Looking for a fancy dining experience in Disney World? Then you’ve got to see the dessert we had at Monsieur Paul Restaurant in EPCOT!

This signature restaurant finally reopened in EPCOT’s France pavilion, bringing some big menu and price changes with it. We’re heading inside now to check out the changes and find out if this spot is worth the price tag. Come along with us and find out if you should book a reservation for Monsieur Paul for your next visit!

Monsieur Paul has always been a fancy place to dine in EPCOT. As a signature restaurant, it has both an impressive menu and a price tag to match. We’ve visited in the past to enjoy both the prix fixe menu and a la carte options, and we were very impressed by the food quality and atmosphere.

Now, however, only the prix fixe menu is available, and it’ll set you back $195 per person. This is by no means a casual spot to grab a bite, but it might be just right if you want a luxurious meal to celebrate a special occasion. The restaurant is a tribute to Chef Paul Bocuse, who helped design the menu here. The menu features high-end French cuisine in a 5-course Gastronomic Meal of the French.

A couple of quick reminders before we go inside this restaurant: (1) The $195 price tag does not include tax and gratuity. (2) Children under 10 years old are not permitted to dine here. (3) This restaurant requires guests to adhere to a dress code — get the details of that dress code here. (4) If you need to cancel your reservations for Monsieur Paul, you must do so at least 72 hours in advance or pay a $100-per-person cancelation fee.

Now that you know all the logistics, let’s go inside!

Atmosphere

Monsieur Paul Restaurant can be found inside the France pavilion of EPCOT’s World Showcase. Just take a right before you hit the entrance to Les Chefs de France, continue back through the pavilion, and you’ll see the awning over the entrance.

When you enter, there’s a check-in area where you’ll let the hosts know you’ve arrived. When your table is ready, they’ll escort you up the stairs to the second-floor dining room (there is also an elevator available if you need to use that instead).

There’s a mixture of tables with chairs and booths in the dining room, and if you can score a seat at one of the tables by the windows, you’ll have a great view of the promenade outside. Even better, if you time your reservation right, you might be able to catch EPCOT’s fireworks show!

There are all kinds of gorgeous details in the dining room — don’t forget to check out those classic bubble chandeliers!

The tables are set with napkins folded in Monsieur Paul’s iconic “Chef’s Jacket” pattern. We were happy to see that real tablecloths were back as well (we’d previously seen paper “tablecloths” here, which really didn’t add to the luxurious atmosphere).

Now that you’ve got your bearings, let’s check out the menu for tonight’s meal.

Eats

Menu

As we mentioned before, Monsieur Paul now has a prix fixe menu as the only option. They previously offered a la carte entrées as well, but those are now gone. If you have special dietary restrictions, you should contact the restaurant ahead of time to let them know, or just tell your waiter when you arrive.

One of our reporters requested the plant-based menu, and because this menu was served without a couple of the normal courses and they also requested no alcohol during the meal, their meal was priced differently from the normal prix fixe menu.

When we visited, the plant-based menu didn’t include the cheese course or the final amuse-bouche, and (without the alcohol) we were charged $55 for this meal. Note that we were one of the first people to request these adjustments to the menu, so our waiter informed us that the restaurant was still figuring out the pricing for this particular meal. The price could change in the future (such as if the missing courses are added back in and the price is raised as a result), but that was our experience when we went.

The normal menu (with a couple of alcoholic drinks included) costs $195 per person. You start with an Apéritif, an amuse-bouche dish that comes with a glass of champagne, and then move on to the appetizer course. Appetizer options include lobster salad, saffron mussels soup, and escargot.

Next, you’ll choose an item from the fish course menu (with options like sea bass, snapper, and seared scallops) and then one for your meat course (choose between lamb, beef tenderloin, and chicken).

The fourth course is an assortment of cheeses, and then the final course is dessert, with options like a chocolate almond cake, a thin apple tart, and a meringue dish.

We were also given a mid-meal amuse-bouche and a final amuse-bouche with a glass of sherry to end the meal.

Food

The meal began with drinks and an amuse-bouche. Normally, this first course is served with champagne (we saw other tables receiving champagne during our visit), but we received a Virgin Cosmo Mocktail. This may have been because we requested one meal without alcohol, so we both got the mocktail instead of just one by mistake.

We really enjoyed this drink! It was very fruity and light, and we thought it went well with the cheesy amuse-bouche.

The amuse-bouche included 2 pastries.

The first — a choux made with parmesan — was crispy but fell right apart in our mouths. We could really taste the sharpness of the cheese. It was almost like the famous cheese bread from Red Lobster, only much fancier.

The other pastry was like a savory cream puff with a cheese glaze on top. It was incredible! The cheese was very creamy and flavorful, and we really enjoyed the textures together (a crispy pastry with creamy cheese). If you haven’t had a savory cream puff before, this might taste a little bit unusual, but we loved it.

