Best and worst new food at SeaWorld Orlando’s Seven Seas Food Festival 2025

SeaWorld Orlando’s largest festival each year, the Seven Seas Food Festival, began Jan. 31, 2025 and runs through May 4 on Thursdays through Sundays. This event kicks off the festival season each year at SeaWorld Orlando.

The Seven Seas Food Festival boasts over 190 internationally inspired dishes and beverages. It also offers guests an extensive selection of live concerts. 2025’s event marks the first time SeaWorld Orlando has expanded the Seven Seas Festival concert lineup to include select Friday-night performances in addition to the usual Saturdays and Sundays. Best of all, the concerts are included with theme park admission.

Concerts

Some of the headliners for 2025’s Seven Seas Food Festival concerts at SeaWorld Orlando include:

• Luis Fonsi (Latin Pop)
• Mitchell Tenpenny (Country)
• Sara Evans (Country)
• Boys Like Girls (Alternative)
• ZZ Top (Rock/Blues)
• Expose (Electronic)
• LeCrae (Hip-Hop)
• Warrant (Rock)
• Molly Hatchet (Rock)
• Starship ft. Mickey Thomas (Rock)

Seven Seas Food Festival 2025 new menu items

For many guests, the Seven Seas food offerings are the highlight of this SeaWorld Orlando event. This year, guests can partake in a menu inspired by cuisine from Ireland, Mexico, Germany, Asia, and beyond. The Seven Seas Food Festival seeks to be a true global culinary adventure.

Many new food offerings sound intriguing from the 2025 Seven Seas Food Festival. There are 23 new or “reimagined” food items. With globally inspired “markets,” guests will have plenty to choose from that is new this year.

The “markets” with new or reimagined food offerings from the 2025 Seven Seas Food Festival include:

Café De Mar

• Guava Cheese Cupcake – Guava Cheese Cupcake: Guava Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting, Guava Jam

Caribbean Market

• Jamaican Jerk Chicken – Seasoned Jamaican chicken leg with celery microgreens
• Pork Pincho – Grilled pork skewer with tangy BBQ sauce and grilled Cuban bread
• Island Rice and Peas – Yellow rice garnished with red beans and green scallions

All-American Market

• Flamin’ Hot Corn Dog – Covered in Cheetos Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Dust
• Lobster Mac & Cheese Cone – Sharp cheddar, lobster, crispy shallot, and green onion, served in a waffle cone

Polynesian Market

• Pineapple Upside-Down Cake – Caramelized pineapple rum cake layered with pineapple rum cream cheese icing

Sweet Sips & Cupcakes

• Southern Charm Cupcake – Vanilla cupcake, Jack Daniel’s honey buttercream Icing, whiskey bacon crumble (contains alcohol)
• Velvet Bliss Cupcake – Red velvet cupcake, red wine fudge icing (contains alcohol)

Italian Market

• Garlic Toast Chicken Parmigiana – Pan-seared thick garlic toast topped with breaded chicken, marinara, and mozzarella cheese
• Palermo Fontina Cheese Meatballs – Meatballs with Fontina cheese and fresh herbs in Chef’s scratch-made marinara
• Tiramisu – Topped with chocolate ganache

Mediterranean Market

• Old World Grilled Lamb Chop – Grilled lamb chops served with olive tapenade, Boursin mashed potatoes, and Tzatziki sauce
• Mini Beef Gyro – Beef gyro, lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, red onion, and Tzatziki sauce

Indian Market

• Veggie Samosas – Potato & pea samosas with Indian red pepper hummus
• Cardamom Chocolate Torte Cake – Harmonious balance of bittersweet cardamom-infused ganache cake

Asian Market

• Tempura Battered Sushi – Fried California roll with wasabi cream and Thai chili sauce
• Vegetable Noodle Soup Bowl – Vegetarian noodle bowl with rice noodles, wild mushroom, red peppers, and green onions in a veggie broth

Irish Market

• Rueben Egg Roll – Corned beef and sauerkraut eggrolls with Thousand Island dipping sauce
• Guinness Chicken Sausage – Grilled chicken sausage, roasted potatoes, Vidalia onions, and chicken gravy
• Strawberry Pouffe – Shortcake stuffed with berries and cream

Beats & Bites Market

• Chicago Hot Dog – Poppyseed bun, Vienna hotdog, mustard, sweet relish, onion, tomato, pickle, and sport peppers, sprinkled with celery salt
• Blue Cheese Potato Twister – Topped with homemade blue cheese fondue, balsamic vinaigrette, and chives
• Chili Cheese Corndog – with chili and white & yellow queso

Seven Seas Food Festival Tasting Lanyard

Guests planning to try more than a few menu offerings at this SeaWorld Orlando event should consider buying a Seven Seas Food Festival Tasting Lanyard. It allows guests to explore various food and drink combinations. Guests can purchase a 10-sample lanyard at the price of $75. For more bang for your buck, guests can buy a 15-sample lanyard for $90. SeaWorld Orlando Pass Members get the exclusive perk of being able to purchase 18 samples for the price of 15.

