As you may know from reading any of the posts of the French Regional Lunch held during the International Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT, my husband and I really enjoy dining at Monsieur Paul. We have discovered that eating French food is truly a delight for the taste buds and an artistic delight for the eyes. Our dinner on January 17 held true to form.

The menu found outside of Monsieur Paul.

We both wanted seafood this evening and ordered something different from the menu so we could sample each other’s meal. First, however, we shared an appetizer, the escargot.

Escargot cassolette with white wine, bacon, and shallots.

We’ve always enjoyed the escargot served at the kiosk during the Food and Wine Festival. This escargot was prepared differently, but was just wonderful! The white wine made a frothy, buttery (and very tasty) soup, and the escargot, bacon, and shallots blended together perfectly.

Of course, we ordered a bottle of white wine to enjoy with our dinner.

The photo is a little fuzzy, but this is a bottle of Trimbach Pinot Gris.

The Trimbach Pinot Gris is a wonderful companion with seafood and white meats. It would also be quite enjoyable on a warm sunny day while sitting in a lawn chair (our classic test for determining how much we like a particular wine). I can say the wine was paired well with the appetizer and our main dishes.

My husband had the seared scallops, corn lettuce cream, butternut squash confit, and spaghettini with black truffle.

Seared scallops, corn lettuce cream, butternut squash confit, spaghettini with black truffles.

The green sauce is the corn lettuce cream, very delicious and, as my husband describes it, an explosion of tastes for the mouth. The scallops were moist and very tender, and the butternut squash confit topped with the spaghettini was great.

I ordered the red snapper in potato scales, braised fennel and rosemary sauce.

Red snapper in “potato” scales, braised fennel, rosemary sauce.

Don’t you just love the presentation of the snapper? I almost hated to ruin that presentation by eating it, but my stomach won over any artistic sense I may have. The snapper and rosemary sauce were great together. The scales were thinly sliced, individual circles of potatoes. I don’t know exactly how the potatoes were seasoned or cooked, but they were yummy (the technical term). I probably could have made a whole meal of these “scales”. The side dish of braised fennel was very good. I’ve actually never had fennel before, at least served by itself, and was a bit concerned that I may not like it. Fortunately, I discovered I enjoy the taste.

We topped off the evening with dessert. In fact, we had the same dessert, but it was oh, so good. 😛 The dessert was warm chocolate and almond cake with a thick raspberry sauce in the center, hazelnut crust, and hazelnut ice cream. My mouth waters now as I write this post just thinking about the dessert. We did however, have different drinks with our dessert. My husband enjoyed a late harvest wine and I had coffee with Bailey’s and whipped cream. I normally don’t drink coffee this late in the day, but just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I thought my drink and dessert went perfectly together. I suspect my husband felt the same about his choice.

Warm chocolate and almond cake with raspberry sauce in the center, hazelnut crust, hazelnut ice cream, late harvest dessert wine, and coffee with Bailey’s and whipped cream.

We had a wonderful evening with wonderful food and drink. The service was very good as well. Monsieur Paul is open only for dinner and I do recommend reservations. Although the restaurant is a little pricey, this is Disney after all, the prices are in line with similar restaurants such as Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada or Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom. Just enjoy the experience.