Victoria & Albert's Chef's Table Review, Walt Disney World 03-23-2019

March 23, 2019 - Update March 28, 2019

Victoria and Albert's Chef's Table Review. 

For reservations call, 407-939-3862.

Age Policy: Guests ages 10 and above are invited to dine at this establishment.

Cancellation Policy: If your plans change, please cancel your reservation by phone or email at least 72 hours in advance of your reservation. A $100 per person cancellation fee will apply for no-shows or cancellations within 72 hours of the reservation.

Dress Code
A dinner jacket is required for men, along with a collared shirt, dress slacks and dress shoes (tie optional) and elegant evening attire, such as a dress or pants ensemble, is required for women. No jeans, t-shirts, shorts, capris, flip flops, sneakers or casual wear please.

Review:

One of the things I've learned in creating this first blog post is that I need to take notes when it comes to foods of this caliber. For the life of me I can't remember some of the items that were served. But I'll do my best to relay them in photos.

The restaurant has an old world setting. It's an avant-garde culinary journey. The Main Dining Room features a classic rotunda with a hand painted dome. Soft music is provided by a harpist. The Queen Victoria room seats just 8 guest, 2 at each of four tables with a fire place and opulent furnishings. The Chef's Table is for 2-10 guests and is the only table in the kitchen. Only one party will be seated each evening.

This isn't the first time we've been to Victoria and Albert's at Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort. It's actually the 5th time we've been there. But this time is really special. This time it's the Chef's Table, located within the kitchen of the famous Restaurant. My husband and I don't really get to take vacations because of the work we do. So our vacation is spent eating our way around Disney parks.

The first time we went to Victoria and Albert's was on our wedding night in 2002. It was just the two of us and so very special. Afterwards I'd told everyone that asked about what it was like, that it was like being a judge on Iron Chef. Just amazing. We sat in the main dining room, which has 14 tables. I couldn't imagine being able to do this restaurant more than once in my life at the time. At this time the Menu was a fixed price of $85.00 per person with wine pairings at $45.00 per person.

The second time we went we ate in the little room off to the left of the main dining room that only has 4 tables, this was Christmas day dinner 2007 and we brought along my mother-in-law. She had a wonderful time. This time the menu was a fixed price of $130.00 with wine pairings at $60.00.

The third time my husband and I went back for our 11th anniversary in 2013, by now the little room off to the left of the main dining room had been renamed as the Queen Victoria room. With it's own special menu offerings and a special visit from the Chef. This menu doesn't list pricing. 

The fourth time I talked my siblings into going in 2017. It was 8 of us in total and we sat in the main dining room at a large round table. They are still talking about this experience. It appears that night we didn't get copies of our menu. None of my siblings have one either so I don't have a copy of that one to photograph. (update: When we went for our Chef's Table dinner I asked the servers if it was possible to get a copy of the menu from our previous visit and they so graciously printed one for each person in our party).

This now brings me to the fifth time at Victoria and Albert's in 2019. This time is to celebrate the milestone of finishing our list of eating at every (all 349) places at Disney World that serve food. That is every walk up, every sit down, every food cart and in every nook and cranny of Disney World Property. Whew! That was a lot of eating around Disney World. Now some of these locations are no longer there. They've been renovated and turned into new restaurants so that meant we had to go back again. 

But finalizing that list meant we needed to have a way to celebrate the accomplishment. So the only thing we hadn't done was eat at the Chef's Table in Victoria and Albert's. It's a very hard reservation to get. There's only one table and it seats anywhere from 2-10 people. So if you are a party of 2 you get the table all to yourself. Theres only one seating per night. That's what makes it so hard to get a reservation. 180 days out there's someone that set their alarm for the earliest time to schedule a reservation and they've gotten it. The way I got my reservation was to call the reservation desk and ask if there had been any cancellations. I got really lucky. There had been one just minutes before. And since we are local I didn't care what day it fell on. So I took the one option she had. Most people aren't that flexible in when they can make a dining reservation. So I was very lucky.

On this occasion the following were the chef's listed on their website...

• Chef Aimée Rivera - Chef de Cuisine
• Israel Pérez - MaȊtre D' Hotel
• Kristine Farmer - Pastry Chef
• Scott Hunnel - Executive Chef

These were the servers and chefs that we had working with us that evening...

