derryX Disney Dines: Monsieur Paul (Epcot)

For our last meal in Disney, we decided to splurge with an experience that used two Deluxe Dining credits each. It was tough to get a reservation at the more exclusive places like Be Our Guest, so we decided to go back into EPCOT to enjoy a classic French dinner at Monsieur Paul.

This was definitely our fanciest affair while in the park, and, while walking to our table, we even had an opportunity to swipe a sick bottle.

The restaurant was tucked away in what seemed like a small building, but, once we climbed the stairs to enter the dining area, I was amazed at how expansive the dining room was. The tables were set with some cute things.

While we looked over the menu, someone brought over a small amuse bouche, a cheesy puff pastry concoction.

Someone else came around with really cute and fancy looking small bread. I hit those mini baguettes with butter pretty hard!

I also ordered some bottled water for the table and a champagne cocktail with cassis.

Here’s some pics of the menu.

As an appetizer, I tried the Homard du forestier, ceuf de cailles mollet, bouillon crème aux truffles noires. Don’t worry, there are translations. That’s Maine lobster with sautéed mushrooms, mollet quail egg, creamy black truffle bouillon.

This is obviously a tried and true recipe. It was incredible. The dish was built on a base of mushroom cream sauce that worked beautifully with the perfectly cooked lobster. The puff pastry added some crunch and the soft boiled quail egg added some additional richness.

My main course was equally ubiquitous and delicious. I ordered the Filet de boeuf grillé forestier, purée de pomme de terre, sauce Bordelaise (Grilled beef tenderloin with mushroom crust, mashed potato, Bordelaise sauce).

The mashed potato was served on the side and was very creamy, almost as thin as a sauce.

The filet was built on a base of rich and complex (yet classic) Bordelaise sauce. There was a rim of a thick mushroom puree that surrounded the sauce and the steak was served in the center. There was a circular disc of sauteed mushroom puree on top. The steak was perfectly medium rare, and all of the flavors worked together. Again, this is a tried and true classic; they’re not winning any awards for pushing the envelope, but they are serving amazing albeit outdated food.

That even got me to question our waitress (who was from France) of whether this style of dining and these types of dishes are even popular in France any more. She said that a big portion of eateries in France serve these types of classics. I wasn’t surprised, but I’m sure there’s a lot more innovation going on there too.

For dessert, you know I’m a sucker for the molten chocolate cakes. I went with their version, Le moelleux
(Warm chocolate and almond cake with rapsberry coulis in the center, hazelnut crust, hazelnut ice cream), which the waitress pushed as her favorite. Whatever, there were enough embellishments that I knew were going to be good.

This dish takes a few minutes to prepare, so we patiently waited and had to listen to a grumpy old lady at the next table complain that there were children in a restaurant in the middle of an amusement park. Good times!

The dessert was (you guessed it!) fabulous. The molten center oozed with chocolate and raspberry, and the hazelnut ice cream was a nice cool counterpoint to the warm cake. The almond in the cake along with the hazelnut in the ice cream reminded me of the heavenly concoction, Nutella, and who’s going to hate that!?

There was a special prix fixe menu that costed some additional money on top of the double dining credits, but it included most of what I had anyway, so it didn’t seem worth it.

The experience at Monsieur Paul was certainly great which makes two stellar experiences in the World Showcase in EPCOT. That leads me to wonder how the rest of the restaurants fare.