10 Things To Eat at EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts Before It’s Over
The 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts is going on in Disney World right now, and there are a ton of fun things to do from checking out the chalk art to listening to the Broadway stars.
Festival of the Arts signs
The best part of the festival (in my opinion) is definitely the food, and you only have a few more days to try it out — the last day of Festival of the Arts is February 19th! So, I’m here to tell you about some of the items you should definitely go and grab before they’re gone.
Last Chance for Festival Food (& Drinks)
Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak Sandwich — The Craftsman’s Courtyard
The Craftsman’s Courtyard is located over at the front of World Showcase across from Disney Traders. If you want a fun and hearty little sandwich, grab this!
This is the Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak with caramelized onions and mushrooms, blue cheese fondue and arugula on a grilled French roll for $7. I thought this was absolutely delicious and a great blend of flavors!
The steak is tender and there’s a wonderful balance between the pepperiness of the arugula to the tang of the blue cheese. There’s also some sweetness from the caramelized onions and that delicious umami flavor from the mushrooms.
Don’t be afraid to try this one even if you’re not a huge blue cheese person, I really didn’t think it was overpowering here at all. This is also a nice item to cut in half and split with someone else!
Deconstructed Key Lime Pie — The Deconstructed Dish
Let’s head over to The Deconstructed Dish in World Discovery (near Test Track) for the the Deconstructed Key Lime Pie. This is flexible key lime curd, “key lime” mousse, graham cracker cake and meringues for $6.50.
Okay, this is definitely not your average key lime pie! But, that’s a good thing — I’m a huge fan of the classic dessert so it was fun to try it in a different form.
The flexible key lime curd tastes just like a good key lime pie filling and the mousse is soooo delicious! The graham cracker cake brings that element of the crust, and it’s really enjoyable when you get a bite of everything at once.
Deconstructed Key Lime Pie
The only things I didn’t really love on this are the meringues. They’re not bad, just hard to eat with a fork or spoon and one literally exploded when I tried to cut into it, which admittedly was kind of funny.
But, everything else about this dessert is delicious and I’d definitely recommend giving it a try! This is also an item on the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine if you’re participating in that.
A Play on Rosé Flight — Pastoral Palate
Time for some alcohol! EPCOT is one of the best places to get a drink in Disney World, and it’s especially fun to check out what they have at the festivals.
One of my favorite options is the Play on Rosé Flight from Pastoral Palate in the Germany Pavilion. This contains the 3 Daughters Brewing Rosé Hard Cider, 81Bay Brewing Co. Rosé Blonde Ale, and the Frozen Rosé for $11.
I love this flight because you get a hard cider, a beer, and some frozen wine! They still work well together though since they’re all rosé flavored.
The cider isn’t too sweet, the beer has great flavor, and the frozen rosé never disappoints over in Germany — all three have a dryness you find in rosé that’s fantastic. This might be my favorite flight of drinks I’ve had at an EPCOT festival in a long time!
Mozzarella Fritta — L’Arte di Mangiare
You know what’s awesome when you’re drinking around the world? Fried cheese. Actually, fried cheese is awesome almost all of the time. Yep, this next item really isn’t anything super special, and it’s probably overpriced, but it’s still fried cheese so that makes it a winner.
The Mozzarella Fritta is located over at L’Arte di Mangiare in the Italy Pavilion. It’s flash-fried breaded fresh mozzarella with artist palette condiments for $8.50.
It comes on a little painters palette except the paint is the different dipping options — marinara, pesto, balsamic, and a mayo and ketchup mixture. The mayo and ketchup mixture is a pretty odd choice here, but it’s honestly not bad and the other three sauces are delicious!
It does make a different that this is fried fresh mozzarella instead of the typical low-moisture variety you usually get in mozzarella sticks. It’s ultra creamy and it’s even seasoned with some herbs! I wouldn’t share this one though. Keep all that cheese to yourself.
Hummingbird Cake — The Artist’s Table
Let’s talk about the best dessert at this entire festival: the Hummingbird Cake from The Artist’s Table. This booth is over in the American Adventure pavilion.
The dessert is a banana-and-pecan cake dipped in cream cheese icing with caramel sauce and warm pineapple compote for $4.75. Do I even need to explain why this is good after that description? Probably not, but I will.
This cake is like a warm hug from your grandma on a beautiful summer evening in the south. You just ate a tasty dinner, you’re sitting on the front porch, and you’re eating this cake while watching the lightning bugs start to dot the dark sky with their glow.
If you like pineapple and banana and caramel and cream cheese icing and just delicious things in general, you will most likely enjoy this dessert! The texture is wonderful, the cake is moist and dense without being too heavy, and the combo of flavors is magical.
