Le Cellier - Epcot Center, Orlando, FL - 5/26/11

If you believe the interweb, you likely think a reservation at Le Cellier is next to impossible to get - this is untrue. The Disney site allows you to make reservations 180 days in advance - if you try to make a reservation 180 days in advance at Le Cellier, then yes, you probably will find that it's booked. All you need to do is check every couple of days and invariably someone will cancel their reservation. When I first started looking at this place, it was completely booked - three weeks later I had four times available on the night I wanted.




The pretzel bread gets much love, and rightfully so....

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The beer cheese soup is excellent, but absurd for one person...potentially absurd for two people...hell, it's absurd for three people. It's thick, it's heavy, it's delicious, but don't expect to have much room, which is a shame since...

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Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon with wild mushroom risotto, white truffle butter sauce and micro chervil. This is apparently the restaurant's signature dish and rightfully so.

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Bison strip steak...tasty, but paled in comparison to the filet.

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There you go. On the one hand, a good steak can be had almost anywhere, on the other, sometimes that's what you want. If that's the case, this place is solid. A nice wine list, with plenty of Canadian selections, is gravy on the poutine - I generally don't recommend steak places, but when they're done right, how can one not?

Chefs de France - Epcot Center, Orlando, FL - 5/26/11

The day after dinner at Bistro, we stopped for lunch at Chefs de France. We had the pleasure of meeting the head chef of the restaurant, the world famous Remy stopped by our table twice. He is a gentleman and a scholar.



But, I digress.

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The whole pate plate thing - very good, with duck liver as the highlight.

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Filet de Saumon - Broiled salmon - but the menu online is not up to date so I can't give you much more beyond that...

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Plat de Cote de boeuf au cabernet avec pates - beef short ribs briased in cabernet with pasta, pearl onions and mushrooms

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A nicely done lunch. While there is a burger on the menu, I was surprised by how French this place was - unapologetic, bistro food that is probably the most adventurous food some of the people in the place have probably ever encountered.

Kudos to the France pavilion for keeping it real.

Bistro de Paris - Epcot Center, Orlando, FL - 5/25/11

In the Paris portion of Epcot, there are two restaurants - Bistro de Paris is the upper level, white table cloth restaurant, a bit more formal, a bit more high end, a bit more "French restaurant" - I would go as far as to say "shockingly French."

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The amuse bouche featured fish....sadly, that's all I can remember.

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Escargot - crazy sized portion, I'd say about 12 snails in a thicky, creamy sauce. Delicious, but huge.

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Venison medallions roasted, caramelized apple with cranberries, celery purée and patty pan squash, Grand Veneur sauce


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Pork tenderlon stuffed with mushrooms, truffles pasta gratin, morel sauce


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There you go. A solid meal by any standards - this is straight up, old school French though the portions suggest a German influence. The food and wine list make no apologies - this is a solid, French restaurant on par with what you should expect in any major metropolitan area. Not a cheap dinner, but a well crafted one, and certainly a value for the quality. Service was top notch, friendly, and not at all stuffy.

If Victoria and Albert's is out of your price range and you need a special occasion meal - hit this place up.

Victoria and Albert's Chef's Table - Grand Floridian Resort, Orlando, FL - 5/24/11

There are more difficult reservations to get than the chef's table at Victoria and Albert's, but one does have to plan far in advance if there is interest. I called in January 3 and asked "what is the earliest reservation I can make for the chef's table?" I was told May 24. Here you are. The reason why the chef's table is tough to get is because there is only one table and one seating - 5 pm - and that's it for the night.

The restaurant itself is not a terribly difficult reservation, they have a standard dining room with one menu and the Queen Victoria's Room which features the chef's table menu. It's all tasting menu based and they will certainly work with you based on allergies and dietary restrictions.

This is the only restaurant on Disney property that does not allow small children and a jacket is required for men. I had some reservations at first, but rest assured this is true fine dining, not Disney fine dining. (Though, one could argue that fine dining is inherently Disney dining, but that is an argument for another day.)

Amuse bouche - featuring:

Soft-poached Quail Egg with Galilee Caviar

Roasted Butternut Squash Cream Soup

Lobster Panna Cotta

Burrata Alla Panna with Jamon Ibrerico

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Maine Lobster and Mango with White Sturgeon Caviar and Passion Fruit Pearls. All exceptional, the passion fruit pearls were basically caviar sized balls of passion fruit that exploded with flavor - unfrickinbelievably good.

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A bit of dry ice on the next one....when the smoke cleared....

Cold "Smoked" Niman Ranch Lamb with Fuji Apple and Curry Dressing.

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Sake Soy-marinated Alaskan King Salmon with Bok Choy and Soy Beans. I hate to make bold declarations on here, but this is the single best fish I have ever eaten. Seriously. It may be the best dish of food I've ever eaten. Insanely delicious and intense - worth the price of admission alone.

