The Super Bowl of the foodie world has begun at Walt Disney World! The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival is back from August 28th to November 22nd, 2025, giving guests nearly three months to experience all it has to offer. The International Food and Wine Festival takes guests on a culinary adventure to sample global offerings, featuring different takes on authentic cuisine, cooking styles, and cultures.

This year, the festival features nearly 30 Global Marketplaces (plus some extra festival offerings at year-round locations), and we made our way around the World Showcase to explore all that they have to offer. So, whether you’re on a tight budget or just want to stick to trying only the best the festival has to offer this year, we’re bringing you the FULL LIST of the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival best (and worst) dishes!

EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival Overview

EPCOT’s International Food and Wine Festival started over 25 years ago as a way to attract more guests to the park during the slower months of September and October. Little did Disney know that it would quickly become one of EPCOT’s most popular events and a year-round staple!

The festival does focus on all things food, but there is more to offer than just eating and drinking (which you can check out in our full guide to the Food and Wine Festival HERE!). However, let’s be real, the main attraction here is the Global Marketplaces—and for good reason! These food booths are located throughout EPCOT, though primarily within the World Showcase and its corresponding paths.

Follow along with us as we eat our way through the best (and worst) of the fest in 2025!

The BEST Dishes at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

This year’s festival offers a mix of returning dishes and new dishes for guests to enjoy! Some Global Marketplaces endured a complete overhaul, while others stayed tried and true to their roots. Here are some of the dishes we’ll be eating every trip!

Hawaiian Rice Bowl

Location: Hawai’i

Price: $6.25

This rice bowl is a returning dish to the festival, and we’re very glad that it’s back! Not only is it delicious, but it’s also one of the best values of the festival. The large portion size consists of spam, eggs, and rice, topped with spicy mayo and furikake.

The dish was well-balanced, not overly salty, and had the perfect amount of spicy mayo to round out the dish. This was a definite winner!

Tostada de Carnitas

Location: Mexico

Price: $8.00

The Mexico food booths are always a must-do for any EPCOT festival, and this year is no different! The marketplace always offers some variation of a tostada, and this year it’s the Tostada de Carnitas.

The fried corn tortilla is topped with braised pork, black beans, salsa, crema, and queso fresco. All I can say is: YES! The tostada was piled high with the pork, enough to fill every bite. The pork was well seasoned, though if I had to give it a fault, it is a messy eat. The salsa and crema bring great flavors and a bit of welcomed heat, but it can get really messy if not eaten fast enough.

Pea and Potato Samosas

Location: India

Price: $5.50

The Pea and Potato Samosas check so many boxes year after year, hence why they keep returning! It’s a simple dish, yet packed with flavor. For one, they are vegan, and there aren’t many vegan options throughout this year’s festival. Secondly, they are spicy—in a good way! It can be hard to find something with legitimate spice anywhere in Disney World. However, the coriander-lime cream that tops the samosa does a good job of balancing the heat.

But most of all, these are a great value. For $5.50, guests get two very large samosas full of filling. The crust was flaky, and it had more potatoes than peas inside, adding to the filling and value.

Pumpkin-Mascarpone Ravioli

Location: Forest and Field

Price: $5.50

Pasta dishes are hard to do correctly at festivals, but this is the exception! In fact, I liked this so much that I went back for a second round immediately! These pumpkin and mascarpone-filled raviolis are fall in every bite (something we don’t usually get here in Florida!).

While at first glance these might look a little dry, don’t let that fool you—they’re not! The brown butter vinaigrette provided a great caramelization to the very tender ravioli, and the pomegranate seeds and hazelnut praline provided the perfect amount of sweetness in each bite.

Schiacciata Sandwich

Location: Forest and Field

Price: $6.25

Sticking with the fall-themed Forest and Field marketplace, the Schiacciata Sandwich is a must. The warm focaccia sandwich is filled with mortadella, prosciutto, sun-dried peppers, arugula, cheese, fall squash mostarda, and a pistachio pesto.

If it sounds like a lot of food, well…it is! For only $6.25, this is almost a full-size sandwich you’d order at a restaurant. The sandwich was well-made, and you can taste nearly every ingredient in every bite. The bread is made from scratch, and though some parts of it were slightly hard, the seasoning was what really brought the sandwich together.

Rodizio-Style Grilled Beef Skewers

Location: Flavors From Fire

Price: $7.00

For meat lovers, this is not only one of the best-tasting dishes of the festival, but you simply can’t beat the value. Flavors From Fire is one of the Global Marketplaces with an open kitchen, allowing guests to watch their dishes get cooked right in front of their eyes!

In this dish, the smoky, grilled flavor is not overpowering, though there is just enough to let you know what cooking technique it came from. Two HUGE pieces of perfectly cooked, medium-rare beef sat next to multiple marbled potatoes and charred peppers, enough to easily share. Additionally, the chimichurri really made the flavors pop.

Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib

Location: Earth Eats

Price: $8.50

This Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib dish is a returning favorite to the Food and Wine Festival, and it might just be my favorite dish of all! Though it is one of the more expensive dishes of the festival, it delivers time and time again. The short ribs are tender and packed with flavor, and the goat cheese polenta adds a great tanginess that balances out the richness of the ribs and sauce.

