Open kitchens?

[Kaycee]

I remember reading about WDW restaurants with open kitchens with seating where you can observe the chefs. If I recall correctly, there were even restaurants where you could interact with the chefs while they worked. I never paid much attention to these posts because I'm not really into cooking but my younger DS14 loves to cook and has even expressed an interest in becoming a chef. I'd love to take him to one of these restaurants so that he could watch the chefs at work and maybe even ask a few questions.

I know about the chef's table at V&A, but I'd like to hold off on that one until he's a little older. I'd love to hear about experiences that anyone has had at other WDW restaurants with open kitchens.

Thanks!

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

The restaurants that immediately come to my mind are California Grill, Flying Fish, and Jiko. All three of these have barstool-style seating at the kitchen. I've heard that the chefs will even give diners tastes of what they're preparing.

On our last trip to Flying Fish, a family sitting next to us had two young daughters and their waiter took them on a tour through the kitchen. The chef stopped what he was doing and showed them through the kitchen - they were thrilled to death. You can not only sit at the bar and interact with the chefs while they're cooking at Flying Fish, but possibly if your DS mentioned his interest in cooking he could get a tour, too. We were just sitting out in the restaurant, not up by the kitchen.

Spoodles also has an open kitchen, but there's no seating directly at the kitchen like in the other restaurants I mentioned. You can sit at regular tables in dining room and watch the chefs work, though. Once we asked our waiter about the ingredients in a dish we were enjoying and the chef who had made it came to our table to talk about it with us.

Chefs enjoy talking about their food. And chefs at Disney are, after all, Disney CMs! They want to make the guests' experiences as magical as possible, so if your DS wanted to ask a chef or sous chef at a restaurant some questions it's possible it could be arranged. Heck, I've even gotten tours of kitchens at restaurants at home!! Chefs LOVE to show off!

Good luck and happy eating.

ETA: Oh, one more thing... if you ever stay AKL concierge, consider doing the Sunset Safari. The dinner at Jiko afterwards includes your very own sous chef to guide you through all the dishes and wine pairings! It was really educational and facinating.

 

[Kaycee]

Thanks so much for the info! I'm going to take a closer look at California Grill and Flying Fish, and take him to one of those in October. I'm going to save Jiko for a future trip when we can stay at AKL and do the Sunset Safari - something the whole family would enjoy!

I'll report back on our experience after our trip. Thanks again for the suggestions.