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Let’s face it, for those of us who eat gluten free, we don’t usually have a lot of options. Unless, that is, you’re at Disney World. Then there are TONS of options.
In recent years, Disney has expanded the Epcot Food and Wine Festival gluten free offerings. This makes me very happy.
This post helps take a look at how eating at Epcot Food and Wine Festival gluten free works, things to look out for and so on. I’ll also include a list of all of the menu items Disney identifies as gluten free.
And last but not least, we’ll take a look at my review of all of the gluten free menu items I’ve eaten so far and my ranking of the top 5 options for this year.
Also, make sure you take a look at my full Epcot Food and Wine Festival Guide. That goes into detail with the full menus, concert information, and other entertainment (updated July 28, 2023).
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Gluten Free Overview
Before we dive into the menu items themselves, I want to have a quick talk about eating gluten free at any of the Epcot festivals.
If you’ve never been to Disney before, know that they take allergy friendly eating very seriously. And really, the chefs tend to bend over backwards at the restaurants.
But eating at any of the outdoor kitchens is a little different.
The biggest, and most important thing to understand is that the outdoor kitchens cannot promise there is no cross-contamination. There are likely other foods at that booth with gluten containing ingredients.
If you are highly sensitive to cross-contamination, eating at the Food and Wine Festival global marketplaces might not be the best idea for you.
You know your body best, listen to it.
However, if you do have some leeway, the Epcot Festivals are a great opportunity for gluten free eaters.
The “Gluten Friendly” Designation
This post is going to focus solely on the menu items specifically identified by Disney as being “gluten friendly”. What that designation means is that Disney is confident that the ingredients found in that menu item are gluten free.
You will notice some menu items on the full list that look like they should be gluten free. They very well might be, but they contain an ingredient that Disney doesn’t know if there could be cross contamination.
An example of this is the Frushi during Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. This is a favorite among the gluten free set, even though it’s not listed as gluten friendly.
The culprit? The toasted coconut you see on top. They don’t know whether it was manufactured in a facility that allows for cross-contamination.
So most gluten free people order the Frushi without the toasted coconut.
There are usually several menu items that can be made gluten free with the subtraction of ingredients.
This leads me to my next suggestion: when in doubt, ask a Cast Member.
If something looks like it should be gluten free, ask about it. If that booth doesn’t have an ingredient list, they call a central department that does have that information.
That central department includes chefs who are familiar with the information. Don’t be shy, they are more than happy to get this information for you.
Knowing the ingredients helps you to know whether there are other menu options that you can eat.
So in reality, the list you see here is likely incomplete. There are other menu items that will be gluten free with a little extra effort on your part.
But I can only eat so many things in the course of a couple of days, so I’m sticking with the easily identified items for this review!
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Gluten Free Menu
Ok, lets take a look at the menu itself. Remember, these are the items specifically identified by Disney as officially “gluten friendly”.
Unfortunately, Disney has made it a little bit harder to find the gluten free Food and Wine menu options. In previous years, gluten free items were clearly identified on the menus they released. Not so much this year.
In fact, there was a fair amount of despair amongst the gluten free Disney fans when it appeared the NOTHING was labeled gluten free.
However, Disney recently released and entire Food and Wine Festival allergy free menu. Either this is the first year they’ve done this, or I’ve somehow managed to miss this for the past 6 years.
This is excellent news because it lists allergy considerations for the top 8 food allergies, not just gluten.
For the purposes of this post, I’m only posting the gluten friendly designated items. However, if you have other food allergies too, go to Disney’s official Food and Wine Festival allergy friendly menu.
For booths that don’t have Disney designated allergy friendly the official allergy friendly menu directs you to talk with a Cast Member at the booth about the allergen guide. Because remember, there are likely other items not included on this menu that don’t contain gluten.
I’m not posting the drinks in this particular post, but there are a number of hard ciders and other drinks that are gluten friendly too.
I’ll leave in menu pictures from last year to give you a general idea of pricing. I’m not getting to Food and Wine until September this year. Luckily, MANY of the menu items are repeats from last year!
The excellent news is that there are A LOT of gluten free items and Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2023. Even more than they had last year, and I struggled to try all of last year’s menu!
Australia (Near Port of Entry)
- Sweet-and-Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp with Pepper, Onion, Snap Peas, and Sweet Chili Sauce (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Roasted Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Brazil (Between France and Morocco)
- Feijoada: Black Beans with Pork Belly, Brazil Nut Pesto, and BEN’S ORIGINAL™ Long Grain White Rice (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Pão de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Brew-Wing at the Odyssey
- Garlic-Parmesan Wings with Celery and Ranch (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Traditional Buffalo Wings with Celery and Ranch (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Sticky Wings (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Orange Cardamom Wings (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Unnecessarily Spicy, Yet Extremely Tasty Scotch Bonnet Pepper-Curry Wings with Cool Cucumber Yogurt (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Buffalo Brussel Sprouts with Plant Based Blue Cheese and Plant Based Ranch (gluten/wheat-friendly)
The price isn’t listed on the menu, but each of the wings were $7.50 in 2022.
