Aug 2018 - No cheeseballs! Epcot food and wine review

[bigshaz]

Epcot Food & Wine review 2018

We arrived home on Tuesday and although still not sure what time zone I am in I thought it might be helpful to those going in the next few months to write a quick review of the food and wine festival at Epcot. Full trip report to follow.

We had the DDP so did save a lot of snack credits as we knew we would do the festival – even so we got to a point where we could eat no more! If you read my last trip report you’ll know we can eat – all I can say is I am very thankful for the snack credits and I dread to think how much it would have cost OOP.

So here’s our quick round the world starting 30th – opening day and it wasn’t as busy as I had expected.

Firstly there is a great map – but it would have been helpful to have before we went for planning purposes ! so here’s my photo of it.

Plus the little passport can be picked up in the festival centre that lists everything you can get. I had bought the DFB guide so we had already picked our items we wanted to try, it was fun to mark them off and add the stickers in the passport.

We picked up the map and passport on the way into the park and I spend about ten minutes marking up what and where we wanted to be using our snack credits on.

First stop was some water to drink and then Flavours From Fire round the corner from where you meet Baymax. You could smell the stall before you could see it – smoking!

I was very excited about this one – Smoked corned beef: with warm crispy potatoes . pickled onions and Blonde Beer Fondue featuring BelGiaioso Romano and American Grana Cheese – read “smoked beef on crisps with cheese sauce” - the cheese sauce was strong but I enjoyed it.

Then we went onto Earth Eats and Active Eats within the Next Eats area.

Steve and Morgan queued for one whilst I queued for the other and Millie found somewhere to sit.

Earth Eats

The Steak house blended Burger; Blended Beef and wild mushroom slider with Brie cheese fondue , Arugula, Truffle and Blue Cheese Potato Chip on a brioche bun. Read burger with cheese sauce and a big crisp on sweet bread – it was very tasty and enjoyed by all.

The Impossible Burger Slider with wasabi cream and spicy slaw on a sesame seed bun – this was spicy but again good – not sure what made it impossible though!

By this point we knew we had been doing the right thing by sharing them between three of us – if you have read the trip report from last year you’ll know Millie has a “limited palette” and so far we hadn’t passed a chicken nugget stand but no way could anyone eat a full portion and eat the number of items we planned to.

Active Eats
Loaded Mac n Cheese with Nueske's Pepper Bacon, cheddar cheese, peppers and onions - All enjoyed this - bit spicy but good food.

The Chocolate Studio

Liquid Nitro Chocolate Almond Truffle with warm Whiskey Caramel.

If you have been to any of the nitro ice cream stands at the Merlin group theme parks you’ll know I’m used to smooth velvety soft nitro ice cream which this wasn’t. The taste was good but the consistency was very uneven, more like frozen mousse in part and quite hard. But good taste.

And next to the Chocolate Studio was the Cheese Studio

Braised Beef Stroganoff with Tiny Egg noodles, Wild Mushroom and Boursin Garlic and fine herbs Cheese Sauce – the beef fell apart – I would order a full dish of this in a restaurant 10/10

Maple Bourbon Boursin Cheesecake with maple bourbon cream, caramel and pecan (always pronounces pecaaarn a la Ross from friends) crunch
I would order this for dessert form the same restaurant 10/10 bloomin luverly.

Then a quick loo visit whilst Steve and Morgan went to The Almond Orchard to get
Banana Almond Soft serve sundae – I do not like anything banana flavoured so they were on their own here – the verdict “pleasant but wouldn’t have again”

New Zealand next

for
Steamed Green Lip Mussels with garlic butter and toasted breadcrumbs– Steve the non seafood lover had wanted to try these and he enjoyed – said they were very garlicky

Lamb Meatball with spicy tomato chutney – now the lamb was good, the tomato sauce rich and a hint of aniseed in it and it was served in a Yorkshire pudding! Any way well enjoyed even if confused as to its origin.

Canada next

and only two things to head for Canadian Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Soup served with a pretzel roll - this was very filling and we could tell the end of todays visit would be near (impending rain as well as filling tummies) but yes do try this

Le Cellier Wild Mushroom and Beef Filet Mignon with a truffle butter sauce. Very good also and amazing mushrooms.


We’d also been collecting the kidicot passport stickers and cards as we went round and we had bought the Remy ratatouille treasure hunt – not as easy as it would seem to find a rodent in each country lol. So we headed to the UK and found him there and visited the Irish stand.

By this point we were full (we’d had lunch at Grand Floridian Café – well recommended) and knackered so we bought some crisps (salt and vinegar flavoured from the UK and sat in the outside seating area) note most people think this is related to the UK restaurant but anyone can sit there.

So from Ireland we had

Roasted Irish Sausage with colcannon potatoes and onion gravy. Very salty and bad aftertaste to the sausages, the kind which makes you hear your mothers voice say – don’t eat any more or you’ll be bad

Warm Irish Cheddar Cheese and Stout dip with Irish brown bread – lovely strong dip with not enough bread but I can vouch that it goes well with salt and vinegar crisps dipped in it too

We made it to France but couldn’t eat another thing so we jumped on the boat back to showcase Plaza and left for day 1.

Day 2 – well when I get round to writing the full trip report you’ll know that there had been some replanning required as we were due to visit on 31st but Steve had discovered Tiffany was playing on Saturday 1st so that was when we needed to visit lol. Plus this time we had taken the bus so we could have a few drinks.

First stop was the Festival Centre next to Mission Space to visit

Craft Drafts for flight number 2:

First Magnitude Brewing Co. Lemongrass Saison
J Dubs Brewing Company Honeydew Melon Kolsch
Shipyard Brewing Company Monkey Fist IPA.

OK straight up – we didn’t really like any of the beer drafts we tried. No exception with the first, but cold drinks to start were welcomed by Steve and I.


And also in the Festival centre Simmering Sips Mimosa Bar for the non alcoholic Frozen Apple pie.

It had a table spoon of the canned apple you find in all the apple pies served in the resort QS – it was interesting, very sweet. But worth a try if you like apple crumble.

We were going anti clockwise this evening on the map (anticlockwise in real life) and decided to divide and conquer to try to get all the items we wanted so Steve set off to Thailand, I went to Mexico and Morgan called at Greece and then we met to sample the goodies.

Greece
Taste of Greece: Chicken Souvlaki, Feta Cheese dip with Warm pitta and lamb sausage with Dill tomato ragu – this one went down very quickly

Bougatsa: warm phyllo dough strudel with sweet vanilla a custard, lemon honey syrup and cinnamon – very good, fruity and sweet

Thailand

Seared shrimp and Scallop cake with cold noodle salad – I loved the cake but the cold noodles would have been better hot for me.

Red Hot Spicy Thai Curry Beef with steamed rice, again another one that went quickly – very very tatsy

Mexico
Shrimp Quesadilla, corn tortilla with shrimp, Oaxaca Cheese and topped with Spicy Guajillo Sauce and sesame seeds. Morgan has wanted to try this – she didn’t like the sauce and found the Quesadilla pretty tasteless without it unfortunately.

Millie and I headed to find Remy in Mexico and then met Steve and Morgan in China where the next item was

China

Mango bubble tea with Assam black tea and milk ,mmm well this was interesting,

the tea was ok but the black bubbles were vile – they were also rock hard and didn’t pop – more like a ball of hard blancmange (that’s not a word I use regularly)

Time was moving on and in a panic not to miss Tiffany Steve and Morgan set off to America whilst Millie and I followed the pesky rodent through Germany and Italy, America and Japan. We heard Tiffany from afar- she has still got a good voice and Morgan said there were plenty of middle aged men wanting selfies with her.

We were in Morocco when Steve messaged to say they were on their way and we were definitely running out of time Steve and Morgan grabbed the Beef Nigiri from Japan which they loved so much they forgot to take a photo

We had fast passes back in Future world to ride so Steve headed to the furthest point we needed in France
Carbonade de Boeuf, Puree de Pommes de terre - beer braised beef with bacon onions and mashed potatoes – we all loved this, recommended.

Crème brulee a la Confiture de Framboises, Crème brulee with house made raspberry jam.
The crème brulee was great but the jam was a bit too sweet and overpowering – but still yummy.

Next stop on the way back round was Belgium and Brazil for

Belgium
Beer braised Beef with smoked Gouda Mashed potatoes – this wasn’t as good as the one from France, less meat and not as rich

Belgium Waffle with warm chocolate ganache and whipped cream – it was what it said on the tin

I also picked up from Belgium the Chilled Coffee featuring Godiva Chocolate Liquor – this was very quaffable – like a thinner version of Baileys – I could have had several of these given the time.

