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EPCOT Dining Experience

goofysgirl80

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Hi all: I'm traveling to EPCOT in the spring and I am super excited! Soarin' is one of my favorite rides and I love seeing all the different countries. One activity I have always wanted to do is eat and drink in each World Showcase country. I finally decided to make that dream a reality this trip but I need some help. i wanted your suggestions on food and drink for World Showcase. Thanks so much! GOD bless and happy Mickey!!
 
There is a wine walk in Epcot (France, Germany and Italy) for about $20, 2 pourings per country. I did it last year and really enjoyed it. You can purchase your passport in any of the three countries.
 
Good choice, my friends and I do this every trip to Epcot, I have also done this solo; and some good tips are:

If you want to eat at a sit down restaurant, order an appetizer. I also break it up between food and desserts. These are our not to miss:

We start in Mexico:
1 order of tacos, either beef, chicken or fish at the quick service location La Cantina de San Angel
with a Margarita

Norway, is always pastries at: Kringla I stayed away from the school bread for a while because it looked plain, but it is not at all and has a wonderful flavor profile with the cardamom, cream and coconut topping. For a drink they have some wonderful Baileys drinks with coffee.

China: my friends love the orange chicken from Lotus Blossom Cafe, but I think its the same orange chicken you can find at any Chinese restaurant. Instead I head over to the Joy of Tea kiosk and get a bubble tea and chicken curry pocket.

Germany: Of course German beer and pretzels and brats, but you will find me at Karamell-Kuche buying many caramel snacks to enjoy later back at my hotel. Just to join in I have a shot of Jagermeister..That will clear the palate.

Italy: We always share a pizza at: Via Napoli.

American: Funnel cakes! but since I have so much caramel from Germany I usually just by a beer.

Japan: So many choices here. We used to go up to Tokyo Dining and get sushi, but the sushi has gone very standard and truthfully we can get better back at home. So we now do a shot of sake and grab a Kakigori which is a wonderful refreshing shaved ice with fruit and add sweeten condensed milk for a diabetic shock to the system! Good refresher and energy boost to see us through.

Morocco: So many great choices here, but to take a sit down break and get out of the sun, we head to Marrakesh, which never has a wait and order an appetizer. I love the mint tea! Or Spice Road Table has some great small plates of food tailor made for a eat around Epcot fest.

France: Pastries from Boulangerie are always great, but I love to get a crepe from Crepes de Chefs de France and nearby some wonderful champagne drink called: Kir Royal Champagne and Blackcurrant Liquor

UK: By now we are mostly full, but still plenty thirsty. Belly up to the bar in Rose and Crown and have a pint!

Canada: Unless you want to dine at Le Celliuer then food here will be snacks. Head into the trading post and pick up some authentic Canadian snacks. I have to admit I really like the ketchup potato chips.

Have fun and explore, I found that some of the stand alone kiosk's have one or two really interesting snacks and some wonderfully different drinks.
 
That is so fun to do! Here are my favorites in a few of the countries:

Germany - Schofferhofer Pink Grapefruit Beer and Nudel Gratin (like mac & cheese but so much better!) at Sommerfest

France - Citron Slush at Les Vines and a Napoleon or Quiche Lorraine from Les Halles (or really anything from there!)

Mexico - Margarita & Chips & Guacamole at La Cava del Tequila

UK - Beer Flight Sampler in the Rose & Crown Pub

Have fun & enjoy!
 


To start with if you are going in the spring there is a chance you are going to be there during F&G, which is going to change the whole eating around the world experience. I've done both, been to F&G and done the eat around the world and my son, DIL and I did the drink around the world. With three of us we were able to eat around the world in one day and drink around the world a different day. For F&G, with my son and I (he's divorced now) it takes many days to hit all the booths and we rarely eat anywhere else except the booths, maybe 2 TS somewhere during the course of a 6 day trip. We cheated a little with the eating around the world because we went to LaCava in Mexico and got guacamole and queso dip with margeritas instead of eating at the QS place outside. In norway we grabbed a pastry, in China an eggroll, in Morocco hummus, in Germany a pretzel, in Italy we cheated again and went to the wine bar and got food there, in Japan we got edamame, France an ice cream, GB fish and chips, Canada we ended up having to get a beer cause couldn't find anything to eat there. As far as drinking, there is the wine walk as another poster mentioned but you can't choose the wines for that so we do wine tastings instead. There is one in Germany, one in Itlay, one in France - all in the wine shops. There is also a sake tasting bar in Japan, you can get rice wine there if sake isn't your thing. For the other countries we pretty much went with beer. Keep in mind, we shared all the drinks among 3 people so one beer would be shared by 3 people. For the wine tastings, I think you get 3 tastings if you aren't doing the wine walk, could be 4 I don't remember but we would work it so that we pretty much got to taste all the wines on the tasting menu. Again with 3 people it's a sip from each wine, we made sure we ate between the drinking and drank water all day.
 
