Food and Wine 2017

[TN22.....Brady 22]

The Flavors From Fire Pancake was my favorite F&W item. ( I specify F&W item, because my all time favorite anything at Epcot is the Cheese plate from inside the Germany wine cellar. )

The SPAM hash from Hawaii was excellent! (I know, excellent and SPAM don't usually go in the same sentence).

Pomegranate beer, although skeptical at first, turned out to be one the best beers of the day, so good in fact, we had seconds, and maybe thirds.

Friends of ours had the beer cheese soup and filet from Canada, and they agreed it was excellent this time around.

Lobster Roll from America was not drowning in Mayo, and looked appetizing, friends with us said it was very good.

Scallops from Earth Eats were not that tasty, they were chewy and overcooked in my opinion.

Wine & Dine Studio cheese plate was alright, nothing spectacular, so would not get it again. However, friends got the scallops from there and they loved them, they also looked much better than the ones from Earth Eats.

 

 

I have pictures, but no way to post them directly, so I guess this will be a review without pictures, but it did happen!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

2 hours ago, TN22.....Brady said:

The Flavors From Fire Pancake was my favorite F&W item. ( I specify F&W item, because my all time favorite anything at Epcot is the Cheese plate from inside the Germany wine cellar. )

The SPAM hash from Hawaii was excellent! (I know, excellent and SPAM don't usually go in the same sentence).

Pomegranate beer, although skeptical at first, turned out to be one the best beers of the day, so good in fact, we had seconds, and maybe thirds.

Friends of ours had the beer cheese soup and filet from Canada, and they agreed it was excellent this time around.

Lobster Roll from America was not drowning in Mayo, and looked appetizing, friends with us said it was very good.

Scallops from Earth Eats were not that tasty, they were chewy and overcooked in my opinion.

Wine & Dine Studio cheese plate was alright, nothing spectacular, so would not get it again. However, friends got the scallops from there and they loved them, they also looked much better than the ones from Earth Eats.

 

 

I have pictures, but no way to post them directly, so I guess this will be a review without pictures, but it did happen!

Thanks for the review!

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

20 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

I misstated Monday through Friday. The CM discount is only good Monday through Thursday. 

Regarding the booths not offering the discount, it's interesting that the ones I noted are all along a stretch that has the worst congestion when it's crowded. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

TCD

Makes sense that the discount is not on Friday, it's pretty busy anyway.  As to the crowded area, I bet you are correct.

[djsamuel 322]

On 10/18/2017 at 5:58 PM, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Wow - have they ever done that before??

AP discount would be A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

My wife started at Disney 19 years ago.  This is the first time I've heard of this discount.

[djsamuel 322]

On 10/19/2017 at 10:31 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:

That Blog post has been corrected to state that the CM discount is only good Monday through Friday, and there is a specific list of food booths it applies to:

Without trying to hard, I read the list to see if I could figure out what booths are excluded- I don't see France, Japan or Morocco on the list.  I wonder why it applies to some and not others?

TCD

The discount may still apply to these countries.  France, Japan and Morocco (as well as China) are participants.  For some reason the last few years Disney doesn't list them on the lists of cast member dining discounts.  The normal dining discount for these countries are listed in the Cast ID discount booklet they have available at Company D. I have no idea why Disney won't list them as discounts available to cast members.  It does make it more confusing. 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

30 minutes ago, djsamuel said:

The discount may still apply to these countries.  France, Japan and Morocco (as well as China) are participants.  For some reason the last few years Disney doesn't list them on the lists of cast member dining discounts.  The normal dining discount for these countries are listed in the Cast ID discount booklet they have available at Company D. I have no idea why Disney won't list them as discounts available to cast members.  It does make it more confusing. 

Ah... so maybe someone just copy/pasted from the regular CM dining discount stuff to this.

[djsamuel 322]

Just now, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Ah... so maybe someone just copy/pasted from the regular CM dining discount stuff to this.

I don't think that is the case, but rather for some reason Disney no longer includes the participants in their lists of discounts, even though the discounts may be available.  They do include them for the Holiday Celebration Package each year though.  I guess they want the participants to handle their own publicity.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

11 minutes ago, djsamuel said:

I don't think that is the case, but rather for some reason Disney no longer includes the participants in their lists of discounts, even though the discounts may be available.  They do include them for the Holiday Celebration Package each year though.  I guess they want the participants to handle their own publicity.

Interesting!