• Chef Matt Sowers - Chef de Cuisine
• Boris Perev -  MaȊtre D' Hotel
• Don and Danny - Servers

The table was set with a beautiful bouquet of red roses for our enjoyment for the evening. 

Bread, butter and specialty salts compliment each course of the meal.

Since the butters are unsalted we were given an assortment of salts and peppers to compliment our butters.

Course 1 - Amuse-Bouche (translates to: To tease the palate)

Imperial Caviar with Ocean Kiss Oysters - 

As this dish arrived at our table it was beautiful to look at. The pastry Tuile was dusted with edible gold and edible flower petals. Hiding beneath what was a wonderful beginning to our meal.

A panko crusted fried oyster in a bed of foam (the flavor of this slips my mind, I should take notes) with caviar. I'm not an oyster lover but his was divine.

Course 2 - Maine Lobster, Saffron and Paprika Gremolata

A beautiful taste of the ocean. A half lobster tail and claw. The red disc on the claw meat is a reduction of the stock of the lobster shells. 

Course 3 - Glacier 51 Tooth Fish, Haricot Tarbais and Savoy Cabbage Broth.

A beautiful fish dish with cabbage broth and Brussel sprouts

We then had a surprise second Amuse-Bouche

A pea Agnolotti pasta. This was a beautiful bite of food.

Course 4 - Honey Lacquered Rohan Duck, Sweet Potato Mosaic and Walnuts.

The sweet potato mosaic was a mashed sweet potato bottom with slices of different color sweet potatoes on top.

The duck breast was cooked to perfection.

Underneath a disc of sweet potato covered in candied walnuts was the confit of duck legs.

Course 5 - Lamb Loin with Dates and Garbanzo Bean Croquette

The cute little green flower shapes are cucumbers. The dates were formed into a disc so that you could get a little of it each time you took a bite of lamb. The lamb was perfectly cooked and not gamey in any way.

For the next course we got to choose our steak knives from six different wood handles. 

Course 6 - Australian Kobe-Style Beef with Bone Marrow Pain Perdu and Morels.

The mushrooms were morels and hedgehogs with shallots. The steak was one of the best I've ever eaten.

Hubby got the upgraded Miyaaki Japanese  Wagyu Beef add on to this course. He said it melted in his mouth.

Course 7 - Mimolette, Red Apple Compote and Toasted Hazelnuts.

This savory doughnut had a red apple compote in the center and the flower you see is actually cheddar cheese. A play on an apple danish.

We also had a surprise dessert Amuse-Bouche

I cannot remember what these were except that it was a sorbet on the right. They were gone before we could blink so we forgot to ask for more information.

Course 8 - Chocolate Bolivian Tart with Creme de Mint and Chambord Black Currant Sauce.

A beautiful dessert to end the meal. Not heavy at all and not too sweet. A perfect ending.

And of course we got to choose our selection of chocolates to enjoy at home. Which they boxed up for us.

As always I was presented with a red long stem rose at the end of the evening. I have made it a tradition to give my rose to the first little princess I see in the hotel lobby as we are leaving for the night. It seems to always bring a smile to their faces.

Chef Matt Sowers also presented us with a piece of the pink Himalayan Salt block they use in the kitchen and a vial of his own personal salt infused with fennel as a gift.

Just a note: This restaurant does not offer any type of discounts.

If you'd like to try your hand at making some of the dishes that have been offered at Victoria and Albert's in the past several of Disney's cookbooks feature recipes from this restaurant.

• Delicious Disney features two recipes. Page 26 has the Stilton Cheesecake and page 48 has the Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella Salad.
• Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs features 4 recipes. Page 43 is the Carrot-Ginger Cream Soup, Page 52 has the Crab & Artichoke Cakes, Page 75 has the Tiramisu and Page 77 has the Crème Brûlée.
• Kitchen Magic with Mickey has two recipes. Page 80 is the Smoked Buffalo with melted fennel and leeks and hearts of palm salad, and page 112 has the Pan-Seared Sablefish with fingerling potatoes & Zellwood Corn.
• Chef Mickey Treasures from the Vault & Delicious new favorites has two recipes. Page 33 is the Smoked Salmon Cream Soup and page 127 is the Mushroom Risotto.

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