Hello! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve paid any attention to the blog… We were a little bit busy getting married! But since we’ve been back home a good few weeks now and everything is back to normal I’ve had time to reflect on all the cool things we did over in Florida and made a vague blog post plan… Kicking off with this round up of our Flower and Garden food favourites.
The Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT ends in just 3 weeks time on the 3rd June so there isn’t long left to try the amazing speciality food and drink offerings and see the theme park in full bloom.
We stayed at The Beach Club resort which is right next to EPCOT, I had visions of us leisurely strolling in and out of EPCOT most days and getting little tastes of the festival… This did not happen. You would think 4 weeks in Orlando would be long enough to see and do everything twice over but throw a wedding, a 6 day stint of sickness and 55 friends and family members to see we didn’t have as much spare time as we thought!
We did manage to get around the festival a couple of times and try out all the booths that took our fancy! We had the Disney Dining Plan meaning most things at the food booths qualified as snacks – It was great being able to go round and not worry about what you were spending because it can add up quickly! Alcoholic drinks can’t be bought with snack credits but we didn’t fancy too much alcohol in the day anyway.
So here’s a list of the booths we went to and what we ate and drank at each one… I’ve rated each item out of 10 (10 being i’m still dreaming about it… 1 being would 100% give it a miss in future years)
The Citrus Blossom
We visited the Citrus Blossom booth a few times – The first time was when we drank around the world for my Dad’s 60th Birthday, I had seen that The Orange Bird cups had been selling out reallyyy quickly so was keen to go there ASAP – We were lucky that they had just restocked so Mum and I tried the Orange Cream Slushy which is served in the cup. They were limiting the cups to 2 per person when we were there.
The cup itself is SO cute but the drink wasn’t so great.. We ended up pouring over half in the sink because we just couldn’t get through it before our fast pass! It isn’t really a slush but more a REALLY creamy melted ice cream, it was also super super sweet.
They were $14 each which is quite pricey for a non-alcoholic drink but of course you are paying for the cup! We couldn’t use snack credits for these.
Orange Cream Slushy – 4/10
Orange Bird Cup – 10/10
Now onto the food… We went to The Citrus Blossom again on one of our last days at WDW, we had been desperate to try whole lobster tail but having gotten sick for so long we were dubious… I’m so glad we went back because the food here was definitely some of my favourite.
We had the Lobster Tail with Meyer Lemon Emulsion and Grilled Lemon which was normally priced at $8.00 and the Tuna Tataki with Spicy Yuzu Glaze, Mango, Avocado and Pappadam Crisp, usually $6.25 – We got both as snack credits on the dining plan.
I loveeee Ahi Tuna and this tuna dish didn’t disappoint, it was similar to tuna nachos which I love. The tail was also really nice, a good size and flavoured really well with citrus.
Tuna Tataki – 9/10
Lobster Tail – 8/10
Fleur De Lys
The next booth we visited was in France – We only got one item here, the Canard Confit à la Provençal (Braised Duck Confit with Tomatoes and Olives on Polenta) this should have cost $6.00 by again we used a snack credit.
Mark really didn’t fancy this but ended up enjoying it – I usually am not a huge fan of duck but this was really tasty, I also usually don’t love olives but these blended in nicely to the overall flavour!
Braised Duck: 7/10
Hanami
Another really great booth! We tried the chilled Soba Noodle Salad with Pan-seared Tuna and Wasabi Dressing ($6.50 but we used a snack credit) and the Chicken Karaage with Nanban Sauce which is Japanese-style Fried Chicken served on a bed of Shredded Cabbage and topped with a Soy and Vinegar-based Dressing ($6.25 usually).
These two dishes are right up both our streets – I love seared tuna and mark is a fan of asian style food so we both really enjoyed these.
The noodles and salad that comes with the tuna was lovely and it was a pretty big portion.
Pan-seared tuna: 9/10
Chicken Karaage: 8/10
The Smokehouse
We tried some food and one of the speciality drinks here – Beef Brisket Burnt Ends and Smoked Pork Belly Slider with Garlic Sausage, Chorizo, Cheddar Fondue and House-made Pickle (Usually $7.50) and the Frozen Simply™ Lemonade ($3.50 but we used a snack credit – You can use them for non alcoholic drinks)
We weren’t a huge fan of the slider, it had quite a lot going on and was very smokey in flavour (although that’s the point I guess!) The lemonade was ok but nothing special!
