Le Cellier for Dinner?

[cinderkelli]

We want to do Le Cellier for dinner since it will be such a big meal, but the guide book I read said to go before 6PM. Any ideas why? It didn't elaborate. Is it more crowded? More expensive?

 

[Servants of Evan]

I'm going to make a wild guess -- that guidebook was probably printed before the "free" meal plans and ADRs (90+10 / 180+10) really took hold. With the size and popularity of leCellier, it is probably the fastest restaurant in EPCOT to be booked solid. I'll guess that the recommendation figures that if you're going to stand a chance of walking in, it would have to be early. It's also a leisurely meal, so if you want to be out early, you need to start early.

Servants of Evan

 

[DazedandConfused]

Our meal 2 weeks ago at LeCellier was great but ... we were there for well over 3 hours start to finish! It was definately NOT worth that kind of wait. They were not honest with how long seating would be and they really ruined our night. By the time we were done eating it was literally time to walk out the gates because Epcot was closing! We were out in time to see the start of illuminations but all the attractions were closed. I am hoping we just hit it on a bad night. We agreed that if we had known there was such a wait we would have had counter service. I would try for an earlier reservation.

 

[cinderkelli]

So did you have Advanced Seating? At what time? Thanks for the tip!

 

[mnasf]

We went to Le Cellier during our trip last week. Actually, we went twice. Once we had a seating at 4pm and once we had a seating at 6:20pm. When we had the 4pm seating we were seated at 4pm. When we had a seating at 6:20pm we were seated at about 6:50pm. I think the earlier your reservation, the faster you are seated.

The meal takes between 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the time you are seated. If you are in a hurry and every minute in the park counts it may not be the right place to eat. If you are looking for the best meal at EPCOT it is the right place to eat.

I don't know when you are going but Le Cellier fills up very fast. We had a harder timing getting a reservation for Le Cellier than we had get a breakfast at CRT. You need to make your reservations early - 180 days out if possible.

 

[Houston_Disney_Fan]

I agree with the previous posters. It's a small restaurant with very limited capacity. The food really is excellent, though.

 

[reeeoga]

We ate there Friday. ADR for 6:00, and sat at about 6:20. Very good. I will return someday. As soon as my son reaches 40 inches. Grow boy, Grow

 

[3NTN4WDW]

We've been twice. The first time the wait & service were terrible but the food was awesome so we gave it another chance our next visit and it was great in all respect. It's a little pricey, but worth it. I recommend early PS to avoid a possible wait.

 

[Eeyore2003]

We have also found the later time to be the longer wait, therefore I wonder if that is why they recommend the earlier reservation to save you the waiting time. If this happens night after night they apparently must book closer than they can keep up with.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

We had dinner there during our trip last month. I believe our ADR was at 4:40 and we were seated closer to 5:00 (we were a bit late coming from AK after the parade).

I spoke with the gentleman at the host station while we were waiting. I was asking what their % of no-shows were on any given night. I figured that with the meal plans that would happen even more often. He told me they run about 30% no-shows every night.

So, since they have so many no-shows, they over-book. He told me that even if you take 30% no-shows into account they over-book. Thus, the later in the evening it gets, the further behind they will get.

The besst thing for us to do was eat a big breakfast, have a light snack and then an early dinner.

LeCellier is definitely a must-do, just do it early, or do it as a very late lunch. I believe the latest lunch reservation is 2:50 p.m.

 

[Sandi]

When we were there in July, we reserved for the latest possible seating -- I think it was 8:40 p.m. We found that to work great for us. We were seated within 5 minutes of checking in and had an enjoyable waiter. He checked with us to see if we wanted to coordinate our courses around Illuminations (we didn't, we've seen Illuminations a million times, but we saw others took advantage of the offer). We had a nice leisurely dinner and missed the mad rush to get out of EPCOT.

 

[IwasatWDWforamonth]

I love to eat there but last time we waited 30 minutes after our cheese soup for our burgers at lunch time. that is just too long to wait between courses especially for burgers that were not even fully cooked,,, I really dont like my burgers raw but it was either eat or leave,, I wasnt waiting any longer and I was hungry.
the chocolate moose was still awesome though.