Food and Wine Festival 2023
or a belated review of the things to eat before F&W ends Nov 18
Let’s face it. American’s love food. From grazing to girl dinners, bottomless brunching to butter boards, if there’s a way to make eating trendy, we’ll do it. And if there’s one thing we love more than eating, it’s drinking.
So combine eating + drinking with an audience that loves a theme (enter the Disney Adult), and you have a recipe for one of the most successful ventures across the Disney Parks…the food festival!
The uber-popular Epcot International Food and Wine festival began in earnest in 1996 when the existing Walt Disney World Village (the pre-Springs Disney Springs) Wine Festival relocated to its permanent home around World Showcase Lagoon. Driven largely by an attempt to boost lagging Epcot attendance post school-vacation and pre-holidays, Food and Wine 1996 lasted a sensible 30 days, September 28 - October 27.
Since then the festival has exploded in popularity and undergone several different iterations, with some years including one thing I now think is sorely missing — celebrity chef appearances like Julia Child and educational tutorials.
When you look at the full Epcot calendar, Food and Wine has always seemed a little lazy to me, though not of course as lazy as the 3 weeks a year when there’s no festival – which, side note, I somehow ended up being at twice last year. If you’ve never experienced Epcot sans festival, you’re not missing anything. Literally.
Food and Wine has three younger siblings — Flower and Garden, Festival of the Arts, and Festival of the Holidays. As they have all become more known for their food offerings, they’ve started to seem a bit more like their big brother F&W with better themes. For as long as Food and Wine lasts (now up to 114 days or what feels like 87 of the hottest months of the year) it’s pretty much is the same each year. There’s food. There’s wine. There are some unique musical choices. I’d love to see them bring back some of the culinary and winemaking demonstrations and celebrity guests, even if only during key moments.
That being said, during those 114 days food is the star of the show…and it definitely deserves a standing ovation. Each year the festival brings back many favorites, retires a few dishes, and introduces some new creative morsels. And nothing says summer in central Florida like melted cheese.
On my last trip I made 3 separate loops around the food booths. If you haven’t been to the festival, there’s a few logistics to know.
The booths are scattered around Epcot, mostly in World Showcase but there are also some nearer to the front in the other ‘Worlds’.
Everything is small plates, though the size varies.
Prices vary too, but most tend to be between $5-$9.
Lines can be long but they move quickly.
You will order at a register and be given a receipt, which you need to show to get your food. You then go to the booth where you give your receipt to the cast member, who will tear or mark it and call out your order. When your order is ready, the cast member passes it along.
There are tables scattered around, but it’s generally a ‘perch and eat’ situation, or…trash can top dining at its finest!
Here’s everything I tried this trip…
Pickle Fries with Dill Ranch
Located at the Fry Basket in World Discovery
Gluten Free, Plant Based
TLDR: 8/10; $5.50
The Fry Basket was introduced as a booth in 2022, and as you guessed is all about that glorious treat: the french fry. New this year are the pickle fries. I am a HUGE pickle lover so I was super excited to see these on the menu. They are served as true fries - long pickle spears, not the fried pickle chips I see more often.
For $5.50 you get about 6 good size fries, served with a dill ranch sauce. This booth is always popular, so if you see a line less then 20 people jump in ASAP. They were serving pickle fries as quickly as they could, meaning we got ours super fresh out of the fryer…but they didn’t have much time to cook or drain so the breading was pretty easily sliding off the pickle. However, they were delicious with the hot breading, cool crisp pickle, and creamy sauce. I don’t eat fried foods often, but I would definitely get these again. Hashtag worth it.
Pickle Shake
Located at Brew-Wing Lab at the Odessey
TLDR: 6.5/10; $5.75
If there’s one thing F&W 2023 will be known for, it will be the year Disney pickle-fied a milkshake. As much as I love pickles, even I wasn’t sure I’d like like this and I ordered both drinks at the Brew-Wing lab at the same time in case I needed to wash the taste out of my mouth ASAP. But…I was pleasantly surprised.
$5.75 gets you a good sized fluorescent green shake in a cute reusable cup, and if you hadn’t told me it was pickled flavored, I don’t think I would have known. To me it was really more of a herby vanilla mint, very similar to a McDonalds Shamrock shake. The briny, dill flavor was there, but was a little more of an aftertaste. I actually got the most pickle flavor from the topping, including when I accidentally sucked up the sprig of dill. I finished the whole thing, which I wasn’t expecting to.
From what I’ve seen online I’m probably in the minority, but I wouldn’t be sad if this came back against next year!
Frozen Fusion: Twinings Pomegranate and Raspberry Herbal Tea fused with Orange Ice Cream Molecules
Also located at Brew-Wing Lab at the Odyssey
TLDR: 9/10; $4.75
The second drink located at the Brew-Wing Lab is described as a Twinings pomegranate and raspberry herbal tea with orange ice-cream molecules. It’s basically a tea slush with orange Dippin’ Dots. I ended up getting this twice as it was so delicious and refreshing. The Frozen Fusion costs $4.75 and is slightly smaller than the pickle shake, and also comes with a reusable cup.
One pro-tip: Bring your own straw or grab one from a Joffrey’s cup. The small paper one that comes with the drink quickly gets soggy and can’t be used to stir the slush around to help melt it.