[shoreline99 137]

On 10/20/2017 at 12:55 PM, TN22.....Brady said:

The Flavors From Fire Pancake was my favorite F&W item. ( I specify F&W item, because my all time favorite anything at Epcot is the Cheese plate from inside the Germany wine cellar. )

The SPAM hash from Hawaii was excellent! (I know, excellent and SPAM don't usually go in the same sentence).

Pomegranate beer, although skeptical at first, turned out to be one the best beers of the day, so good in fact, we had seconds, and maybe thirds.

Friends of ours had the beer cheese soup and filet from Canada, and they agreed it was excellent this time around.

Lobster Roll from America was not drowning in Mayo, and looked appetizing, friends with us said it was very good.

Scallops from Earth Eats were not that tasty, they were chewy and overcooked in my opinion.

Wine & Dine Studio cheese plate was alright, nothing spectacular, so would not get it again. However, friends got the scallops from there and they loved them, they also looked much better than the ones from Earth Eats.

 

 

I have pictures, but no way to post them directly, so I guess this will be a review without pictures, but it did happen!

I can pretty much agree with everything you mentioned. That pancake was one of my favorite bites from the festival! I think the only thing that was better came from the Africa and India booths. The pomegranate beer was like drinking hard soda, but soooo tasty on a hot day. Dangerous.

The cheese plate selection in the Tutto Gusto wine cellar is better IMHO than the Germany version, though.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

4 hours ago, djsamuel said:

The discount may still apply to these countries.  France, Japan and Morocco (as well as China) are participants.  For some reason the last few years Disney doesn't list them on the lists of cast member dining discounts.  The normal dining discount for these countries are listed in the Cast ID discount booklet they have available at Company D. I have no idea why Disney won't list them as discounts available to cast members.  It does make it more confusing. 

I'm not clear on what you're saying here.

As far as we know, this 20% CM discount for Food and Wine is new, and Disney published a list of the booths where the discount will be given.  What do you mean that "France, Japan and Morocco (as well as China) are participants?"

TCD

[TN22.....Brady 22]

2 hours ago, shoreline99 said:

Tutto Gusto wine cellar

I did not know about this place. I must try on my next visit. Thanks for the tip.

[djsamuel 322]

46 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I'm not clear on what you're saying here.

As far as we know, this 20% CM discount for Food and Wine is new, and Disney published a list of the booths where the discount will be given.  What do you mean that "France, Japan and Morocco (as well as China) are participants?"

TCD

A participant is a business at Disney that is not owned by Disney.  The latest dining cast discount sheets (effective October 16, 2017) for Epcot show discounts for Biergarten, Coral Reef, Garden Grill, Akershus, Le Cellier and Rose and Crown.  The other restaurants not shown are participants; not Disney owned.  As a result, for the last few years, Disney does not publicize cast discounts in the cast materials, other than having them advertise the discounts in the Cast ID discount booklets.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

11 minutes ago, djsamuel said:

A participant is a business at Disney that is not owned by Disney.  The latest dining cast discount sheets (effective October 16, 2017) for Epcot show discounts for Biergarten, Coral Reef, Garden Grill, Akershus, Le Cellier and Rose and Crown.  The other restaurants not shown are participants; not Disney owned.  As a result, for the last few years, Disney does not publicize cast discounts in the cast materials, other than having them advertise the discounts in the Cast ID discount booklets.

Thanks for explaining that- and I think this solves the mystery of why some of the Food and Wine booths are left off of the list.

I didn't catch it the first time I looked, but I now note that Mexico and Italy are also not on the list.  I know the restaurants in the Mexico and Italy pavilions are not owned or operated by Disney- so they must be classified as participants as well.  I didn't know that these restaurants produced the food for the Food and Wine booths, but that must be the deal.

I will have to see about whether or not these participant booths will offer the 20% discount.  It never hurts to ask.

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

5 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I will have to see about whether or not these participant booths will offer the 20% discount.  It never hurts to ask.

TCD

Definitely ask.  My wife always figures if she asks and the answer is no, at least it shows the interest is there. Usually the answer is yes.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

As mentioned up thread, that 20% CM discount on most of the Food and Wine booths is a game changer.  Luckily for me, I have two daughters who are CM's, do when the news broke, I texted them both to see who was up for some Food and Wine.

Since we had to go on a Monday through Thursday, we settled on Tuesday afternoon, the 24th.

We hit up the Festival HQ to get our October AP buttons.  Here's a secret- my oldest daughter didn't pick up her September button, and the nice CM on duty asked if she would like one.  She had a stash under the table.  Also, they are going to start distributing the November button early- on October 29th, since they will stop on the 13th, they are giving AP holders and extra weekend to get there for their November pins.  You heard it here first.

