I have always wanted to go to France. Watching Ratatouille just made me want to go even more. Silly, but true. So I ignored all of the bad reviews of Chef de France and booked a 6:00 ADR for Thursday, right after we spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon.
Which, in retrospect, I shouldnt have done. We didnt want to leave Typhoon Lagoon AT ALL! Sweetie Girl started to cry when it was time to go, but Ill get into all of that when I write my trip report in case you want to know how it turned out.
One of the things that I had done for my kids was to have envelopes for them to open each day of our trip. Inside was invitations to each special event or meal that we would be attending that day. So once again, I had a mix up on what time our ADR was for. The invitation said 5:00, but it didn't seen right to me. I kept thinking that I shouldve gotten a printout from the resort of all my ADRs after I checked into the resort, but chose not to since I already had them in my daily touring plan schedules. Not a smart thing to do. I had completely forgotten that I had another list with ADRs in my trip binder.
Sometimes I have to wonder about my brain.
So we rushed home from Typhoon Lagoon, caught the bus to Epcot, and arrived at Chefs de France just before 5:00 to check in.
Only our name was not on the list for 5:00. Oops. Not at 5:30, either. Hummm. How long ago did we make our ADR? 180 days. The CM was gracious enough to say she could fit us in at 5:00. See, I had also forgotten my ADR#, too. Then I remembered, was it 6:00? Yes, it was, but 5:00 would still be fine to eat. I was glad, because the natives were getting restless and were whining about being hungry. Again.
You would think that they never ate at all during our trip. They seemed to be hungry all of the time, especially about a half hour after we had just eaten a meal. Does anyone else have this problem with their kids? Its the Im too full when they cant finish their meal, followed by the Im hungry about 10 minutes later when theres no food in sight?
I took a few sneak peeks into the restaurant before we were seated. I was too excited to sit down and wait.
The acrobat Serveur Amusant (I believe - please correct me if I'm wrong!) was performing as we were checking in, and when I came out I just missed him doing his handstand on top of his chair. Silly me had the camera on the incorrect setting, and then when I had fixed it, he was already done. Oh well. It was awfully scary looking!
They do not hand out buzzing coaters here, so once you check in you must stay within earshot, for they call out your name very gently from just outside of the front door. I almost missed it, and we were just sitting down at the fountain right outside the check-in podium.
We were one of the first families to be seated, so the restaurant was nice an empty to look at while we figured out what to get for dinner. I just sat there and took in the atmosphere for a bit.
We choose to splurge and get some Perrier instead of regular water for this meal, and it was a nice change from the tap water we had been having so far all week long. (For some reason, the restaurant water seemed to taste better than what you got from a drinking fountain. Maybe I was just imagining things because I was always so thirsty!) Here it is with the bread they served.
The kids had a cute Ratatouille menu that turned into a hat. Heres Buddy Boy modeling his kids menu:
Heres' the kid's menu:
For starters, the kids both got the
Friand au Fromage - Cheese puff pastry. They dont like salad, the only other option. I dont think we wouldve ordered an appetizer for them if we were not on the
DDP.
They didnt eat all of this, most likely because it was very rich. Handsome tried it and liked it. But Buddy Boy ate the grape tomatoes. He wont eat tomatoes unless theyre grape sized. He says that the seeds are smaller in them. Ill let you figure that one out for yourselves.
Handsome got the onion soup,
Soupe a l'oignon gratinee. This was g-o-o-d. Lots of cheese to make it nice and chewy. Just the way I like it.
I ordered the best appetizer on the menu,
Ratatouille et calamars, sauce tomate - Fried calamari and ratatouille, spicy tomato sauce:
Oh, my.
I love calamari and will order it any chance that I get. Let me give it to you straight this appetizer wouldve made me happy as a clam if I didnt have anything else to eat the rest of the evening. It was sooooo good.
It was Tuna Oscar good!
The calamari was fresh and tender (its like chewing rubber if its not!), and the flavors were a bit spicy, but not overpowering. Hands down, this was my second favorite dish of the trip, second only to Tuna Oscar.
Yum, yum, yum.
Handsome said he had never seen ratatouille presented that way. Then I realized that he had never seen Ratatouille, for it's sort of the way Remy prepares the meal. Sort of.
