Chefs de France - a grand disappointment!

[NickieMouse MO]

Our family ate at Chefs de France on Saturday, Nov. 17th. It was our 10 year anniversary and on our honeymoon we had a wonderful dinner in the Bistro upstairs. Since only Chefs is on the dining plan, I thought this would be a lovely choice for us with the children. Boy, was I wrong!

I had previously called to surprise my husband with an 8" anniversary cake with Mickey and Minnie on top saying '10 magical years - happy anniversary' in French. I spoke to the head chef for epcot who put me in touch with the baker. The head baker (and cake order taker) made a note and email about the cake to the baker/ chef at France. I spoke to LeChefs directly just prior to our departure. Yeah, yeah, you can guess what happened. Of course they lost all notice of the cake, what I paid, and completely ruined the surprise for my husband/kids. (we completely left at this point and didn't even get the DDP deserts)

Not to mention that the ambience was absolutely over-crowded and mind-splittingly noisey; our meal took 1 and 1/2 hours to get to our table (!!!!) and our french waitress was clearly not thrilled to be dealing with american tourists. (why apply for the college program then?) So unfriendly and snobby!

I know it's the only epcot restaurant operated by a non-disney third party, and it is quite obvious!

 

[Rozzie]

I am sorry they messed up the cake. I would have been really disappointed too.

To me though, Chefs is one of the loudest restaurants on property. Always has been, we have eaten there several times throughout the years, and the service has always been off. So to be honest, I am not surprised at your experience. We don't eat there anymore, rather eat upstairs for some peace and quiet.

 

[boomhauer]

That's odd - We had a similar cake experience. We had our wedding dinner there in 2005. Food and service was good, except for 2 things:

1.They wouldn't serve the cake we had from our wedding, which was a Disney Wedding. We were told that after the ceremony, the cake could be taken to any restaurant on property and served. They wouldn't do it.

2.We asked if they would at least hold the cake in the kitchen. They said yes, and after the meal when we asked for the cake, they informed us it was thrown out by accident.

We went there last year for a meal. It was crappy. Won't be going back anytime since.

 

[DisOrBust]

Japan, Mexico and Italy are all NOT owned by Disney. If the waitress was rude to an American then she was truely French,LOL! It use to be a much better place to dine when they had less seats and table cloths. The menu was much more deverse. The cake being lost is not unheard of but it still very disappointing. I think WDW either gets the cake thing right or gives it up completely!

 

[bavaria]

I used to love this restaurant, but over the past few years it fell off my list. I have eaten in France (the country) MANY MANY times and have never had poor service, yet I did at this place, and more than once. Not rude, just extremely indifferent.

However I agree with Rozzie (duh!) that upstairs is an incredible experience. One of the chefs there used to make me a special veggie meal which was one of the best meals I have ever eaten in the US.

I actually like the French CMs in Epcot as they seem to enjoy chatting with me (but then, having a French name, and being able to speak French almost fluently and having been all over France in the past probably puts me in a different situation than the average Epcot visitor.... )

 

[Rozzie]

I used to love this restaurant, but over the past few years it fell off my list. I have eaten in France (the country) MANY MANY times and have never had poor service, yet I did at this place, and more than once. Not rude, just extremely indifferent.

)

(Emphasis Mine)

You know Bavaria, you are correct. I don't think I have ever had a rude server in WDW now that I think of it, just a lot of indifference. The indifferent ones don't care if they take my order, get my food, or need refills. When I think of rude, I think of someone rolling their eyes at me or being snippy. I have been fortunate enough not to experience that. Just a lot of indifference. And on the flip side, great service too at other places. It's a crapshoot it seems.

I am still trying to get over the fact we finally agreed on something!!

To the OP, there are several Epcot TS that are not Disney owned.

 

[bavaria]

I am still trying to get over the fact we finally agreed on something!!

Crazy, isn't it?!

I used 'indifferent' because usually when I greet a server in their language and start talking to them in German, or French, or even my very very basic fractured Japanese, I get a positive response. Most of the young CMs have been away from home for a long time, and enjoy talking about their country in their own language, or even English.

And many of the French CM's DO - but I've had several servers at Chefs de France who couldn't care less that I worked in France, or have been to their home town. Combine that with the service that Rozzie noted above, and I call it 'indifferent'...

The indifferent ones don't care if they take my order, get my food, or need refills.

And that's fine with me - I'll go eat in Japan at WS where they love my attempt to tell them that I don't speak much Japanese, or I'll eat at Biergarten where they flock around me to natter on with a fellow countryperson!

