Epcot Food and Wine Festival: The only Epcot festival worth going to

Justine Damm
Nov 4 · 4 min read

As first time annual passholders, Max and I have been to our share of Epcot festivals. They overlapped over the following things- disappointing food and small portions at Disney prices. And yet we HAD to attend each festival in the hopes that it was better than its predecessor (as well as collecting “free” annual passholder magnets per festival).

Food and Wine Festival was a nice surprise. There were at least twice as many booths, twice as many choices. But besides that- the food was GOOD. Still Disney prices though and small portions so that by the time we were done, we still weren’t stuffed. But all in all, it was very satisfying and I loved it! I do hope that at one point, Disney World has a similar pass like Disney California adventure, so WDW guests have the ability to sample more foods at a flat rate. But in the meantime, here were some of the food and drinks we tried out and our separate ratings.

You’ll notice we didn’t try any liquor. I opted to drink beforehand to have more spending money ready for savory foods.

Clockwise starting from the burger —

Flavors from Fire: beef and mushroom slider with brie cheese, arugula, and truffle potato chip

  • Justine 9/10, Max 9/10. This was our first plate and did not disappoint. Super tiny and we could have easily eaten several. Literally just a few bites but they were yummy scarce bites

Ireland: roasted sausage with potatoes and onion gravy

  • Justine 8/10, Max 7/10. Pretty damn good, but the German hubby was not impressed (“German sausage is better! Etc etc”). Also- very large pieces of onions for such an anti-onion couple.

Canada: cheddar and bacon soup with pretzel roll

  • Justine 7/10, Max 3/10. I’m a fan of cheddar bacon soup in general, and this one was fine but could have been more seasoned.

Shimmering Sips: raspberry, chocolate, and New York style cheesecake trio

  • Justine 8/10, Max 8.5/10. More aesthetically pleasing than anything. You can easily finish this entire trio in 1–2 bites. The cakes were good but again, very miniscule. Are you sensing a theme here already?

The Donut Box: strawberry smoothie with strawberry dusted donut

  • Justine 6/10, Max 5/10. Nothing special. Skip this one.

Clockwise starting from the chocolate drizzled snack —

Active Eats: fruit and nut energy snack

  • Justine (did not try), Max 7.5/10. Gave Max a boost at the beginning of our festival journey as he was under the weather. Could be good for other folks who need a boost of energy for these long Disney treks.

Coastal Eats: baked shrimp and scallop scampi dip

  • Justine 10/10, Max 6/10. I adore shrimp, scallop, scampi, and dip. So this was my bread and butter. Too creamy for Max though.

Mexico: pork belly with salsa verde corn taco

  • Justine 8.5/10, Max 6.50/10. Lacking meat, but the pork was good.

Japan: teriyaki chicken bun

  • Justine 6/10, Max 9.5/10. I was done after a bite. Max happily inhaled the rest.

China: Mala chicken and shrimp bao bun

  • Justine 9.5/10, Max 9.5/10. This one was yummy! Highly recommend.

Norway: Frozen Arendelle Aqua Lemonade- frozen lemonade mixed with passion fruit and pineapple (not Festival exclusive)

  • Justine 4/10, Max 6/10. Super refreshing as you’ll still need to stay cool in Floridian fall (and even winter) weather. I mean…is it ever not hot around here? But maybe try something else- this was only okay but got the job done.

Speaking of Arendelle, it was also the first time we rode Frozen Ever After, as we were finally able to snag Fastpasses. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint! It definitely lived up to the hype, and even Max was impressed (remember, he’s not a Disney fan and mostly tolerates our park trips for either food or roller coasters). So all in all, we’d definitely recommend both the festival and the ride!

Justine Damm

Written by

UC Berkeley alum. Marketing. Mother. Joselle’s biggest advocate.

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