I had a hard time deciding what to have for my main course. I had mulled over the menu for months, then they had to add new things! So, on a whim I ordered the lamb shank with navy beans:
I should never order things on a whim.
I dont know why I ordered this. I like lamb, but rack of lamb. And Im not a huge fan of navy beans, unless they are in a soup. So what was I thinking when I ordered this dish that night? I have no clue. It just looked good at that moment, I guess. I think I was trying to be different.
It didnt work out this time.
Its not that this dish wasnt good for it was. After one bite I knew that it was not the dish for me. It was yummy, rich in flavor, but I wanted something else instead. I just didnt know what that something else was. So I ate the meat and carrots, and left the rest untouched. I really hated wasting all of that food.
I guess nothing would've satisfied me after that appetizer.
Handsome had the
Filet de boeuf grille, sauce au poivre noir Gratin Dauphinois et haricots verts - Grilled tenderloin of beef with a black pepper sauce original potato gratin of Savoy and green beans. I was thinking of ordering this, but I didnt want another steak. It was good, but not as good as the steak at Le Cellier. I dont think that anything couldve matched that steak at Le Cellier. The potatoes were yummy but
very rich. And the beans were good fresh and steamed to perfection.
We each ordered a glass of the wine that was pared with each dish.
Buddy Boy ordered the
Croquette de Boeuf en Brioche - Ground beef steaks in a brioche bun, served with French fries. Its a very fancy way to say hamburger, isnt it? And it also won the prize for the best presentation of a hamburger in WDW.
Sweetie Girl the
Blanc de Poulet aux Nouilles - Breaded chicken strips served with pasta (thats pasta sauce in the bowl to the left of her plate.)
For dessert, the kids chose the
Biscuit au chocolat - Chocolate chip cookie. Handsome had split it in two and Sweetie Girl had eaten a chunk of it before I had the chance to snap the photo, but it was about the size of the plate, minus an inch. They had the other cookie the next day for a snack.
Handsome ordered the
Clafoutis bleuets, sorbet et coulis aux fruits Rouges - blueberry clafoutis, with red berry sauce and sorbet. For some reason the description doesnt seem to match the photo (Im going from menus posted on AllEarsNet. If it's not the right thing, I'll change it later.)
Have you noticed how he always gets the dessert made with fruit? In his mind, he thinks fruit IS dessert, and if its not made with or without sugar, all the better. I disagree on this point.
He doesnt agree with the chocolate rule it isnt dessert unless its chocolate!
I got the
Tarte au chocolat, banane et noix de coco, sauce pralinee - Chocolate tart with banana and coconut, praline sauce with chocolate ice cream, a REAL dessert. Im not a big banana-in-my-dessert kind of person, but the banana taste was very slight. This was good and not overly-rich tasting like many desserts can be, but I was so full that I had a hard time enjoying it.
.
I think that everything tasted better here because the dishes are written in French. Oui?
Honestly, I dont know what all the bad hype over this restaurant is all about. I was thrilled that we had a chance to eat there. Contrary to what I have read here on the DIS, everyone at Chefs was pleasant and gracious, from the hostess to our waitress and everyone else in between. Plus, I got my chance to eat in Paris for one evening. I couldn't see any reason not to like the place.
Will we eat there again? Yes, but only after we try the many other restaurants in the World Showcase that we want to try. So many restaurants, so little time!
After dinner we went to see
Impressions de France on Buddy Boys request. It was a good idea since we needed to sit and let all of that yummy food settle in our tummies a bit. Yet watching the film only me want to go to France even more! Oh well. Someday my free boatload of money will come in
We then strolled over to Canada to complete our evening by seeing a concert by Off Kilter before heading back to the resort.
It was the perfect way to end a glorious day.
Next: Columbia Harbor House 
QuiltyMoms Tip of the Day
) I noticed the word "Curried" in the name - is it spicy?
I was getting awfully tired of drinking Sprite or Fanta. I just love root beer! Thanks for the news. 
)
Oh, was it good! I slapped a bit of mustard on it, and I was good to go. Having a cup of fries thrown into the measure put me into junk food heaven! Only I should have asked for extra onions. You cant have too many fresh onions on a chili cheese dog. I got a orange soda to split with Handsome.
Now, wouldnt that have been embarrassing!
