Conquer Every Bite: Top 5 Must-Try NEW Food Items at Epcot's Festival of the Arts
By: Jon Self 01.17.23
Have you ever wanted to visit an Epcot food festival to try every new food item being sold? Well, we wanted to give that a try ourselves. As a result, we tried every new food item at the 2024 Epcot Festival of the Arts. Based on our visit during the event's opening weekend, what new food items should you enjoy?
Friday, January 12, 2024, marked the beginning of the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. Many different food and beverage locations combined to sell around 15 new food items for the 2024 festival. Of course, many other food and beverage locations at Epcot sold festival food and beverages. For this resource, we will focus on new food items for this year. So, what did we think of these new items?
Xavier and the crew tried all of the new food items on the opening day of the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. They battled wind, crowds, and some rain to complete this task. We found a few food items to suggest during your visit to the Festival of the Arts, which runs until February 19, 2024. We will list the top five in no particular order.
Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak - $7.00
We found one of our favorite new items this year at the Craftsman’s Courtyard festival location in the Port of Entry area of Epcot. In fact, this festival location presents guests with two new items. We enjoyed both. As a result, the other one will make our list too. However, this first one made a more popular choice among our group. Also, during the second day of the festival, we recommended this Festival of the Arts new food item to some friends. They all enjoyed it and agreed the Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak Sandwich was a great option for other guests.
The menu description for these reads, “Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak with caramelized onions and mushrooms, blue cheese fondue, and arugula on a grilled French roll.” This sandwich comes to guests with a solid presentation. Presentation is always essential since people eat with their eyes before their taste buds. This sandwich should appeal to most guests initially.
We found the merging of onions, mushrooms, and steak formed a tasty combination with this skirt steak sandwich. The blue cheese enhances the sandwich without overwhelming it. Everyone in our group appreciated this sandwich. For the seven-dollar price point, this makes an excellent festival food item for visitors.
Grilled Pork Belly - $6.75
The other new item at the Craftsman’s Courtyard Food Studio makes our list of the top five best new food items at the Festival of the Arts. This unique-looking item is called a Grilled Pork Belly.
This new food item primarily involves pork and cheese. Those components shine with this festival food item. The variety of flavors within this open-faced style sandwich presents guests with an excellent option. This offers a solid flavor that we think many guests will enjoy.
The menu description indicates that this consists of salsa verde, broccoli rabe, pickled peppers, and raclette cheese on grilled sourdough. We found the pork belly tasted quite good with this. We wish the bread would have been softer, but this makes a solid choice for your festival food fun.
Passion Fruit-filled Mango Cheesecake - $5.00
Our next option counts as a sweet treat. Our group ordered this dessert late in the day on the first day of the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. It comes from the Vibrante & Vivido: Encanto Cocina Food Studio. This can be found between France and Morocco in the World Showcase area of Epcot. The Passion Fruit-filled Mango Cheesecake consists of coconut-pineapple cake, dragon fruit gelée, and dragon fruit-strawberry sauce in addition to the cheesecake portion full of passion fruit and mango.
We thought all the flavors worked well. The mango and passion fruit stand out as definitive flavors in this cheesecake. We found those flavors to be secondary for those worried about too much mixing of flavors with the coconut-pineapple components.
Like many food items at the Festival of the Arts, the presentation was terrific. This should be expected since this is a festival about art, right?
Some guests referred to this cheesecake as taking their breath away based on its quality and texture. Overall, we think this dessert will be a hit with almost all guests.
Rock the Dots Cake - $5.25
Another sweet new treat we recommend at this year’s festival comes from the popular Pop Eats Food Studio. The Rock the Dots Cake shined as a popular new festival food item among our group. This cake consists of white chocolate and orange mousse as the main components. The vanilla bean chiffon cake provides a reasonable foundation for this dessert. The mousse brings a balanced quality flavor to this cake. We found the mousse to be the best part of this treat.
We expect to order this again. Pop Eats Food Studio has been one of the most popular Food Studios so far this year at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. This food and beverage location can be found in the Port of Entry area. Also, it features two grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup options. We thought those were good as well. Based on the popularity, please plan some time to order and receive your food here.
Saumon Fume Mousse - $7.95
We tasted a more upscale dish to complete our list of the best five new food items at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. We went to France for the L’Art de la Cuisine Française Food Studio. The Saumon Fumé Mousse et Aspic, Blini et Fromage de Chevre provided our best dining experience out of the four new food items sold there this year. This festival salmon mousse-type food item surprised us with its quality.
This salmon mousse comes cold, featuring smoked salmon and a flaxseed biscuit. We thought the flavor combination worked nicely. The merging of the salmon with the biscuit balanced the textures and diverse flavors very well. Even the less adventurous eaters in our group appreciated this festival item.
Conclusion About New Food Items at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts
Though we did not like everything at this year’s festival, we found most new food items to be well above average, if not excellent. As stated, we will return to enjoy some of these again before the festival ends on February 19, 2024. If you try some of these, let us know about your experience. As always, eat like you mean it!