Le Cellier Steakhouse
Le Cellier Steakhouse is a table-service restaurant in the Canada pavilion of World Showcase at EPCOT in Walt Disney World. Themed as the wine cellar of the pavilion's Hôtel du Canada, it has operated as a steakhouse since 1997, after beginning life as a cafeteria-style restaurant when EPCOT opened on October 1, 1982. Its name is French for "the cellar".
History
Le Cellier was an opening-day restaurant of EPCOT Center, as the park was then called. In its original form it was a buffeteria — a cafeteria-line restaurant — serving dishes presented as Canadian specialities, including salmon and maple syrup pie. The dining room's identity was already that of a cellar, with low stone arches and dim lighting beneath the Hôtel du Canada, the pavilion's landmark building modelled on the Château Laurier railway hotel in Ottawa.
A renovation in the mid-1990s changed the format. The restaurant reopened in 1995 with a menu built around made-to-order sandwiches and deli-style items, a version that lasted only briefly. On July 20, 1997, Le Cellier reopened again as a full table-service steakhouse under the name Le Cellier Steakhouse, and that format has endured since.
The steakhouse's popularity grew sharply in the 2000s, in part because of the Disney Dining Plan, under which it initially cost a single table-service credit despite its prices. In 2011 it was reclassified as a Signature restaurant, costing two credits, first at dinner and subsequently for all meals. Demand has remained high relative to its size, as the dining room is one of the smaller table-service locations in World Showcase.
Setting
The restaurant sits at the base of the Hôtel du Canada, reached by a path past the pavilion's gardens and waterfalls. Inside, the room is divided by stone arches and timber beams into small sections, each named for a Canadian province or territory. The ceilings are low, the lighting subdued and the seating closely arranged, in keeping with the fiction of a working wine cellar attached to a grand hotel. There are no windows, which distinguishes it from the brighter, conservatory-style dining rooms elsewhere in the park.
Cuisine
The menu centres on steaks, including a filet mignon long served with a mushroom risotto and truffle butter sauce, alongside other cuts of beef, seafood, chicken and a plant-based entrée. Canadian references run through the supporting dishes: a cheddar cheese soup made with Moosehead beer, pretzel breadsticks served with the meal, poutine offered as an appetiser in several variations, and desserts using maple syrup, including crème brûlée. The drinks list emphasises Canadian products, notably ice wines from Ontario, Canadian beers and whisky-based cocktails.
The cheese soup predates the steakhouse format and is one of the longest-running individual dishes at EPCOT. It is also served in small portions at the Canada pavilion's booth during the park's food festivals, which has introduced it to guests who have not dined at the restaurant itself.
Significance
Le Cellier is one of a small number of EPCOT restaurants to have survived from the park's opening day in recognisable form and location, and its successive reinventions — buffeteria, deli and steakhouse — reflect the wider shift in World Showcase dining from cafeteria service towards reservation-driven table service. It is regularly cited in surveys of Walt Disney World restaurants, usually on the strength of its filet mignon and cheese soup.