This lists the must-eat items from the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival booths at Walt Disney World. Here we cover the top dishes & desserts at the Global Marketplaces throughout World Showcase and Future World (especially the latter) that are truly “worth it,” with everything you need to try at the fall foodie event.
This ‘best of the fest’ list makes planning and grazing around the the event easier, as there are dozens of dishes at the Global Marketplaces of varying quality: good, bad, ugly & Italy (next level ugly). This much is clear if you’ve read our full 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival Guide.
For those who don’t want to comb through individual food booth reviews, this lengthy list of must-try dishes and desserts is a one-stop resource for those of you who want a concise rundown of what to eat and avoid at this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World. As always, there are surprising new additions as well as returning fan-favorites on this list…
Let’s start with a few prefatory notes before digging in. We’ve been covering Food & Wine Festival over the last decade-plus, quality control is not always the best…or even so-so. Items are produced quickly and in large quantities, and are not made to order. As such, results can be inconsistent, and one person’s “perfectly cooked” steak could be over-cooked for a guest who orders the same thing minutes later.
Likewise, portion sizes can vary pretty significantly. There have been times when we’ve sat at our table stood at our trash can, and noticed that other guests near us who ordered the same thing have significantly smaller or larger portions. Both of these variables can impact your perception of a particular dish.
Meat or seafood that’s been slow-cooking under a heat lamp for 30 minutes is not going to measure up to something freshly prepared. That’s especially true on slower days. You might be happy to find no lines at the food booths, but some lines are actually a good thing from the perspective of freshness.
Finally, both the Gyozas of the Galaxy and Coastal Eats booths don’t open until September 28, 2025. Coastal Eats typically has at least one ‘best of fest’ dish, and it’s quite often an all-star booth.
Gyozas of the Galaxy is the only new booth this year and has an ambitious menu, so it should be good. On the other hand, Disney has not historically done dumplings well at food booths. There’s not much margin for error, and dishes slow-cooking under heat lamps can doom them. Nevertheless, we expect at least 2-3 dishes from these booths to make this list starting September 28, 2025.
For now, here’s a look at the best-of the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival list…
Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer (Flavors from Fire)
Served with marble potatoes, charred shallots, roasted baby peppers, and chimichurri.
After a few steps backwards, Flavors from Fire is back in full form. This is grilled “out back” behind the booth, so if you’re walking near Test Track or Cosmic Rewind and catch a whiff of glorious meats in the air, this is it. The beef is cooked on giant skewers, and then dished out on plates.
We were given a sizable serving size of this dish and were impressed by both the preparation and tenderness of the meat. It was cooked to a perfect medium, with a smoky flavor. It didn’t need the chimichurri, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The flavor from the beef and vegetables is fantastic, with this beef being on par with what you could find at some table service restaurants. This, not the Le Cellier Filet Mignon, is the best beef of the fest.
Smoked Corned Beef (Flavors from Fire)
While you’re here, grab the Smoked Corned Beef with House-made Potato Chips, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions and Beer-Cheese Fondue. This has been one of the top 5 dishes for as long as it’s been on the menu, and that’s true again this year.
It’s smoked corned beef on a bed of house-made potato chips, with a fondue drizzle to top it off. The fondue is complex, and the corned beef is lean and tender, with an excellent smokiness. It’s a perfect marriage of flavors; an ambitious comfort food that’s perfect for fall.
If you’re in the market for a burger, head over to Connections Cafe as opposed to ordering the Montreal Style Burger Slider. It’s not bad by plant-based standards, but I’m over this type of dish and very ready for the Impossible sponsorship to end. Flavors from Fire should be a carnivore’s paradise.
Cast Iron-seared River Trout (Bramblewood Bites)
This is served with vanilla-butternut squash purée, brussels sprouts salad, candied pecans, spiced pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and maple dressing. Everything on the Bramblewood Bites menu is fantastic, a trio of must-order items that make a fantastic full meal. But this new dish is the standout; our #1 item at the entire 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.
This river trout has incredible flavor, with a shocking juicy and tender quality that’s complemented nicely by the crispy skin. The butternut squash purée and brussels sprouts salad add depth to the dish, making it on par with something you’d get at a table service restaurant.
Quite honestly, I can’t think of a better fish dish in all of EPCOT, including Coral Reef. It’s long been the case that EPCOT festivals do salmon well, but this is the best fish we’ve ever had at any EPCOT festival. It’s an easy must-order, and something we’ll get again and again. Bramblewood Bites is our go-to dinner at EPCOT for the next few months.
Butternut Squash & Ginger Bisque (Milled & Mulled)
This soup is served with cinnamon cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed oil.
Frankly, it’s slightly annoying that this soup is so good. I enjoyed it on a lovely Labor Day, with a feels like temperature of 110 degrees. That’s not exactly notable–the start of Food & Wine is always hot. So why are there so many hot and heavy dishes? Do the people who make these menus never leave their air-conditioned offices?!