Honorable mentions

On the event’s opening night, we were invited to join in a media event preview of the festival’s food and beverage. This allowed us to get a good look at each item, speak with chefs, and devise a plan to try as many new or reimagined food items as possible, helping us make an educated assessment of which options were the best and which ones were not as good. Based on our positive experience with the food at the last major event at SeaWorld Orlando, the Christmas Celebration, we had high hopes for the food at the 2025 Seven Seas Food Festival.

SeaWorld does a great job with the lamb chops at its festivals. The Old World Grilled Lamb Chop at the Mediterranean Market tasted good, but to our surprise, it was not among the best items. In fairness, we give more credit to festival food items that are not traditional theme park food. However, several of our best new food items are enhanced versions of conventional theme park festival food this year. Still, we will return and order every item on our best list again during the Seven Seas Food Festival.

We want to give one honorable mention before listing our best new food items at the Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld Orlando. The Cardamom Chocolate Torte Cake at the Indian Market provides a rich, sweet treat that would be great after some of the savory items at this year’s food festival.

Best new Seven Seas food offerings

Flamin’ Hot Corn Dog at All-American Market

During Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld Orlando, guests could buy versions of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos dishes. In our opinion, those tasted average at best.

However, we heard from two sources that the Flamin’ Hot Corn Dog was a good-tasting item. We admit that we had our doubts. Nevertheless, this Seven Seas new food item impressed us. The menu description says it’s “covered in Cheetos Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Dust.” That’s accurate. At least on the opening night of the event, the batter and hot dog within were well-prepared. The Cheetos Dust enhances the festival food item. Those averse to spice should still be able to handle this new food item at the Seven Seas Food Festival.

We also enjoyed the Lobster Mac and Cheese Cone at the All-American Market. The combination of sharp cheddar, lobster, shallots, and green onion in a sweet waffle cone works well. Nonetheless, it does not work well enough to make our best Seven Seas food list.

Veggie Samosas at Indian Market

For vegetarians, the Indian Market offers an excellent choice at SeaWorld Orlando’s food festival. The Veggie Samosas provide a solid flavor. These consist of samosas with Indian red pepper hummus. Guests receive two reasonable-sized samosas. We found the texture and hummus pair well, making a surprisingly good festival food item.

Two unexpected best items at Beats & Bites Market

We found two unexpectedly quality festival food items at Beats & Bites Market near the Pipeline coaster. This food and beverage location serves versions of traditional theme park festival items like twisted taters and hot dogs.

However, we loved the choices here. The Chicago Hot Dog is very good. It consists of a poppyseed bun with a Vienna hotdog, mustard, sweet relish, onion, tomato, pickle, and sport peppers, sprinkled with celery salt. Those who have not enjoyed a Chicago-style hot dog should try this one.

Upon first inspection, the Blue Cheese Potato Twister bears resemblance to the classic Twisted Tater at Universal Orlando’s Mardi Gras, which starts this weekend. SeaWorld Orlando beats that item with the Blue Cheese Potato Twister. It looks like a traditional fried twisted potato, but it comes with blue cheese fondue, balsamic vinaigrette, and chives. All the flavors enhance the potato, which is not too greasy. We love this new Seven Seas Food Festival food option.

Worst new Seven Seas food items

We know this sounds trite, but we had a challenging time picking the two worst new food items. While several new Seven Seas Food Festival food offerings were just okay, very few were below average. We came up with two.

Rueben Egg Roll at Irish Market

The Irish Market serves as the location of one of our worst new food items. The Reuben Egg Roll features corned beef and sauerkraut within eggrolls topped with a Thousand Island dipping sauce. The flavors are okay. Our primary concern relates to the portion size for an $11.99 item. We suggest skipping this creative but overpriced item if you are not using a Seven Seas Food Festival Tasting Lanyard.

Palermo Fontina Cheese Meatballs at Italian Market

The Palmero Fontina Cheese Meatballs received mixed reviews at the media event. Some thought the meatballs were well prepared, while others received less well-prepared meatballs.

When guests order meatballs at the Italian Market, they receive two. Our primary complaint about this new Seven Seas Food Festival food item is the price, again. It costs $11.99 for an item many guests could make at home for less.

We had a lovely time at the Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld Orlando and would like to thank SeaWorld for inviting us to the media event. For more information about the festival, please visit the SeaWorld Orlando website.

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