Every year when the Epcot Food and Wine Festival arrives at Walt Disney World, so do we. Focused on trying all the best foods and drinks we just had to do a round up of our Epcot Food and Wine Festival Favorite Foods. From savory to sweet, carnivorous, and vegetarian, here are all the foods we highly recommend be on your must-try food list. The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival runs July 15 – November 20, 2021.
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Favorite Foods
The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is all about the best food and wine! So we thought we’d round up our favorite foods from the festival for you to try! If you’re new to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival at Walt Disney World never fear! Check out our Disney Food and Wine Festival Beginners Guide, for tips, tricks, and a strategy around the World Showcase! Traveling with little ones? Check out our best tips if you’re traveling to Food and Wine with kids.
As with every festival at Epcot, this year’s Food and Wine festival included both new dishes and old favorites. To check out all the foods on the menu, check out our Epcot Food and Wine Festival Menus so you can get started highlighting your must-try foods!
Warm Chocolate Pudding from Ireland
We had no idea what to expect with this one, but holy cannoli, it tastes just like a lava cake! So rich, and moist and completely chocolate heaven on a plate. It’s served warm and it just absolutely delicious. Quite possibly one of our favorite desserts from Food and Wine this year.
Kenyan Coffee Barbeque Beef Tenderloin from Africa
This coffee barbecue beef was tender, flavorful and the Kachumbari Slaw on top added an amazing freshness to it. One of our top dishes this year, if you like beef, we think you’ll like this. We actually really liked everything in Africa this year, so if you’re trying to find a good booth to spend all your money on, this might be a great place to start.
Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak from Flavors of Fire
Flavors of Fire is always a festival favorite for us. Even the smell of this booth is incredible! This has made our list before and it’s still just as good. This skirt steak was perfectly cooked and the corn cake and cilantro aioli were the perfect additions to this dish. Honestly, this was one we could eat an entire meal out of!
Chocolate Picante Flavors from Fire
Ok, ok, we know…. another one from this booth? What can we say, the cast member working told us they had the best food in the whole festival and he wasn’t wrong! If you like dark chocolate with a bit of a kick, this might just be your new favorite dessert. This has been available in past years, but it has gotten a refresh since its beginnings and we loved every bite. With flavors that reminded us a bit of Mexican Chocolate, this decadent dessert was not too sweet with a bit of spice to amp it up a bit.
Black Pepper Boursin Souffle from The Cheese Studio
If you’re a food snob, you may not think this is a traditional souffle, but you are at a Food and Wine Festival with outdoor kitchens; so keep that in mind. We make souffle at home, and actually were quite hesitant to try this, but it’s surprisingly good. The black pepper flavor is definitely there while not being too overbearing. And while the texture is a little different from a souffle we’d make at home, it’s definitely a dish we’d have again. And again.
Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle from the Chocolate Studio
This makes our list every year and we aren’t even mad about it. One of our favorite desserts from all of the Food and Wine Festival, the liquid nitro truffle is a chocolate mousse frozen by liquid nitrogen, making it a perfectly smooth concoction almost like ice cream. Topped with whiskey caramel, it’s the perfect treat for a hot day at Epcot. And if you’re lucky enough to see it being made in nitrogen, the process is pretty cool too!
Maple Bourbon Boursin Cheesecake from The Cheese Studio
One of the vegetarian options available at the Food and Wine Festival, this cheesecake was super creamy and rich. We recommend saving it for later in the day though, as it will melt super fast in the hot Florida sun. Topped with caramel and pecan crunch, this cheesecake was the perfect balance of flavor and texture.
Butternut Squash Ravioli from The Wine and Dine Studio
Another vegetarian Food and Wine Festival favorite food, this ravioli is the perfect taste of fall. Topped with pumpkin seeds, Parmesan, and a brown butter vinaigrette, this reminded us of all of the comfort foods we love at home for this season.
Ravioli Carbonara from Italy
We aren’t usually huge fans of the Italy Pavilion at the Festivals. We want to like it so bad, but coming from an Italian family, we have high expectations. This ravioli is probably one of the best dishes we’ve had from this pavilion. It’s creamy, it’s rich, it’s big enough to share or for a small meal.
Ropa Vieja Empanada from Islands of the Caribbean
Topped with tomato aioli, this empanada had a flaky crust and a delicious, slightly spicy filling of Ropa Vieja. If you love bolder flavors as we do, this should top your list.
Spanish-style Paella from Spain
We love a good paella and honestly weren’t sure a festival dish of it would make the cut for us. But we were wrong! This was so good, with the perfect amount of flavor, cooked just right, and a complete winner in our book.
Red Hot Spicy Thai Curry Beef from Thailand
This curry is everything a curry should be: flavorful and rich with a kick at the end. It’s comfort food at it’s finest and something we could eat a whole meal out of it if Florida wasn’t as hot as the sun in August.