I’m not joking. Food & Wine would be the perfect opportunity for a few booths with seasonal menus, a la EPCOT Farmers Feast during Flower & Garden. This could’ve been a vichyssoise or gazpacho, and then a hot soup in October and November. Regardless, it’s very good. Lots of depth and a rich, fall flavor. Just order it at night or find somewhere indoors to eat it.
Apple-Cinnamon & Caramel Mini Churros Sundae (Milled & Mulled)
These delightful little desserts are served with vanilla bean gelato.
These punch above their weight to an absurd degree, and are easily the best churro product in the parks. (Best overall at Walt Disney World is at Coronado Springs.) The caramel sauce tastes a bit cheap and is thick, but once ‘mixed’ a bit with the excellent vanilla gelato, it’s fine. The churros themselves are exquisite; a bit of crunch that quickly gives way to a pillowly inside.
I’d order these again and again, and recommend eating them before the soup above so that has some time to cool. (In fact, that’s what I did.)
Schiacciata Sandwich (Forest & Field)
This is a sandwich topped with mortadella, prosciutto ham, sun-dried peppers, arugula, stracciatella cheese, fall squash mostarda, and pistachio pesto on warm focaccia.
This reminds me of an old school Sunshine Seasons sandwich. There’s just enough here with the toppings and delightful focaccia to elevate this into something special. It’s probably not going to blow your mind, but if you’re looking for tasty ‘filler’ without leaving the Harvest Hollow area, this absolutely fits the bill.
Liquid Nitrogen Frozen Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse (Swirled Showcase)
This “frozen” pumpkin cheesecake features Philadelphia Cream Cheese with candied pecans and maple-caramel sauce.
For years, our favorite dessert at EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival was the Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey-Caramel. In the post reopening-era of the event, it has sort of returned, but with different presentations and subpar quality.
Looking at this, you might think I took ~20 minutes on a photoshoot and it melted in that time. Nope. It always looked like this. Later in the day, I saw others that were much more frozen in appearance, but the line was long at that point. Regardless, my cheesy pumpkin pudding had excellent flavor, so I’m recommending it even on the basis of what I had.
This is basically fall in dessert form. The perfect taste of Thanksgiving as an indulgence. I’ll be sure to revisit this during an upcoming visit, as this could and should be the #1 dessert of the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Stay tuned.
Everything at Flavors of America
Last year, this booth was basically “A Salute to All American Cuisine, But Really Only Hot Dogs.” They were good hot dogs, to be fair, but it was still slightly amusing that our great nation’s diverse culinary traditions was represented by hot dogs, and only hot dogs. It’d be like if the Canada booth had nothing but BeaverTails (wait a minute…I love that idea).
For 2025, Flavors of America switches out its menu and adds the new Gulf Coast-style Seafood Roll with warm-water lobster, rock shrimp, lobster bisque, and sherry-crème fraîche on a toasted brioche bun. Then there’s the also-new New England Slider: Slow-braised beef pot roast with spicy giardiniera, horseradish cream, and crispy fried onions on a potato roll. This is in addition to the Freshly Baked Chocolate Pudding Cake with Kentucky bourbon caramel (always a winner).
The New England Slider is nothing short of fantastic. The meat is tender, the sauces offers a refreshing quality and nice flavor, and the fried onions further that while adding texture. The bun is pretty good, too. This is an absolute must-order; the highlight of the menu, and a great 1-2 punch with the decadent pudding cake.
As for the Gulf Coast Seafood Roll…hear me out. I was mildly repulsed when they handed me that thing, a medley of seafood slathered in sauces. It probably didn’t help that I was already full, and this booth was my knockout punch. And yet, it was surprisingly tasty. Everything from the bread to the lobster bisque and sherry-crème fraîche to the mix of seafood itself. Lobster roll purists are going to recoil in horror at this abomination, but it’s a shockingly delicious abomination. As a somewhat guilty-pleasure seafood dish from a food booth, it’s better than it has any right to be.
Everything at Earth Eats
The Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib is served atop a bed of goat cheese polenta and puttanesca sauce, and is garnished with shaved pecorino, and petit herbs. It falls apart when cut with the fork, and is incredibly tender, flavorful, and juicy. Equally as significant, it has a little bit of fat for flavor, but not so much as to render any of the meat inedible.
While the puttanesca sauce is there for flavor, I felt no need to touch this until I was done with the meat. Both stand on their own–the puttanesca sauce with chunks of tomatoes and vegetables, plus the perfect acidity and garlic level. Then there’s the goat cheese polenta, which was absolutely heavenly–rich and creamy and with just the right amount of earthiness.
This short rib is a great substitute for a counter service meal. This is EPCOT festival food at its best–nuanced flavor and attention to detail, while still being approachable for everyone. The Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib belongs at the very top of your list of dishes to order. The Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake with lemon icing is the only other menu item, and it’s also worthy of being ordered.
Roasted Lamb Chop (Australia)
This Global Marketplace has been offering up lamb dishes since as long as I can remember, and the Roasted Lamb Chop with mint pesto and crushed salt and vinegar potato chips is a personal favorite. I really like the refreshing mint pesto contrasted with the rich lamb; the potato chips aren’t necessary, but a little texture never hurts.