Bubbles & Brine
- Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with Prosecco Cocktail Sauce and Grilled Lemon (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Jonah Crab Claw Cocktail with Stone-ground Mustard Sauce (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Canada
- Canadian Filet Mignon served with Mushrooms, Boursin® Black Truffle & Sea Salt Mashed Potatoes, and a Boursin® Black Truffle & Sea Salt Whipped Butter (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Char & Chop
- Roasted Porchetta with Lemon-Parsley Salsa Verde and Shaved Fennel Salad (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Grilled Impossible™ Spicy Sausage with Herbed Polenta, Puttanesca Sauce, and Ricotta (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Flavors from Fire
- Chimichurri Marinated Skirt Steak Taco with Crushed Avocado, Grilled Corn Salsa, Pickled Red Onions, Queso Fresco, and Cilantro-Lime Cream (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Flavors of America
- Chilaquiles: Corn Tortilla Chips tossed in Salsa Verde with Ranchero Chicken, Queso Fresco, Cilantro-Lime Crema, and a Soft-poached Egg (gluten/wheat-friendly)
France
- Nothing listed as official this year, but there is a Creme Brule on the menu again, very similar to last year’s, which was gluten free. I suggest asking at the booth as I suspect it’s gluten free. I certainly plan to!
The Fry Basket (Near Test Track)
- Adobo Yuca Fries with Garlic-Cilantro Aïoli (plant-based and gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Fry Flight – Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Fries (plant-based) (For Gluten/Wheat, Egg, Fish/Shellfish, Peanut/Tree Nut and Sesame Allergies) • BBQ Bacon Fries with Smoked Aïoli (For Gluten/Wheat, Fish/Shellfish, Peanut/Tree Nut and Sesame Allergies) • Sweet Potato Casserole Fries with Candied Pecans, Toasted Marshmallow Cream, and Maple Bourbon Glaze (For Gluten/Wheat, Egg, Fish/Shellfish, Peanut, Sesame, and Soy Allergies)
Greece (Near Morocco)
- Griddled Cheese with Pistachios and Honey (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Hawaii (Opening August 15)
- Passion Fruit Cheesecake with Toasted Macadamia Nuts (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Kenya (Near Refreshment Outpost)
- Kenyan Coffee Barbecued Beef Tenderloin with Sweet-Potato-and-Corn Mealie Pap and Kachumbari Slaw (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Mexico
- There is nothing officially listed. HOWEVER, Mexico almost always has multiple gluten friendly options, so this is another one that you should ask at the booth. The items listed this year involved corn tortillas and no ingredients that scream I AM FULL OF GLUTEN.
Refreshment Outpost
- Spicy Githeri with White Beans, Pigeon Peas, Curried BEN’S ORIGINAL™ Long Grain & Wild Rice, and Kachumbari Slaw (plant-based) (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- A note on Dole Whip: for some reason the Dole Whip isn’t listed as gluten free. However, Dole Whip has always been a known gluten free item. This could be because it’s possibly served with a cone. But this is one I would definitely ask because if it’s in a cup, it should be gluten free
Refreshment Port
- Traditional Poutine French Fries with Beef Gravy, Cheese Curds, and Crumbled Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Braised Beef Poutine: French Fries with Braised Beef, Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs Cheese Sauce, Cheese Curds, Crumbled Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs, and Gherkin Relish (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Spain (Between Italy and Germany)
- Charcuterie in a Cup with a selection of imported Spanish Meats, Cheeses, Olives, and an Herbed Serrano Vinaigrette (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Paella with Saffron Rice, Chorizo, and Shrimp (gluten/wheat-friendly)
- Seafood Salad with Shrimp, Bay Scallops, Mussels, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, White Balsamic Vinegar and Smoked Paprika (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Tangierine Café: Flavors of the Medina
- Grilled Kebabs with Carrot-Chickpea Salad and Garlic Aïoli – Chermoula Chicken (For Gluten/Wheat, Fish/Shellfish, Milk, Peanut/Tree Nut, and Sesame Allergies) or Moroccan-spiced Lamb (For Gluten/Wheat, Fish/Shellfish, Milk, Peanut/Tree Nut, and Sesame Allergies)
The Noodle Exchange (Near Disney Traders) – Opening August 15
- Thai Shrimp and Coconut-Curry Rice Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Thai Basil (gluten/wheat-friendly)
Gluten Free Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2023 Review
Once thing to keep in mind overall is that consistency is always a problem when getting food from outdoor kitchens at the Epcot festival.