Fire Taiko Roll
Located at the Japan Pavilion
TLDR: 9.5/10; $7
I’ve been on a big sushi kick lately so this was probably the item I was most excited to try…and it was good enough I came back twice more (including a special trip to Epcot just for that!)
The three pieces of sushi with spicy tuna, cucumber, and pickled daikon radish cost $7. It says it comes with a spicy sauce, but each of the three times I got it I got different combinations of sauces. The first time I was asked if I wanted wasabi and soy sauce and was given a packet of both, but no spicy sauce. The second time I got only spicy sauce, and the third time I got soy sauce and spicy sauce. I don’t typically eat sauce with sushi so I didn’t mind, but if you like it a certain way make sure you ask when you pick up your plate. The spicy sauce was good, though not too spicy.
The sushi was some of the best I’ve had in a while. The rolls were good sized and packed firm, and the tuna tasted fresh. There was also a decent amount of tuna in the roll, though it would be a better value — and maybe 10/10 — if it was $6 instead of $7.
Grilled Sweet-and-Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp
Located at the Australian Booth near Port of Entry (a/k/a the front of World Showcase)
Gluten Free
TLDR: 4/10; $6.75
I like shrimp, but as soon as I ordered this I realized I had made a mistake: I didn’t like this last year, and it didn’t get any better this year.
With the exception of the AMAZING chilled smoked shrimp AT the American Adventure last year — which inexplicably did not come back this year — Disney food festivals struggle with shrimp dishes. Maybe it comes down to the fact that most of the food has to be cooked largely in advance, and shrimp doesn’t fare well under heat lamps and the Florida sun.
The $6.75 Bush Berry Shrimp is no exception. You get three shrimp in what is a very sour, watery thin sauce. The shrimp lack flavor and were overcooked. The snap peas it’s served with were actually quite good and cooked well, but this is definitely a dish they should retire next year (and bring back the chilled smoked shrimp!!)
Curry Spiced Crispy Cheese with Mango-Curry Ketchup
Located at the India Booth between the China Pavilion and the Refreshment Outpost
TLDR: 9.5/10; $5.25
This is another returning favorite - fried paneer cheese. As food critic-extraordinaire Chrissy from Touringplans says this is ‘squeaky cheese’, and it is so good.
I know some people don’t like these because it’s not a strong flavor, but they are one of my favorite and frankly, those people are wrong.. Paneer cheese has a very mild flavor, and it pairs nicely with a light curry-dusted breading. The ketchup is chunky and flavorful, and again not too heavy. If I’m going to eat fried cheese in 95°, this is the way to do it. For $5.25 you get between 4–6 pieces depending on the size.
It’s mozzarella cheese sticks, but fancy. Eating with your pinky up recommended.
Pão de Queijo
Located at the Brazil Booth, between Morocco and France
Gluten Free
TLDR: 10/10; $5
If you’ve not had these, have you even been to Food & Wine? These Brazilian cheese breads may not be anything revolutionary, but they are delicious: melted cheese surrounded by warm dough. For $5 you get 2. Last year I think there were 3, but they were smaller. I could be making that up, or just in a delirium of cheesy happiness.
You can also order these off-menu at Skipper Canteen in the Magic Kingdom, but don’t tell them I sent you!
Chimichurri Marinated Skirt Steak Taco
Located at Flavors from Fire, near Test Track
Gluten Free
TLDR: 5/10; $6.50
Flavors from Fire is always a solid booth people rave about - especially the Impossible offerings. So I really wanted to like this one, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. While the individual flavors were good, the sum of the individual parts didn’t match the whole. Every taco worth its shell comes with toppings, and this one boasts crushed avocado, grilled corn salsa, pickled red onions, queso fresco and a cilantro-lime cream.
The steak itself was cooked deliciously medium rare with a nice chimichurri flavor. However, there was a lot of the relatively bland avocado and cilantro-like cream which overpowered the steak, not letting it be the star of the show. Perhaps if there had been more of the pickled onions, it would have cut through the richness of the cream and avocado. The tortilla was also crumbly, so there was no easy way to eat it as a taco. If I had to rate the steak alone, even for $6.50, I’d give it a 7/10 though.
Spiced Chocolate Tart
Located at Flavors from Fire, near Test Track
Gluten Free
TLDR: 7.5/10; $4.75
The combo of potato chips and chocolate has been around for a while (chocolate covered Lays anyone?), but I was still skeptical that this one would be style over substance. But…after trying this I wasn’t mad about it.
For $4.75 you get a tart about 6 inches made of rich chocolate with a BBQ crust. The combination of BBQ and chocolate was delicious, but the crust was soggy (someone call Paul Hollywood). I think the decoration was supposed to be a fancy BBQ chip but it didn’t have much flavor. Disney, swap it with a Lays BBQ Ruffles and you’re on to something. The whisky sauce and salt were good at cutting through the incredibly rich tart and made each bite taste a little different. I would recommend trying this with a friend because while it was delicious, my waistline would have thanked me if I only ate half. Because I have no self-control, I ate the whole thing. But…I guess that’s what runDisney is for!
While the 27th Epcot International Food and Wine Festival may not have much of a theme (thinking back I’m actually surprised there isn’t a single Disney100 item), it does boast some delicious and creative offerings. The taiko roll and chocolate tart were definitely welcome additions, and I hope will stay on regular rotation. And I hope they invite last year’s American Adventure chilled smoked shrimp to come along in 2024 as well.
Do you have any favorite, must-try, or must-avoid dishes at Food and Wine this year?