Chefs de France
We had an 8:20 pm ADR for Chefs de France. DH and I were really looking forward to this meal. We had bee here in April and had a fabulous lunch. Originally we were going to have lunch here, but switched to dinner since there were more menu options. We had planned on staying at Epcot all day, but because of the heat, we went back to the hotel after lunch, swam for a few hours and then headed back to arrive around 8:00 to check in for our ADR. They were turning table after table away at the front desk. Absolutely no walk ups.
We asked for a table by the windows and said that we would wait a bit longer for a nice table. Right around 8:15 we were brought to a table for two right on the windows. Unfortunately this was the only luck we would have this evening. At 8:40, we finally stopped a bus person to see if they could find out where our server was. We had up to this point been totally ignored. No water, no bread, not even any eye contact from the numerous wait staff running about.
After another 10 minutes our waitress Claudia came by. She acted as if we had just arrived! Within a minute or two a bus person brought us water and bread. We immediately placed our entire order with Claudia, including a bottle of wine.
Our wine arrived about 10 minutes later. Claudia was nice, but quite frankly just not there as a waitress. It was now 9:00 and we have just placed our order. The couple next to us comments, Not exactly the type of service you expect at Disney is it? They were having the same issue with Claudia. They had been seated about 10 minutes before us and were still waiting for their drinks. They got their appetizers about 9:15 and when Claudia cleared their plates, they asked for their remaining cheese plate to be wrapped to go. She didnt take the leftovers, and never re-appeared. At 9:30 when their dinners arrived the plate was still on their tiny table and there was no room for their dinner plates. A waiter (again NOT Claudia), plunked their dinners down, balanced precariously on the edge of the table and breezed away. The couple promptly put the plate of leftovers on the floor, yes, the floor!! The gentleman points it out to a passing bus person who almost steps on it. She thanks him, AND PROMPTLY STEPS OVER IT!
We, in the meanwhile, still have not received our appetizers. A waiter (NOT Claudia), comes up to our table with one plate. The duck, Madame?" he says. He tries to put it down in front of me. I explain that it cant be mine since we havent had our appetizers yet. He gives me a look that reminded of a dog who has just heard a whistle gets. You know, tilts his head to one side, draws his eyebrows together and generally just looks confused. He walks away and attempts to give the duck to a table, ANY table in our general vicinity. No luck. Still we wait for our appetizers. It is now 9:45. Five minutes late another waiter walks over with a plate. Madame, the Duck? And again we explain, a bit exasperated, that we are still waiting for our appetizers. The couple next to us roll their eyes, and the woman says, You just know that youre going to get THAT plate later, dont you? Sadly, I said, youre probably right. I hope not, but Im sure you are. A young woman walks up with a plate Madame, the duck? I dont even explain, I just say Sorry, no its not mine! Now DH and I, and the couple next to us are giggling hysterically. The poor girl wanders away, looking totally lost. Now mind you, in all of these three attempts to deliver my dinner, never once did anyone attempt to deliver DHs meal. It makes you wonder where exactly was his meal? Hmmmmmm? It is now after 10:00. We have been there for 1:45 minutes and I have had 2 glasses of wine and a roll. Im almost hungry enough to eat the cheese plate off the floor that our next table mates jokingly offer us.
At this point over breezes Claudia with our appetizers. She plunks them down. sorry she says and breezes over to our neighbors. Pulls a to-go box out from under her arm, picks up their cheese plate from the floor, dumps the leftovers in it and puts it on their table with a smile. Off she goes.
For appetizer I had the Escargot
I did enjoy it, but it wasnt great. It didnt have nearly enough garlic in it. It wasnt bad, just not fantastic
DH ordered the salad with baked goat cheese. He isnt a real goat cheese fan, but really wanted a salad and figured I would eat the goat cheese.
This one shocked me. I expected a wedge of baked cheese. What it actually was- a round of breaded, deep fried goat cheese about the size around of a quarter and as thick as maybe a stack of four quarters. There was one of them atop a baby greens salad. Now in my opinion the only cheese I want deep fried is served with a side of mozzarella at the bar while Im watching the Patriots game. The salad was fine. It was fresh and had a nice dressing, but the goat cheese part of it was a disappointment.
About 10 minutes later our plates were cleared and our dinners were brought out. DH had the short ribs with pasta.
This was very nice. It had a good portion and the sauce on it was nice. Of course, a nice gravy on my sock would have tasted good at this point! It was about 10:20pm
I ordered
drum roll please
THE DUCK!
This also was very nice. I do suspect that it was the same one that they attempted to deliver to me earlier. It wasnt cold, but it wasnt really hot either. Im not sure how they kept it a servable temperature, as it wasnt dried out or overcooked, but having seen the plate three times already, I was intimately familiar with it.
We finished our dinners very quickly as were conscious of the time. At this point we were truly the last ones in the restaurant.
We ordered our dessert and asked for our check. No pictures sorry, as I had basically started dozing off at this point. I had the Crème Brulee. It was excellent. DH had the chocolate tart. It was also very good. The check was delivered around 10:50pm. Since there wasnt anyone else around, we did ask Claudia directly what happened with our food, and why we waited so long. To her credit, she did admit that it was a little bit of a problem with the kitchen, but mostly it was my fault.
I know from experience that once you start having a bad night, especially on an insanely busy one, as this obviously was, all you can do is keep going until you make it through the night. I was just disappointed that it happened here, as we were so looking forward to this meal! We tried to find Phillip (the manager), but there truly was no one around, and we needed to get to the front entrance to get the busses back to the resort.
As a side note, I did wake up around 5am, very sick. Im guessing that one of the held dinners was held a bit too long. Fortunately, it was short lived and by 7am, I was able to function and even managed a cup of tea.
Overall experience at Chefs:
Food: 4 out of 10. Everything was just a little off. Not quite there, either in presentation or temperature. Not bad, just not great.
Service: 2 out of 10. Claudia needs to find a new job. Cute only goes so far. Enough said.
Atmosphere: 5 out of 10. Beautifully decorated, tables are very close together and the space is very loud. We knew this going in though., and we did get to watch illuminations from our seat, which was nice.
Overall: 4 out of 10. We probably wont try this place for dinner again, but might try lunch. I hesitate to write it off totally since we had such a great experience in April.
Karen
That's a great quote! 
to a fellow New Englander!