Australia almost gets the coveted “order the entire menu” endorsement. Maybe it should have. The Grilled Bushberry Spiced Shrimp Skewer with sweet-and-sour vegetables and coconut chili sauce is the best version of the shrimp we’ve ever had, and the new Mixed Berry Pavlova (pictured at the top of the post) with crunchy meringue shell, macerated berries, and whipped cream is very good.
Slow-Roasted Pork Slider (Hawaii)
This slider is served with sweet-and-sour chutney featuring DOLE Pineapple and spicy mayonnaise. It’s made this list since the Hawaii booth was established in 2011.
Despite the relatively small roll, this sandwich comes with a heaping helping of moist pork, topped with pineapple chutney and a liberal coating of spicy mayonnaise. The mild zest of the sauce mixes perfectly with the pineapple, and the meat is always perfectly flavored. This is a can’t miss!
If you’ve been to EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival in the past decade–or even read coverage of the event–you’ve tried or heard of this. It’s a fan favorite, and for good reason. I just wish they’d bring back the SPAM Hash.
Griddled Cheese (Greece)
The iconic Griddled Greek Cheese is back once again! This uses kasseri cheese, which is a traditional semi-hard Greek cheese made from sheep and goat milk. Griddling the cheese softens it up, giving it an exterior skin.
The hardened honey adds a sweetness and the ground pistachios offer further crunch. The ingredients coalesce remarkably well, and the end result is a creamy, nutty, sweet, and earthy cheese dish that is a truly sublime. This is easily one of our all-time favorite dishes of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.
Feijoada (Brazil)
This dish features crispy pork belly, black beans, Brazil nut pesto, and long grain white rice. This is a good one-two punch for us; the base offers well-rounded flavor with plenty of seasoning and nuance.
And of course, what’s not to love about pork belly?! This meat is melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with the right amount of fattiness and perfect preparation. Together, it’s a well-balanced dish that’s at once ambitious and comforting. If Walt Disney World is going to make Food & Wine menus more crowd-pleasing, this is exactly how to do it!
Pickle Milkshake (Brew-Wing)
Don’t let the name fool you; this is fairly vanilla. Literally. It’s a vanilla milkshake with dill seasoning plus green food coloring. The end result is something that has an interesting interplay of sweet and creamy, and semi-sour, savory, tart and tangy. More than anything else, the Pickle Milkshake is tasty, cooling and refreshing.
I actually like this! The ice cream in the shake tastes shockingly high quality, the portion is sizable, and the price is relatively reasonable. It’s not the most inventive or ambitious, but it is an economical ice cream delivery vehicle. And that matters on hot days!
It’s worth giving a shot, especially since Brew-Wing is a large indoor booth with ample A/C and seating. Absolutely nothing else on the menu is worth getting, so it’s either this or walking over Flavors from Fire dishes (also recommended).
(Almost) Everything Else at Harvest Hollow
It’s a time honored tradition for this blog to recommend a few booths in their entirety, saving your sanity and time in not having to wait in a bunch of long lines for individual items. For the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, we’re taking this several steps further and endorsing an entire area: Harvest Hollow.
This is the stretch along the Rose Walk between Journey into Imagination and World Showcase. It’s home to three food studios and a grand total of 10 dishes. I’ve tried 9 of them, skipping only the new Autumn Chili featuring IMPOSSIBLE Beef (as mentioned, it’s been hot at EPCOT since Food & Wine started).
The nine I’ve tried are all very good to great. And chances are, there are flavor and ingredient combos in that mix that ‘won’t speak to you’ or you’ll otherwise want to skip. With that said, if we could only do three booths at the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, this trio should be it.
When grazing around the event, our advice is to start in Future World and work your way backwards. These are our #1, #2, and #3 booths of the entire 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Throw in Earth Eats, Swirled Showcase and Flavors from Fire, and you could easily ‘finish’ Food & Wine before even entering World Showcase!
Honorable Mentions
It’s impossible to list every dish from the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival that’s very good or better. Here’s a list of honorable mentions–in addition to some of the secondary selections listed above:
- Hawaiian Rice Bowl (Hawaii)
- Braised Beef Poutine (Refreshment Port)
- Cheddar Cheese Soup with Pretzel Roll (Canada)
- Filet Mignon (Canada)
- France Booth (all dishes are good to very good, but not great)
- Beer-braised Beef (Belgium)
- Tangierine Cafe (nothing new here, but all dishes are very good)
- South African Cream Liqueur Chocolate Mousse (Refreshment Outpost)
- Basque Cheesecake (Spain)
- India Booth (both items are very good)
Even skipping entire booths like Mexico, Italy, China, Germany, and other popular options–you still have over two dozen recommendations if you order everything on this list. That’s a lot of dishes to try! If you don’t get full or go broke trying, chances are, you’ll want to repeat some of them before needing to bother with the rest of the fest.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you have any must-eat snacks from the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival? If you’ve tried any of the dishes on this list, what’d you think of them? Did we snub any of your top dishes, desserts, or drinks at this year’s event? Agree or disagree with our choices? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
