Day 2, Part 1...Norway, Tea Stand, and Le Cellier

Day 2 was our Epcot day so we ate a quick breakfast (granola bars, etc) in the room and headed off to the park.

We made it for the opening and quickly headed off to Mission Space (green), fast passed Test Track, hit Soarin, Living with the Land, etc. So by 11, we had done pretty much everything we wanted in Future Land. We headed over to World Showcase, rode the Gran Fiesta in Mexico, and then headed to Norway to try the famous school bread. This was my first time in the World Showcase so I was very pleasantly surprised by the cast members from the different countries. They were all very friendly and helpful, especially the nice young man in Norway (that’s all I’m saying about that, my husband may read this and he’s the jealous type ). Alas my time chatting it up with the handsome Norwegian was cut short as other visitors entered the store (how rude!) and so we went to an outside table to enjoy the school bread.

This was better then I thought it would be! I am not a big custard fan; it’s usually heavy and eggy tasting to me. The school bread though was very fresh, light, and not too sweet. It was awesome. Even if you are not a huge fan of custard or coconut, I would still give it a try. Two of us split the one piece and it was enough to share.

Okay, so next we waited for 15 minutes on a bench by the new tea stand in China. We had read about the new alcoholic tea slushes and were very eager to try them. My two sisters ordered the Peach Oolong Tea Schnapps Slush, very good just too sweet for me. I ordered the Green Tea Plum Wine Slush. BIG MISTAKE.

WARNING do not order this without having the knowledge of what plum wine actually tastes like. It was salty! It was absolutely disgusting, I literally felt like I was going to throw up for the rest of the day.

I only was able to drink about 5 sips of it, and then finally I gave up and walked it back to the tea stand and told the nice girls there that it was salty and I guess I didn’t know that it would taste like that. They said not to worry about it, that this had happened before. They offered to give me the peach drink instead but I just took a mango tea. That too was very sweet. So finally I just gave up on the tea drinks all together and had some water.

Our lunch ADR at Le Cellier was for 1:30. By 1 we were famished. We arrived at Le Cellier at 1:10 and checked in. The hostess said that she doubted that they would be able to seat us before our ADR time, we said no problem. We sat down to wait. We saw at least 10-15 people turned away; they were told that they were not accepting any walk-ins as they were booked solid for lunch and dinner until 5/26. Some people were not to happy about this. One lady claimed to have an ADR, but her name was not in the system and she did not have the ADR number. The hostess told her sorry but they couldn’t seat her. She then whipped out a business card and said “My husband is a big shot in Vegas, here’s his card”. The hostess was like, “Sorry, I can’t seat you”. The lady replied “Take the card, I’m calling him, I’m sure he has our number”. She then sat down and ignored the hostess. We saw her later in the meal at a table for 2 (originally she had been claiming she had a party of 7!). So maybe try the big shot in Vegas card if you can’t get a table at Le Cellier. Just kidding.

So we got our table at 1:20, only ten minutes of waiting! We sat down and looked over the menu, noted the changes and ordered our drinks. We noticed that there were two new appetizers, a seared tuna app and a app called duck two ways. The crab and salmon timbale and beef tenderloin kebabs were gone. The entrees now had bouillbaisse and the shrimp pasta was gone. The desserts included a new cherry shortcake instead of the double berry buckle.

My DS27 ordered OOP for this meal and DS21 and I used the DDP, just told the waitress up front and it was no problem at all. My mom did not go to Epcot with us, so the 3 of us ordered as follows:
Me: Cappuccino Freeze, it wasn’t listed on the menu but I asked the waitress if they had it and she said yes. This was yummy, creamy and not too sweet. Helped me start the long road to recovery after the plum wine slushy incident.
DS27 and DS21: just plain old soft drinks. Our waitress was good with refills on these even though she was very busy.

Appetizers were as follows:
Me and DS21: PEI mussels. Okay, now I love mussels. But I have never had mussels this large. To tell you the truth, it was kind on unnerving. They were 3x the size of the mussels we have in the Midwest. And it didn’t help that I mangled one with my little seafood fork about half way through, trust me, you don’t want to see the insides of a giant mussel. Not to mention I was still feeling a little queasy from the Tea Stand incident. But my DS21 absolutely loved them and thought they were very tasty, and I really loved the chowder sauce they were in. It’s a very rich and delicious dish for mussel lovers.

