First, before I start...remember how I said I refused to use a flash?? Yeah...these pictures turned out really bad. So I apologize. Now...on with the review
This was our first time eating "upstairs." For those of you who are unfamiliar, there are two restaurants in France. One is downstairs, 1 credit on the
DDP, called Chefs de France. Their Lobster Bisque is killer
Upstairs, for dinner only, there's Bistro de Paris. It's not on the DDP (to my knowledge, we don't do the dining plans) but is considered a signature restaurant. You enter around the back of the building, there's a door near the Patisserie. Oh...and on this one, you can only book 30 days out.
So we arrive and check in slightly early for our 7pm ADR. You check in downstairs and wait for a host(ess) to come down and take you upstairs to the dining room. What surprised me is that they had an entire room of the restaurant mostly empty all night. I think only 3 tables in that particular room were filled. So if you want a nice meal, didn't make an ADR and are dressed a little nicer, you can probably do a walk-up here. Anyways, we were seated and given our menus. My parents had already decided they were doing the fixed menu (I know there's a French term for it, but I can't even come close to spelling it, k?) with the wine pairing. I offered to drive since a) I can't drink red wine without getting a migraine and b) if I switch alcohol, I need to let my body have time to process it...otherwise I get a migraine. Oh the exciting life I lead
But it worked out well for my parents because they were excited to try the wine pairing and my Dad always drives. Since we weren't staying on site, he thought he was going to have to for-go it. I'm such a good daughter
Anyways...they knew what they were getting, it was just a matter of deciding between the choices. Me? No idea. But I couldn't make up my mind, so I went with the fixed menu sans wine pairing. (Like my French
) I chose a glass of the Pinot Blanc.
Very good. Something I noticed: Disney has made excellent choices for their "house" wines.
Our waiter this evening was Michael (said with a French accent of course.) He was an awesome waiter. What was really neat is that we couldn't understand half the things he was saying. Really...we thought it was neat. He had a very heavy accent, so the idea that we were dining in "France" was really driven home. He was attentive enough, but not too attentive. Even the water girl was great, our glasses were never empty (I drink water like a fish...)
Ok...enough about that. Onto the food. First, we started with an amuse bouche. Which, as I've learned from Top Chef
is considered your first bite. My Mom kept calling it the "Chef's Taste" which I think is accurate. The Chef is giving you a taste of what's to come for the meal. So here it is:
This was a little piece of baguette with a shrimp on it. It did have another topping on it as well, but I can't remember what! Sorry
So I'm looking at the All Ears menu, and I noticed that their fixed menu is different than what we chose from. Just an FYI. I'll try to give as much info as I can.
The bread here was also served warm. We noticed at one point they switched from rolls to breadsticks, so my guess is that they were baking it right before serving.
Our first course we had a choice between the Mussel and Saffron Soup or the Escargot w/ a Frog Leg. All of us chose the Escargot:
My stomach is a bit sensitive to most spices, and we discovered that my brother was allergic to mussels. I was taking no chances with the soup
But I've had Escargot in St Martin and at the F&W, which I hated it in St Martin, I was also about 12...I loved it at F&W in October, so I decided to give it a try here. OMG it was delicious!! I loved it. The sauce was excellent, not too heavy on garlic. Also had some mushrooms, which I've just discovered aren't as bad as I thought they were
We were all taking our rolls and soaking up some of the extra sauce...classy right
But the frog leg...well, I've never tried frog leg. And as you can (kind of ) see, there's only one on the plate. So I kept an open mind. It wasn't
terrible but I really didn't care for it. It was kind of slimy under the breading and I kept biting the bone by accident. Don't really care to have one again. Oh, another thing about the Escargot...the little pots they have them in, when they came out, our waiter and another one had brought them out. They had lids to them. Our waiter discreetly counted down so that all the lids were removed at once. Subtle, but I liked it. I'm also easily amused
Next course...we had the option between "Sea Scallops grilled with smoked salt, green peas flan, and sautéed salsify, champagne beurre blanc" or "Atlantic Red Snapper, calmari Basquaise style, rice with squid ink." My Dad and I chose the Scallops:
The little pyramid was the flan. I really enjoyed the scallop and even some of the peas. Not the flan so much. But to be honest, I'm not really a pea person. It was really good though, loved the scallop.