We easily drink our way around the World but it is more of a challenge to eat our way around the world at the same time - we get stuffed way too fast. Here's what we usually do (often we break it up into two days).

Mexico - if there is seating in La Cava Tequila we get margarita and chips/salsa/cheese/guacamole. If there isn't seating then we just get a margarita to go.

Norway - we skip this one, there just isn't anything that we get super excited about. Sorry I can't give you suggestions here.

China - so years ago I made the mistake of getting this Chinese wine. :eek: Dear God!! It was like 400 times sweeter than Zinfandel - I took one sip and that was it. Now every time we see the China Pavilion we start to laugh. We do occasionally get an egg roll for a snack. Other than that we usually skip it (but I believe they have some really great mixed drinks at one of the kiosks now?? I am willing to give China other chance to try some of those).

Germany - Wine flight and if we are hungry we get the cheese plate that goes with it.

Italy - The champagne we had for our wedding (Rosa Regale) is sold here so we get several (and I mean SEVERAL glasses of it. You can get chocolate to go with it - we happily do that. However the big thing we LOVE to do in Italy is go to Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar, get one of the little sofas in the little room on the side and get a bottle of wine and one or two of appetizer plates (typically we consider that our lunch - we try not to eat a heavy meal if we are eating and drinking around the World).

America - we skip this one. It tends to be the place we circle back around to if someone has a Funnel Cake craving.

Japan - this is probably my FAVORITE pavilion!! We spend a LONG TIME at the Saki Bar in Mitsukoshi. We have always had SUCH a fun time talking to the CMS at the Saki Bar. They are seriously SO, SO, SO friendly. My parents lived in Japan for 6 years and it is always fun to talk to them about where my parents used to live. We haven't eaten here in the past but this trip we are trying Teppan Edo for the first time.

Morocco - This is another place we really enjoy. We like to sit outside by the water at Spice Road Table and get drinks and eat appetizers. If we start the day in the other direction, we will often consider that our lunch. I have tried several of drinks here and they are all yummy.

France - Grand Marnier Slush. Typically 2. We always think the Patisserie has amazing items to eat but typically don't eat anything when we hit this one early or we are already full if we started in the other direction.

United Kingdom - Scotch Egg and something from the bar. There is a drink that isn't on the menu that is common in England (can't remember what it is but our CM told us people drink them at Wimbledon) that our CM recommended to me. It is really yummy. If you ask a CM I am sure they will be know what it is.

Canada - we usually skip this one, there's just nothing all that appealing to us but maybe we are missing something.

My suggestion is to pace yourself - you don't want to be one of people who is trashed and stumbling all over the place. In my opinion it isn't worth it to get something in every country strictly because you want to say you did it. If something doesn't really appeal to you, pass and save $$$ and room in your tummy for the next thing you find that sounds really good. Also make sure you drink A LOT of water in addition to adult beverages - if it is really hot you will need it so you don't die. If it isn't hot . . . you will need it so you don't die. LOL!! And don't feel like you are in a rush - you will end up extremely drunk if you do. That's why we typically break it up into two days. I don't want to miss a day at WDW because I am hung over from Epcot.
 
Here are a few favourites of mine. The wine walk mentioned above sounds wonderful and I will definitely be trying it on my next trip.

Mexico - chips and queso at La Cava
Norway - if you haven't tried school bread, do!
Japan - Kakigori with condensed milk topping
France - I'm not sure if they still have it, but the pressed brioche ice cream sandwiches are amazing at Artisans de Glace.
UK - Scotch egg from the bar and a pint of your choice
 


Epcot Around the World Ideas:
  • Mexico - Tacos from La Cantina
  • Norway - Pastry from Kringla Bakeri
  • China - Egg Roll or Chicken Pocket or Bubble Tea from Joy of Tea
  • Germany - Bratwurst or Pretzel from Sommerfest
  • Italy - Gelato or Dessert from Gelato Kiosk
  • Japan - Meal from Katsura Grill
  • Morocco - Meal from Tangierine Café
  • France - Pastry from Boulangerie Patisserie
  • UK - Fish and Chips from Yorkshire Fish Shop
  • Canada - Slushie
 
The key in this is to pace yourself with both the food and drinks. :D So fun though!

I would create a plan of attack and intersperse some of the potentially heavier foods with lighter foods or snack type stuff that you could potentially carry with you later. For instance, one of my favorite things in Germany is the fresh caramel corn. You could have a few bites of it (or more--I swear that stuff has crack or something addictive in it) and save the rest for snacking later on.
 

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