Review of Le Cellier EPCOT Walt Disney World – Canadian Steakhouse
Le Cellier Steakhouse is located in the Canada pavilion in the EPCOT’s World Showcase at Walt Disney World. Designed to evoke the cellar of a grand chateau, you’ll enjoy a selection of steaks and Canadian cuisine.
Food
Le Cellier Steakhouse’s menu offers, not surprisingly, a number of steak entrees as well as seafood dishes with a regional Canadian twist. We began with the Atlantic Salmon Cakes with Fingerling Salad, Carrot Ginger Mayonnaise, and Horseradish and Tartar Sauce ($10.99). We also tried the Canadian Black Diamond Cheddar Cheese Soup made with Moosehead Beer and Smoked Bacon ($3.99), a restaurant specialty and definitely worth ordering – creamy, rich and flavorful.
For our entrees, we had the 7oz. Filet Mignon with Shallot Butter and Cream Cheese Mash Potatoes ($24.99) and the 14 oz. New York Strip Steak with Roast Yukon Potatoes, Grape Tomatoes, Shallot Butter, and Red Wine Sauce ($24.99). The steaks were prepared a beautiful medium rare. And the accompaniments, especially the homey Cream Cheese Potatoes, were delicious comfort food. This is a great place to get a steak on your Disney vacation!
For dessert, we sampled the very generous and very rich Canadian Club Chocolate Cake as well as the Fruit Sorbet with Maple Leaf Cookie, a lighter choice yet still a hearty helping. The desserts were tasty, and attractively presented (especially the homemade Maple Leaf shaped cookie), but probably not necessary after the filling steak entrees.
Wine
Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000 ($14.50/glass)
A nice pairing with our steak, earthy and rich.
Exceptional Features
Apart from the great steak, as a Canadian I must proudly report that the Canadian servers at Le Cellier made the experience memorable. There is an elusive commonality between us Canucks, though we’ve all been trying for years to define what actually makes us uniquely “Canadian”. So, without being able to explain it, chatting with fellow Canadians, even meeting a couple of guys from a familiar neighborhood in our hometown was a special part of dining at Le Cellier.
Service: Our server was real friendly, eh, despite the fact that he seemed almost run off his feet. The dining room was exceptionally busy during our visit, probably due to the Christmas Candlelight Processional performances on that night. Still, our food didn’t suffer, although tracking our server down for a glass of water or the like proved a bit challenging.
Décor
Le Cellier is designed to look like the wine cellar of a grand old castle. Low stone archways, dark woods, and clusters of torch-like lamps adorning the walls capture this effect. A fireplace with a huge hearth adds to the cozy effect (not sure if it is real or if it is ever lit in balmy Florida, but it added to the ambience)! The dining room is relatively small when compared to some of the other World Show Case restaurants, offering a more intimate dining experience than you might expect from an Epcot restaurant.
Dress Code
Most diners will be dressed very casually and comfortably as they are probably spending the day at the Epcot theme park.
Price
Meals are in the moderately expensive range at $15-$25.
Reservations
We would recommend priority seating arrangements, as we saw prospective diners actually turned away due to the busyness of the restaurant. Of course, the very popular Christmas show, the Epcot Candlelight Processional, was on that evening, and many people dine at Le Cellier as part of a dinner/show package (as did we). However, Le Cellier does not have a huge dining room (compared, for instance, to the gigantic dining space at the Italy Pavilion’s L’Originale Alfredo di Roma), so it can’t hurt to get your name on the wait list no matter what time of the year you happen to go.
For more information or to make reservations, visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/epcot/le-cellier-steakhouse/.