We’re in the middle of March and there is a LOT going on in Disney World right now.

Raglan RoadThg

The EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival has officially kicked off. Easter festivities — AND SNACKS — will soon be available (and yes, we are ready to try ALL of them). The Easter Egg displays will also be returning to hotels soon. But we also can’t forget about St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th. Now, there will be a slew of snacks to celebrate, but the BEST way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Disney World is by visiting Disney World’s AUTHENTIC Irish restaurant, Raglan Road, which hosts the Mighty St. Patrick’s Festival. We got a preview of this year’s festival, so let’s put on our favorite shade of green and GO!

In Disney Springs, Raglan Road hosts the Mighty St. Patrick’s Festival every year to celebrate the most Irish holiday EVER. This year, the festival is taking place from March 14th to March 17th. Yep, that’s a full week of Irish fun. We had an opportunity to attend a media preview of this year’s festivities and that started with a visit to Paddy’s Bar, which celebrated its grand opening.

Paddy’s Bar is open!

We started the event by looking at a menu of specialty items you’ll find during the festival, including cocktails and food. Okay, YUM.

Our menu for the event

Of COURSE, we had to get the specialty drink, the Emerald Goddess. Y’all, this drink is PRETTY. It’s made with Irish gin, fresh lemon, pineapple juice, and apple sour topped with champagne. It was so light and refreshing. You really get a lot of that apple sour flavor, and it was almost TOO sour, but the champagne balanced it out well. But again, LOOK AT IT.  It is MAGNIFICENT.

She’s beautiful

Then, we were given a tray with samples of three dishes.

Okay, let’s dive in. When Ireland Dates America (okay, can we just talk about how much we LOVE the clever names for the dishes at Raglan Road?). It’s bacon and cabbage, mac & cheese bites, maple, glazed, bacon, carrot, and cabbage slaw pickled red cabbage purée. The mac and cheese is VERY cheesy, but we thought the bite could’ve been crispier. The breading was nice, though, and the carrot and cabbage slaw added a nice tangy taste. The bacon was thick-cut and SO good. This is a brand NEW menu item, and despite us wanting it crispier, we still think it’s a winner.

The Pull the Boxty is an existing menu item. It’s an Irish-style crispy boxty potato cake, pulled ham hock, and caramelized red onions with a Dubliner cheese sauce. The potatoes are so savory and fluffy, and the outside is crispy and crunchy. Then you’ve got the caramelized onions and pulled ham…y’all, this is potato HEAVEN.

Then it came time to dive into An Irish Egg, made with a Guinness and onion sausage crusted egg, Bushmills bacon jam, and wholegrain mustard aioli. We thought it was just okay, although the bacon jam stole the show with this dish. Everything else was good, but it needed more salt. If we could just get that bacon jam on its own, though? We’d eat it with a spoon.

LOOK at this spread!

We also got a chance to try the You Say Pork Taco, made with pulled BBQ pork, BBQ sauce, jalapeño salsa, pickled red onions, corn puree, pickled slaw, and diced Granny Smith apples on a potato taco, which had some beautifully tender pork with a sauce that added some sweetness. The pickled slaw did seem to get lost in all of the other flavors, though, but the jalapeño salsa brought a nice kick of heat. We also liked the sweetness and freshness of the corn and apples. It was served with a guacamole that we thought was just a bit too heavy on the cilantro, though. But this was still a great sweet and spicy meal.

You Say Pork Taco

The Hipsters Lament features smashed avocado, Irish bacon, and poached eggs on sourdough, chive butter, roasted tomato, and hash brown potato cake. The potato cake was the star of the show: it was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and had a lovely herby flavor. The avocado wasn’t anything special, but there was a chive butter on the toast that we really liked. Also, the toast was super thick and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The poached egg was also cooked perfectly.

Hipsters Lament

The It’s OK to Drool takes that WONDERFUL Raglan Road Bread and Butter Pudding and serves it French toast style with vanilla mascarpone, mixed berries, and crispy maple glazed bacon. Y’all…we would eat this every day of our lives if we could. It was so crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. The berries add a nice pop of freshness and tartness, and that mascarpone was SO creamy and smooth. The bacon added a nice savory bite, but we thought it could be crispier.

Yep, we’re drooling

Finally, we tried the Bailey O’Minty, which is an ice cream shake with Bailey’s, coffee liqueur, creme de menthe, and chocolate sauce. Basically, it’s like a boozy Shamrock Shake with a chocolate drizzle. It’s not too sweet, though, and we thought it was pretty strong…whew!

Baily O’Minty

So, if you’re looking for something to do in Disney World to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, be sure to head on over to Raglan Road. The festival will also feature LIVE Irish music, as well as Raglan Road’s Irish dancers. If you visit on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, note that there is a $20 per person cover charge for guests 18 and older. Reservations will also not be available on that day — it will be a first-come, first-served entry.

Stay tuned to DFB for more.

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Have you ever been to Raglan Road for St. Patrick’s Day? Share your experiences in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Raglan Road to attend their media preview of the Mighty St. Patrick’s Festival. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