DAY 6
Lunch at Le Cellier at Epcot World Showcase (Canada)
Highlights: Breadsticks, Chocolate Raspberry Shakes and Red Maples, Cheddar Cheese Soup, Gnocchi, Filet Mignon
Disappointments: Service, Desserts (especially maple creme brulee)
Would We Return?: Probably, Maybe ???
First of all, I must admit that this is my most difficult review to do. I've read so many Le Cellier reviews (most glowing, but some not) here on the disboards that I kind of feel like another one is just not needed. Especially since our feelings regarding this restaurant are neither strongly for or against it. But what the heck, here's our two cents worth anyway...feel free to take it or leave it
Just a little background information first though. We are not Le Cellier newbies. We have dined here at least 5 times previously, 3 times for lunch and twice for dinner. Of these experiences, only two were great (one lunch, one dinner) in terms of both food and service. The other three were just okay. Not terrible by any means, but just not really memorable. So in other words, our past experience has been "hit or miss". I guess it has been those two "hits" that have kept us coming back in hopes of scoring another one.
Now on to the review. Since the highlights I have listed above seem to far outnumber the dissappointments, you would think that this meal was a "hit". Sadly though, I'd have to say that it wasn't. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me back up and tell you about our experience from beginning to end. As usual here, we had to wait at least 15 minutes after our reservation time to be seated. During this time they turned away several people without reservations, saying they were completely booked. No big surprise there, especially to any disboard member

. They even told one dissappointed couple that Le Cellier was not only the most popular restaurant at Epcot, but that it was also the smallest, which made it the most difficult reservation to get there. So I guess I believe the "most popular" part of the statement (although it sounded kind of liking bragging to me

), but is it really the smallest??? San Angel Inn comes to my mind as being the smallest, but perhaps I'm wrong. Now comes the weirdest part of this story... when we were seated at around 1:30 there were several empty tables (for 2 or 4 people) in the restaurant and most of them remained empty throughout our meal, which lasted until 2:45 - 3:00ish. So it seems that they don't actually fill all of the tables at the smallest and most popular restaurant at Epcot? Is this some kind of marketing strategy on their part? Limit supply to increase demand

Well, I'm not in the restaurant business so perhaps there is a logical reason for this oddity of turning paying customers away when you have many empty tables and servers standing around with nothing to do (will be explained later). But I digress

, so on to my review of the food. There were five of us at this meal (DH was not with us) and here is what we had...DD2 ordered the "Le Cellier Experience" where you choose an appetizer, entree, and dessert from a limited menu for a set price of $29.99 I believe. This was supposed to be available under the regular Dining Plan. So she ordered the Cheddar Cheese soup, Gnocchi, and Canadian Chocolate Moose for dessert. I don't see the gnocchi listed on the online menus (instead they have a mushroom ravioli listed that I don't recall being on the actual menu at the restaurant). I'm pretty sure this was a meatless dish (so might make a good vegetarian option) and that the gnocchi had a light pesto sauce or broth. Whatever it was though, she seemed to enjoy it very much. DD2's friend ate lightly at this meal and had only the Prime Rib sandwich (I think normally served with fries, but I think she substituted these for cream cheese mashed potatoes), no soup or dessert and as far as I know she liked it. The rest of us all got steaks. DS had the New York Strip Steak but substituted the cream cheese mashed potatoes for the roasted Yukon potatoes that came with it. DD1 had the Filet Mignon (she's ok with mushrooms, but prefers mashed potatoes over risotto) with the white truffle-herb butter sauce on it but substituted the cream cheese mashed potatoes for the risotto. I however went with the filet exactly as listed on the menu with both the mushroom sauce and the wild mushroom risotto. The three of us are pretty much in agreement regarding the steaks here. Yes, they were good. Were they the best steaks we have ever had (as some proclaim)? No, not even close. Heck, they weren't even the best steaks of this trip...nor the second best (but I'll leave DS's steak review for later

) Ok, there I've said it ... IMHO, Le Cellier is a steakhouse that has good steaks, good but not great. Oops, again I digress, so back to the review. The three steak eaters all had plenty of room for both the cheddar cheese soup and desserts since our filets were in fact "petite" (listed as Petit Filet on bill) and DS (age 14) pretty much has a bottomless pit for a stomach these days. We all enjoyed the soup (just as we have always during our previous visits) and shamelessly dipped our pretzel breadsticks in it. The breadsticks were of course enjoyed by one and all and a second batch of the pretzel ones was quickly brought for our group. As for the desserts, in addition to DD2's chocolate moose, we had two of the maple creme brulees and DD1 had the Smores. The moose and smores were okay. The maple creme brulee however was very dissappointing for me. I had always enjoyed this dessert on my 5 previous visits, but this time ...not so much. Instead of it having the custard texture that creme brulee usually has, this was like pudding. So to me, this dessert should have been called, "Maple pudding with a caramelized sugar topping". I'm a huge fan of creme brulee (tried at least 5 on this trip), but not a big pudding fan (well, except for chocolate pudding of course) so I wasn't really into this dessert. So maybe they have changed the recipe since my last visit in 2008 or maybe this was just a bad batch? Or maybe my memory is slipping and I've been eating (and enjoying) maple pudding for all these years?

Anyway, I almost forgot our drinks, which were great. Two of us had Red Maples (which were described as raspberry smoothies with a splash of Sprite) and the other three had the Chocolate Raspberry Shakes. Ok, that concludes the food portion of my review. Now for the service. We had two issues (both minor) with our server. The first one is that he was always there ...hanging around

. I know people are always complaining about their servers dissappearing for long periods of time or not being attentive. This guy was definitely not one of those servers. Rarely during our meal was this guy not standing nearby our table, definitely within earshot. My kids even thought that he was listening to our conversation.

I think DD2 used the word "creepy" or maybe it was "creeper" to describe him. In his defense though, he was a young man and my group did include three teenage girls so it could have been a case of

Or maybe he just didn't have anything else to do ... being that the restaurant was half empty and all.

My second issue has to do with our check. As previously mentioned, DD2 ordered the Le Cellier Experience in which her soup should have been included and covered by the Dining Plan. I had told the "creeper", I mean waiter that I would be using my TIW for the three soups that were not covered under our dining plan. So I really didn't check close enough when he brought me the two bills, one for the food covered under the dining plan and one for the soups, which I saw had the 20% TIW discount applied. It wasn't until later when I was taking the day's receipts out of my purse that I noticed that we were charged for 4 soups (including DD2's) instead of 3. The mistake only cost me about $5 so not a big deal.
Total Cost covered under Regular Dining Plan - $178.24 or $35.65 per meal credit (should have been $182.51 if we had been charged correctly)
Tip (paid OOP) - $30.00
OOP cost for soups not covered by Plan (with 20% TIW discount and 18% tip) - $22.67 (should have been about $17 if we had been charged correctly for 3 instead of for 4).
Saved $4.68 with TIW (about the amount I was charged for soup that should have been covered under plan)
5 meal credits used, 10 more to go!
NOTE: Cost of this meal had we used TIW (20% discount) instead of Dining Plan - $142.59
Next up: Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe