Disney World’s New Food Booth Does Its Home State Proud

Walt Disney World might as well call the 2025 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, “a salute to all cuisines, but mostly Florida’s.” Whereas Food & Wine is decidedly international, there’s much more of a regional flavor to Flower & Garden. Sure, there are still global Outdoor Kitchens around World Showcase, but most of the best booths are at the front of the park, and many emphasize Southern cuisine–and Floridian food, in particular.

These booths have menus that would be perfectly at home being served in the restaurants at Old Key West or Grand Floridian. Unsurprisingly, this is most apparent in Florida Fresh, a new-look booth that’s relocated to CommuniCore Hall. This World Celebration venue is home to two food booths at the 2025 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, both of which are excellent options.

As previously mentioned, EPCOT Farmers Feast is my #1 Outdoor Kitchen at the 2025 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. Well, Florida Fresh is right up there. Definitely not #2 or #3, but top 7–and part of a slate of formidable front-of-park Outdoor Kitchens that make it difficult to justify even bothering with World Showcase food booths.

Here’s a full rundown of the Florida Fresh food & drink menus:

From a practical perspective, this is another booth–as with EPCOT Farmers Feast–with a menu offering an appetizer, entree, and dessert. This setup allows CommuniCore Hall to serve as a de facto secondary counter service restaurant servicing the front of the park. Connections Cafe & Eatery is really busy–even during festival season–and this becomes overflow for that.

It’s also worth noting that on multiple days, we observed Florida Fresh opening around 10 a.m., as opposed to the normal 11 a.m. for all other booths. It’s unclear whether this is its scheduled opening time, or if it was simply happening as a release valve for demand (and a dearth of dining options for breakfast) on busier days during spring break. Either way, Florida Fresh almost instantly had a long line.

If it does open early, my recommendation would be to grab a table under the shade cover tucked away in the far corner (opposite the Encanto stage, heading towards Imagination). Start by eating at Florida Fresh, then send runner(s) to get food from inside CommuniCore Hall at Farmers Feast, followed by Yacht & Beach Grub and Honey Bee-stro. It’s a relatively short walk to all of those booths, and this is the best seating area for all of these booths.

Here are our food reviews from the Florida Fresh:

Conch Fritters ($6.50) – These Conch Fritters served with key lime aïoli reminded me a lot of the fan-favorite appetizer served at Olivia’s Cafe at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. When menus were first released, I found this intriguing, as Walt Disney World controversially removed the conch fritters and replaced them with subpar shrimp fritters.

This was done as part of some sustainable seafood initiative and Disney’s corporate partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. This is why we’ve also lost lobster from a lot of menus (RIP Grand Floridian Cafe’s Lobster Thermidor Burger). Anyway, I’m not certain whether Disney has ditched that partnership or is sourcing sustainable conch (they’re not all rated “avoid”), but I’m just glad to have these fritters back.

I’ll also note that Conch Fritters have also returned to Olivia’s Cafe. I don’t know when this happened, and feel it’s my duty to go confirm they’re still the original recipe (for the sake of Very Important Research, obviously).

Anyway, the Conch Fritters at Florida Fresh are fantastic.

These offer a crispy and crunchy exterior, with the uneven batter also providing a nice bit of texture to improve the mouthfeel of the fritters. That gives way to a tender and almost gooey interior, complete with chewy chunks of conch. The batter is well seasoned, but not to the point that it overwhelms the conch. Unsurprisingly, the batter to conch ratio skews towards the former, but these fritters are still delicious.

The key lime aïoli takes them to the next level, and is addictively good–creamy and with a bit of piquancy. Native Floridians probably have had better conch fritters at their favorite hole in the wall, but as someone who has this dish on more rare occasions, I’m a big fan of Walt Disney World’s version. Highly recommended.

Cubanito ($6.75) – This Cuban sandwich is a bit more straightforward of a dish, with mojo-marinated pork belly, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and stone ground mustard sauce.

The pork belly here is what really makes this more of a standout. As a sucker for pork belly, I loved this Cubanito. It gave the already indulgent sandwich a deeper and richer flavor, and I felt it punched above its weight as a result. If you’re looking for envelope-pushing cuisine, this obviously isn’t it. It’s a sandwich. But it’s a really good one.

Florida Strawberry Shortcake ($5) – This Florida Strawberry Shortcake consists of vanilla pound cake, macerated strawberries, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream.

My expectation here was shortcake tasting like something from Publix. Thankfully, it cleared that bar. The pound cake itself is good in terms of quality and consistency. The strawberries taste fresh. The sauce isn’t just thick syrup. The whipped cream is fine. It doesn’t taste fake or cheap, but also isn’t going to wow you. It’s a competent dessert.

Ultimately, Florida Fresh is one of the better Outdoor Kitchens at the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Everything here is at least worth trying and sharing, and I personally love the Conch Fritters (and that delicious dip) enough to get them again and again.

Florida Fresh is not as excellent as the other booth in CommuniCore Hall, but everything here is at least good. It may not wow, but it also won’t disappoint. It’s enough to be in the conversation as one of the best booths at the event, and the top tier in World Celebration.

World Showcase has several Outdoor Kitchens with solid items here and there, but only a couple are as strong from top-to-bottom as the booths in the former Future World (minus Citrus Blossom). Almost all of these offer excellent and ambitious cuisine at relatively fair (by Walt Disney World standards) prices. You could easily do multiple meals from these Outdoor Kitchens alone and leave very satisfied!

Check out our Outdoor Kitchen Booth Menus & Food Photos at EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival post if you want to see and read more about every menu this year. You’ll also want to read our full Guide to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival before you go to get an idea of what to do, strategy for the festival, photos of the topiaries and floral displays, and much more!