Belgium also provided us another beer flight containing:
Leffe Blonde Belgium Pale Ale – this was stronger than a regular Belgium beer
St Bernadaus Witbier
St Bernarndus ABT

Again not a huge success with us.

Brazil

Moqueca – Brazilian Seafood Stew featuring scallops, shrimp and white fish with coconut-lime sauce and steamed rice. Another one Morgan had requested – big fish pieces in it and quite hearty.

We headed to America to sit in the picnic area next and Millie asked if we could get some shaved ice from Japan on the way past and I picked up a frozen beer there too (not technically F&W) which was (excluding the froth) the nicest beer we had.

Steve went to get the long awaited Funnel Cake
Maple Bacon Funnel Cake topped with candied bacon.

This wasn’t a snack credit and cost $12 and we all enjoyed it. Steve finished it off and then declared it had finished him off too – he was full but we had more to try and it wasn't going to beat us and we weren’t going home with many snack credits!

We visited Hops and Barley in America to get
New England Lobster Roll: Warm lobster with fresh herb mayonnaise and griddled roll – this had plenty of lobster on it and was very good

New Brunswick Slider -slow braised beef brisket, Pot roast style with horseradish cream, crispy fried onions, on a potato roll with pickled vegetables on the side. Great flavour

Freshly baked carrot cake and cream cheese icing – this had tons of icing on it and a good amount of spice to the cake.

Splitting the queuing again I headed for Germany, Morgan for Spain and Steve to India.

Germany

Schinkennudeln: Pasta Gratin with Ham , Onions and Cheese - warm and cheesy

Roast Bratwurst on a pretzel roll. Too small a roll

Spain
Spanish -style Paella with Chorizo and roasted chicken - the chorizo was mega spicy

India
Madras red curry with Roasted cauliflower, baby carrots, chickpeas and basmati rice lots of chickpeas and not much else but good taste

Mango Lassi non alcoholic drink - I liked this one but seemed alone - it was very very thick

We bobbed into Port of Entry to get Millie’s prize for completing the rat hunt – a great little cup
(another one for the case) and then Steve Morgan and Millie then ran to do the FP for Mission Space Orange ( how after all that food it have no idea!) and I headed to Hawaii to pick up the final items –

Kalua Pork Slider with sweet and sour Dole pineapple chutney and spicy mayonnaise – the pork made the bun too wet to eat in a good piece but taste was good

Teriyaki glazed Spam Hash with potatoes , peppers, onions and spicy mayonnaise – who could pass by spam! Its was good but we couldn’t eat it all by now we were up to our ears!

Passion fruit Cheesecake with toasted macadamia nuts - not a patch on the bourbon one from Cheese Studio.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you going to visit over the next few months – if you were to do everything it would take at least three visits in my opinion and that’s without the shows and extras you can buy. Full trip report to follow, thanks all for reading.

Index is HERE

[shona]

Looks amazing, we are there next year and I spied some gluten free symbols on your menu so very good tip to get on arrival. Thank you

[wilma-bride]

We got back on Tuesday too, although we did the first day of the Food & Wine Festival on Thursday - it was hot and busy. Absolutely loved it though, as always. Much of what you ate was similar to us.

[Mrs Valentine]

Wow, you did good lol.
Cant believe all that was(Apart from the funnel cake) snack credits, we have done the F&W fest twice now, and I can see we are slackers.
Will do better next time...

[mick]

Some great looking food

Joan

[bigshaz]

Originally Posted by shona

Looks amazing, we are there next year and I spied some gluten free symbols on your menu so very good tip to get on arrival. Thank you

See more...

yes quite a lot and you can ask at every stall for ingredient details - hope you have a great time

[bigshaz]

Originally Posted by Mrs Valentine

Wow, you did good lol.
Cant believe all that was(Apart from the funnel cake) snack credits, we have done the F&W fest twice now, and I can see we are slackers.
Will do better next time...

See more...

So funny lol
I feel the need to write in red ink " must try harder"

a great use of snack credits and saved tons of room I my suitcase that would have been filled with Goofy candy otherwise

[smedley]

Thanks for sharing!

The impossible burger is a brand of veggie burger fyi

[ShezMcQ]

Wow, all that food looks amazing! We're planning on splitting most of what we get at F&W as well just so we can eat more

Thanks so much for the reviews of the different items too, most useful feedback.

[bigshaz]

Originally Posted by smedley

Thanks for sharing!

The impossible burger is a brand of veggie burger fyi

See more...

Oh thank you, you learn something every day