Victoria and Alberts - Chefs Table

On the second floor of Disney Worlds flagship hotel, the Grand Floridian, you’ll find the most opulent dining experience on Disney World property, Victoria and Alberts. Recently awarded a Michelin star, Victoria and Alberts has not only some of the best food you can find, but also affords top notch service.

We had the pleasure of dining there again recently, and had the very good luck of being able to book the chefs table! There are three dining rooms in Victoria and Alberts, the main dining room, the Queen Victoria room, and the chefs table. While all rooms can be difficult to snag reservations for, the chefs table takes the cake having only a single seating each evening and only one party per night.

I’ll get into tips for booking a bit later, but first lets get to what I’m sure most people want to know about, the experience and more importantly, the food!

The seating for the chefs table is at 5:30 every night. The other rooms have staggered seating times, I believe every 20 or 30 minutes during the night, but be warned, the other rooms are relatively small as well so there are only so many seatings per night so these too can be difficult to book.

We arrived at 5:20, well actually we arrived at the Grand Floridian around 5, we didn’t want to risk being late, but we spent time browsing the shops and enjoying the pianist in the lobby before making our way to dinner.

When we arrived at the restaurant, there was another couple waiting as well, so we joined them off to the side to wait for the restaurant to open.

Promptly at 5:30, a cast member came out of the restaurant, and I have no idea how, but knew who we were and that we were dining at the chefs table. I have no idea how she knew it wasn’t the other couple there, but I guess they’re that good!

We were brought back through the restaurant and into the kitchen. There were a dozen or so various chefs, wait staff, etc, in the kitchen and when we entered they all stopped what they were doing and greeted us individually as we walked by. It was actually a bit overwhelming, we felt like celebrities walking through!

We were brought back to the table in a room that overlooks the main kitchen with the seats set so we could both watch all the activity in the kitchen. One of my favorite things about the seating, which is such a small thing, but I still love, is they had purse stools! I quietly joked that you know it’s a fancy place when they even provide you a seat for your purse!

Shortly after settling in, the chef came over to introduce himself and talk about the restaurant and what to expect over the next few hours with dinner. Yes, hours. This is a 3-4 hour dining experience!

This evening we decided to go with the wine pairing, and I’m so glad we did! Every wine was fantastic.

Before the wine pairing began, we were served a non-alcoholic drink to prepare our pallets.

This was good, had a very herbal taste to it, and was very refreshing.

The first course was an amuse bouche course, with three small bites. They were: Iberico Jamon (Iberico pork), Oxtail with Asian Pear and Guinness Stout, and a Loup de Mer (white fish) with Malt Vinegar and Capers.

The chef was still talking to us when these were brought out, so he took the time to go over each one and explain the ingredients. It was such a nice touch!

The loup de mer ended up being the favorite for both of us, followed closely by the oxtail. The Iberico jamon was delicious, but was on a puff pastry that slightly overpowered the dish so points were deducted for that!

With this course, and the following, our wine pairing was a Brut Rose. One thing we appreciated, after finishing our glasses with the first course not being aware that it was meant for both courses, they gladly refilled our glasses!

The next course was the caviar course, it was Imperial Kaluga with Mezcal and Avocado.

This was delicious. The mezcal provided an amazing smokey flavor which went beautifully with the creaminess of the avocado. For this dish, the chef came over again to tell us about it, and it turns out, he’s the one who came up with this dish! He recommended trying just the caviar first and then tasting it with everything else on the dish to compare, and the difference in flavors was shocking!

The third course was a Danish Hiramasa with Gooseberry and Coriander. This was a gorgeous fish dish and was paired with an Italian white wine blend. I fell in love with this wine and am still searching for it in my stores!

Course four was a Wild Turbot with Spanish Carabinero, and Calabrian Chili. This was paired with a Spanish white wine, that was also delicious and a bit heavier than the first white.

This was a really nice fish, and had the tiniest kick to it thanks to the chili. We loved this dish!

