Best and worst new food at Epcot Flower & Garden Festival 2025
The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival 2025 is underway, and we tried all the new food options to find the best and worst ones.
The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival started on March 5. It combines beautiful floral displays, butterflies, food, beverages, and concerts into one event. Guests can visit this festival with paid admission to Epcot at Walt Disney World now through June 2, 2025. During this festival, guests can enjoy over 20 “Outdoor Kitchens,” which serve themed food reflecting a celebration of spring.
Best new food items at Epcot Flower & Garden Festival
What were the best new food items at this year’s festival? We narrowed the list down to a few items. After trying many items more than once over the first two days of the festival, we chose what we thought most guests would feel were the best new food items at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.
Honorable mentions
The Seafood Bake, Seafood Ceviche, and Jamaican Jerk Chicken almost made our best list. The Seafood Bake tasted good. However, the preparation speed is slow. Some guests waited over 30 minutes for their orders. Also, we expect the quality of preparation will vary significantly over the course of the Flower & Garden festival.
Regarding the Jamaican Jerk Chicken, the chicken was very well prepared both times we tried it. The sweet plantains and rice balance the festival food item nicely. Nevertheless, the marinated chicken displays a solid jerk flavor. That means the spice level will exceed what most guests prefer at an Epcot festival.
The Seafood Ceviche tasted great. It included all ingredients listed. However, the portion size does not measure up to being a best item.
Grilled Gulf Oysters at Magnolia Terrace Outdoor Kitchen – $8.00
Our first of three best items comes from the World Showcase area. Grilled Gulf Oysters, a reimagined item at The American Adventure’s Magnolia Terrace Outdoor Kitchen, should impress many guests. Guests receive three oysters for their $8. The oysters are fresh, and the final preparation process is made to order with the Cajun andouille sausage butter and lemon placed on top of the oysters. Overall, the chance to get fresh oysters with a creative preparation earns this festival item’s spot on our best list.
S’mores Bar at Beach Grub Outdoor Kitchen- $5.50
On the S’mores Bar, we had plenty of graham crackers, and that process did help. Still, the components of this sweet treat would be worth trying even without that process.
The S’mores Bar is made to look like an ice cream novelty, complete with a stick. The base of this festival food item is a soft fudge brownie. Once you reach the bottom portion of the S’Mores Bar, you will mostly taste brownie. A layer of toasted merinque will also be found within this treat. Though we did not get a robust campfire s’mores flavor, we would repurchase this.
Though the authentic s’mores flavors may not exist in every bite, we enjoy the dark chocolate coating, the merinque, and the brownie. Despite that, we have another thing to say about the S’mores Bar. We tried it twice on the day of the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival opening. Our first serving had more than enough graham cracker crumbs. The second one barely had any. Even though we enjoyed both, guests should prepare for both possibilities.
Provence Poutine at Refreshment Port – $9.00
Refreshment Port, located near the Canada area of World Showcase, operates year-round at Epcot. The main food item sold here is a Traditional Poutine. However, this dining location adds a special food item during the park’s four seasonal festivals. For the Flower & Garden Festival, Refreshment Port offers a Provence Poutine.
According to the menu description, Provence Poutine consists of “Herbes de Provence seasoned French fries, goat brie, lavender honey, hazelnut croquant, and fresh lavender.” Herbes de Provence is an aromatic mixture of dried Provençal herbs and spices, which traditionally includes thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, savory, marjoram, oregano, and bay leaf. This unique blend of spices works well to elevate the fries.
In addition, using lavender honey as a light version of the gravy used in a poutine surprised us. This tasted great. This dish accomplishes the Flower & Garden Festival food item assignment when paired with a fry and goat brie. It creates a dish using honey with a few other ingredients to increase the quality of a standard Epcot menu item. For guests willing to try something that looks like a standard theme park poutine but packs different flavors, the Provence Poutine should be on their must-try list this year.
Worst new food items at Epcot Flower & Garden Festival
Sadly, not every new item qualifies as the best. Based on our two days enjoying the food and fun at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival (and chatting with trusted colleagues), we came up with two “worst” items. To our surprise, they fall into the sweet category and come from a year-round dining location at Epcot.
While we usually enjoy Connections Eatery for quick-service dining, we did not appreciate the two sweet treats sold as festival food items. Those are:
- Lemon-Lavender Baumkuchen with lavender anglaise ($6.29)
- Carrot Cake Liege Waffle with candied pecans and cream cheese icing ($5.79)
Both items function as modified versions of everyday items at Connections Eatery. Each one failed to provide compelling enough flavors to be improved over the standard everyday versions of these treats. The Lemon-Lavender Baumkuchen possesses a light lemon and lavender flavor. Still, we would have chosen the regular Baumkuchen instead for such a light flavor with a festival item. The lemon and lavender flavors did not impress our group.
Our experience with the Carrot Cake Liege Waffle was similar. We tasted a carrot cake-like flavor. However, it does not warrant purchasing a special item when the standard Liege Waflfe will do just as well. Our waffle was drier than usual, and the cream cheese icing provided the carrot cake aspect but did not work well.
Garden Graze at Epcot Flower & Garden Festival
Like other Epcot events, the Flower & Garden Festival features a memorable “stroll through the park in search of tasty treats,” this one being called the Garden Graze. Guests who buy the proper number of specially designated menu items will receive a “completer” prize.
