Le Cellier: The worst meal we've ever had on Disney property

[richard_andmel]

People's opinions of food can vary- one person's excellent meal can be grossly undercooked or overcooked to someone else. People's opinions about what constitutes "great service" can vary too. So, I take restaurant reviews with a grain of salt (no pun intended).

I think this is very true. We also think LC is a bit overrated. We have been twice, and just feel there are better restaurants at WDW.

I wrote a negative review of Le Cellier on these boards during our trip last September. There were a few "me too" responses but mostly "not me" responses on the boards. However, I did get a few PMs that were very strongly negative.

What I can't get over no matter how often I see it, is how rude some people are on this board. There were a few pretty rude responses in this thread. If you disagree with someone, why can't you say it civilly? And to PM someone in a rude way instead of posting your differing yet civil response to the thread is just cowardly. Small minds I guess...

 

[Superman]

Sorry to hear about your "experience" at Le Cellier. We eat there every trip and "hands down" is our favorite. Never had a bad meal there and service was always first rate. Give it another try!

 

[WDW LOVR]

As far as the OP goes, im sorry that youre experience was so bad.I think in a way that the DDP is the bane of my existence since with the automatically figured in tipping no one tries very hard anymore.New CM's never learn how to hustle to get good tips because DDP does it for them whether they stink or not.With so many people using it nowadays, even if the tips from non DDP guests arent that good, its more than made up for by the DDP.
I have an ADR for LC in Oct. I hope it improves before then, but ill give it a try before i cross it off my list for the future.
Sherrie

I agree with this comment. Maybe the reason we've not had bad service is we've never used the DDP, but have the DDE. And the CM's always ask us if we're on the dining plan or not. I know the OP said they weren't on the DDP, but we have commented many times in the last few years how there seems to have been a change in how busy the TS restaurants are when there's free DDP offers out there. I would imagine that the CM's probably do get an "it doesn't matter what I do, the tip's the same" attitude. Sounds a little like Communist Plot!

 

[Momto8]

I agree with this comment. Maybe the reason we've not had bad service is we've never used the DDP, but have the DDE. And the CM's always ask us if we're on the dining plan or not. I know the OP said they weren't on the DDP, but we have commented many times in the last few years how there seems to have been a change in how busy the TS restaurants are when there's free DDP offers out there. I would imagine that the CM's probably do get an "it doesn't matter what I do, the tip's the same" attitude. Sounds a little like Communist Plot!

This might be true for those that are on the DDP. However, I just wanted to say that we weren't on any dining plan when we had our problems last June.

 

[crisi]

LeCellier, in my opinion, is the most overrated restaurant at WDW. I'm guessing that most people view it as a great value due to the price of the meals and the fact that it is only on TS credit on the DDP.

I think its a three way race between Le Cellier, Boma and Beaches and Cream. Le Cellier is the only one I'll be in any hurry to return to - but was the only one I'd been to before hearing about how wonderful it was. (I suspect CRT, Chef Mickey's and Ohana are on the list, but we haven't been). I think that high expectations do a big disservice to people. Le Cellier usually has (we've always had) a pretty good steak for the money. The steak at Jiko or Flying Fish blows it out of the water - but its a more expensive steak as well. And if it were the steak place near my home we wouldn't go to it - the quality delta between it and an Outback isn't enough for the price delta, and for a few more dollars we can go to a really good steak house. We've always had pretty good service and have never had to wait to be seated, but we always make very early ADRs - like 5pm.

Anytime a restaurant gets as many raves as Boma and LeCellier do, and people talk about it with such unqualified praise, its doomed to be disappointing to someone who doesn't have the best steak of their life, or who had to wait to get seated, or who got a waiter who should be in another line of work - all of which happens and can make a meal for which you had average expectations less pleasant. But when you expected the highlight of you trip to be this meal, and the food wasn't great, and the service subpar, the dispointment will be deeper.

 

[snowbunny]

His fix was to take my meal back to the kitchen (fine, have at it, I no longer want it) and give us a FastPass. No, you need to fix the issues at hand, not give me a FastPass. To me, that was like giving a child a cookie when they scrape their knee. Does it fix anything? No, not really, but it takes their mind off things. Sorry, I grew out of that. ETA: I ride isn't going to clean up your mess or fix my awful dining experience at your establishment.