DS27: cheese soup. I tried some and it was good, the beer tasted pretty strong to me. I liked it with the pretzel bread. I wasn’t too crazy about the other two breadsticks though as they were pretty tough.

Entrees:
Me: the new bouillabaisse that was just added to the menu. Okay, I don’t have the official description but it had mussels, two grilled shrimp, and two large scallops in a spicy type broth with couscous. It was good; I wasn’t overly fond of the broth though. It would have tasted better to me if it had some tomato in it. It was served in a slanted bowl with 1 piece of pita bread (felt stale). Overall, I would not order this again unless I really wanted some seafood.

DS21: petite filet, she really loved this. Taking a cue from my earlier mistake at Kona, she ordered it medium which was perfect. The cream cheese mashed potatoes were really good too. They rivaled Kona’s mashed potatoes. She did not find the portion too small after eating all of the mussels for an appetizer, she was getting pretty full.

DS27: steak burger, cheddar, and add on grilled mushrooms, side of potato salad. This was SO good! The burger was juicy and tasted like steak. The cheddar was not too strong and the potato salad was a little spicy and different. I was jealous of this burger; it was definitely how a steak burger should taste.

Ok, now for a little aside on the title of this trip report. Those hard core food fans can skip ahead to dessert. When we sat down we got a decent table, not too close to anyone else, or so we thought. Then the table next to us settled in. The Grandma at that table was literally the Grandma from Hell (hereinafter, GFH). She was “a lady”, she was “a business woman” and above all she was an expert on the South Beach diet. How do I know all this? This woman talked loud, talked forcefully, and NEVER shut up. I was so happy when their meals finally arrived, I thought finally she would quit for a few minutes. Unfortunately, that was not the case the motor mouth kept on running. Until….that blessed potato salad came onto the scene. My sister had let me try a little of hers and I said “That’s good; it has a little kick to it”. It is very mild, something I would let my little ones eat.

Well imagine our surprise when we notice a strange silence. Yes, she had quit talking for more then 30 seconds, what was going on? We look over and she is clasping her mouth and her eyes are bugging out. The waitress had just stopped over to ask how the food was and her husband exclaimed “She’s choking, how do you think it is?” The waitress replied “Oh no, that’s not good! Are you okay?”

I was relishing the silence. Sorry but I was, I’m not going to lie to you.

GFH then uncovered her mouth and said “That potato salad is burning hot, why didn’t you warn me?” She glared at the waitress. The waitress answered “It does have a little kick. I’m sorry”. "A little kick!" GFH bellowed, she was outraged!. The waitress then offered GFH a complimentary glass of wine to help with the heat and brought her some French fries. GFH pointedly ignored the waitress for the rest of the meal, even when she asked her direct questions.

Well, I thought, at least that should quiet her down. But no, then she started in on her grandson who was a little overweight. The poor kid had made the mistake of eating a pretzel bread with his cheese soup. Then she started a lecture that literally lasted the rest of our meal on the phases of the South Beach diet, how he was a failure, how she had mastered it, all while she continued to munch on French fries. It was priceless.

Ok, aside over. Here were our desserts:
Me: the new cherry shortcake. It was like a small biscuit/scone type shortcake with almonds in it, a cherry sauce covering it and some lavender ice cream. It was nice and light, and good. It wasn’t exceptional though. Probably a B+

DS21: the duo of sorbet. Both good and light. She was too full for anything else.
DS27: nothing, too full.

So overall, Le Cellier was an interesting experience. Both of my sisters love the place and will be back. Next time I won’t be stupid and order a bunch of seafood at a steak place. If I was paying OOP I would definitely get the steak burger, it was excellent quality and a good value. Just be prepared with the knowledge that the potato salad has a little kick.

Hope you are enjoying my lengthy reviews that maybe are too much like a trip report?? But the rest will be shorter, I promise. More focused on food and less on all of the interesting characters at WDW.