Last year's winner, Les Chefs de France, and its upstairs sibling, Bistro de Paris, are worthy rivals, and choosing between the two should be the only choice voters should have to grapple with. Here is my review of the two.
You can submit your own ratings and reviews of these restaurants on the Bistro de Paris and Les Chefs de France listing pages. The winner of the award will be the table service, in-park restaurant with the highest average reader rating.
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Bistro, conversely, is very quiet and faithful to a fine dining experience. All of the servers are in tuxedos, the tables are covered in white linens and crystal glasses, and guests are expected to wear nicer clothes than they would at Chefs. I don't mean guests are required to wear formal wear, but jeans (except for dress jeans), wife-beaters, swimsuits, and other casual wear are frowned upon. Most of the people there were dressed business casual. Service was very professional, though a little cooler than the service experienced downstairs. Also, the room was relatively empty that night, so many servers were standing around staring at our table, waiting for somebody's water to drain or for the bread plate to deplete. Only after one of the servers pinched another server, causing her to yelp, did the room loosen up somewhat as everyone laughed. The chef also created a complimentary sample of shrimp cocktails (can't recall how they were prepared) for our table, which was a nice touch. The wine menu was expensive, but had some really good choices. My entree was very good - hoping to receive the same quality fish I had eaten at Chefs, I ordered the salmon - though it was somewhat drier than my dish last year. The side vegetables were better than those at Chefs.
Overall, despite the wife-beaters, strollers, children, and noise levels, I enjoyed Chefs more. Chefs has slightly better food quality and value, and I appreciated the professional and warm service. Bistro was also very good, though the food was not quite as good (strangely) as it had been at Chefs, and the service, although professional, was slightly less friendly.
I wish that Chefs would implement the dress code that Bistro maintains.
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