Sorry you had a bad experience OP. I'll be trying Le Cellier for the first time this fall and am adjusting my expectations. But I don't expect the staff to think about whether you would/would not have kids in tow based on your appearance. ADR could have been for four adults for all they knew.

Question though - I agree giving you a fastpass was dopey, but 20% off the check seems OK. What specifically did you want the manager to do to, as you say, fix the issues at hand?

 

[Mulan82]

i think i have to agree with you too. DBF and i ate at Le Cellier 2 weeks ago. eh... it was alright. but the one thing i did notice was how their table turn went. now, being a server at a corporate restaurant chain, when the wait starts, my tables just get bombarded. the people just don't stop coming. its how my restaurant works. i turn my tables fast. more ppl come in them and i make more money. now at le cellier, i noticed, this is not the case. there were people that were sitting next to us when we were sat at our table. by the time we had ordered our food, they were gone. now, at my restauarnt, that table would have been bussed and sat within the next 3-5 minutes. the table stayed open for practically 20 minutes!! the only thing that i could possibly think of is that the other table finished early and the next reservation specifically for that table wasn't for the 20 more minutes.. because i think disney blocks off tables according to time of reservation. but really, i don't know. all i know is that the cheese soup was good but i don't think i would go back to le cellier again.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I agree the big praise raise the expectations, and maybe to an unreasonable high. This happened to us for our worst (and only bad) WDW stay (at POR).
We expected so much, and got so little. When you have high expectations, and the service does not even meet mediocore expectations, it is a real let down.

We have eaten at Le Cellier several times. The food has always been good. Not the best. But darn good. The service has been on the slow side for quite awhile, from our experiences. Have no idea why. Understaffed? Often the place has turned away walk ups, but the restaurant is darn near half empty? But does fill fast.

It is not the fastest or best service around. But worth eating there. Just don't expect the BEST steakhouse ever. That is not the case.

DH has eaten better steak at Kona Cafe. For a popular steakhouse, DH has always expected a better steak than he got.

The cheese soup has been better every time I have eaten there, with the first time leaving me wondering what all the fuss was about.

 

[eblack0409]

I know that our experience is not like many others, but we were incredibly disappointed with the whole situation. We went to Kona Cafe to make up for it though... and there's a meal and wait staff to write home about.

I hate that you had a bad experience at Le Cellier....this is our favorite restaraunt at Disney..we eat here at least twice each trip! We also ate at Kona Cafe, while the food was ok (doesn't compare to Le Cellier IMO), the wait staff was very disappointing....We arrived early (this was our last day at Disney and wanted to get back to MK for some park time) in hopes of getting in and out! DH and I pretty much knew what we wanted (we had studied the menu on allearsnet!) so we were ready to order as soon as the server came by....15 minutes after we were seated!!!! She offered to take our drink orders, but we told her we were ready to order our entire meal...she took our drink orders ONLY and then took another 10 minutes to bring us back our drinks....she wanted to take each course individually....we told her again we knew exactly what we wanted...after telling her this 3 different times, she finally got it! DH and I both ordered steak and requested our steaks to be well done....when they came out, they were more medium rare...not even close to well done....

In spite of our experience with Kona, we are giving them a second chance.....we are eating there again in September....after hearing all the wonderful reviews of Kona, I an hoping the server was just having an off night!

Give Le Cellier another chance.....maybe your server was just having an off night!

 

[disneyguy23]

I'm assuming you've never seen the movie "Waiting". Its a well known fact that being rude to someone that handles your food is not the smartest thing to do. If I were approached in the same manner I would have surely added a little something extra to your meal.

 

[Bbgrizzle]

In regards to the treatment by the server, I have to say that you did the right thing completely. I have worked at hotels/restaurants for several years and my manager told me that when he eats out, he has a method of ensuring good service. When the server greets his table, he'll immediately put 20% of the expected bill on the table in cash (mainly singles) and let the server know that this is his tip right now. Everytime the server messes up, he'll lose a portion of his tip.