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Roasted Quail with Asian Pears and Serrano Ham Jus

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I mentioned earlier there are two dining rooms, but we had the Chef's Table - tucked away in the corner of the kitchen. You're right in the middle of it, the chef's seem friendly enough, but we are admittedly not the most talkative people on the planet so we let them be until the end of the meal when we chatted with a chef from Chicago....I digress....

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Veal Sweatbread and Shank with Mushroom Ragout.

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Australian Kobe Beef with Garlic Potato Puree. I am not a big believer in the Wagyu/Kobe beef thing...yeah, it's tender, but by it's nature, it's not terribly "meaty" in flavor - when you have a good sauce, as we have here, one can become a convert.

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Cheese plate...unfortunately, our souvenir menu is inaccurate on this one, so I can give you no details beyond the cheeses were excellent, served at the right temperature and with excellent accompaniments.

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This funky contraption was our coffee pot...don't ask me how it worked....it seems the burner at the bottom heated the water, and after it was blown out something happened that made the coffee steep. Damn good coffee - and hot!

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Orange Panna Cotta with Chartreuse-Pineapple Sorbet.

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Mocha Scented Tanzanie Chocolate Mousse Timbale and Chocolate Cocktail.

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There you go.

Victoria and Albert's is not a cheap meal - it is fine dining, tasting menu, wine pairing, fancy pants, pricey. It is also the real deal - old school fine dining in the truest sense, no molecular weirdness, just straight up top quality ingredients, top quality chefs, top quality platings, top quality service, top quality everything basically.

Hollywood Brown Derby - Hollywood Studios, Orlando, FL - 5/23/11

Alright, Hollywood Brown Derby - this is one of the more, if not the most, sedate places to eat at Hollywood Studios.




Started with a "Champagne" flight consisting of one Champagne and a sparkler from Italy and the US.

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An outstanding crab cake.

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Tuna tartare with lotus root chips and microgreens.

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Poached duck Magret wrapped in Swiss chard, Mushroom vegetable couscous and a crispy let confit spring roll with a spicy onion jam. Not sure if it was this particular duck or if it's standard Magret, but the duck was quite gamey...I liked it, but I can see it being offputting to some.

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Char grilled filet of beef - over white truffle whipped potatoes, mushroom ragout and red wine reduction. Nicely done. The picture doesn't look too appetizing - it looked better in person.

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The famous grapefruit cake - the citrus was mild enough that if you don't like grapefruit it's worth a shot, but it's not so weak that you don't know what it is. I dug it.

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If you are in a hurry, this may not be the place for you. They definitely are trying to be a 'nice restaurant' not just a 'nice theme park restaurant' - dinner took about two hours, which is fine for a standalone place, but in a theme park, I could see some people expected things to be a bit speedier.

If you've been to Chicago, you may have encountered a restaurant called Wildfire. I would compare this place in almost all respects to it - quality of food, service, pricepoint, even the feel of the room.

Tony's Town Square - Magic Kingdom, Orlando, FL - 5/23/11

If you're interested in having something that's not an all you can eat buffet or hamburger, the Magic Kingdom is a rough place to be. This is an Italian restaurant right near the park entrance.




Calamari was very well done - great texture and flavor. Well played!

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Meatball sliders. It is comical that we didn't want to eat burgers, so we wound up with meatball sliders, isn't it? If these were served open faced and had more sauce, they'd be better, the meat was pretty dry and there was too much bread overall...but that's just me. The house made chips were very good though.

If you want a sit down lunch or dinner, this is a passable Italian place. If you have a stronger recommendation for the Magic Kingdom, feel free to comment.


As long as we're talking Disney and Italian, if anyone can tell me where I can get Beverly soda in cans or bottles in the US or mail order, please post a comment. Beverly is Coca-Cola product available in the Club Cool room at Epcot, which is a sampling room of sodas from around the world...most people appear to find it to be repulsive, I think it's a fantastic tonic water on steroids sorta product.

La Hacienda de San Angel - Epcot Center, Orlando, FL - 5/22/11

Disney World is a fun place, though it's not exactly known as a destination for world class cuisine. We decided to try some of the nicer places in the area and report back.

La Hacienda de San Angel is in the Mexico part of Epcot, it's a fairly new restaurant, and somewhat upscale.



A couple margaritas to start...the Classic and the Orange Mango Fire. While these were good, I found the margaritas here and at La Cava de Tequila across the way to be a bit too sweet for my liking. The tequila selection is solid though, so you can try a wide array of things. I also had a tequila flight, but failed to take a photo. To be fair, it would be a photo of three shot glasses.


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The entree was the La Hacienda mixed grill for two - flank steak, chicken al pastor, chorizo and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsa. Excellent steak and the chorizo sausages in casings were excellent. Nothing here is terribly spicy (it is a tourist destination I suppose), but the chorizos saved the day with a good punch of flavor. This is billed as a mixed grill for two - it could easily feed three.

