Don't know what to do about LeCellier

[Ms. WDW]

I'd say try it. There have been many mixed reviews lately about this very popular restaurant. Me personally, I ate there once and it was ok. I wouldn't say the food was horrible or the service terrible. I loved the ever famous Cheese Soup and Bread Sticks. But my DS's filet was small and tough and I just wasn't thrilled about the entire meal.

But that's me and it could have been an off day in the kitchen! I'll try anything once and if I don't like it I just don't go back. Good luck!!

 

[jrogalny]

What date do you have the 8:ish ressie?

 

[branv]

Here's my two cents:

We dined one of the first times they were offering free dining (though we didn't sign up for it...stupid us). I think I have great taste in food -- no pun intended While most people on here rave about WDW food, I usually find it very mediocre. But it's convenient so we accept it as it is. In addition, we are very used to high quality meat (you know the type, where even the fat tastes like butter? ), so overall I had lower expectations of Le Cellier. But we had a LOVELY dinner, from the service to the food. To be fair, we both had the mushroom filet, so we can't comment on the quality of the other entrees.

I do worry that all the recently poor reviews are a result of the free dining turning the cooking into an assembly line to get diners in and out. I really hope that's not the case.

Regarding what time to dine, I would say it depends on what time you get up in the morning. If you are the type to open the parks, that means you have breakfast very early, and also probably means you have lunch early. If so, I would take the earlier time. However, if you get to the park at your leisure, eat breakfast later, and subsequently have lunch later, than a later dining time will be fine. We ate at Le Cellier at 8:30 and it was perfect. Besides, if you think you'll still be hungry at a later time, there are LOTS of places to catch a small snack around 3pm Heck, even if we're dining early I still go for the btwn-time snack

 

[WickedWench]

What date do you have the 8:ish ressie?

I didn't actually make the reservation, because I wasn't sure what to do. :> With my luck, even that will be gone now! I'm looking at my last day there, so I may take the late one. If not, I think I'll plan a lunch on my mid-trip 'rest' day.

 

[disgram]

Call and try to get something. Everyone has a different perspective on everything and the only way you can decide is to try.
I didn't think that I would like LeCellier when I made ADRs last year for our August trip. I thought that the meal was very good. (Loved the soup and the pretzel bread!) The people with us, didn't like any part of the place or meal! They liked mostly CS! Go figure!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I personally think Le Cellier is the most overrated restaurant on the DIS. I often wonder if people don't covet it, just because they think they're supposed to. We've had some good meals there, & some not so good meals. None of our meals there have been what I consider exceptional. I've had worse meals at WDW, but the LC hype truly boggles my mind.

 

[MrsB1228]

As so many have already stated, it's all a matter of personal taste. We ate at LC last December and had a wonderful experience. It was hands-down the best meal of the trip, and we had some pretty amazing meals! LC was the one restaurant that DD18 was not looking forward to as she doesn't enjoy steak. She had the chicken entree and raved about it. She now can't wait to go back in September. No matter what restaurant you're considering, there will always be people who love it and people who hate it. If I had allowed myself to be influenced by all the negative reviews here we wouldn't have had our second-favourite meal at the San Angel Inn or enjoyed an amazing character meal at LTT. In contrast, we had disappointing experiences at Chefs de France and Teppanyaki, both places that are pretty popular here. They weren't horrible ... just not particularly memorable, with very poor service and food that was just "meh".

No matter what you decide, I hope you have an awesome vacation!