Since everyone here has been raving about the pancake from the Flavors from Fire booth, we headed there first.

Here's how it's official described:

Sweet Pancake with Spicy Chipotle Chicken Sausage, Onion Jam and Maple Butter Syrup

And this is what we got:

Do you see those strips of something on top?  I think those were some kind of meat- maybe pork belly?  Whatever they were, they weren't described as an ingredient on the official description.  Also, the pancake was more of a corn cake- there were kernels of corn in it.  And, it wasn't particularly sweet- it tasted like cornbread.  The onion jam was good, but I think they shorted us on the maple syrup- it needed more of that.  But, overall, we all liked this dish.  The sausage has a lot of flavor- like Andouille sausage.  What I liked best about this dish is how unique it was.  And there was a lot of flavor.

Next, we hit up the Coastal Eats booth.  This is one of the booths none of us had been to yet.  We ordered two items here:

Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado Lemongrass Cream

Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Baguette

Here they are (the crab cake is on the right):

Both of these dishes were good.

I wouldn't call the shrimp dish a dip- it was more the consistency of a traditional scampi dish- so there was a lot of liquid.  We could have used some more bread to soak it up.  There were a lot so shrimp, and it was very tasty.

The crab cake was great- more crab than filler.  The slaw tasted like traditional coleslaw to me- I didn't get any hint of the avocado lemongrass cream they advertised.  But, it was still very good.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was intrigued by the beef "stroganoff" they were offering in the Cheese Studio booth, so I figured that since we were all sharing our dishes, I wouldn't be stuck eating it myself if it ended up being bad.  Here's the official description:

Braised Beef “Stroganoff” with Tiny Egg Noodles, Wild Mushroom, and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese Sauce

Here's how it looked:

This ended up being a hit.  The beef was more like pot roast, but the noodles and sauce were delicious.  Even the wild mushroom was very tasty.

The girls had asked some of their friends for recommended new things for us to try, and someone had mentioned the Almond Orchard booth to one of the girls.  This is a booth that I probably would have skipped, but someone raved about the ice cream dish here, and I thought the cauliflower risotto sounded interesting, so we got two things here:

Cauliflower Risotto with Pulled Chicken, Artichokes, Spinach and Parmesan Cheese and Aged Balsamic

Banana Almond Soft-serve Sundae with Fresh Berries and Crunchy Chocolate Oats

Here's a photo of those items:

The cauliflower dish was very good.  I am not sure about the balsamic on it- it added a sour taste to the dish that I felt competed with and detracted from the other flavors of the dish. 

The sundae was amazing!  The berry sauce was really good, with a lot of whole berries in the sauce that were somehow not mushy.  It was really good.

Next stop was China. This was the first booth we stopped at that was not listed on the discount list, and the CM's there confirmed that there were no discounts being offered.  I never noticed it before, but the China Food and Wine booth is staffed by CM's from the China pavilion- they wear the China costume, not the costumes worn by the regular quick serve food and beverage CM's who staff most of the booths.  We tried these two dishes here:

Spicy Chicken Bao Bun

Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles

Here's the chicken bun:

This is a new item for this year. We ended up getting another one of these. My daughters thought it was the best Food and Wine dish they ate on this trip.

Here's the shrimp:

This is a returning dish, and it's one of my favorites.  It's a nice portion of shrimp, and the noodles are very good too.

Next stop was Germany.  I had already tried the bratwurst on a previous trip, so today it was time for:

Schinkennudeln: Pasta Gratin with Ham and Cheese

Here's my photo of the noodles:

I've had this before, and it's good.  I think the portion was bigger this year.

We also tried the pomegranate beer from the Brewer's Collection booth next to Germany.  It was OK, but it's not something that I would choose to drink regularly- its too sweet and too much pomegranate taste for me.

Next stop was Japan, where we tried:

Wasabi Shumai Steamed Pork Dumplings

Photo:

These were not a hit with us.  The wasabi taste was barely noticeable, and the dumplings were mushy/slimy.  Not recommended.

Japan was another country not listed on the CM discount list, and the CM's there also said no discounts were being offered.

Our last stop for the evening was Brazil where we tried the cheese bread:

Pão de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread

Photo:

One of the twin's roommates claimed that this was her favorite dish at Food and Wine.  The cheesebread was good, but maybe on the level of Papa John's cheesebread.

After all of that, we were pretty stuffed, and called it a night.