This makes me cringe. How do people not realize how condescending that is? I used to be a server when I was younger, and maybe twice I've had someone pull that with me. They even went so far as to explain their little system to me. Turned me off IMMEDIATELY. I didn't need their tip that bad and I was very offended that they treated me that way. Both times I was nice, like I always was, but I didn't go out of my way to be friendly, and I certainly didn't kiss their butts so as not to lose my tip.

As for the OP, if someone had been mean to me like you were, I probably would have ignored you too. You got to your table in a bad mood, so you let every mishap bother you. Servers are only human, and who wants to be treated disrespectfully? In my opinion, there is no tip big enough to put up with rude customers.

I love Le Cellier, but DH doesn't care if we ever go back. I get soup, salad and bread, that's it. So I haven't had the experience of getting a grissly steak like he has. Guess it depends on what you order.

 

[digskat]

only a pretentious @@@ would lay the tip on the table before the meal.
I hope that anyone who does this sort of crap, has a boss that lays their paycheque out in front of them, and debits from it if they take a washroom break, or breaks a pencil. It is amazing how people argue that you should tip better, because the wait staff get paid garbage, yet expect perfection from these same over-worked, under-paid people. LC probably has 1000 people go through there a day, if they had only 2 unsatisfied customers, that is a 99.95% success rate.

 

[HayGan]

OP, I am sorry that you had such a disappointing meal. While there really is no excuse for bad service, I have to admit that the tone of you post sounds like it wasn't going to be hard for the place not to meet your expectations. It sounds as if you were annoyed fromt he beginning and I'm sure that would have been very hard to hide. While it does not justify the server ignoring you, it does sound as if he may have been trying to avoid you do to possible delays in the kitchen (or even possibly the attitude.)

You are right that we weren't there so we have to take your word for what happened. I don't doubt you had the problems that you described. I just think that it is possible that your mood at the time may have aggrivated the situation, elevated your frustration/anger and put a spin on your perspective that very well may have been different if you had arrived in a different state of mind. I think we are all guilty of that at times.

Once again, I'm sorry that you had a bad meal (we have all had those!) but I'm glad to hear that you had a good trip overall

 

[Luv2Roam]

From my experience it seems like when something like that starts off bad, it just keeps rolling downhill. And part of it is not being in control of what happens to you.
We had a similar experience at our one and only time at Rose & Crown. That meal just started off bad and just never improved. (Just when we were taking the situation back into our own hands, before seating, we were called in to be seated. Had we only known what further service and food was in store, we would have left and gone somewhere else to eat.)
I can fully understand how it can be bad, no matter what kind of mood the poor service up front starts with. Sometimes it just doesn't work out, no matter how much or little you try, expect or hope.
Sadly, you just chaulk it up to a lesson learned from personal experience.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I'm assuming you've never seen the movie "Waiting". Its a well known fact that being rude to someone that handles your food is not the smartest thing to do. If I were approached in the same manner I would have surely added a little something extra to your meal.

LMAO okay I love that movie, but I have to say that I have never seen anyone at our restaraunt mess with anyones food... Not that you wish you could Let me say I have had some very very rude people in the day.. I just kill them with kindness and then leave them alone. Sometimes i want to say "ohh you want a refill there is the coke machine". Keep the tip, I dont want the buck anyway.

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm sorry, but that's not my fault or my problem. Next time, the hosts can't assume and need to ask the right questions...

This is the part I don't get. The OP seems to say that the host at the door didn't just make a mistake in writing but assumed when she checked in that she was a party of 4. Don't they always ask how many are in the party? I haven't noticed that the hosts always assume that each party is a family of 4. They probably get parties and families of all numbers. They're going to have a lot of problems if they automatically write down party of 4 whenever anyone checks in at the podium.

I agree that the mistake should not have been made.

It's also the first time I've seen someone mention that they believe they had substandard service in part because they are young and childless.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I make a lot of ADRs over the course of a year. I dont recall that I have routinely been asked how many in my party. I think quite often I say it at check in though -- XXXX party, of X for X:XX. I know sometimes I get asked. But maybe I just say it before they ask.
When it is just two people in our party, we often get seated much faster than most.
As a FL rssident I don't recall having an ADR messed up by wrong number, day or time. But I suppose it is bound to happen some day.

