Le Cellier - lunch
Atmosphere – We had never been to Le Cellier before, and found the restaurant really charming, and so much smaller than we had anticipated! We got a nice Beauty and the Beast vibe from the place, but realized that was probably not what they were going for over in Canada. Upon first walking in, we thought that even if the food were not as great as we had heard, it made sense that it was so difficult to get an ADR here! About getting an ADR at Le Cellier, the only ADR we could get during the whole week that we would be at WDW was for a 2:00 pm lunch on the day we were to arrive. We hadn't booked our plane tickets at the point we had called for our ADRs (not quite 180 days out, but probably around 120 days out), so we booked an 8:30 am flight down to WDW (earlier than we would have liked) in order to get to Le Cellier.
Now on to the food!
Bread – pretzel bread, sourdough bread, multigrain bread
All of the bread was so warm that ripping off pieces hurt our hands! The pretzel bread was delicious – soft, warm, just salty enough, and pretzely. But not too pretzely, because Jen loved it and actually does not like soft pretzels. The multigrain bread was nice, and made better because it was so warm and fresh. The sourdough bread was very good. Jen ate second pieces of sourdough and pretzel bread. Laura was distraught because she was starving and could not eat any of the bread, because we were told it was baked in the presence of nuts and there was no way to guarantee that the bread was not contaminated. Liz enjoyed the nice warm breadsticks. However, she didn't really see why the pretzel breadsticks are such a big deal. She said they tasted like a soft pretzel to her, not exactly a novelty.
Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon - with wild mushroom risotto, white truffle and herb butter sauce
Jen: I ordered the mushroom filet, cooked medium-well. This meal was as delicious as I anticipated it would be! I am a fan of filet mignon and a huge fan of mushrooms, and this meal did not disappoint. The lunch-sized portion included just enough meat, which was cooked just as I had ordered it and the white truffle and herb butter sauce was a perfect complement. However, the real standout of the meal for me was the mushroom risotto. The mushroom sauce was not too creamy or overpowering, and I really enjoyed the variety of mushrooms that were in the dish. Le Cellier's Mushroom Filet Mignon definitely gets two thumbs up from me!
Liz: I substituted the mushroom risotto for roasted potatoes and was a little disappointed because the potatoes were a little dry. My filet, cooked medium well, was still delicious though! I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, but thought that the truffle and herb butter was a great addition to the dish.
Tomato stack and cream cheese mashed potatoes
Laura: The chef here was very nice and willing to make anything for me, really. He just asked me what I was wanting and he said he’d let me know if it would be safe. I got the tomato stack and a side of the cream cheese mashed potatoes, which were both great! I’m pretty picky, so I didn’t know if the cream cheese would be a bit much for me, but I actually really liked it! The tomato stack was really good, as well. Also, both the appetizer and side counted together as a meal on the dining plan.
Chocolate Moose – Chocolate Mousse rolled in Toasted Chocolate Crumbs with Maple Leaf Antlers
Jen: I wasn't too interested in any of the desserts on Le Cellier's menu, which is very surprising for me! I adore almost all desserts, but don't like marshmallows, so that leaves out s'mores, and don't like crème brulee. I do usually like chocolate mousse, but I prefer it inside of a cake, or with something to make it a bit more interesting. I ordered the Chocolate Moose since I like chocolate mousse, and really wanted to see the Moose! I thought the mousse was okay – certainly not the best I've had – but the Moose was so cute that it made up for it!
Fruit
Laura: I desperately wanted the s’mores after seeing pictures of them on the Dis, but unfortunately, the chef said all of the chocolate items were questionable. Then I asked if I could just have marshmallows with sprinkles, but evidently the s’mores are pre-packaged and shipped to Le Cellier. After hearing that, I was not as devastated by not being able to eat them! I ordered fruit instead, which was sort of frozen, but was pretty good otherwise. For anyone with nut allergies, they also said that I could have gotten the mango sorbet, plain vanilla ice cream, or the crème brulee (but I’m not quite adventurous enough to try that concoction!)
Campfire S’mores - Chocolate Graham Crackers and Roasted Marshmallows with Vanilla Ice Cream
Liz: As a huge fan of s'mores, I knew I had to try Le Cellier's attempt at one of my fav dishes. While the presentation was wonderful, the dessert is nothing like the s'mores I'd been dreaming of. Though the pieces alone tasted okay, the marshmallow was separate from the chocolate/cookie portion. And as I recall, s'mores are made with graham crackers. The weirdest part was the decorative syrups on the plate, which tasted very strange: orange and mint syrup with s'mores was an interesting choice!
Casey's Corner – dinner
Grand Slam – Hot dog and french fries
Jen: I love Casey's hot dogs! While I feel like I could be getting a better value out of the dining plan by using my counter service credit at another location, I just am not a big fan of most of the counter service offerings at the Magic Kingdom. So, for my first meal at the Magic Kingdom, I went with what I knew I would enjoy, and Casey's did not disappoint. The hot dog was good, the new bun was good (I could not tell the difference between the "multigrain" bun and the old white bread buns), and the french fries were good. However, I am annoyed by the new multigrain breads and buns because the health benefits of an enriched multigrain (not natural whole grain multigrain) bread are not considerable enough, in my opinion, to warrant making the bread used widely throughout the parks unsafe for nut allergic people (like Laura). I also got the brownie dessert with my meal, which was very good! It was a plastic-wrapped brownie, and I only took a few bites of it since I was quite full from my big lunch and then my dinner, but it was very dense, rich, and chocolatey!
Columbia Harbour House – dinner
Garden Harvest Salad - mixed greens, chicken, garden vegetables, cheese and sunflower seeds
[sorry, no picture]
Liz: I had a really nice conversation with the CM cashier who asked all about my trip so far and complimented me on my tiara. This did not make up for the poor atmosphere of this place. GIANT BUGS!
(It was horrifying! Liz was frozen in fear and could not speak, only point at the horrendousness of this atmospheric addition!)
My salad was okay. The sunflower seeds were a good addition to make a rather boring salad a little more interesting. The chicken was all white meat strips, but they were certainly not made on property. They tasted a lot like those Purdue short cuts salad strips.
For dessert I had the apple crisp. Though it was more apple pie dough than apple crisp, it was pretty moist and a refreshing change from the usual CS dessert fare.
I also enjoyed a bite of Jen's brownie, which tasted like a giant hunk of fudge. I am a huge fan of chocolate, so I loved it but found it too sweet to eat more than a bite or two (which is saying something!!).
Garden Harvest Salad - mixed greens, chicken, garden vegetables, cheese and sunflower seeds – minus chicken (vegetarian) and sunflower seeds (nut allergy)
[sorry, no picture]
Laura: Liz and I decided to try Columbia Harbour House, because we’ve never eaten there before. We’ve tried quite a few CS places at the MK and haven’t really approved of any of them, so we thought it was worth a try! Unfortunately, we do not think we will be going back. I ordered the garden harvest salad, but without the chicken and sunflower seeds (I was able to read the allergy ingredients binder when ordering to confirm that this was okay.) The salad was okay, but there weren’t really a lot of vegetables in it, and it definitely didn’t taste very fresh. I tried some of the oil and vinegar dressing from the packet, and I didn’t like it, so it probably would have been better otherwise. For dessert, I had grapes (an option for the children’s meals, which they had no problem giving to me.) They were really good!
What ruined this meal was the absolutely terrifying and enormous cockroach that attacked us!
Plus, I was still starving after eating here, so I had to get some french fries from Casey’s at like 9:45 at night!
in about 5 hours. Checking into POFQ and then DD for WPE dinner.
