Update: Flying Fish has instituted their Chef’s Counter, so book away!SamLand’s Disney Adventures
has included in a recent trip report post that Flying Fish Cafe might be using their open kitchen counter seats as a “Chef’s Counter” within the next couple of months!
Chef’s Counters at Disney’s signature restaurants are in the theme of the Victoria and Albert’s Chefs Table, though not quite as elaborate. You book the special experience and have the opportunity for the Executive Chef to build a custom menu for that evening around your likes and dislikes. It’s an extraordinary chance to watch Disney chefs up close, and to (hopefully) get a few extra samples of the delicious food their preparing! Usually chef’s counters don’t cost more than a standard seating at the restaurant, but they still include special attention.
There’s no official word from Disney on this change, and it’s not reflected on their main Flying Fish web page, but SamLand’s experience is notable. stay tuned; I’ll keep updating with whatever info I get. 🙂
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My husband and I were seated at the Flying Fish counter one night for dinner last September. We had no reservations and walked in on a whim. The experience wound up being one of our most memorable dinners at WDW ever (the top was an anniversary dinner at V&A). Excellent service, plenty of elbow room, caring server, fascinating to watch the chefs. If there’s a chef’s counter option that goes beyond what we enjoyed that night, count us in!
Sounds wonderful Tracie! Thanks for your review and for sharing the experience with us!
It’s not a rumor. i almost booked it for my vacation but it costs $142 a person and I personally can’t afford that. I was sad.
We love the Flying Fish Cafe and frequent it more than any other high end restaurant at WDW. We did not have the best experience at the Chef’s Counter. They were quite busy, of course. We were the only guests seated there and never had an interaction with any of the chefs. However, sitting and eating at the bar is a wonderful experience. We always have great fun there…
Suzanna: Flying Fish is one of my favorites at WDW and I *hope* you didn’t actually do the Chef’s Counter/tasting menu but were instead just seated in that area. The entire counter isn’t reserved for the tasting dinner and they will sometimes seat other guests there too on Fri/Sat or if it’s busy. Unless they’ve changed the format lately, the Chef’s Counter is a prepaid thingie (about $160), has 2 seatings per night and you’ll get a separate different menu.
The open kitchen doesn’t normally cook the Chef’s Counter food. Most of that is prepared in the back kitchen and brought out by Chef Keating or whichever of his sous chefs is running things that night. In my experience, the best interaction is with those presenting chefs and any exchange with the open kitchen staff is a bonus. Sometimes the people working on the a la carte menu won’t even know what you’re having on the tasting menu and will be curious too.