Oh, and here's a bonus photo.  I never looked to see what act would be performing for the concert that night, but it ended up being Kenny G.  He drew a standing room only crowd, and sounded great:

It was a fun afternoon/evening.

Now that we finally got some cool weather, I am hoping to get back there again one more time while the discount is still good.

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks for the photos/review TCD!  Updating my list...

(and now I'm hungry)

[Travisma 1,317]

My wife and I went to F&W one evening during the week a couple years ago.

What a difference from a weekend!  And we lucked out, it had started to cool down a bit.

It was like going to Disney back in the good old days where it was not crowded and calmer.

And your food descriptions sound great, but will have to wait on the pictures.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

12 minutes ago, Travisma said:

My wife and I went to F&W one evening during the week a couple years ago.

What a difference from a weekend!  And we lucked out, it had started to cool down a bit.

It was like going to Disney back in the good old days where it was not crowded and calmer.

And your food descriptions sound great, but will have to wait on the pictures.

I should have mentioned that the crowds were very light on Tuesday evening.  For most booths, we could just walk up and order with no wait. On weekends, there are often long lines at the booths.

And we only saw one drunk group.  One. 

We all discussed trying to find a weekend day we can go before it ends.  There are only three weekends left.  We haven't wanted to go because of the heat.  I think every weekend from now until the end is going to be crazy busy.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I should have mentioned that the crowds were very light on Tuesday evening.  For most booths, we could just walk up and order with no wait. On weekends, there are often long lines at the booths.

And we only saw one drunk group.  One. 

We all discussed trying to find a weekend day we can go before it ends.  There are only three weekends left.  We haven't wanted to go because of the heat.  I think every weekend from now until the end is going to be crazy busy.

TCD

We were over at DW the beginning of the month and didn't bother going to F&W because it was a hot weekend.  Didn't want to deal with the crowds in the heat.  Instead we went to FQ and had begniets.

We are hooked on that resort and those darn delicious puffs of fat and calories!

[djsamuel 322]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

As mentioned up thread, that 20% CM discount on most of the Food and Wine booths is a game changer.  Luckily for me, I have two daughters who are CM's, do when the news broke, I texted them both to see who was up for some Food and Wine.

Since we had to go on a Monday through Thursday, we settled on Tuesday afternoon, the 24th.

We hit up the Festival HQ to get our October AP buttons.  Here's a secret- my oldest daughter didn't pick up her September button, and the nice CM on duty asked if she would like one.  She had a stash under the table.  Also, they are going to start distributing the November button early- on October 29th, since they will stop on the 13th, they are giving AP holders and extra weekend to get there for their November pins.  You heard it here first.

Since everyone here has been raving about the pancake from the Flavors from Fire booth, we headed there first.

Here's how it's official described:

Sweet Pancake with Spicy Chipotle Chicken Sausage, Onion Jam and Maple Butter Syrup

And this is what we got:

Do you see those strips of something on top?  I think those were some kind of meat- maybe pork belly?  Whatever they were, they weren't described as an ingredient on the official description.  Also, the pancake was more of a corn cake- there were kernels of corn in it.  And, it wasn't particularly sweet- it tasted like cornbread.  The onion jam was good, but I think they shorted us on the maple syrup- it needed more of that.  But, overall, we all liked this dish.  The sausage has a lot of flavor- like Andouille sausage.  What I liked best about this dish is how unique it was.  And there was a lot of flavor.

Next, we hit up the Coastal Eats booth.  This is one of the booths none of us had been to yet.  We ordered two items here:

Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado Lemongrass Cream

Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Baguette

Here they are (the crab cake is on the right):

Both of these dishes were good.

I wouldn't call the shrimp dish a dip- it was more the consistency of a traditional scampi dish- so there was a lot of liquid.  We could have used some more bread to soak it up.  There were a lot so shrimp, and it was very tasty.

The crab cake was great- more crab than filler.  The slaw tasted like traditional coleslaw to me- I didn't get any hint of the avocado lemongrass cream they advertised.  But, it was still very good.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was intrigued by the beef "stroganoff" they were offering in the Cheese Studio booth, so I figured that since we were all sharing our dishes, I wouldn't be stuck eating it myself if it ended up being bad.  Here's the official description:

Braised Beef “Stroganoff” with Tiny Egg Noodles, Wild Mushroom, and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese Sauce

Here's how it looked:

This ended up being a hit.  The beef was more like pot roast, but the noodles and sauce were delicious.  Even the wild mushroom was very tasty.

