2019 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Favorites (& What To Skip)

Today I’m sharing my favorites from the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival with you! 

First, here are some of my other Food & Wine resources:

• Epcot Food & Wine Festival Tips & Tricks
• 3 Ways To “Plus” Your Food & Wine Festival Experience

Now I’m going to share what I loved (and what I didn’t) at this year’s festival!

Favorite Savory Items

My favorite item at the festival this year was the Kenyan Coffee Barbecue Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato and Corn Meal Pap and Kachumbari Slaw ($5.75) from the Africa booth. Everything about it was amazing – the flavors and textures were on point. 

If you are a crab fan, check out the Lump Crab Cake ($5.50) at Coastal Eats in Future World. The slaw and Avocado-Lemongrass Cream were super tasty and there was a ton of crab in there.

I’m a big empanada fan and the Ropa Vieja Empanada with Tomato Aioli ($5.50) from the Islands of the Caribbean booth was to die for. That CRUST!

The Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce ($8.25) at the Canada booth was especially good this year! I’m been disappointed in years past but this year it was awesome. Save a snack credit for this one.

Speaking of the Canada booth, the Cheddar Cheese Soup ($5.25) should be considered Must Do Disney. It was overly thick this year but this is the first year out of many that it has let me down. So hopefully it was just an off day.

I finally got around to trying the Hummus Fries from Morocco ($8.00). They were delicious but I’m not sure they are worth the price tag. Definitely use a snack credit on these if you have one. 

A surprise hit was the Impossible Burger (vegetarian) from the Earth Eats booth ($5.25). The wasabi cream and slaw made the already delicious “burger” even better. 

Another favorite from previous years is the Black Pepper Shrimp ($6.75) from the China booth. It has a bunch of shrimp, great flavor, and is a generous portion.

The Kalua Pork Slider ($5.25) is a festival staple at the Hawaii booth. So good.

Favorite Sweet Items

This Maple Bourbon Boursin Cheesecake with Caramel and Pecan Crunch ($4.50) from the Cheese Studio was my favorite new sweet item at the festival. I am still speechless. It is good, just trust me and get one.

Right next door at the Chocolate Studio you’ll find the Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel ($5.25). It is fun to watch it made (frozen in 10 seconds in liquid nitrogen) and it’s just amazingly rich and delicious.

These adorable little cheesecakes from Shimmering Sips ($5.00) were really fun to try. None were out of this world but all were very good. 

The Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing at Hops & Barley ($4.25) in front of the America pavilion makes many best of the fest lists and it is for a reason. So yummy.

You can never go wrong with a Belgian waffle covered in whipped cream and chocolate ($4.25) from the Belgium booth (obviously).

Other recommended dessert items include:

• Quesito (puff pastry) with Cream Cheese and Guava Sauce ($3.75) from Islands of the Caribbean
• Warm Chocolate Pudding with Irish Cream Liqueur Sauce ($4.25) in Ireland

Favorite Drinks

My favorite drink at the festival was the Pinot Noir Rose ($5.00) from the Wine & Dine Studio. I’m not a huge Rose fan in general but this one was outstanding!

You can’t go wrong with the Wine Flight with Cheeses from the Wine & Dine Studio ($11.25).

While you are at the France booth, have some Cabernet from Bordeaux ($6.50). You can thank me later.

The Tropical Mimosa from the Shimmering Sips booth ($6.00) was very good (but not great) and the Blood Orange Mimosa looked amazing. I’ll try that one next time!

What To Skip

Of course, we had some misses at the festival. Try as they might, not everything turns out great.

Here’s what I would suggest skipping:

• Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak from Flavors From Fire – The steak was WAY too tough but the accompaniments were good.
• Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip from Coastal Eats – Too greasy and too salty.
• Seared Venison Sausage from New Zealand – just not very memorable. Not bad, but there’s just too much other goodness to try this.
• Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp – again, nothing special. Kinda tasted like sweet and sour sauce.
• Brazilian Cheese Bread in Brazil – chewy bread without much flavor.
• Mule Beer from Coastal Eats – this was SUPER spicy (like pepper spicy) and I had to throw half of it away. 

Well, I hope this post gave you some inspiration for this year or coming years’ visits to Food & Wine Festival. Did you have something that you loved this year? Leave a comment below!