For our bread course, we received a few different kinds of bread to try. The parmesan bread was super crunchy on the outside but very soft on the inside. There was a slightly sharp flavor and nuttiness from the cheese.

In general, it was a little too crunchy for our preference (it was a touch difficult to bite through the crust), but it was still delicious. A little bit of butter helped to soften the outside.

The olive bread was amazing as well. The inside was very soft (almost a little doughy) with little bursts of olive flavor, as the olives were chopped up and mixed through the bread.

There was an aftertaste of aromatic spices — maybe some cinnamon and cardamom? This bread was plant-based, and although there wasn’t vegan butter available, we did receive some olive oil to dip it in.

That olive bread went beautifully with the butternut squash soup that we received as well. The soup was plant-based, and it tasted like if autumn and winter had a baby and that baby was a soup flavor. The butternut squash flavor was strong and just a little bit sweet, and the chestnuts in the middle added a bit more substance and texture.

Adding the winter-y taste of chestnuts to the fall flavors of squash was a fun combination, and we really enjoyed it. The best way to eat this soup, however, is by dipping some of that olive bread into it! Seriously, that delicious combination changed our lives. Can we petition Disney World to make this available as a lunch option? We’d take that bread and a cup of that soup every day.

For our appetizers, we got the Cassolette d’escargot à la cressonnière sur une émulsion de pomme de Terre, which is an escargot cassolette with watercress and potato emulsion.

This was seriously the best escargot we’ve ever had. It had a perfect texture — not too rubbery and only a little bit chewy. The potato emulsion is a foam, which might be off-putting for some people. It’s an unusual texture, especially in a savory dish. However, the flavors together were beautiful, and there was just the right amount of seasoning and butter.

We were very impressed with this dish. If you try it as well, be sure to get your spoon all the way down to the bottom of the bowl to get all the flavors together!

The plant-based appetizer was tapenade inside of cherry tomatoes, which we thought was very fun! It was served with fennel, which was a bit bland and difficult to eat on its own. However, with rosemary drizzled on top and combined with that tapenade, it was much tastier.

We loved the flavor of the tapenade especially, and eating it on its own inside the tomatoes was a fun way to try it rather than the usual way it’s served with toast or crostini.

For the fish course, we tried Coquilles Saint Jacques au potimarron et sirop d’érable, which is seared scallops served with maple pumpkin velouté.

This was our favorite course of the evening. The scallops were very well cooked (not chewy at all) and had great flavor. The outside had a lovely color and crunch, and it also brought some smoky flavor to the scallops. Although we were initially disappointed by the small serving size (only 2 scallops), the meal ended up being enough courses that the smaller portions made sense.

The maple pumpkin sauce had just a little bit of sweetness, which blended beautifully with the scallops’ flavor. We even ate some of that sauce on its own, and it was delicious.

The plant-based equivalent for this course was a risotto made with truffle and leeks. Despite being plant-based, this risotto was surprisingly creamy. It tasted almost buttery in fact, although we confirmed that it’s not made with dairy products.

There was a bit of an earthy flavor from the truffle, which mixed with the slight acidity from the leeks, and we thought those flavors together were very sophisticated and delicious. We also tasted quite a bit of garlic in this dish, and we enjoyed that.

Next was the mid-meal amuse-bouche, which was a simple pear sherbert with Poire Prisonnière. The liquor is a 90-proof made by growing a pear inside the bottle!

The sherbet was very sweet, but when mixed with the liquor, it balanced out perfectly. The two blended together to make the liquor more drinkable and the sherbet less sweet.

In addition, the texture of the sherbet reminded us of the mealy texture of pears, which worked surprisingly well (even though we know that doesn’t sound like it’d be good). The chef told us that the pear really lends itself to sorbet because of the fruit’s texture — when you blend it with ice, it turns to a naturally creamy consistency, which freezes to be like ice cream. Overall this was a fun, fresh break in the middle of our luxurious meal.

The next course was the meat course. We got the Filet de bœuf rôti, fricassée de cèpes, pomme de terre mousseline, sauce Bordelaise, which is a center cut beef tenderloins grilled, porcini fricassee, mashed potatoes mousseline, and a Bordelaise sauce.

This was a beautiful steak. It was cooked medium-rare, and, although it didn’t necessarily fall apart, it was still very well textured. It wasn’t a very fatty cut, but we still got a pretty large portion.

The side dishes were good as well. The mushrooms were well-cooked, and the bordelaise sauce (made from red wine and shallots) was thick and had a peppery sweetness to it. The potatoes were incredible! We’re usually not super impressed by mashed potatoes, even at fancy restaurants, but these were exceptionally buttery and creamy. And the toppings made them even better!

The plant-based entrée for this course was a mushroom dish. We thought the flavor combinations were very adventurous in this dish, and it wasn’t one of our favorites of the meal. It was definitely fancy and sophisticated, but we thought it tasted a little…well…funky. 

