Le Petit Chef

Le Petit Chef is a self-described “immersive dining experience” with “the world’s smallest chef”. It’s available around the world, and in Wellington it’s put on at the Intercontinental hotel.

We’d been enjoined to arrive half an hour early, although this appeared to be for their benefit rather than ours as there wasn’t any additional entertainment of drinks, just their standard hotel choice. We were eventually ushered into what appeared to be a meeting room set up for dining. Above each table was a projector which is the source of the animated show. Tables are set for four people, so we were sharing with a couple from Kapiti.

Before the dinner started the host introduced herself, took us through emergency procedures, and explained what was going to happen. Then the lights went down, and the first of a series of skits was projected onto our table and our plates as the chef, an animated character, sets about preparing the first course from his garden. It’s billed as “3D animation” but is, in fact, decidedly 2D.

 In between each course there’s a similar show, lasting a few minutes each. The food that comes out afterwards does somewhat resemble what is in the animation but isn’t necessarily an exact match. The courses were quite small, but with five of them there was sufficient that we didn’t go hungry. Overall the quality was what you’d expect in a hotel restaurant – good, but not outstanding.

Caprese salad

Bouillabaisse

Chicken with truffle

Chocolate mousse

Was it worth it? It was good, but not brilliant. A bit of a gimmick. Apparently, there’s a whole series of these with further additions to the story, but I don’t think we’ll be going back for more.