Slider: 6/10
Lemonade: 6/10
Fife and Drum Tavern
This wasn’t technically part of the festival but we’ve always wanted to try an ‘American Dream’ which is 2 flavours of slush and vanilla ice cream to create the red, white and blue look of the USA flag. We used a snack credit to pay for it. It was a bit weird! It looked really cool but the flavours didn’t really go well together and it was quite heavy!
American Dream: 6/10
Primavera Kitchen
We visited this booth because we had read the tortellini was one of the best value things to get on the dining plan at the festival – Usually priced at $9.00 we were able to use a snack credit…. To be honest i’m not sure why it’s so expensive! It was just ok – The pasta is filled with cheese and sits in a kind of chicken broth, definitely not worth $9 if you were paying for it!
Italy does have a great view of Spaceship Earth so we stopped to get some photos while we ate it!
Tri-Colored Cheese Tortellini, Sage Butter and Chicken Veloute – 7/10
Karamell- Kuche
Again not strictly Flower and Garden but we stopped into Karamell- Kuche in Germany for something sweet. We got chatting to the cast member about the wedding and ‘Mickey’ ended up paying for my marshmallow skewer so we saved a snack credit!
I REALLY loved this and ended up getting a few more later on in the trip, The chocolate over the marshmallow was really thick and the caramel drizzled over the top was amazing, this ended up being one of my favourite snacks of the whole holiday!
Marshmallow skewer – 9/10
Lotus House
Mark tired the Szechuan Spicy Red-braised Beef Shank over Rice which is usually $8.00 (we used a snack) and I tried the layered candy floss which wasn’t available on the dining plan so we paid out of pocket – I went for the 5 layer which was $15 … i’ll admit, totally did this for the ‘Gram there was no way we needed that much candy floss!
Mark thought the beef was fairly average and similar to the asian food you find at the Orlando shopping outlets! The beef was quite fatty and the rice was bland.
My candy floss was really fun and made for a great photo!
Braised beef – 5/10
Candy floss – 8/10
Choza de Margarita
I’m not a fan of tequila but Mark and my Mum and Dad all had a frozen marg when we were drinking around the world. Mark went for the Fiesta which is a mix of the strawberry, lime and mango frozen Margaritas.
Fiesta Marg – 8/10
La Isla Fresca
We used a snack credit to get the Sugar Cane Shrimp Skewer with Steamed Rice and Coconut-Lime Sauce (usually $7.00) – I think this would have scored higher had we not been eating it right at the end of the day… We were getting pretty full and this was the last thing we tried!
The sauce was really fresh but again the rice was a bit bland and there was lots of it! The shrimp were pretty big so you could definitely share this!
Shrimp Skewer – 7/10
Pineapple Promenade
I finally tried violet lemonade!! It didn’t exist when we were last at Flower and Garden when we were cast members but it was definitely worth the wait it’s SO GOOD. I used a snack credit for it (usually $4.25) – I got it twice on the trip, the second time they didn’t add the edible flower on top which was a shame, but they add the giant cut out of the violet lemonade next to the booth when we visited the second time which was a fun photo op!
Violet Lemonade – 10/10
Flavor Full Kitchen
Another favourite came from the Flavor Full Kitchen – We tried the Citrus-poached Salmon with Ancient Grain Salad, Roasted Vegetables, Citrus Greens which should only have been $6.00 if we didn’t have the DDP snacks to use which I think is a great deal.
The salmon was amazing, cooked medium rare which I love and had great accompaniments and flavours.
We also got the Cookie Butter Worms and Dirt non alcoholic chocolate milkshake drink which was a little strange, it would have worked better as a chocolate mousse or ice cream!
Citrus Salmon – 9/10
Worms and Dirt Drink – 6/10
That’s everything we managed to try at the 2019 Flower and Garden Festival, our top festival snacks being:
Citrus Salmon
Violet Lemonade
Pan-seared Tuna Soba Noodle Salad
Lobster Tail
Tuna Tataki
You can tell we like seafood!
We did of course make a stop at The Rose and Crown each time we went into EPCOT for old times sake, it was lovely to see so many familiar faces of cast members we used to work with.
As always I got a Magical Star cocktail and Mark enjoyed a pint of beer or a cider and black!
Do you have any favourite snacks from the Flower and Garden Festival or EPCOT in general? Sadly we won’t be able to try anything else out this year, but leave a comment on this post to let me know what to look out for next time!