The next dish, course five, was a Maine Lobster with Corn Agnolotti, and Raspberry Sambal. This was paired with a beautiful white wine from France.

This was amazing, one of our top dishes of the night! We also had bread brought out just before this course, which was also so good, but we didn’t want to fill up so didn’t have much!

After five courses of fish, it was time to move on to a different protein!

Course six was next which was a Koji-aged Quail with Sunflower risotto and sunchokes. With this dish we moved into the red wines and started with a Pinot Noir from Sonoma.

I don’t think I’ve ever had quail before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was really just like chicken, very fancy chicken! This was a really nice dish, I loved the sunflower risotto it came with! The wine went really well with it, it wasn’t too full body to overpower the food, but had a very interesting, and delicious, complexity. I would definitely like to find a bottle of it to have at home!

Course seven was a lamb course. It was Colorado Lamb with Peach and Mostarda. This was served as both a lamb loin and lamb belly. This was served with a garnacha, which is one of my favorite types of reds!

This was very good, and I’m not usually a big fan of lamb! I liked that they served both the loin and the belly as well. Not unexpected, the belly was a fattier piece, but so incredibly flavorful! The wine pairing was fantastic with this dish, it was a heavier full bodied wine that paired perfectly! I will note here, that the wine was starting to catch up to us, so we were a bit slow finishing the previous courses glass, hence the two glasses in the picture above!

There was another bread service after this course, again we only had a few bites since we were getting pretty full at this point!

The next course ended up being tied for the top dish this evening (the other being the lobster). Course eight was a Miyazaki A-5 steak with Applewood Bacon. This was paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa.

As noted, this was one of my favorite courses. This was so incredibly delicious. The meat was so tender we didn’t even need to use a knife. My only complaint was it was such a small piece, I could have had a much larger serving of this dish!

We were finally getting into the sweet courses at this point. Starting with course nine we had Purple Haze Chevre with Thai Guava and Reypenaer VSOP. This was paired with a Sherry.

This was a nice dish, although the goat cheese is one I get often at Whole Foods so not the most special dish of the evening, but still very tasty!

They also started the coffee service during this course. I love their coffee contraption!

Course ten was an ice cream cone, a Candied Carrot, Hazelnut Praline, and Cocoa Soil.

This was really good and such a fun presentation! They recommended picking the cone up and dipping the ice cream in the cocoa on the bottom, which was such a great suggestion, this really made the dish pop!

Course 11 was this delicious dessert with Valrhona Nyangbo Dark Chocolate, and Caramelized and Spiced Pineapple.

This was so incredibly good, very decadent!

Finally we were at the last course of the night! Course 12 was actually four different desserts!: Opera Gateau, Lemon Ganache Square, Blueberry Macaron, and Chartreuse Baba.

These were all so good, but by this point we were so full it was hard to finish!

Overall this was an absolutely magical night. All the food was so good, we didn’t have anything we didn’t like. The wine pairing also was done really well, we’re so glad we went with it, even though it was a lot to drink!

The chefs table does come with a hefty price tag, the dinner is $425 per person, and it’s an additional $210 per person for the wine pairing. Is it worth it? I’d say yes, it is such a special experience, especially if you love food and love learning about different cooking methods and techniques.

One thing I didn’t get into is how much interaction we had with the chefs and kitchen staff. The head chef came over to describe many of the dishes and answer any questions, and the other chefs and the rest of the kitchen staff all interacted with us and answered questions about what they were doing. So it was more than just a meal!

Now for booking. As mentioned previously, these can be hard reservations to get. For the chefs table you have to call to book, so I recommend calling early on the first day you are able to book for your stay. Their phone line doesn’t open until 9 or 10am ET, but you can leave a message and someone will call back. If you’re staying at a Disney resort and have a longer trip you have better chances of getting this reservation since you can book your dining reservations for your full trip up to ten days at the 60 day mark, so if you plan to dine at Victoria and Alberts later in the trip you should have a better chance to get it.

Hope you all enjoyed this overview, and if you visit Victoria and Alberts we hope you have an amazing meal!