 

[Pakey]

Well, we still love Bistro and go every trip but we took Chefs off the list several years ago after a couple of disappointing meals there. It appears from reading this that they haven't improved.

 

[Chuck S]

We just ate at Chefs last week. The food was great, as was the service, it beats our local French restaurant hands down.

The only delay was that after they took my room charge for payment, the resort charge system went down, all over WDW, and didn't come back online for about 20 minutes. I would have iven them another CC (it was just room charge that was down) but I didn't want the charge holding in memory in the system, then getting double billed.

 

[Tricia1972]

I agree about Chefs being a disappointment.

We went on October 10th by accident (LeCell had problems with their kitchen and couldn't cook anything that night) They got us a reservation for the same time at LesChefs. They assured us at LeCell that LesChefs had the menu that was most similar to theirs.

We ate at LeCell in April and I ate at LesChefs in October. No comparison on the quality of food - LeCell wins hands down.

The server was very indifferent, the person who seated us was rude (we had a high chair with a broken buckle. When we requested a working high chair he told us that the bar would be enough to hold our son in. We said no and politely asked for a different seat. He refused, and walked away.)

Put that on top of the crowded/noisy atmosphere, very slow service, indifferent server, bad food, and it's on our pass list for next visit.

We're fine with it though, there are lots of places that we love to eat on property.

 

[NickieMouse MO]

I agree about Chefs being a disappointment.

We ate at LeCell in April and I ate at LesChefs in October. No comparison on the quality of food - LeCell wins hands down.

Put that on top of the crowded/noisy atmosphere, very slow service, indifferent server, bad food, and it's on our pass list for next visit.

We're fine with it though, there are lots of places that we love to eat on property.

I couldn't agree with you more! There are wonderful places to eat, and we were lucky enough to have eaten at LeCellier, as well. It was completely wonderful!

I am just going to call it a day, not go back to LesChefs, and realize that it's all a big learning experience! (besides, once I think I have the restaurants 'figured out' it'll probably all change again anyway!)

 

[DawnCt1]

We first dined at this restaurant the year it opened. We haven't been back. The wait staff was rude. (no surprise there) and the food totally overpriced.

 

[ms.yt]

I had no problem with the food or the wait staff when we went a couple of years ago. The only complaint I had was that we had an 11:10 ADR, and when we arrived at about 10:55 a.m., we were told that they didn't open until 11, so we'd have to wait. Well, we stood around until about 11:15 before they ever started seating anybody! That really irritated me!

 

[Dawn68PA]

This has been an interesting read. We are contemplating trying french cuisine on our next WDW vacation at this restaurant.....

 

[ntsammy5]

I've never liked Chefs de. I've stopped trying to like it.

 

[Soccer Princess]

Oh no! We have Chefs booked for the CP package next month Was the service just bad or the food bad as well?

 

[NickieMouse MO]

Soccer Princess,
The food was marginal. But it seemed to us to taste worse because of the service and atmosphere. If you are looking for a pleasant dining experience, this would not be the best choice. However, if you can't find any other restaurant, go into it with low expectations and then you won't be as disappointed.

 

[waltslostnephew]

This is no lie!, in Oct. 2005, we ate lunch at Chef's, because had a couple of table serice left on the DDP. We had 2 people with us who did not have any left, but were going to get something small and pay cash. The waiter from minute one, acted as though he was not going to get a good tip, and we even had to ensure him he would just to get proper service. THEN, I caught the waiter Ripping us off, of twenty bucks, that we wanted change for along with his near 20.00 tip. I was ready to take his frenchie butt outside, but my sister-in-law and brother-in-law wanted to forget about it and just leave. It still bothers till this day and I will never eat there again, plus the food was not that good....

 

[rewok]

That's to say everyone opinion can vary! In September, we had a dinner reservation at Chefs on our second day. We both loved the food! We had: salmon tartare + charcuteries for appetizers, duck + lamb for main course, and sorbets + profiteroles for dessert. Both dessert won our hearts, and we had tons of dessert in the 14 days we spent on free dining... We decided to go back for lunch the following week.

While it was not the best French or French "inspired" food we ever had (there are so many gourmet restaurants here...), it was a notch above many other fares we had while at DisneyWorld. And the service was pretty good, of course this could be biased by the fact that we spoke French, in fact our second waiter was clearly relived about that, he was so struggling in English.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

We visited Chefs de France in December. I found the service staff and general manager to be more than professional and accomodating. We had the Candlelight Processional Package and I messed up the time. We were supposed to be there a half hour earlier. When we got there, we all realized what happened, but they got us in. This was during Christmas week, mind you. Not only was the food excellent, but our waiter was as well. It has become a favorite of our's.