To participate in this food stroll, guests get a stamp on their passports (the free booklets available park-wide) after making a purchase. Once they collect five stamps, they can receive their exclusive treat from the Pineapple Promenade. This year’s Garden Graze completion prize is a pineapple and vanilla swirl Dole soft serve that comes in a souvenir cup.
Each Garden Graze item qualifies as plant-based. Also, several other plant-based food items appear on the Outdoor Kitchen’s menu this year for the Flower & Garden festival. However, the only new item on the Garden Graze is the Coconut-Chocolate Flancocho, which consists of chocolate cake, coconut custard, and passion fruit caramel. Despite that, we know from talking to the Walt Disney World chefs that demands for plant-based items have grown in recent years. The Coconut-Chocolate Flancocho did not make our best or worst list. However, if you order this, eat it quickly since it melts quickly.
New Outdoor Kitchens
Following an Epcot pattern regarding festivals, many unique food and beverage locations are found throughout the theme park. The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival 2025 unveiled two new Outdoor Kitchens: Beach Grub and Yacht Grub. Those Outdoor Kitchens draw inspiration from the nearby Walt Disney World Resort hotels. These Outdoor Kitchens have several new items for the Epcot Flower & Garden. Only one of these made our best list. However, none of the new items at these two Outdoor Kitchens made our worst list. Still, based on the nature of the festival food items at these Outdoor Kitchens, be careful about the wind. The chips and crackers with these dishes will blow away, as we experienced on opening day.
Also, the new Playalong Bay Play Garden sits between the two Outdoor Kitchens. Playalong Bay Play Garden, sponsored by Smucker’s Uncrustables, pays homage to those resort’s pools, “mixing fun for the whole family with adventure on the high seas,” as Walt Disney World said before the event started. This new nautically inspired playground is located between the Imagination! Pavilion and the entrance to World Showcase. This kids’ play even comes with its own backstory.
Complete list of new food
This year’s event contains 15 new food items for guests to enjoy on the event’s opening day. The Epcot Farmers Feast food and beverage location will change menus on April 6 and May 4, so four additional new food items will be available during those periods. The 15 new food items available on the opening day of the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival 2025 include:
- Provence Poutine – Herbes de Provence seasoned French fries, goat brie, lavender honey, hazelnut croquant, and fresh lavender
- Jamaican Jerk Chicken – Pigeon pea rice, roasted sweet plantains, and cinnamon butter
- Seafood Ceviche – Shrimp, scallops, and fish with citrus, radish, and chulpe
- Coconut-Chocolate Flancocho – Chocolate cake, coconut custard, and passion fruit caramel (Plant-based)
- Grilled Gulf Oysters – Cajun andouille sausage butter and lemon
- Lemon-Lavender Baumkuchen with lavender anglaise
- Carrot Cake Liege Waffle with candied pecans and cream cheese icing
- Trio of Dips and Chips – Caramelized onion dip, whipped feta dip, and pimento cheese with house-made potato chips and caviar
- Meat Assorti – Beef bresaola, prosciutto ham, and salami with baby arugula, pickled mustard seeds, tomato jam, truffle oil, and grilled ciabatta
- Seafood Bake – shrimp, mussels, clams, andouille sausage, red potatoes, corn on the cob, persillade butter, white wine broth, and grilled sourdough
- S’mores Bar – Fudge brownie, dark chocolate, toasted meringue, and smoked graham cracker
- Grilled Asparagus – Pancetta bacon, spring peas, frisée lettuce, truffle-sherry vinaigrette, and soft-poached egg (Only available until April 5)
- Blueberry Crumble Cake – blueberry-lemon zest soft-serve and blueberry compote (Only available until April 5)
- Conch Fritters – Served with key lime aïoli
- Florida Strawberry Shortcake – Served with vanilla pound cake, macerated strawberries, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream.
Behind the scenes with Epcot chefs
Before the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival started, we heard from executive chef Daniel Sicilia and chef de cuisine pastry Amanda Lauder about their work preparing for the event. They, along with Chelsea Florig, the food & beverage project manager, spoke with us about using local Florida-grown products as a part of this event. Guests can see the Florida blueberries, strawberries, corn, and tomatoes featured in Flower & Garden dishes this year.
Regarding new food items, the chefs sounded very proud of the Florida Strawberry Shortcake and the S’Mores Bar. In fact, they told us that they partnered with the chefs at Regal Eagle Smokehouse located in The American Adventure Pavilion of World Showcase. As Chef Lauder told us, this partnership involves using the smokers from Regal Eagle Smokehouse to smoke the graham cracker crumbs for the S’mores Bar.
Epcot Farmers Feast Kitchen at CommuniCore Hall for Flower & Garden
Last week, Chef Sicilia spoke about how magnificent the kitchen connected to CommuniCore Hall was for the chefs. The Farmers Feast Kitchen is inside CommuniCore Hall, featuring two new items on the menu to start the festival, with new ones to follow. Based on that, we expected good things to come out of that kitchen for the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.
The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival runs daily through June 2. We hope this guide helps you plan your dining while at the event.
More Attractions Magazine stories:
Follow us:
No matter where you want to go, our trusted partner MEI-Travel will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation-planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable vacations. Visit MEI-Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.
