Le Petit Chef is one of Celebrity Cruises‘ premier specialty dining restaurants that always gets quite a bit of attention. Mostly, we hear that potential customers / passengers aren’t sure whether or not to book this restaurant because they don’t know what to expect. Celebrity doesn’t do a great job of explaining their restaurants, especially Le Petit Chef.
We wanted to know what this was all about so we could help fellow cruisers know what they’re getting and help them decide if it’s a good choice of dining on their next cruise.
What to expect from Le Petit Chef on Celebrity Cruises
When you enter the restaurant, it’s relatively simple, probably because the focus is on the performance of “Le Petit Chef” rather than the decor and ambiance.
Prior to the beginning of the meal, you’ll be presented with a menu which follows along the pre-recorded show. If that menu is unappealing to you, there are alternative choices, just know they won’t match the animations.
One thing I felt was lacking was the explanation of what’s about to happen (and the concept in general). The servers all assumed you knew what was about to happen or the concept of the restaurant. In fact, for us, it was the first time we’d set foot in the Le Petit Chef, so we had no idea what to expect. After explaining that we were newbies, the server took the time to explain how the process works and what the animations are about. During this time we also learned that there were menus for different nights (2 different menus). Had we known, we probably would not have chosen the night we reserved as it was all seafood. This was entertaining, but I am particular about seafood preparation, so this wasn’t right for me, personally.
Each table is preset with a white plate in the center of a white circle which is where the projections from above will begin. Just prior to the “show”, you’ll be presented with a white outline to make sure your plate is in the right place for the projections.
After a short introduction to the theme of the night from a miniature cartoon chef, there are a series of animations explaining the origin of the ingredients and recipes for the food that is about to be served. At the intermission between each animation “show”, a corresponding dish is served.
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Le Petit Chef Menu
When booking Le Petit Chef, ask to see the menus prior to committing to a reservation date. The restaurant has two separate menus served on different nights. One is generally more seafood-focused while the other is more meat-focused.
TIP: If you book your reservation online before your cruise, you have no idea which menu you’ll get at the restaurant. So for this reason, I strongly encourage you to either wait to book on the ship or go to the reservations desk on the first day to confirm which menu you’ll be receiving (and change to a different date if it’s not to you liking)
The Food
The food served was fresh but in small portions. On the seafood night, the start of the menu was Lobster, but it wasn’t anything special. It was actually strange with crunched potato chips covering an otherwise perfectly cooked lobster tail.
The other dishes on the seafood night included a simple version of an arugula salad which was fine but not special. Bouillabaisse which was overly fishy and looking around the room, almost no one ate it – so it wasn’t just me.
For the meat night (my terminology) – it was a better value with a more unique appetizer, poached shrimp (although only 2 shrimp) and a perfectly cooked short rib medallion.
The presentation was lovely but the food overall was just average in general and could have been from the main dining room on any given night.
Is Le Petit Chef worth it?
Le Petit Chef is expensive. It costs $65 per person! PLUS a required 20% Gratuity. When you consider the food on the menu is pretty simple with relatively small portions, the value is in the show and the novelty of the animations.
It’s always hard for me to answer if a restaurant is worth it because it’s so subjective. So I can simply say that the food is not significantly better than the Main Dining Room on the ships, and it certainly doesn’t live up to the quality of other specialty dining on Celebrity.
In short, it’s worth it once, to say you’ve done it and seen it, but is it a repeat? In my opinion, no.
For this price, I would expect an exceptional experience that is something more memorable not just in the animation but in food quality as well.
Do you have a comment?
Did we miss something? Have you had a different experience? Did we get it wrong?
