REVIEW: This EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Booth Proves Newer Isn't Always Better

Y’all. We are eating SO much food today — and we have ZERO regrets.

2023 Booth

The 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival has officially begun, and there is a lot to offer. There are plenty of food booths with tasty items, merchandise items to grab (of course), and even concerts to watch. But don’t let it overwhelm you. We’ve got you covered with everything you need to know. And now we’re heading to one spot in particular — the Italy booth — to give you the FULL scoop! Is it worth a try? Let’s find out!

Over at the Italy booth, they’re bringing their A-game. Now, we’re a bit trepidatious about this booth because as much as we LOVE Italian food, this booth tends to leave us a bit disappointed. It had a bit of a redemption arc last year, but this year, it’s sporting a whole new line-up of menu items. Will they be ballin’ or a bust? Let’s find out!

2024 Italy Booth Menu

Now that we’ve taken a look at the menu, let’s dive into the food itself!

Your turn, Italy!

🥫 Italian-style “Nachos” (New)
🍝 Polpettine Toscane (New)
🍰 Vanilla Cheesecake (New)
🍑 Bellini Spritz (New)
🍊 Italian-inspired Blood Orange Margarita pic.twitter.com/If7MmQY9uC

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) August 29, 2024

Eats

First up, we grabbed the Italian-style “Nachos” made with Homemade beef ragoût, pasta chips, tomato sauce, and dried ricotta cheese for $9.25.

Italian-style “Nachos”

We found these nachos to be a little…odd. The beef ragoût is fine, but it just tastes like beef. The chips were surprisingly interesting. They were crispy and crunchy in a great way. The tomato sauce and dried ricotta are fine, but not good. It’s just overall a strange and interesting textural dish that we wouldn’t get again.

Now, let’s try the Polpettine Toscane made with Beef meatballs, rosemary focaccia, and pomodoro sauce for $8.50.

Polpettine Toscane

The rosemary focaccia is really light and fluffy, but overall it was just fine. The Pomodoro sauce tasted like a regular marinara sauce that we wouldn’t go out of our way for. The best part of this dish was surprisingly the meatballs! They were very herby, flavorful, and not dry at all, however, it wasn’t enough to save the whole thing overall.

And finally, it’s time for dessert! We’re digging into the Vanilla Cheesecake made with Vanilla cheesecake, whipped cream, and fresh strawberry sauce for $7.75.

Vanilla Cheesecake

The best item at this booth and a best of the fest contender is the Vanilla Cheesecake. We were so surprised by how fantastic this dessert was! It’s so creamy and melts in your mouth. It tastes like fresh vanilla, not artificial vanilla syrup. The strawberry sauce was a really nice touch. We will definitely be stopping by this booth again just for this cheesecake!

Drinks

The drink menu is much more familiar from previous festivals. The Prosecco, Moscato, Chianti, and Red Sangria are all returners from previous festivals and options you can get year-round from the Italy dining options.

For this festival, we’re grabbin’ that Italian Margarita and the new Bellini Spritz. So, let’s see how these taste!

First up is the returning cocktail, the Italian-inspired Blood Orange Margarita for $12.00. This cocktail is made with Tequila, triple sec, and blood orange liqueur. In the past, it’s been one of our favorites because we always find it so refreshing (especially on those hot Florida days). We will warn you, though: this one is tart, so pucker up!

Italian-inspired Blood Orange Margarita

While it was strange to have nachos and a margarita at the Italy pavilion, this margarita was pretty good. It’s super sweet, but overall, we enjoyed this cocktail.

Now, let’s try that new cocktail, the Bellini Spritz for $14.00.

Bellini Spritz

Unfortunately, this tasted like medicine to us. It was very strong, super tart, and almost bitter. If you don’t like spritzes in general, you’ll definitely want to shy away from this one. However, if you like a spritz and enjoy their more bitter flavors, it may be worth a try.

OVERALL

The cheesecake certainly saved this booth. We would come back for the cheesecake over and over and maybe grab some more meatballs. The other items here weren’t for us, but if you like trying new and interesting remixed food items, you might want to give it a shot!

That’s it for this booth, but there’s a LOT more where that came from!

Click here to see FULL reviews of EVERY. SINGLE. BOOTH. at the Food & Wine Festival!

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

And don’t forget to pick up our 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival e-book! See more details about the book below.

IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!

Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.

If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!