Teriyaki Chicken Bun from Japan
With chicken, vegetables, and sweet teriyaki, this little bun will please even the pickiest of palates. (Unless of course, you don’t like teriyaki) Wrapped in a steam-filled bun, the filling was delicious, it was easy to eat and super portable too, so you don’t have to stop your around-the-world showcase travels if you don’t want to.
Hummus Fries from Morocco
These made our list last year too and in our opinion, they’ve only gotten better. Another vegetarian option at the Food and Wine Festival, these are topped with cucumber, tomato, onions Tzatziki sauce. A bit spicier than last year, if you don’t like spicy foods or can’t have them, this may be one item you’ll want to skip. We love all things spicy, so for us, this was a must-have.
“Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon from Canada
We know everyone raves about the Cheddar Cheese soup from Canada, but we find it a bit overrated. The filet, though? Perfection! I don’t even like mushrooms and I highly enjoyed this. Perfectly tender and perfectly seasoned, AND at $8 can be used as a snack credit. We think this is one of the best things you can get at the Food and Wine Festival.
Banana Almond Soft-Serve Sundae from Shimmering Sips
We love almost everything from Shimmering Sips and we especially love that this sundae is approved for vegetarians and dairy-free friends alike. If you’ve had nice cream before( that’s right- NICE cream) it’s the same concept here, topped with chocolate almond streusel and fresh berries. The reason it didn’t exactly make it into our top 15 Food and Wine Festival Favorite Foods is because 1, we ran out of spots; and 2, because if you don’t really like bananas, this won’t be your cup of tea or ice cream…..While it is very delicious, the banana flavor is very prominent in this sundae.
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Foods to Skip
Now, what about a few things you should skip? We’ve got you covered there. We tried so many things, and didn’t love all of them, so here are a few foods we think you won’t miss by passing them up.
NY Strip Steak Green Shermoula Flatbread from Morocco
So we heard all the rage about this new flatbread. But let’s set things straight. First of all, it’s $9. For food and wine festivals, that’s a pretty hefty price tag unless you’re getting something as hearty and delicious as the Filet from Canada. Secondly, we barely got any steak(what I am assuming we paid for) and the pieces we did get were tiny. Also to be noted, this is not a flatbread like we think of similar to a pizza, but more like a wrap. If you’re using a snack credit to buy this, it may be worth it, but otherwise, save yourself $9.
Frothy Ramen from Japan
The frothy Ramen was a tough call for us. When we shared it on Instagram, we mostly got jokes about it looking like brains. So there’s that. But after getting over how it looks, the rest of the dish is just confusing. The froth is just weird, and the Ramen is served cold. While we get it, it’s usually 10000 degrees out during Food and Wine, cold Ramen just didn’t really hit the spot. We did, however, love the flavors of the broth, so this was a tough call. We say skip it unless you’re really feeling adventurous and want to try the festival’s strangest-looking dish.
Blueberry and Almond Frangipan Tart from The Alps
We love blueberries. And almonds for that matter. But both of those flavors were really overpowered by lemon. We wanted to love this, but it just wasn’t that good.
Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese from The Alps
Ok, ok, hear us out on this one. Everyone was talking about this within the first few days of Epcot International Food and Wine Festival as if it was the BEST thing. Sadly we weren’t that impressed. To appreciate this dish, you need to know what raclette is. It’s basically cheese that is melted and then scraped off the block. So it’s melted cheese. With potatoes and bread. Who doesn’t love cheese right?! Well, there are two main reasons we say skip this one and here they are. The idea of melted cheese with bread and potatoes may sound glorious, but if you get one that’s been sitting in the window (like we did) for who knows how long, it’s not really melt-y anymore. It’s kinda just strange and clumpy.
Considering you’re also not at a restaurant sitting down, but rather probably fighting for a place to sit or stand at the festival, it also makes this kind of difficult to eat. Plus, we’ve seen it both ways, and it seems you’re either given too much cheese or too much of the other things. So the proportions of cheese to bread and potatoes is way off. Which leads you to either eating a huge chunk of kind-of melted cheese or bland bread and potatoes by themselves. We’ll let you decide on this one. There were just too many variables here to get wrong for us to make this a must-try.
Traditional Sicilian Cannoli from Italy
We’re sure you’re tired of hearing it, but we are Italian, which means we know what Italian food is supposed to taste like. In truth, we love Italian food. And adore cannoli. Heck, these cannoli weren’t even that bad. Why skip it? Because for the same price, you can get a better, more authentic cannoli that is twice the size from somewhere like Little Italy or an Italian Bakery. These weren’t bad, but they weren’t great. And they were so tiny. So there it is.
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Favorite Foods
We update this list every year after visiting the Epcot International Wine Festival and every year we’re so excited to share new and old favorites. Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of what little dishes deserve your hard-earned Disney dollars. One thing to be aware of is that there can be inconsistencies from cast member to cast member, so sometimes even the presentation you see in our photos may differ from what you get. We actually found at times, dishes changed from day today! So be aware! No matter what, we hope you enjoy the festival. And if you find any Epcot Food and Wine Festival Favorite Foods, not on this list, let us know!!!
