Taste of Disney

Though Chefs de France restaurant (located in Epcot’s France pavilion) is not normally open for breakfast, during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival it does host a special dining event on Saturday mornings which is called “Parisian Breakfast”.

Here were some of the Parisian Breakfast details for 2018…

This special Food & Wine Festival event began in 2013, but I did not attend the breakfast until 2014.  Though I enjoyed it, I wanted to experience some of the other special events so skipped this breakfast for the next 3 years.  But in 2018 my friends Nicole & Mike (and friends) planned to attend on Oct. 27th so I decided to tag along.  Nicole made our pre-paid reservation for this back in June when booking for the special events first opened up.  This is a super popular event which I’m sure sells out quickly so if it’s something you are interested in you must make a (pre-paid) commitment early or you could be out of luck.

A side note here is that we learned from previous experience with this event that we had to be on the same reservation in order to guarantee that we would be seated together, as they pre-assign the tables.  In 2014 Nicole and Mike were also attending the breakfast the same day as me but we had made separate reservations.  Though we checked in for our reservations together and asked if we could be seated together, they were unable to grant our request.

But speaking of pre-assigning tables, I was the first of our party of 5 to arrive at Chefs de France that morning.  They allowed me to check in for our group and asked if I would like to go ahead and be seated at our assigned table.  I decided that this would be a good opportunity for me to take photos of the buffet table while I awaited the arrival of my friends.  This almost worked perfectly except when I was brought to our table by the seater there was already a party of 5 seated there.  So the confused castmember/seater led me back to the front of the restaurant to speak with the manager regarding the problem.  While the two were talking, I saw my friends being led towards the same (already occupied) table that was to be ours.  I told the manager that they were the rest of my group and he stopped them and resolved the situation while Nicole and I had our greetings and introductions to her friends.   We were then brought to another table by the windows set for a party of 5.  Not long after, while on my way to the buffet table I overheard another party of 5 complaining that people were already seated at their assigned table (which was probably us).  Ugh!  And the disorganization and confusion continued, like a domino effect.

However, though this breakfast started out a bit negatively the rest of this meal was all positive.  Once our group was seated we were offered a mimosa (which marked the beginning of my day of “bottomless mimosas”)…

We also could have coffee, or better yet their delicious Hot Chocolate…

This is the best hot chocolate!  It’s very rich, creamy and milk chocolatey.  I first had it during the Parisian breakfast in 2014, but have since purchased this several times at the French bakery next door, Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie.   It’s called Chocolate Chaud there and currently sells for $3.76 (plus tax).  This tastes exactly the same, only instead of being served in a cup and saucer it comes in a paper/plastic cup…

Oh, also you can get a mimosa at Boulangerie Patisserie for $7.50…

Ok, now back to the Parisian breakfast review, and more specifically the bountiful buffet of carbs!  There were actually at least three, maybe even four buffet tables set up with the same food offerings at each.  Many of these were the same as they offered during this breakfast in 2014.  Of course, there was again an abundance of Croissants…

Note: These are sold at the bakery for $2.25.

And Chocolate Croissants (aka Pain au Chocolat)…

Note: These are sold at the bakery for $3.35.

And again there were baskets of Baguettes…

Note: A half of a baguette sells for $1.85 at the bakery.

Along with butter and 3 flavors of Bonne Maman preserves (Wild Blueberry, Mango Peach and Strawberry)…

 

Or they again had a variety of cold meats (including one of my favorites, Saucisson Sec) and cornichons…

And a variety of Cheeses, including Comte, Gruyere, Brie, and Roquefort…

Note: A cheese plate sells for $9.25 at the bakery.

In addition to the Meats & Cheeses, this time they also had a Fruit tray with pineapple, melon and berries…

 

Another repeat from 2014 was this savory option…

However this was replaced by a pastry that had an Almond & Apple filling…

Another new item was this Lemon Brioche…

And another look…

Note: While they don’t have Lemon Brioche at the bakery they do have Chocolate Chip Brioche for $3.50.

And last but not least were these beauties…

And a closer look…

This is how these were labeled…

And here is what I tried…

Starting at the top I had a baguette with meats and cheeses, a croque monsieur, an apple & almond pastry, a cream cheese & berry pastry, and in the middle is a chocolate croissant.  The meats and cheeses eaten with the baguette were very good.  The almond and apple pastry was quite good too, although I’m still partial to the frangipane.  The croque monsieur was pretty good but the edges of the bread were a bit overcooked and hard.  I wasn’t really fond of the chocolate croissant.  Too much pastry and not enough chocolate filling.  I should have just had a plain croissant.

My favorite though was the Cream Cheese & Berry Pinwheel…

I saved this for last, to have as my dessert and it did not disappoint. It was kind of like a cream cheese danish only better.

Another highlight of this meal were the mimosas…our glasses were refilled several times.  Some of my friends were even skipping the orange juice on their refills and having straight champagne.  I also couldn’t resist having a refill (or maybe two) on my hot chocolate.  My friends and I were well taken care of by the waitstaff here.

Though this breakfast had a bit of a bumpy start, from there on out it was pretty smooth sailing. I paid $40 for the Parisian breakfast and in return had three mimosas ($22.50), two hot chocolates ($7.50), and a plate of meats, cheese and pastries worth at least $30 if purchased at Boulangerie Patisserie.  So I would say that this breakfast is a good value, especially if you are like me and are a fan of mimosas and French cheeses and pastries.