Food and Wine Festival review

If you have looked into taking a trip to Disney World, you have, no doubt, come across references to EPCOTâs annual âFood and Wine Festival.â And a quick online search will reveal that the majority of people who have attended the festival in the past would gladly do so again.Â
In fact, for many of us who are fortunate enough to go to Disney more than once, we often find ourselves planning our trips with the specific intent to attend the festival. Weâre not always successful, but we do try.Â
Really, really hard.
Thatâs because the festival is (almost) better than Christmas at Disney World. Picture, if you will: more than thirty kiosks, each offering several choices for appetizer-sized plates and, if you desire (and are old enough), a suggested wine/beer/liquor pairing.Â
Also, imagine this: live music events, featuring several big-name artists (recently, they boasted a line-up that included Hanson (see video below in the âCooking Demonstrations & Wine Seminarsâ section). You also get wine seminars, cooking demonstrations, and cheese seminars designed to instruct you in the art and technique of being a food snob.Â
There are five aspects to the festival that I want to cover in this Food and Wine Festival review:Â
- Prices (Disney ainât free, folks)
- Food and Wine (naturally)
- Cooking Demonstrations (itâs like being an audience member on an Emeril episode)
- Merchandise (just in case you have money burning a hole in your pocket)
- Overall Rating (âcause we have to wrap it up somehow)
Prices (4/5)
The good news is that your general admission to EPCOT will grant you access to almost all areas of the festival, from the live concerts to the food and wine booths scattered throughout the World Showcase.Â
Beyond that, however, it is going to cost you. The good news on that is that, if you donât want to spend much, you donât have to. Itâs totally under your control. Bear in mind, though, that not spending much means not eating much.Â
Youâll want to consider that.Â
So whatâs food going to run you? The food at the festival runs, on average, $5.50 a plate (the prices range from $3.25 all the way up to $8.00, and they are small plates). The drinks run anywhere from $6, all the way up to $32, but the average price is roughly $6.Â
In short, if you plan on âeating around the world,â it will cost you.
And none of that includes the wine seminars, cooking demonstrations, or cheese seminars. Each of these has a cost, as well. They arenât especially expensive (for example, the cooking demonstrations run roughly $20 a person), but itâs still the principle of paying to get into the park, paying for the food you eat at the festival, and, in spite of the free concerts going on throughout, you still have to pay to attend many of the special events.
Itâs like a food-driven Comic-con. Â
Having said that, however, itâs not exactly a terribly bad deal. I mean, you donât have to attend the seminars, and you donât have to eat everything you come across.
But then again, if youâre not going to eat, why bother going?
Food and Wine (5/5)
This is it, folks. This is your chance to try snails. Iâm dead serious â escargot, sautĂ©ed in garlic butter, nestled inside of a warm, flaky, croissant. Seriously, this is the best dish I have had at EPCOT, and I cannot recommend it enough.Â
However, with more than thirty kiosks and over ninety different plates of food to choose from, if you just canât bring yourself to eat snails, thereâs still food available.Â
Weâre talking spanakopita from Greece, spinach and paneer cheese pockets from Africa, Lamington cake from Australia, Belgian waffles with chocolate ganache and whipped cream, Brazilian crispy pork belly, roasted sausage and colcannon potatoes from Ireland.
Ever wanted to try food from Hawaiâi? Hereâs your chance. Look, the list goes on and on, and I could spend the next 4,500 words telling you about the food, but the point is that EPCOT does a fantastic job providing you with an enormous a la carte buffet (if you want to see the complete menu of what was served way back in 2017, you can find it here).Â
Thereâs really no doubt that the annual festival makes the Fall arguably the best time of year to go to Disney World.  Â
Then there are the drinks. Each dish has a suggested wine pairing to go with it. Oh, wine isnât your thing? No worries â thereâs an entire cart devoted to beer.Â
An entire cart.Â
And for those who donât drink alcohol, there are several non-alcoholic options available, as well (the mango lassi from India is particularly excellent).
Cooking Demonstrations & Wine Seminars (3/5)
Ahhhh . . . the cooking demonstrations. I guess I sort of lied when I said that the cooking demonstrations were like being on a taping of Emerilâs show.