I was afraid the sauce would be overly salty with the capers and olives, but it was really enjoyable. Not only did it taste great, but I loved the portion size as well! This marketplace is off the beaten path of where the majority of the global marketplaces are so be sure to head toward the Land Pavilion and give it a try!

Gulf Coast Style Seafood Roll

Location: Flavors of America

Price: $8.75

Following suit with the short rib, this Gulf Coast Style Seafood Roll is one of the more expensive festival offerings, but it’s worth every penny! The seafood roll is a warmed brioche bun filled with warm water lobster, rock shrimp, lobster bisque, and a sherry creme fraiche.

I was skeptical about this dish, and it turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the weekend!

The amount of seafood in the roll blew me away, and it wasn’t fishy at all! The buttered bun was held together well but was still soft. The lobster bisque and sherry fraiche made this seafood roll taste and feel much more elevated than it was – a welcome surprise!

Brioche aux Epices Avec Une Garniture Mornay de Trois Fromages

Location: France

Price: $8.50

Move over, Brazilian Cheese Bread, there’s a new cheesy favorite in town! Don’t let its long name fool you, this cheese-filled brioche bun was one of the simplest dishes of the festival, and one of the most flavorful!

A huge spiced brioche bun is filled with a Mornay cheese filling, a.k.a a bechamel of cheese combinations. The brioche was soft, fluffy, and pulled apart so easily, while the inside was warm, gooey, and smooth. The cheese was sharp enough to be prominent without being overpowering, and the subtle spice on the brioche was perfect.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a rich dish. However, would I spend $8.50 for warm, cheesy bread on a 100-degree Orlando afternoon again? You bet I would.

The WORST Dishes at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

With over 150 festival dishes to choose from, there are bound to be some that fall flat. Whether it’s taste, quality, value, or all of the above, here are a few things you can skip at this year’s Food and Wine Festival.

Beijing Zhajiang Noodles

Location: China

Price: $8.50

I really wanted to like these, and though they weren’t horrible, they weren’t great either. The noodles were served with stir-fry minced beef, cucumber, chili, and carrots in a savory douban sauce.

Starting with the positive, the beef itself was super flavorful. Additionally, there was a decent amount of beef along with a large noodle portion. However, this dish was nothing but oil. The beef lost all flavor when combined with the noodles, which were an attempt at a soy-based, savory take-out dish, but ended up being an oil-covered noodle dish that reminded me of Hamburger Helper

Chicken Dumplings

Location: China

Price: $5.75

The best way to describe these Chicken Dumplings from the China food booth was: fine. They weren’t bad, but they’re nothing you’d be talking about at the end of the night. The dumplings are pan-fried with a sweet and spicy sauce, although it could have used more sauce to help with the mostly bland flavor of the filling. Also, the dumplings were pretty small.

Overall, they are standard dumplings you can find at any take-out Chinese restaurant. This is a good option for kids who like dumplings or picky eaters who would consider this a safe food, but if you don’t fall into those categories, spend your money elsewhere.

Paella Caldoso

Location: Spain

Price: $8.00

I was thrilled to see a new Spain menu, but was, unfortunately, disappointed by the Paella Caldoso. This paella, featuring rock shrimp, bay scallops, and smoked mussels, has a beautiful presentation. It even comes in a plastic dish that resembles a cast-iron skillet, which the dish would typically come in! But…that was about the only positive.

The rice was overcooked and watery. The seafood was all overcooked and dry, and overall, it was just too fishy. Both the rice and the seafood were too chewy. This ended up being the only dish we didn’t finish all weekend.

New England Slider

Location: Flavors of America

Price: $6.00

This New England Slider potato roll was filled with slow-braised beef pot roast, spicy giardiniera, horseradish cream, and crispy fried onions.

I think this dish has the potential to be good, and I even think that it might have been good if someone else had made it on the day we tried it. However, the one we received just didn’t hold up. The flavors of the pot roast were good, but without the au jus on the side, it was dry. The slider could have used more horseradish, as well. More notably, that giardiniera on top was WAY too spicy. I like spicy, but wasn’t expecting my mouth to be on fire for a while after.

Osakana Karaage

Location: Japan

Price: $8.50

Based on the description of the Osakana Karaage, I expected this dish to be packed with flavor. However, the crispy fried pollock with a spicy mayo and sweet, creamy yuzu sauce really just tasted like…nothing? The fish had no flavor, and there was no outside crispiness at all. Additionally, the whole thing was overly chewy, which is the opposite of what you want with a fish dish.

To give this dish the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was sitting out for a while, as we did visit this booth late at night, about 10 minutes before park closing. However, I’m really not sure this could be saved. For close to $10, there are other seafood dishes you’ll enjoy.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the 2025 International Food and Wine Festival was one of the best we’ve seen in years and finding dishes I didn’t like was few and far between!

Comments

What do you think are the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival best and worst dishes of all time? Let us know if you’re planning to visit and what you think are the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival best and worst dishes this year in the comments!