The girls had asked some of their friends for recommended new things for us to try, and someone had mentioned the Almond Orchard booth to one of the girls.  This is a booth that I probably would have skipped, but someone raved about the ice cream dish here, and I thought the cauliflower risotto sounded interesting, so we got two things here:

Cauliflower Risotto with Pulled Chicken, Artichokes, Spinach and Parmesan Cheese and Aged Balsamic

Banana Almond Soft-serve Sundae with Fresh Berries and Crunchy Chocolate Oats

Here's a photo of those items:

The cauliflower dish was very good.  I am not sure about the balsamic on it- it added a sour taste to the dish that I felt competed with and detracted from the other flavors of the dish. 

The sundae was amazing!  The berry sauce was really good, with a lot of whole berries in the sauce that were somehow not mushy.  It was really good.

Next stop was China. This was the first booth we stopped at that was not listed on the discount list, and the CM's there confirmed that there were no discounts being offered.  I never noticed it before, but the China Food and Wine booth is staffed by CM's from the China pavilion- they wear the China costume, not the costumes worn by the regular quick serve food and beverage CM's who staff most of the booths.  We tried these two dishes here:

Spicy Chicken Bao Bun

Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles

Here's the chicken bun:

This is a new item for this year. We ended up getting another one of these. My daughters thought it was the best Food and Wine dish they ate on this trip.

Here's the shrimp:

This is a returning dish, and it's one of my favorites.  It's a nice portion of shrimp, and the noodles are very good too.

Next stop was Germany.  I had already tried the bratwurst on a previous trip, so today it was time for:

Schinkennudeln: Pasta Gratin with Ham and Cheese

Here's my photo of the noodles:

I've had this before, and it's good.  I think the portion was bigger this year.

We also tried the pomegranate beer from the Brewer's Collection booth next to Germany.  It was OK, but it's not something that I would choose to drink regularly- its too sweet and too much pomegranate taste for me.

Next stop was Japan, where we tried:

Wasabi Shumai Steamed Pork Dumplings

Photo:

These were not a hit with us.  The wasabi taste was barely noticeable, and the dumplings were mushy/slimy.  Not recommended.

Japan was another country not listed on the CM discount list, and the CM's there also said no discounts were being offered.

Our last stop for the evening was Brazil where we tried the cheese bread:

Pão de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread

Photo:

One of the twin's roommates claimed that this was her favorite dish at Food and Wine.  The cheesebread was good, but maybe on the level of Papa John's cheesebread.

After all of that, we were pretty stuffed, and called it a night.

Oh, and here's a bonus photo.  I never looked to see what act would be performing for the concert that night, but it ended up being Kenny G.  He drew a standing room only crowd, and sounded great:

It was a fun afternoon/evening.

Now that we finally got some cool weather, I am hoping to get back there again one more time while the discount is still good.

TCD

What show was this?  If the 5:30 show, I was seated right in front of you, the back row on non-handicap benches.  I stopped on my way home from work.  I agree, good show, especially the ending.  It was a mob scene that night, and the crowd control was not good at all.  There were people standing in the aisles during the show, and one guy who didn't move for about 20 minutes.  He finally moved because people told him to, not one cast member came over.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

26 minutes ago, djsamuel said:

What show was this?  If the 5:30 show, I was seated right in front of you, the back row on non-handicap benches.  I stopped on my way home from work.  I agree, good show, especially the ending.  It was a mob scene that night, and the crowd control was not good at all.  There were people standing in the aisles during the show, and one guy who didn't move for about 20 minutes.  He finally moved because people told him to, not one cast member came over.

The time stamp on the photo says it was taken at 6:42 pm.  So, must have been a later show.  It's interesting that you mention crowd control- I thought that they usually have ropes up in the back, but we were able to walk in to the theater from the back.  There were no CM's back there stopping anyone.  I actually commented to the girls that we needed to get the heck away from there before the concert ended, as it was going to be a bad scene when everyone left at once.

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Making my plans and trying to stay on a budget. Is there tax charged on these items?


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[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

54 minutes ago, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Making my plans and trying to stay on a budget. Is there tax charged on these items?

Yes, they charge tax, but I believe that the prices posted at each booth include tax.

I know that I have some receipts in my backpack that I can check.  I'll come back and confirm once I've checked.

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Yes, they charge tax, but I believe that the prices posted at each booth include tax.
I know that I have some receipts in my backpack that I can check.  I'll come back and confirm once I've checked.
TCD

Thanks!!


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[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Thanks!!


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I'm looking at a F&W receipt right now. Tax is included in the listed price

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