 

[kaytieeldr]

They had us down as a party of 4, despite the fact that we walked to the restaurant in person to change the reservations. No offense, but I'm a young twenty-something. I shouldn't look like I have kids in tote. I chalk it up to, once again, poor service skills at the restaurant. When they switched us to a party of two, we automatically went to the end of the "party of 2" list in the computer as it changed our arrival time from early to very late. We arrived early becuase we were hungry. At this point, I'm grouchy and hungry.

Most likely, the number of Guests error occurred when CRO downloaded the ADR information into LC's system. Since ADR means the party gets the next available table for their size party at or after they check in, yes, unfortunately it makes sense that you'd go to the end of the "two-person-table" list.

DH wouldn't have said anything if he'd known but they said, "(Last name)? Party of 4, correct?" when he asked how much longer it would be. When I said something to the young (and quite attractive) young man that we should not have to sit here and wait for your mistakes, he became incredibly defensive and nasty.

I'm just curious why the Host's attractiveness (or lack thereof) would make any difference in one's expectations in this situation.

I am told regularly I look about 18 with my hair down. I just turned 21... like last month. Apparently, they did just guess because DH and I walked in TOGETHER to change the times on the reservations. I know the original reservaiton was for 2 becuase I called the Dining line to confirm times, dates, and party sizes before we left. How we went from a group of 2 to a group of 4, I'm not really sure. I certainly didn't pop kids out in 72 hours. It was meant in jest.

Well,,, okay... because don't forget, a party of four (which apparently you never should have been anyway, is it possible your reservation name was the same as or similar to another Guest's whose party WAS four, but I digress) doesn't necessarily mean two parents and two children - it JUST means four people dining together.

This was rude, no matter what. okay you had bad service in your op, but did you have to be rude on top of that?? i don't understand this comment at all.

I'm sorry, but he crossed the whole being rude line numerous times.

The best subtle way to point out another person's rudeness is to be EXTREMELY sweet and polite. Generally, they'll notice the difference between their attitude and yours - and ideally, moderate their demeanor.

They changed the name from Priority Seating to Advanced Dining Reservations and with that you should actually have a reservation

But Disney changed the name because, apparently, Guests thought it meant they had "priority", i.e. as soon as they arrive, they get seated. So Disney didn't change the procedure at all, just the name. As for falling behind on tables, well, short of informing the diners in advance that they're only permitted x number of minutes at their table, I don't know what Le Cellier or any restaurant can do. People may take longer to dine than projected; something may go wrong in the kitchen, etc. If I were to order a steak medium and it came out well-done (and therefore inedible), the kitchen would need to re-make my dinner. So instead of taking the expected 45 minutes (all times example only), my table is taken for 65 minutes.

I have worked at hotels/restaurants for several years and my manager told me that when he eats out, he has a method of ensuring good service. When the server greets his table, he'll immediately put 20% of the expected bill on the table in cash (mainly singles) and let the server know that this is his tip right now. Everytime the server messes up, he'll lose a portion of his tip.

What unimaginably rude behavior. If I were his waitress, I'd make it a personal challenge to see how fast I could get all that cash cleared off the table. OY.

Not to mention, how, exactly, does the person in question know at the time the server greets him, exactly how much he'll be spending and therefore, what 20% of that amount is?

 

[Conservative Hippie]

It's also the first time I've seen someone mention that they believe they had substandard service in part because they are young and childless.

I happen to enjoy being young and childless! It's only a matter of time before I'll be dragging around

 

[gokenin]

The simplest way that you can change the overcrowding of the resturant is for Disney to make it a 2ts resturant and you will see the number of people that book meals here decrease because its no longer one of the cheapest places to eat. The problems with the waits and service all started when the dining plan came about and everyone wanted to go here because it is only a 1 table sitting cost. I have eaten here several times and have never been upset with the service but then again I plan on taking upwards of 1.5-2.5 hours for a meal (including waiting to get a seat) if you want fast service go to a counter top. However those are my opinions and to the original poster I say give it another shot you never know it just may have been a bad day for everyone involved