Le Cellier is losing their edge

[stemikger]

I have to say the meal was outstanding, but the restaurant lacked something for me.

The hostess was not very accomodating and the fact that they had no bar area to wait put me off. The small area where guests waited was so crowded and the atmosphere did not thrill me. Once was enough for me.

I really liked Ohana's atmosphere, but the food was not that great. Other then the shrimp, eveything else was mediocore.


BOMA is my faovorate of the three popular ones I see on this board. However, LeCelliar was a good meal, I'm just being a critic.

 

[Sarnia]

I never liked Le Celleir. First time we went we waited over and hour to be seated with ADR"S. The cheese soup was good and the pretzle bread was good, that from it went downhill. I ordered the stufed Filet and I had to send back three times. I asked for it be medium well. It first came out was bloody. That is not medium well. I so sent it back. Second time it came it was bloody. Third time came you guessed it, it was bloody, I asked for my money back ( as were on CP package which of course pre-paid) they told me no. They could give me dessert trio. I told them I was hungry basically sorry and brought me out the dessert trio. At this point I asked for manager and she said same thing, NO. When I got back home I called my Credit Card and told what happend and they took the charge off my card. I never went again.

The funny thing is, the more you cook steak the more blood it releases. We have our steak blue (very, very rare), and there s never any blood. When you cook it medium to well done, then blood will seep out of the meat onto the plate.

 

[bicker]

Portions are getting very tiny and it seems that presentation is becoming the focus.

I've eaten at Le Cellier twice since it opened, and not recently, and was never much impressed. I felt that the food was too pedestrian for the reputation they were trying to craft. It sounds like these changes you're noticing might indicate that they're getting better (from my standpoint) rather than worse.

We'll be trying Le Cellier again in February.

 

[RC Fan]

I would not be dissuaded by negative reviews if the menu sounds interesting to you. Give it a try yourself! I was just there recently for the second time and loved it again.

 

[LizinSTL]

I admit I'm getting concerned here. I too made ressies based on all the rave reviews, but the thing that concerns me is the portion size. DH & DS are big meat eaters and from the pics posted they do look small.

A 7 oz filet is a respectable size. A 14 oz NY Strip is a nice size. The plates are HUGE so the food looks little, imo. I don't think that portion size is a worry, especially if you are enjoying an appetizer or salad AND dessert too. We didn't finish our entrees and my dh usually gets the largest steak on the menu and wipes his plate clean.

 

[LizinSTL]

We have dined at Le Cellier for dinner at least once per year for the last ten.
Had dinner there again Friday night. They are losing their appeal for us.
Portions are getting very tiny and it seems that presentation is becoming the focus. We enjoyed Le Cellier much better when they were less well known. Anybody else agree?

We ate there last week. I thought that the portions were fine. The service was slow, imo, and "distracted". The food was good but as I posted on another forum, not "Morton's" good or "The Palm" good but good (better than the Outback.

We did enjoy the beef kabob appetizer. It was small (about 3 oz of meat) but it was an appetizer, not an entree! (Though if I had a salad or soup, it could have been!)

If you are on the dining plan do not worry about portion sizes- with the appetizer and entree, you'll have room to at least samply your dessert! We couldn't say that at 50s Prime Time for instance.

 

[Lileigh]

I am a bit sad to read the bad experiences in regards to this restaurant. It has always been my favorite, and a must visit everytime I am at WDW. I am worried about it going downhill - I was so looking forward to eating there again this Fall. Maybe I will give it another shot and judge for myself, it has been 2 years since I have been. Alot can happen in that amount of time.

I think that restaurants have good and bad days - that is what I hope is going on. I would hate for this restaurant to have more bad reviews than good, it really is a nice place to dine.

 

[christinou]

We have eaten there 3 times, in the past 3 years, and have always had slow service and quite a wait for the table, the food is good, but the service slow enought that we are not going this year.

 

[MelanieC]

We always dine here. I prefer lunch to dinner. We have never had a bad meal.

 

[momandseandodisney]

I also believe that the bread they serve is better used to build a new themed pavillion than for eating. It was so hard my DF couldn't even cut it!

 

[DebbieinWA]

After reading all the rave reviews, I have ADR's for lunch during our upcoming trip in December. I'm curious - are the less-than-stellar experiences happening during both lunch and dinner, or is it happening more at dinner?

 

[judykay53]

I have learned not to pay too much attention to bad dining reviews. If you have not been, then try it for yourself. If you do not like it, then do not go back. We have no desire to go back to Crystal Palace, at least not for a while, because of a bad experience. We went to Le Cellier last September and loved it. No problems. Best steak I have ever had. It is all individual.

 

[DaddyBrady]

I have learned not to pay too much attention to bad dining reviews. If you have not been, then try it for yourself.

People are something like 9 times more likely to discuss a negative experience, in particular a service experience, than they are a positive experience. That's not to minimize the complaints about poor service at LeCellier, but to put it into perspective.

We ate there last year around Thanskgiving, and I thought the service was okay (not great), but Boyfriend thought it was terrible. Same server, same meal, different perceptions.

I think two things are going on here. First, guest expectations for the service in higher-priced restaurants is based on experience outside the theme park environment. In most fine dining restaurants, servers are professionals and may have many years of experience. But at WDW, especially in the park restaurants, I"ve seen younger people, perhaps on the college program, who aren't as experienced. That was definitely the case with our LeCellier server.

Second, the growing popularity of DDP is putting more guests into the popular restaurants, and the guests are staying longer (for three full courses). The reservation system assumes a certain pace of turnover, and if guests are staying longer, it causes the restaurant to become backed up. They won't kick you out of your table just because you've stayed longer than the 45 minutes assumed. What you, the waiting-for-my-ADR guest perceives as poor service may be the guest enjoying his/her DDP experience to the fullest. I suspect it will take some time to adjust the reservations due to the slower turn of tables.

 

[ShannonN]

I have to agree with the OP. I am not a negative person and tend to always give the benefit of the doubt but our experience at LeCellier's a couple of weeks ago wasn't that great. We were there over 2hrs. Service was slow. The waitress was very nice just slow service. DH steak was good mine was okay. I had to send back DS steak (sending back food is something I never do!!) but I ordered it well done and it was red (not pink). The waitress brought it back and said she fixed it personally herself, it was still not well done.I didn't send it back for a second time just ate the parts around the edges that were well done. The pretzel bread and cheese soup was good. This was our first time eating there after reading such great reviews. The food was okay so maybe it was an off night but we don't have any plans on returning in the near future. If you have ADR keep them and try for yourself maybe your experience will be terrific.

 

[ShannonN]

Sorry posted a duplicate