2017 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival: August 31, 2017 - November 13, 2017

Basically yes you are eating tapas all night. Meeting the chefs is much easier later in the night, at opening they are very busy. It's a lot easier to talk to the wine reps.


For the wine view Lounge they escort you to your table staring 7:15 or so. I generally check in about 7. Entertainment last year varied by weekend. (They finally threw La Nouba off stage, they had done the EXACT SAME show for years).

Have the times changed due to Epcot staying open later? I seem to remember in 2015 we actually checked in about 6:30, WVL was let in around 6:45 and reserved seating was let in around 7pm.
 
Last minute trip booked.
What are some possible cooking demos we could try for?
Check the main festival webpage for the culinary demo schedule. Pick any food that interests you & book it! (Remember they are non-refundable & there is no wine pairing this year.)
 
We spent the afternoon and evening at the Festival yesterday. It was super hot and that curtailed my appetite.

I tried the corned beef dish at Flavors from Fire, and it was ridiculously salty. I like salty food so if I think it's too salty, it's over the top. The meat itself has too much salt, but the cheese and chips are also very salty. I don't recommend this dish. I did very much like the smoky porter here though.

At Coastal Eats, I tried the crab cake and scallop dish. The scallops were superb! Best thing I had at the Festival yesterday. I didn't care for the crab cakes though. They were bland and just not tasty.

We went to Craft Beers where I loved the air-conditioning and a Western beer flight. The Passion Wheat was especially good.

I tried the spicy apple margarita and didn't care for it since it was too sweet. The heat in it was enjoyable, but the heavy sweetness in the apple flavoring was way too much. Last year's jalapeño margarita was my favorite thing. This apple one was a big disappointment.

I had the brisket from Hops & Barley. This was a dish I loved last year, and while this year's is as good tasting, the portion size seemed much smaller. Likewise, the pork belly from Brazil. It's delicious, but it was definitely smaller than the one I was served last year.

I bought a sampler and used tickets on the too-sweet margarita plus the Ritzy Lychee from China and the caipirinha from Brazil. The Ritzy Lychee was very good. The booze is poured into lychee juice in front of you and it was a healthy amount. The caipirinha was tart and delicious, almost like an alcoholic frozen lemonade, but the serving size was disappointing.

Last thing I tried was the creme brûlée in France. It was fantastic! The tart raspberry jam worked beautifully with the sweet custard.

Overall, this is the first time I've been disappointed with the Festival offerings, especially the wine. The pours are too small for the $6-$7 price tag on most of them. If they were priced lower, I wouldn't mind the small amount. Or vice versa. It's too little wine for what they are charging. And that's a shame IMO. It's a food AND wine Festival.
 
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I found the wine pour to depend on the booth. New Zealand gave me a pretty sad pour of the Kim Crawford. But the Italy booth filled my glass to the rim with Pinot Grigio both days I went there. Another booth I was at, forget which one, filled the glass of the woman in front of my so full, she had to lean down and take a sip before she could even pick it up.
 
Last minute trip booked.
What are some possible cooking demos we could try for?
If you're willing to wait until the very last minute, you can check out the daily activity board in the festival welcome center on the day you want to attend a cooking demo. It will have more information that just the main ingredient of the dish like "shrimp" or "pork". It will describe the actual dish that will be prepared. Most of the cooking demos do not sell out unless they're being hosted by a celebrity chef. It's the same for the beverage seminars, there will be information about the specific types of wine or spirits that will available for tasting, not just the name of winery or distillery.

Have fun!!!
 


Didn't know you were a Georgia girl! You must live about an hour from us judging on your drive time. I'm near downtown Atlanta.


Interesting. Yours looks whiter (the filling part) than ours was, I wonder if they are working on the recipe as time goes on because ours seemed to have a fair amount of ground beef. Totally agree about the cone.



My exact same critique from last year - didn't get your entire quote on my phone (grrr mobile browser) but I had the same issue with not enough cheese and chewy Texas toast. I think we all know that if Zaxbys can do fresh Texas toast, Disney ought to be able to do the same. I think they just pre-make these way too early.

Thanks for your reviews!

We live in Athens, so not far as the crow flies
 
Yesterday I was a little light on F&W since I had a 4:45 ADR for tea at the GF and I knew that was going to fill me up (and I was right) but I did sample a few booths for a light lunch.

I started with Brazil with the Escondidinho de Carne Little Hidden One .
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I was pretty hungry since the only thing I had all day so far was a few little scones I had brought from home at around 7 am so this was pretty good and filling. Lots to eat, loads of beef and potatoes, almost like a shepards pie but a tad more spicy. Then I wandered around to Spain where I got the Charcutrie in a Cone.
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Notice this is not in a cone so strike one. I was ok but really could have been better. The top layer of meat was pretty stringy, the blocks of cheese and salami type meat were very hard, there was only 3 olives in it and I love olives. I ate about half of it and threw the rest away. Then over to Earth Eats for the Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Mousse i Whats not to like here, it's white chocolate, peanut butter and peanuts, this Georgia girls tummy was happy. After riding a few rides I made my way to Magic Kingdom then over to the GF for my tea. I know it's not F&W but here it is. I had the Debinshire which is a fruit and cheese plate, sandwiches, scone and pastries and I added a glass of champagne cause what's a day without a refreshing adult beverage The cheese and fruit
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The sandwiches
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The scone and pastries
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End of day two of my food fest. Total F&W for the day $15, the tea was $65 plus tax and tip.
 
Day Three F&W. I started my day at AK and moved over to Epcot around 2 and so starving as my Mama would say, I could have eaten the rear end out of a rag doll. First stop Coastal Eats and Crab Cake
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I don't know if I was just so hungry anything would have tasted good but this was pretty good. I even at all the slaw under it. By this time it was starting to sprinkle pretty heavy but I was still hungry so I moved to Flavored by Fire and got the Sweet Pancake with Sausage
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This had a little kick to it and even though it was sprinkling pretty hard I stood out in the rain and finished every last bite. Another winner. I was kind of full so I walked on to Figment then continued my food journey. Next it was Active Eats with Avacado Crema
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While this wasn't bad I wanted to like it more than I did. The cake was pretty good and the strawberries pretty good but the avocado crema was missing something, I love me some avacados but this just didn't seem as good as it should have been. I did eat all of it though so there is that. I was pretty hot and tired to started making my way back to the Dolphin but made one more stop at Ireland for the Warm Irish cheddar cheese and stout dip
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The dip was pretty good, you could taste the stout and the bread was a nice earthy bread to dip into it but they really need to give you more bread. By the time I had eaten all the bread and I was doing pretty good dips, I still had about 3/4 of the dip left. I had intended to eat it with the spoon but it just didn't taste spoon worthy so I threw the rest out. Total for today at F&W is $17.50. I intended to go back tonight for supper but noticed I hadn't had a refreshing adult beverage and we can't have that so I'm going to head back to AK later and go to Nomad Lounge instead. The rest of the week will be heavy on wine so I'm staying away from it for now.
 
I'm actually finding them a little bigger, certainly too big for one if you want to do a lot of booths.

I really don't have a comment to this particular post, but I would surely like to know why I am unable to see your photos. I can see all of your text regarding F&W items, but the photos are simply a - sign inside a gray circle. :sad2: Is anyone else experiencing this photo outage? :headache:
 

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