My Mom had the Snapper:
I can't tell you too much about it since I didn't try it. I'm not a snapper person either. (I'm actually kind of picky. And since I just was adventurous on the last course...and quite honestly pea flan is rather adventurous for me, I wasn't feeling like trying something new!) My parents shared bites of each of theirs. I know they both really enjyoed the snapper. My Dad had taken just a bite of the snapper and not any of the calamari (that's in the little dish in the pic.) Once my Mom tried the calamari she was raving about it, "Are you
sure you don't want to try it?" So I'm guessing she thought it was good!!
Next up was the meat course. We had these two options: "Grilled Beef Tenderloin beef Parmentier, asparagus, peppercorn sauce" or "Pork Tenderloin stuffed with porcinis, pasta gratin with truffles, morel sauce." My Dad and I once again chose the beef:
This was amazing. I loved it. There was also a little thing of mashed potatoes that had some beef in the middle in the upper right there. OMG they were delicious. I completely cleaned my plate!! What an amazing little dish. Beef was cooked just right, so tender, flavors were amazing.
My Mom had to be different again
so she chose the Pork:
I stole a bite of the pasta. I'm a big mac & cheese fan...if there's pasta with cheese on it...I'm all over it. So I needed to try a bite. It was very yummy. She thoroughly enjoyed hers as well. When our waiter came to take away this course, I don't think there was a bite of food left on any of our plates!!
Finally we were at dessert. Here we weren't given a choice. Just asked by Michael, "do you like chocolate?" Hah. Do I like chocolate?
yes.
With this my parents were served sparkling wine (it's the only one I remember, sorry!) The dessert was really really good. Looking at the picture there were two creme brulees and then the chocolate cake. The creme brulees were tasty, but not exactly memorable. Oh. There was also some kind of almond ice cream on the plate. The chocolate cake though, was amazing. It tasted like a flourless cake but it had a warm liquid center. Oh I wish I had it right now!!
All in all, this restaurant was
We really enjoyed it. IMO, if you want a special night but don't want to spend the money at V&As, come to Bistro. It's slightly less expensive
Even if you don't do the fixed menu, the a la carte menu is priced at about the same as any other signature, but I think this is the hands down most romantic restaurant at Disney. (
And it's in a park!!) When we go back I'm sure we won't do the fixed menu again so soon, but for the first time as my Mom put it, "we needed to experience it
their way." It was so good. We could have had a cheese course between the meats and dessert and we're soooo glad we didn't! It was totally worth the slight bellyache from eating too much
I think overall Jiko is still my favorite, but Bistro has got to be second or maybe even tied. It was wonderful (think I can say it enough, sorry!) If you get a table by a window you can watch Illuminations from there. We were back a little because we were 3, but we've seen it a lot, so it wasn't a big deal to us. And if you're wondering, we got there right around 7 and we left right as Illuminations was finishing.
Oh! And a bonus:
50s Prime Time up next!
Definitely a lack of seating at Y&Y. Though I could have sat on a wall and be happy. It's those picky old folks I travel with 
I'm sure that'll change soon 
If I were here for dinner, close to Illuminations time, that would have been extra awesome. But I enjoyed it just the same because I got to people watch...one of my favorite past times. 
Now on this trip, my Uncle, Aunt, & cousin were joining us, but only occasionally in the parks. My Aunt, Mom & Dad aren't really big on sushi, so they went to England and got fish and chips. Which made my Mom do this: 
So she was a happy camper. So this ADR was my Uncle, my cousin (my age), and myself. They both got Japanese beers, and I got a gingerale. (I was saving my booze for my tasty beverage later!) They both enjoyed the beers. 
We're trying 50's lunch for the 1st time in May. I'll be watching for that review too. 
We were very happy that we tried them! Very good. Think I still prefer my Pomegranate Kir, but this is a nice change of pace. My Dad plopped us at one of the "sidewalk" tables and he walked over to Germany to get a pretzel. (I told you...the man likes his pretzels! 
)
Lucky me! We're awfully close to the patisserie 
So I popped in there and got a Strawberry Tart:
