After doing some shopping in various places around World Showcase, it was time to check in for our 2:35…
Lunch at LE CELLIER
SHORT VERSION
Highlights – Food (especially the Walnut-Crusted Salmon)
Disappointments – Service, Walnut-Crusted Salmon no longer on menu
Would we return? – Yes
LONG VERSION
First some background regarding our previous experience with Le Cellier. We have dined here many times (almost every trip)... a few times for dinner, but mostly for lunch. We have had some excellent meals here, and we’ve had some mediocre meals as well. On our two most recent visits, we had one of each. On our family trip in March 2010, three out of the five of us ordered steak when we dined here for lunch and all came away feeling somewhat disappointed. Our steaks were all fine, just not great…definitely not the best we have had at Disney World. In fact, they weren’t even the best we had on that trip.
This, along with the fact that our server seemed somewhat odd (the kids referred to him as a “creeper”), as he was always lurking very close to our table throughout our meal.
This may have had to do with the fact that three of the five of us dining were cute girls (ages 16 – 20) and he was a young guy.
Anyway for our 25th Anniversary trip last November, I wasn’t really planning to include Le Cellier in our dining plans. But then one day (not long before our trip) when I was playing around on the Disney Dining online reservation system, to my surprise a lunch reservation at Le Cellier came up as an option at Epcot. So I couldn’t resist the urge and went ahead and grabbed it. And I am so glad that I did because it turned out to be one of our best lunches of that trip.
However, I must add here that even though we were on the Dining Plan, we resisted the temptation to order a steak and instead ordered…a burger.
I know, I know…who goes to a steakhouse (especially on the Dining Plan) and orders a burger? Well, we did and I’m happy to say that we did not regret our decision. The Le Cellier House Burger with roasted mushrooms, pancetta, maple barbecue, Black Diamond Cheddar, and crispy onions was delicious. The rest of our food (cheddar cheese soup and chocolate whiskey cake) was equally delicious and our server this time around was great. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to have lunch here on this trip, I said to myself, “Sure, why not?”
Ok, now getting back to where I left off with this review. There was a short line at the outside podium for Le Cellier, which we joined to check in for our late lunch. Most of the people in front of us did not have a reservation though, so were turned away. But since we did have a reservation, we were greeted with a smile by the CMs working at the podium and given a pager. We decided to wait outside the restaurant and enjoy the beautiful landscaping there.
Our pager went off about 10 minutes later (much shorter than our previous wait times at Le Cellier) and we went inside to be seated. Our table was small (a 2-top) wedged tightly between another 2-top and a 4-top, so not the best location. On our way to the table, our hostess stopped at their dessert display to show and tell us about the desserts. I was very happy to see that they still had the Chocolate Whiskey Cake!
Our friendly server soon came to introduce herself and take our drink orders. Since DD had just had two margaritas at La Cava (she drank all but one sip of the complimentary one we received) she declined my suggestion to have a cocktail and stuck with a glass of water. However, knowing that this was our last day and we had not yet had a drink from Canada (for our Drinking & Eating Around the World Game), I decided to take one for the team and order this…
Torontopolitan
This cocktail was a tasty combination of Iceberg Vodka and Chambord (a black raspberry liqueur), plus cranberry and orange juices (for $9.50). Now, technically this was not listed on their cocktail menu, but I had heard about it on the Party Through the Parks website so asked if it might still be available.
Next we each ordered a cup of their signature Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup made with Moosehead beer and bacon. This was delicious as usual!
Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup
And we of course couldn’t resist dunking our pretzel breadsticks into our soup.
Oddly though, after dropping off our soup and breadsticks this was the last we saw of our friendly server until it was time for us to pay our bill.
Before we even had a chance to finish our cups of soup (and trust me…we were not dawdling, as we both loved the soup
), another server came with our shared entrée and extra plate. Being that we were at a small table there really wasn’t any room for these, so she tried to take away our soup cups before we were done with them. We of course refused to let them go, so we somehow found a way to squeeze the plates onto our already crowded table.
So that was the bad…now for the good. DD had thoughts of sharing the filet for our entrée, but I reminded her how small the filet is that is served at lunch (too small for sharing). As for me, I probably would have just ordered the burger again, but DD doesn’t like hamburgers so that was out. But then we saw something on the menu that sounded great to both of us...Walnut-Crusted Salmon with a whiskey-maple glaze, served with sweet corn and pickled mushrooms. This turned out to be an absolute winner!!! The best salmon dish I've ever had...even better than the salmon I had at Artist Point on our last trip (and that was really, really good!!!)
Walnut-Crusted Salmon
Being a lover of mashed potatoes, DD asked if we could also share a side order of cream cheese mashed potatoes. These were quite delicious as well.
Side Order of Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Chocolate Whiskey Cake (from last visit)
So I had really wanted to again have the Chocolate Whiskey Cake, something I had discovered here last time and was one of my favorite desserts from that trip. I thought that since we had shared an entrée we would have room for it. But DD absolutely refused to eat even a bite of dessert, so I knew I would end up eating the whole thing myself and being miserable.
Although I planned to decline dessert when offered, I secretly hoped that they would bring me a piece anyway as a birthday surprise.
Well, the only surprise that I got was the return of our long-lost server with our check in hand. Not only was there no birthday cake offered, but she didn’t even ask us if we wanted to order dessert.
I got the feeling they were in a rush to get us out the door so they could clean and set up our table for dinner. What do you think?
And speaking of that, as we were eating they were resetting the tables around us (as people left) with the fancier place setting for their Signature dinner.
I have one last picture for you, something you don't see too often...an empty Le Cellier restaurant! We were one of the last lunch diners (I recall seeing maybe three other tables of diners seated around the corner) to leave.
This was as we were walking out at 3:40…less than one hour from the time we walked in the door. So this was not exactly a "Relax, Take your time, and Savor every bite" kind of meal. But even though our service felt rather rushed and our server went MIA for quite awhile, these issues didn’t prevent us from thoroughly enjoying every bite of our food.
I have one more tidbit of information to add here. Sadly, since our visit in May, Le Cellier has come out with a new lunch menu and the Walnut-Crusted Salmon is gone.
Salmon is still offered on the new menu but it is now prepared differently… Pan-roasted Salmon with Summer Beans, Roasted Tomatoes, Pickled Onions, and Applewood-smoked Bacon Vinaigrette. This doesn’t sound nearly as appealing to me, so I’m hoping this is just a temporary change (perhaps for the summer?) and our much loved Walnut-Crusted Salmon will someday return.
And so I can calculate my total savings with Tables in Wonderland…
20% TIW Discount - $9.49
Drinking (& Eating) Around the World Game Points Earned for Meal and Drink - 35
NEXT UP: Drinking (& Eating) Around the World – Part IV
In the last week, both my daughters went off to college. So I've been spending all my free time doing laundry, shopping, packing, driving, and unpacking. Wow, I could really use a vacation now...another Disney vacation! 
, I did discover my new favorite Disney World margarita. 
