Epcot: Food and Wine Festival 2018

Hi guys~ after recently moving to Orlando I'm excited to say we were finally able to visit Disney. We also happened to make it to the Food and Wine Festival in Epcot. Rides and delicious food! What's not to love? Not to mention it was our first time back since elementary school, and let me tell you–it still felt just as magical. If you're interested in finding out what foods we enjoyed and what rides we went on, keep on reading below!

Festival Passport with the Menus for each food stand

My Aunt had given me her passport a week or so prior to our visit, so I went online and checked out a few YouTube videos. I highlighted foods based on the reviews, and I also chose the things I've never heard of and thought were worth a try. I'm a pretty adventurous eater, so I knew I'd be trying quite a few things.

Our Uncle used to work for Disney, so as a belated birthday gift he got us in for free. We went during the early afternoon on Monday, and it was probably the best decision ever. The lines for the rides were 30 minutes or less, and there were absolutely no lines at any of the food stalls. We first stopped at the soda fountains, where we sampled some sugary beverages from around the world. My favorite was the soda from South Africa. The samples are all for free! Probably with good reason, it was a lot of sugar.

I'm going to talk a little bit about the rides below. Feel free to skip ahead to the food reviews!

Soarin' Around the World
Wait Time: 30 minutes
After hearing rave reviews I finally got to ride this amazing hang-glider ride. It was a surprisingly realistic ride around the globe, and I was blown away by the sounds and smells. It truly felt like I was flying around the world, I even grabbed onto the handle-bars even though we weren't exactly moving like a typical ride.
During the wait I used my phone and accessed the Disney wi-fi to answer some pretty difficult geographical questions. My team won. I think I was the only one playing.

Living with the Land
Wait Time: 15 minutes
It was a slow-moving boat ride showcasing the future of agriculture and hydroponics. Honestly other than Test Track I remembered this one from my elementary school days. There's something about hopping on a ride inside of a restaurant. Maybe it's the foodie in me, but I appreciated seeing where a lot of the food in Disney is grown. It was a nice touch adding the signs so riders can see the ingredients for actual foods being cooked in the Food and Wine Festival.

Spaceship Earth
Wait Time: 5 minutes
A slow-moving darkly lit animatronic and heavily audio based ride. A lot of people hop on this one right as they enter the park (it's inside of the globe) but if you wait until later the line is very short. Right as we were boarding, someone decided it was a good idea to pack three people into the front row (when it's meant for two). The ride operators had to stop the ride in order to sort out the predicament.
My favorite parts were the planetarium scene and the "choose your own adventure" screens at the end. You're prompted to answer a few questions to find out what your futuristic world looks like. My Uncle took a nap. Basically, it's really relaxing. But it's definitely worth a ride. At least once.

Test Track
Wait Time: 20 minutes
I loved that we were able to use our Disney passes to design our own car before the ride. As usual, Test Track is probably the fastest and most fun ride Epcot has to offer. My favorite part is always the 60-mph curves outside. Afterwards we were able to check how our design fared against everyone elses, we scored a solid 203.

Mexico Pavilion

Gran Fiesta Tour
Wait Time: 5 minutes
It was a slow-moving boat ride again. Honestly, I thought it was cute watching the animation of Donald Duck and his friends. The music was enjoyable, and I loved the Mexico Pavilion in general. Disney gets points for the ambiance and the pretty restaurant and shops inside. I appreciate seeing the Coco merch in the front. I heard a Coco redo is possibly going to happen.

Frozen Ever After
Wait Time: 30 minutes
Apparently wait times are usually over an hour, but we lucked out. Last time I rode this ride it was Norway, with the creepy trolls. This time around it was really cute and felt just like the movie. I found it interesting how the animatronics had screens for faces, so they were really expressive and animated. I enjoyed the music.

Now onto the food! We started out with Coastal Eats which was located in the front with Earth Eats and Active Eats.

Seared Scallops with Roasted Corn and Butterbean Succotash
and Chili-chipotle Butter Sauce

Lili got The Steakhouse Blended Burger and my Uncle got the Loaded Mac n' Cheese. My only regret is not trying the Crab Cake or the Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip (but I had to save room for other foods). The seared scallops were very large, I thought it was a generous serving. They were tender and cooked perfectly. I thought the burger was a little small, but the Mac n' Cheese was perfect, cheesy deliciousness.

Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies

We went to Australia next. This was DELICIOUS. I thought it was a decent size, freshly charred and tender, with a refreshing mint pesto. I loved the potato chips on top.

Le Cellier Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with a Truffle-Butter Sauce

We got one steak each. The portion was bigger than I expected. The truffle sauce was so rich and delicious. The steak could have been cooked rarer, but I guess they cook it through to feed the masses. It was still tender and juicy.

Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayo

My Aunt kept raving about this slider and she gets it every year. Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed. The pulled pork was a little dry, the pineapple was just mashed up, and the mayo tasted like Japanese Kewpie Mayo. I think if you like really vinegary and rich food you would like this, but the texture was just off for me. It was really mushy.

Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun

The duck on this bun was so tender and flavorful. I enjoy a good hoison sauce. The bun was nicely steamed and the salad on top was crunchy. I saw someone walk away with the pancake stuffed with beef, so I definitely feel like I missed out on that one. Lili got the Milk Tea. The boba was overcooked, but the flavor of the Assam tea was nice.

Other Foods

We also stopped at Hops & Barley for the Lobster Roll (I forgot to take a picture). The roll was nice and crispy and the lobster was amazing. Personally I would have preferred butter over the dill sauce, but this was still a solid choice, and a good portion for the price.

Earlier in the day we also stopped at the Refreshment Port for Pineapple ice cream to cool off, and Lili tried poutine for the first time. I've never had cheese curds before, but it was a really good combination. Crispy, fluffy fries, a savory gravy, and cheese to top it off.

Lastly, I went to Africa for the beef tips. The beef were huge and chunky pieces, but I wasn't a fan of the pap. It was really spicy and enjoyable, but the texture just wasn't for me.

I would definitely go back for foods from India, Thailand, Morrocco, and Mexico. But I tried to stick to foods I've never had before. We ended the day in France and got some salted caramel ice cream in L'artisan de Glaces and it was probably the best ice cream I've ever had. Whoever said we couldn't have ice cream for dinner?

Until next time guys~