Disney Reviews Restaurant Edition #20 - Les Chefs de France

Despite the issues with the resort, the rest of the trip was the best trip I've had in years, especially in the food department! Usually, we stick to our favorites and try at least one new restaurant, but the favorite list rarely varies. This past trip, I wanted to try a different approach (hey, it does happen every blue moon or so), so most of the restaurants we ate at were either new ones (at least for us) or ones we haven't eaten at in forever.

Our first night's dinner was at Les Chefs de France, an established restaurant in the Disney scene, but one I had been avoiding like the plaque all these years for various reasons. When I think of French food, I think of snails and rabbit and raw fish eggs and all other manner of foods I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Despite my many years of studying French in high school and college, I never really took to it much. Besides, I still can't get over imagining rats in the kitchen making Ratatouille when I think of French food (I do live a very Disney-centric life), but I digress.

To be honest, I had very low hopes for this place, not helped by the fact that we were kept waiting past our ressie time when the restaurant was obviously empty, but at least I got some good pictures of the outside (and some bad boring ones of the annoying people waiting around us). The entire time we were sitting there, all I could think was, "please don't sit us in the solarium so everyone walking by can see us eating", so guess where we were placed?

At least we got to watch the streetmosphere characters performing for a few minutes (before the guests started piling themselves right in front of us so we got butt views instead):

It eventually got so butt-heavy we had to just quit watching the show, which was a shame because we rarely get to see those guys (or any of the countries streetmosphere characters for that matter):

Menus came and we had a nice waiter and since we were on the dining plan, ordering is pretty simple. Back in the day when the dining plan first started, it included appetizers, entrees, non-alcoholic drinks and desserts, but now it's just the entree, non-alcoholic drink and dessert. Given a choice, I would choose appetizers over desserts, but oh well, you can still buy them out of pocket and we are usually OK with that. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, depending on the location.

We ordered drinks (and don't get me to lying as to what they were):

Amber ordered the Lobster Bisque:

I ordered the French Onion Soup:

It should be noted that I don't like to bite into onions, cooked or otherwise, but I do like onion flavor. But what I do love is cheese, always have, always will and it's probably the main reason why I've been overweight my entire life. Beef-flavored soup covered in cheese is like a dream come true...who cares if I have to pick around a couple of onions, right? Seriously though, this was quite possibly the best soup I've ever had in my entire life and I've been trying to replicate it at home ever since (to no avail...it's not like my local grocery store carries Gruyere so I have to settle for Swiss and it's just not the same).

After the soup was finished, I was suddenly regretting all the years we'd been avoiding this place! Am went with the demi poulet fermier roti...basically, chicken Hagar-style (what we call chicken on the bone), mashed taters and gravy and veggies. I personally can't stand to see chicken blood, cooked or otherwise and any chicken on the bone will have dark meat somewhere on it, so NOPE, I just can't deal.

Now, when it comes to cows, just park one beside me, give me a straw and I'll suck him dry like a vampire...I love me some cow blood! I like my steak bleedin' and faintly going "moooo". But, since I was still a bit scared of the whole "French food" experience and there wasn't a beef dish that didn't have extra "weird" stuff with it, I instead went with gratin de macaroni, aka mac-n-cheese. Simple, yes, but it was one of the most amazing mac dishes I have ever had in a Disney park baring the truffle mac with Reypenaer at Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club/Beach Club Resort, but back to Les Chefs:

For dessert, Amber went simple and had the Mousse au chocolat:

I had been playing it safe all night, so I went big and had the Profiteroles au chocolat:

If I could have picked up the plate and licked it clean, I probably would have (although I don't think anyone would have stopped me if I did).

Honestly, I NEVER expected the dinner to be good, let alone one of the best Disney meals we've ever had in World Showcase! Surprisingly good service, excellent food and atmosphere and, knowing me, I was even fascinated with the lighting (although I don't think I've ever met a Disney light I didn't love, so there you go!):

We sat for a while and ate and then relaxed a bit, but by the time we left, it still wasn't very crowded:

It will definitely be a restaurant we will eat at again (although not for this upcoming fall trip) and I'm excited to see if it's just as good the second time!