Hard Cider Flight — Tangierine Café
Time for another drink, if you so choose! If you’re a hard cider fan, you’ve gotta try the flight over at Tangierine Café in the Morocco Pavilion.
This has the Blake’s Hard Cider Co. Grizzly Pear Hard Cider, Rekorderlig Strawberry-Lime Hard Cider, and Keel Farms Blueberry Lavender Hard Cider for $10.25. The flight is a great way to try out some different flavors of cider without committing to a full-sized drink!
My personal favorite was probably the blueberry lavender, but the pear is a close second. Pear cider is almost always delicious! The strawberry-lime was also good, it just was beat out by the other two.
None of the ciders were too sweet, in my opinion, and they’re all different enough from each other to make it worth getting all three in the flight.
Passion Fruit-Filled Mango Cheesecake — Vibrante & Vívido: Encanto Cocina
Oh look! Another dessert. The Passion Fruit-Filled Mango Cheesecake is over at Vibrante & Vívido: Encanto Cocina, which is between the Morocco and France Pavilions.
It’s a passion fruit-filled mango cheesecake with coconut-pineapple cake, dragon fruit gelée and dragon fruit-strawberry sauce for $5. Just look at how beautiful this thing is!
If you want to take a colorful photo of some food, this is the item to get. Also, it’s delicious, which is the main reason you should try it!
The cheesecake is a unique blend of some tropical flavors that you won’t find in a lot of other desserts (unless you live somewhere tropical!). The texture is lovely and you can really taste that passion fruit and mango. The dragon fruit has a nice sweetness to it and taking a bite of everything at once just creates a nice experience!
Crème de Brie en Petit Pain — L’Art de la Cuisine Française
MORE CHEESE, PLEASE. Okay, that was aggressive, but it was warranted, because I’m about to talk about molten cheese inside of a bread bowl.
Creme de Brie en Petit Pain 2023
The Crème de Brie en Petit Pain is at L’Art de la Cuisine Française in the France Pavilion. It’s warm creamy brie in a house-made bread bowl. How can you beat that?
Listen, when we first reviewed this item, we had a bit of an issue on our hands. Our cheese wasn’t warm at all, it was actually pretty cold. It was still tasty, just not what we were promised.
However, when I recently visited this booth, the cheese I got was piping hot and perfect. I literally saw the Cast Member ladle it into the bread bowl before it was handed to me, so I think the cold cheese was just a fluke.
See how melty!
If you like melted cheese, especially a brie that has a little bit of character, this is a winner. Dip your bread into it, then dig into that bread bowl either with a fork and knife or pick it up with your hands a take a bite. No one is judging!
Wild Mushroom Risotto — Gourmet Landscapes
Honestly, all of the food items at the Gourmet Landscapes booth are really good (and so is that Raspberry Chéret Double Radler on tap!), but if you only get ONE thing at this booth, make it the Wild Mushroom Risotto! I actually got it twice during my time at EPCOT, which I don’t believe I’ve ever done with any other festival item.
This booth is located in the Canada Pavilion and the dish is wild mushroom risotto with truffle shavings and zinfandel reduction for $9.75. It’s also plant-based!
It’s not like they’re reinventing the wheel here, mushroom risotto is a pretty common dish, but it’s just done so well! This actually might be the same risotto they serve inside Le Cellier with their filet mignon — not confirmed, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
If I could only have one dish from the festival any time I wanted it, it would be this risotto. The truffle is there without being overpowering, the risotto is cooked well, and the mushrooms and sauce are flavorful!
Rainbow Beer Flight — Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey: Art, Food and Little Sparks of Magic
Let’s wrap things up with some more drinks! We already did a cider flight, so here’s a beer flight for you. This one is located over at Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey: Art, Food and Little Sparks of Magic.
It’s the Rainbow Beer Flight, which contains the 81Bay Brewing Co. Green with Envy Blonde Ale, 81Bay Brewing Co. Blue Butterfly Lager, and Urban Artifact The Gadget Raspberry & Blackberry Midwest Fruit Tart for $10.25.
I’ll be real with you — is this the best beer flight I’ve ever had? Nope. Is it the most colorful? Yep. That’s the main appeal here — the bright blue and green beers alongside that purple-ish one.
Don’t worry, the colors don’t impact the flavor, these taste like normal craft beers (is that an oxymoron?). The blonde and lager have a more traditional beer flavor and the fruit tart is closer to a sour.
While these beers probably aren’t something I would get again, I am glad I tried them, because it’s not very often you get to drink a blue beer!
So, happy eating and drinking! Grab these items while they’re still available, because once Festival of the Arts is over, they’re gone! Stay tuned for more Disney World news, info, and updates.
