DREAMing of a Disney spring break COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Friday 15 April – part seven: one of the best meals of our lives

We were met by the manager, Jacques, who told us that we would be looked after by his top sever, Yannick. A lot of the staff come from France here, as you’d expect and Yannick did, although he had spent 11 years in various parts of the UK, so knew our country very well and he looked after us impeccably. During the evening, he was a true star. He was exceptionally attentive and made us feel like we were the only people he was looking after.

We weren’t sure what to expect here, but the way it works is that they have an appetiser, fish course and meat course and you can pick any combination for those. I went for two fish courses, because I don’t eat meat and that was no issue.

The first thing you get is a complimentary drink, which was a very nice touch:



Before you start to eat, you get an amuse bouchee, which was tomato and interestingly, tasted like something my grandmother used to make when I was a kid. As she’s French, that makes sense and it was wonderful to be transported back to my childhood like that.



They then bring you a sample of their most famous dish, which the film is named after, ratatouille, and this is the best ratatouille that I have ever taste in my life. It was so light. I have no idea how neither of us managed to get a photo of it though.

Then it was on to the first of our choices, the appetiser. Mark went for the Alaskan King crab cannelloni, hearts of palm and caviar vinaigrette. Mark’s appetiser tasted really good to me, although the first bit he gave me was a bit tart.



I went for the Declinaison Tomate: variations of tomato – tart, iced, Parmesan Espuma and tomato. It was, as Yannick told me, a fascinating dish and it was very interesting to taste each part of it and realise how different they all were, even though they all came from the same ingredient.



Of them, my favourite was the drink, and from Yannick said, I think that’s often the case. It was again so light and we were surprised it was clear, not red. Apparently, that’s because it comes from the pineapple tomato (I think that’s what my shorthand said ) which I’ve never heard of before.

Next was our fish dish for which we both got the John Dory with chorizo espuma and spicy carrot mousse, although mine came without the chorizo. I wasn’t keen on the sauce that went with it, but the carrot mousse was divine with it. Interestingly, I didn’t like it on its own, but it complimented the fish perfectly. I was interested to see how all the different flavours worked together and this is one of the thing I always enjoy the most at any fine dining restaurant. Mark told me that the chorizo espuma didn’t go that great with the fish.



It was probably at around this point that we met the chef Andrew, who came from Cardiff in Wales. He had only joined Disney a couple of months ago and previously had worked for Gordon Ramsay in Paris. It was a pleasure to talk to him and learn more about him and that’s something we have never had the opportunity to do anywhere before. He came back out later and both times Jacques had to drag him away from us, we were enjoying our conversation with him so much.

The next course was meat, with Mark going for the Australian Wagyu with garlic potato puree and petit carrots.



I had the lobster with vanilla, bisque and lobster roe foam. The foam gave a really different taste to the dish and again helped to lighten it up. That was the feel of this whole meal, as everything we had was very light.



The only thing that wasn’t light were the cheeses, served by Michelle from England and, at one point, we had her and Sara at our table and it was like a little English enclave in France. I think they quite enjoyed having English guests to gang up with against the French! Again, we chatted for too long to Michelle and we could see Jacques hovering again, but everyone was just so happy to stand and chat with us. It was a lovely touch.



I couldn’t tell you what cheeses we got, but Michelle served me a selection that was a bit stronger, which is what I like, and Mark had a set that was lighter and wouldn’t harm him, as he’s lacto-intolerant to some cheeses, like cheddar. They were wonderful, but very filling and we still had dessert to come.




I loved the way that they presented the dessert menu, so neat the way that you peel one out from the other. The second Yannick started to go through the menu, I knew what I wanted to have – the fondant chocolate croustillant, sorbet cacao and jus mousseaux. It was just so unbelievably good and so beautiful.



Mark went for the vanilla poached pear with cassis mousse and hazelnut meringue.



Once we were done with dessert, we really were full, but there was still one more course, called a surprise by Yannick. Sorry if I spoil the surprise for any of you, but I know that some of you will want to know what it is....



It’s essentially a set of petit fours in the most exquisite box ever. Sadly this wasn’t a keepsake, despite our best attempts to persuade Yannick otherwise. It was a superb end to a superb meal, but sadly we were too full to be able to finish the petit fours, which was a great shame.



A couple of notes here... as you have heard, if you want to go to the restrooms during your meal, you are escorted to them. I was expecting to find this a bit weird and it is a little, but it’s so well done, you actually feel quite at ease with the whole thing. Even as I came back into the restaurant, one of the servers saw me and said something about “a lady walking around unaccompanied”. It’s done in a very nice way and there’s no way that anyone could be offended by it. :

I was also pleased with a rose at the end of the meal and when we got back to the stateroom, there were chocolates and a thank you note, which were more nice touches. :wytogo: Bearing all of this in mind, it’s a shame that tonight there were only about 12 people in there. Jacques told us that it was a slow night, so we really lucked out.

This is not a meal to be rushed either. : We walked in at 7.40 and left at around 10.45. Ok, so we missed the fireworks as part of the pirate night, but actually we didn’t mind in the end, as it was such a good meal. I loved every minute of it and it really is the ultimate indulgence for an evening.

The bill came to $177, plus tip, which is a lot of money. That included two glasses of wine. However, if you think about it, that’s what you would spend at any good signature dining meal at Disney World and this is far superior.

So what does it compare to? The closest on Disney property probably is Victoria and Albert’s, but this felt so much more relaxed and less formal than that. All the wait staff do a great job of setting at ease, even if this is your first experience of eating at a high scale restaurant in your lives. I would encourage anyone who enjoys good food and doesn’t mind spending the money to come here. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and well worth doing during your cruise.

By the way, no rankings for her, as they just don’t run high enough! We decided that just about everything we had tonight should score at least 11 out of 10, so we agreed that this was a definite 10 out of 10 experience overall.

When we were finally done, it was back to the room and off to bed, with very full bellies to be created by this lovely creation:



It was a perfect end to a wonderful day.

The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 80s.
The best thing today was dinner at Remy.
The worst thing today was Mark not feeling well in the morning.
[b]The funniest thing today was Stitch rolling around on the floor.
Today we tried the art of the theme tour
And the result was that it’s a very enjoyable tour.
The most magical moment today was being on our own in the Gustav room in Remy.

[b]Next: you’re going to run in this heat?