counterbalance the richness of the casserole. Really good dish!
DW ordered the fillet (Filet de boeuf grillé (Grilled Tenderloin of Beef) - with green peppercorn sauce, original potato gratin of Savoy and green beans). This came very rare which she enjoyed and a lot of it again went back to the room in a doggy bag. She subbed the gratin for mash and also had the green beans. Again no complaints here.
Our food adventurer DD chose Canard aux cerises (Duck Breast with Cherries) - Duck breast and leg confit with cherries, sweet potato puree and patty pan squash.
She lapped this up too, preferring the breast slices to the leg confit (which was ‘too much like chicken leg’). After this DD and I had room for dessert and we ordered Cygne au chocolat - Swan cream puff filled with chocolate mousse, chocolate sauce, and chocolate ice cream (DD) and Tarte aux Pommes - Apple Tart with Almond Cream, Caramel Sauce, and Vanilla Ice Cream (me). Both were enjoyed, mine was particularly good. I’m sure there was some calvados in there too, had to stop myself ¾ of the way through as starting to feel uncomfortable and DD struggled to walk home too. Our helpful server was also happy to let DW have an espresso as her DxDDP dessert which didn’t do his tip any harm.
Great meal this one, we’d recommend CDF to anyone and with DD’s newly expanded choices, are considering sneaking Monsieur Paul onto the restaurant list if we can. That’s it for Day 3, tomorrow’s plan is lunch at Be Our Guest/Spice Road Table and dinner at the Boathouse