The demonstration was for something that the chef called âFrito pie.â
What he made was a bowl of chiliâŠserved with Fritoâs. It wasnât even a particularly excellent bowl of chili. It was onions, garlic, a little jalapeno, tomatoes, beans, and chili powder. There wasnât even any chocolate in it.Â
Now, if you do not cook at all, then I suppose this would be helpful, but chili isnât the most difficult thing in the world to make. I actually just gave you the ingredient list above. And pouring chili over chips does not make a âpieâ â it makes a bowl of chili with chips. Thatâd be like pouring spiced apples over some bread and calling it apple pie.Â
For $80 (there were four of us), we watched a guy make chili. Mediocre chili. And he opened a bag of chips to go with it.
In fairness, itâs possible this has improved quite a bit since I experienced this dish. Itâs also possible I had high expectations. But that was admittedly a bit of a disappointment.
The wine seminar, on the other hand, was fascinating. It was about the growing and cultivation of better hybrids of grapes used in pinot grigio, particularly in the Northwest region of the United States. I donât remember what the wine tasted like (because it was approximately a half-ounce pour), but the seminar itself was surprisingly interesting.Â
I went in knowing nothing about grapes and wine, and I left knowing quite a bit about what goes into making a bottle of wine taste the way it does. It was really, really cool. Even if you donât drink, sitting through one of those might well be worth your time.
Merchandise (5/5)
Full disclosure: Iâve never actually bought merchandise at the festival, but that was mostly because we had flown each time, and space was limited. I only mention that little factoid because, let me tell you, there is so much stuff on which to spend your money, you could very easily leave the park with enough stuff to completely redecorate and replenish your kitchen. And itâs not cheap quality, either (weâre talking more like Crate & Barrelâless like Wal-Mart).Â
There are all manner of cooking utensils, linens, and dishes; cookbooks galore from all regions of the globe; almost every wine featured in the festival (if not actually every wine); and various types of food, including cookies, crackers, breads, and even cheeses.Â
Itâs difficult to not spend money. Think of it as Build-a-Bear for adults.
A Fantastic Experience
Perhaps Iâm being a bit hasty, but when it comes to the Food & Wine Festival at EPCOT, I honestly have to wonder why EPCOT even bothers to be open the rest of the year.Â
This is not the type of thing I say lightly, either. I love EPCOT, donât get me wrong â the World Showcase is cool, Soarinâ is awesome, Turtle Talk with Crush is totally righteous (see what I did there?), and their normal, everyday food is usually worth it.Â
BUT . . . the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival is really just EPCOT on its game. I mean, you donât have to go to a cooking demonstration, and you donât have to order every single item in every single kiosk, but being able to control how much you spend â whether itâs more than you should, or very little â is a useful tool when trying to sample flavors from other cultures.  Â
And, while EPCOT has some pretty impressive snacks available year âround, nothing compares to the plethora of good eats available during the Food & Wine Festival. If youâll permit me, Iâd like to offer up a handful of suggestions, just to whet your appetite:
- Escargot â snails sautĂ©ed in a rich garlic butter, nestled inside of a warm croissant
- Grilled Lamb T-bone â a thick cut of lamb, lightly charred, and seasoned with a hint of mint pesto
- Lamington â A moist, sweet yellow cake, dipped in milk chocolate, and then rolled in coconut flakes. Itâs like a candy-bar cake.
- Canadian Cheese Soup â A warm beer-cheese soup served with a dense, salty pretzel roll
- Chicken Potstickers â Yeah, so a warm dumpling filled with stir-fried chicken is almost always good.
- Schinkennudeln â Cheesy pasta and ham bake. Itâs a German version of your momâs breakfast casserole that she only broke out for company.
- Spanakopita â Flaky phyllo dough, melted feta, and sautĂ©ed spinach, layered together like some kind of savory Greek layer cake.
I could keep going, but I think you catch my drift. All Iâm saying is that EPCOT, as cool a place as it is, really kicks it up a notch when the Festival rolls out, and it is definitely in your best interest to try and go there.Â
So, if you can arrange it, please try and make it to EPCOTâs Food & Wine Festival at least once in your life. I know Iâm asking a lot (youâre basically reduced to only two months out of the year you can go, and itâs during school).
But do your best to experience this festival once.
And if you canât make it to the festival anytime soonâno worries. Check out âregularâ Epcot still boasts some of the best Disney restaurants period. But, the Food and Wine Festival is a special experience, so definitely try and find a way to fit it into your schedule, if possible.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
Final Verdict: Try the gray stuff, itâs delicious!
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