One of the selling points of this restaurant is that it's right on the water and if you have a window seat, you'll have a good view of the Epcot fireworks. There are some parts of the restaurant with no view, so you may want to have a plan B if you're desperate to see the show.

Longman and Eagle - Chicago, IL - 5/15/11

Do I need to write about Longman and Eagle? Esquire and GQ listed them among the best new restaurants in the nation, Chicago magazine has raved, even those Frenchies at Michelin gave this place a star. This place does not take reservations, by singing their praises, I'm just making my life more difficult, aren't I? Well, here's my history -

We went here a week ago for brunch - it was awesome.

We came back a few hours later for drinks - they were awesome.

And a week later, with the family, we came back for dinner. Take a wild guess - it was awesome.

The menu changes frequently and the one on the website is not current, so my descriptions will be vague for the most part, but here we go anyway....


Pork belly, fiddlehead ferns, and some other crazy stuff.

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This on the menu - Roasted Marrow Bones, Red Onion Jam, Sea Salt, Sourdough Crostinis

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Not on the website, but it's skirt steak and asparagus, I feel like the sauce is morel based...

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Lamb, gnocchi....

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Another thing on the menu - Pastrami Cured Sweetbreads, Gruyere, Pumpernickel, Saurkraut, Thousand Island Dressing. It sounds like a deconstructed Reuben, but it's less that, more sweetbready awesome.

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While they do have a wine list, this is a whiskey bar - the list of whiskey is absurdly long from the $3 shots of Jack Daniels to the Pappy Van Winkle 23 year which is...well, a bit more than $3. I've had their Manhattan (arguably the greatest drink I've ever had, I do not exaggerate), the Gin Fizz (dangerous), the Black Cherry 101 (an adult soda, quite sweet and dangerous), and the Kentucky Colonel (mildly Manhattan-esque). I don't know how they do it, but their whiskey based drinks are the smoothest and easiest drinking things you'll ever come across.

It's not a cheap not out, but as far as bang for the buck goes, this is arguably one of the best.

Atwood Cafe - Chicago, IL - 10/13/10

Every so often some random person I know who doesn't venture into the city much will tell me they're going to a play and ask for a restaurant suggestion - the answer I give nine times out of ten is Atwood Cafe.  The food is solid and the location just about perfect for many of the big theaters.

I was surprised, then, to see I have never actually written about it here.  We haven't been since the new chef, Derek Simcik, took over - so I figured it was my duty to snag a reservation and check it out.



Ahi Tuna Tartar - waffle cones, wasabi vinaigrette.

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Fried Oysters - cornmeal crusted oysters, spicy remoulade, scallion relish.

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Slow Roasted Rabbit - braised carrots, onions, carrot purée, beaten biscuts

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Duck² - duck confit, roasted duck breast, dumplings, peas, roasted hen of the woods, English pea purée, carrot mash

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"Coffee" And Donuts - house-made donuts, triple espresso gelato

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For wine, we had the feature of the month that was a very nice Vina Perallilo Arenal Carmenere. While it was solid, upon further research the markup was a mindboggling, and I'm going to go right on ahead and call it offensive (to the payer, not the payee), 500% It was a good bottle, groingrabbingly good for $9 in fact, and I get markups are a fact of dining out, but 500%? I think I'm soured.

The Heather Terhune days were excellent...the new guy's been around for a few months so there are still kinks to work out - but he's well on his way.

New Orleans roundup

Alright. That's it with food pictures from New Orleans. I can tell you I've placed myself on a high fiber vegan detox diet for the time being. Not a single meal here was bad. Not one was less than good, in fact.

Restaurant August gets my strongest praise - not only would I return, I was so convinced by it that I would consider doing a John Besh visit and eating at all six of his places.

Emeril's was the biggest surprise. Everyone said it would be good, but I still assumed it would be "tourist" good. No sir, the rabbit appetizer was the best dish of the visit. I'd be back, but I think I'd hit his other places first.

Felix's Oyster Bar deserves special mention as well - a diner setting with some amazing food and good people. The blackened alligator and grilled oysters were amazing.

Mila was excellent, all the food was great, but the sweet potato rolls with pureed fava beans deserve a shout out.

I could go on, but at this rate I'd mention something at each place. If you're into food pictures, just scroll down and enjoy. Otherwise, we'll be back to posting about wine in a bit.

Central Grocery - New Orleans - 7/15/10

Central Grocery is actually a small grocery store with a deli counter that sells muffulettas. I'm not 100% sure there was an option for anything else quite frankly. The people behind the counter have a reputation for being grumpy.



This is a quarter of a muffuletta, you can buy them in halves or wholes. The half split between us was a bit much, so I don't get how one can eat a full half alone. A few cured meats, some provolone cheese, and a pickled olive salad.

The sandwich does travel well but it stinks. Don't be the guy who breaks one out on a plane or bus.