ROUND 1 – IRELAND, CANADA, & HAWAII BOOTHS
During our first visit to Epcot’s Food & Festival during our October 2021 trip, the first booth we purchased from was the Ireland booth.
Here is a photo of their menu…
We chose their…
The beer taste was predominant and neither of us like beer so this was a miss for us, especially since it was priced at $11.50 for a “smallish” serving. The souvenir was cute though. However, we still gave the shake a rating of only 1.
Next up was Canada…
From which we had the…
I still remember when they served this soup at the Canada booth without the pretzel roll. It was still really good then, but having the pretzel roll to dunk in the soup took this to the next level. Rating of 4 1/2.
The last items we purchased on this first day at the festival were both from the Hawaii booth…
The first of these was the…
This has been one of Andrew’s favorites in the past and it did not disappoint this year. We rated this a 4.
And then we also got the…
I’ve always enjoyed this tasty cheesecake and I did again. Rating of 4.
ROUND 2 – MAC & EATS, FLAVORS FROM FIRE, BREW-WING, SWANKY SAUCY SWINE, KENYA, GERMANY, ROTUNDA BISTRO, HOPS & BARLEY BOOTHS
Our second round of eating around the Food & Wine Festival booths began at…
From this booth we chose the…
Truffle Macaroni and Cheese topped with Herb Panko Bread Crumbs – $5.75
I probably would have rated this higher because I love truffles but I deferred to Andrew’s opinion. Our average rating – 3
We had previously decide that we were going to try to complete the Emile’s Fromage Montage (aka a cheese food crawl). If we purchased the 5 items listed then we would earn a prize. During our first round we had had the Passion Fruit Cheesecake so we just had 4 more items to go.
So the next booth we visited was the…
Where we got Item #5 on the Montage menu items…
Corned Beef Corner Route: Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions, and Beer-Cheese Fondue – $5.50
Neither of us are fans of corned beef so we probably should have gone with the Chimichurri Steak here. However, we were drawn to this one by the beer-cheese fondue. Sadly there wasn’t enough of the cheese fondue to cover up the taste of the smoked corned beef. So we gave this a rating of only 2.
Next we went inside the Odyssey building to the Brew-Wing where they had a special treat available for the 50th Anniversary celebration…
Here is what this Cronut looked like in real life…
The croissant doughnut itself was pretty good but would have been better without the “plastic-like” icing/fondant. Just a light layer of icing/glaze would have been great but I guess it would not have looked pretty (“Earidescent”) that way. So anyway, based on taste only we gave this a rating of 3.
Then our next booth was the…
Where we tried #4 on the Montage list, the controversial…
Crispy Barbecue Pork Rinds with Pimento Cheese – $4.75
From the reviews I’d read this was the “Love it or Hate it” item of the Montage list, with more people seeming to hate it than love it. We were among the “haters” and gave this a rating of 1.
We then headed towards Germany for our next Montage item but made a stop at this booth first…
Because we were interested in trying this item from their menu…
Kenyan Coffee Barbecue Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato & Corn Mealie Pap and Kachumbari Slaw – $6.00
This wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped. We rated it a 3.
Then it was on to…
For Item #2 on the Montage list…
Schinkennudeln – Pasta Gratin with Ham, Onions, and Cheese – $4.50
Andrew preferred this Mac & Cheese over the one we had earlier with truffles. We rated this a 4.
From the Germany booth we also tried a beer…
Schofferhofer Wild Cherry Hefeweizen – $9.00
We are generally not beer drinkers but this was fruity enough to be drinkable for us. We rated it a 3.
We just had one more item to get in order to complete the Montage but before we reached the Greece booth we passed by two other booths that I wanted to try. The first one was located inside the rotunda of the American pavilion…
From this booth I wanted to try the…
Wild Mushroom and Truffle Tart with Gruyere and Crème Fraiche – $5.00
I don’t think Andrew even tried this one, but I enjoyed it. I gave it a rating of 4.
Before sitting down in the American Gardens Theatre to catch a perform by the Voices of Liberty (who were performing outside in the theatre instead of inside the rotunda of the pavilion at this time), we visited one more booth…
The item we got here to share while we watched the Voices of Liberty was the…
Freshly Baked Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing – $4.50
This has always been one of festival favorites. YUM! We gave this a rating of 5.
After watching Voices of Liberty we had planned to complete the Montage by getting our 5th item at the Greece booth but we were just too full. So it would have to wait for another day.
ROUND 3 – APPLESEED ORCHARD, GREECE, SIMMERING SIPS (for Emile’s Fromage Montage prize)
One of the goals of our last day in the parks was to finish out the Emile’s Fromage Montage (Cheese Crawl) and get our prize. We needed only one more item to complete our quest.
But on our way back to the Greece booth (which was located near the Japan area of World Showcase, I wanted to make a stop in Canada to check out the Appleseed Orchard booth which was set up inside the theater that normally shows the Canada Far & Wide film.
All of the menu items here had apple as an ingredient, including the one we chose to try…
I liked this more than Andrew did so the average of our ratings was a 3.
Then it was on to the Greece booth for our 5th and final Montage item. But first, here is a photo of the menu…
And here was our…
We unfortunately did not get a plastic knife to cut this and it was impossible to do so with only a fork. So we ended picking it up and eating it with our hands. So it was messy to eat but worth the trouble because it was very good. We gave it a rating of 4.
So having purchased the necessary 5 cheese items (for a total of $23.50) we had completed the Montage and qualified for this prize from the Simmering Sips booth…
Strawberry Cheesecake & Vanilla Swirl Soft Serve in a souvenir plastic wine tumbler
Not only was the soft serve ice cream very tasty but I loved the small piece of cheesecake on top. We gave this a rating of 4 1/2.
So overall we tried 16 food and beverage items during our 3 visits to the 2021 Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Our average rating for the items we tried was about 3 1/4. Our favorites were the Carrot Cake (from Hops & Barley), the Cheddar Cheese Soup & Pretzel Breadstick (from Canada) and the Strawberry Cheesecake Soft Serve (Emile Fomage Montage prize), all of which received ratings of 4 1/2. Our most disappointing items were the Guinness Baileys Shake from the Ireland booth and the Pork Rinds with Pimento Cheese from the Swanky Saucy Swine booth. Both of these items rated only a 1.
Taste of Disney 