However, one of our reporters disagreed and thought it was a great combination of earthy, aromatic flavors. So this one might depend on your palate — adventurous eaters may really enjoy it! The mushrooms had a bit of a meaty flavor, but we thought the texture was just on the wrong side of slimy.

Next up was the cheese course. This was a plate of various imported cheeses, including cow’s milk cheese, goat cheese, sheep’s milk cheese, walnut bread, some grapes, and fig jam.

Most of these cheeses were pretty mild, so the plate in general was a little bit one-note. However, we enjoyed the goat cheese, especially combined with the grapes! It was pretty special that they were all French cheeses, which matches the theme of this restaurant.

For dessert, we had the Sphère de chocolat au lait, glace au chocolat, sauce tiède au chocolat et cognac, which is chocolate almond cake, chocolate cream, hazelnut biscuit, chocolate ice cream, served with a warm chocolate Cognac sauce.

This dessert was BIG and also had an amazing presentation. The warm sauce was poured table-side, and it melted through the chocolate dome to reveal the rest of the dessert inside.

There was a lot going on texturally, which we thought made this treat taste extra fancy. The melted chocolate, spongy cake, crunch chocolate, and creamy ice cream all worked very well together because the flavors were complementary.

It was very rich, but not in a heavy way like you get with chocolate lava cakes or similar desserts. This one is great for chocolate lovers, but we think even those who don’t like an overwhelming amount of chocolate would enjoy it. It was light enough to please all kinds of palates. (Pro-tip — order a shot of espresso with it!)

The plant-based dessert was a house-made almond brittle served with raspberries, a raspberry sorbet, and raspberry sauce. Like the chocolate sauce in the other dessert, the raspberry sauce for this one was poured table-side.

The sweetness and nuttiness from the brittle went very well with the tart raspberry flavor. We thought this was an explosion of flavor, and it was really delicious! We could’ve used more of the brittle, but that was our only complaint.

The meal ended with a final amuse-bouche that came with a couple of drinks. The snack was chocolate-orange macarons and little pieces of cake that were similar to the one served in the chocolate dessert. (There was not a plant-based option for the final amuse-bouche.)

This was a very light way to end the meal, and we thought it was the perfect finish. The macarons were sweet, which went well with the glass of sherry that was served with them. That sherry was fruity with notes of strawberry and cherry. Even our reporter — who’s not normally a fan of sherry — loved this one.

The non-alcoholic drink for this final course was unfortunately not our favorite. It looked and tasted a little bit like mouthwash. There was a hint of a fruit flavor and quite a lot of mint in it. It almost reminded us of a mint julep cocktail, but it just wasn’t nearly as good as we were hoping for.

That was sadly a bad note to end on for an otherwise fantastic meal.

Nosh or Not

Indulge in a meal at Monsieur Paul Restaurant if you:

• Are looking for a fancy meal to celebrate a special occasion. This meal can definitely be described as luxurious, and if it’s within your budget for the occasion, we think it’s worth trying at least once.
• Love French cuisine and more adventurous eats. Most of the things on the menu are a bit more adventurous (escargot and scallops aren’t for everyone), but they’re very delicious examples of those dishes.
• Enjoy dining in upscale atmospheres and don’t mind spending a lot of time on a meal. The experience felt very fancy, and the meal did take a while. If you’re OK with missing out on some time in the park, we thought this was a very nice way to spend the evening.

Skip this spot and dine elsewhere if you:

• Want to save room in the budget for other Disney experiences. $195 per person is no joke — you can get some very tasty meals for a quarter of that price (or less) elsewhere in the park. Check out Le Cellier for a delicious steak dinner or head to Space 220 to dine “220 miles above the earth.”
• Don’t want to spend too much time on one meal. The money is one problem, but the time could be another cost with this meal. If you want to spend more time enjoying EPCOT’s rides and attractions, you may want to opt for a counter service restaurant instead of a sit-down one. Some of our favorites are Yorkshire County Fish Shop (for fish and chips) and Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie if you’re looking for French food.
• Prefer more familiar eats or want comfort food. As we mentioned above, most of the items on the menu at Monsieur Paul will push you outside your comfort zone a bit. For some familiar eats, you can try out Regal Eagle Smokehouse in the American Adventure pavilion.

Overall

In general, we very much enjoyed our experience at Monsieur Paul Restaurant in EPCOT. The food was all very high quality, and most of the flavors really impressed us. There were a few stand-outs (like that olive bread, the scallops, and the chocolate dessert) and only a couple of things that we didn’t like (such as the mocktail at the end of the meal).

While we loved most of what we tried here, we also know that the price tag of $195 per person won’t have us running back inside anytime soon. This feels like a one-time-only experience that might be perfect for a special occasion like an anniversary. Is the food worth the price tag? It just might be. But are there other amazing eats for way less money in EPCOT? Absolutely there are.

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Do you think this restaurant is worth the hefty price tag? Let us know in the comments.

The post Come With Us To Try One of the FANCIEST Meals in Disney World — Monsieur Paul first appeared on the disney food blog.