These menu items are mass produced on an epic scale. True, they are usually cooking them relatively fresh, but they are cooking thousands of them a day.
This will lead to some differences in quality in the same dish.
Until I get there in September to try the new items, I can’t talk about those. However, MANY of the menu items are repeats from last year so you can get an idea of what I thought of those.
Australia
My first impression is that these two combined make a pretty picture.
Australia was literally the first booth I came across when I entered into World Showcase, so it was an easy decision to start here.
Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp
Right of the bat, this is an attractive display of food. Let’s face it, we eat with our eyes just as much as we eat with our mouth.
The shrimp is very well seasoned and the veggies add a pop of color. I was also impressed with just how large these shrimp are. No shrinking violets here.
Overall I thought the dish was good, but nothing to write home about. Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable, but my taste buds didn’t sing.
My biggest issue was with the vegetables. They weren’t as crisp as I would prefer. In fact, they weren’t crisp at all. So if you like your vegetables softer, you’re in luck. But I think a nice crispy cook on the vegetables would have given this dish some needed texture.
Roasted Lamb Chop
To say I was intrigued by the Lamb Chop is an understatement. I mean, it’s lamb, with mint and potato chips. How could that not be intriguing?
I’ll be the first to admit, I always thought the lamb and mint combo was a little odd, so I always avoided it. Specifically mint jelly. There’s just something about mint jelly that seems so wrong to me.
So this was first experience with lamb and mint. I actually really enjoyed this. There was such a contrast between the savory meat, the coolness of the mint, and the salty crunch of the potato crunchies.
My only issues with the lamb chop is the price to quantity ratio. It will set you back $8.25+. And by the time I cut it up, I had a whopping six bites to enjoy.
Yes, 6. Frankly, for that price, I want a bit more food than that.
But on the whole, it’s a very good dish.
Brazil
The Brazilian Cheese Bread served at Brazil is famous in the Disney gluten free community!
Pão de Queijo: Brazilian cheese bread
Let’s face it, these are not exactly the most picturesque things to eat. And this is definitely the best picture I have of them. I have pics of them from other years inside the little cardboard holder looking utterly unattractive.
But don’t let that fool you, these things are delicious.
First off, it’s bread. How often do we get to have any sort of bread like substance while out and about? Next to never.
It definitely has that bread novelty to it which goes a long way. But even beyond that, it’s like nothing you’ve had before. The cheese is built all throughout the cheese bread, so it doesn’t just ooze out or anything.
When you bite into it, you can see how the cheese is incorporated. I probably should have taken a picture of that, too.
But anyway, these things are delicious and quite filling. They also come in at the bargain price of around $4.75. That makes these not just a delicious choice but a cost effective one.
Brew-Wing at the Odyssey
Wings are always a popular option, right? Right?!?
The lines that were always at this booth seem to support that theory. I will say, service as a whole at this booth was a bit on the slow side.
On top of that, there was a definite lack of quality control. Both of my dishes should have been served with ranch, but neither were. By the time I realized this I was already sitting at a table. I was not about to give up my air conditioned table with chairs to go get my ranch.
So far, I’ve only had the Garlic Parmesan Wings and the Traditional Buffalo Wings. Because you can only eat so many wings in one sitting.
If you do like wings, this booth gives you a tremendous number of options to choose from.
Garlic Parmesan Wings
I hope you are prepared for messy fingers because this one isn’t neat. Even from the picture you can see just how much sauce is smother overtop of these wings.
And I’ll say, the flavor of the sauce is delicious. It’s very buttery and garlicky, so you’ll be well prepared to fend off Dracula if necessary afterwards.
All but one of my servings were in the form of wings, not drumsticks, which is a bummer to me as I prefer drumsticks. What this also meant is the meat was tougher and harder to eat.
It was also incredibly dry. Perhaps that’s compensated for with the high amount of sauciness of the topping to a certain extent, but not quite enough.
In the end, the dryness made them pretty touch to eat, which is unfortunate because I think there’s potential here.
Traditional Buffalo Wings
Frankly, these are the same as any Buffalo Wings you’d find at any restaurant around the country. Probably even worse than some.
That’s to say they are perfectly good, as long as you like that buffalo flavoring. I happen to love buffalo flavoring in general and actively seek it out.
With that overall endorsement aside, I’d probably pass on these. They simply weren’t good enough to warrant that price tag. However, if you’re splitting these, which most people probably would, the price probably isn’t so bad.
And man, I really wish I had my ranch! To me, all buffalo wings preferably need blue cheese, but ranch will do in a pinch.
My batch was all drumsticks, which is preferable to wings for sure. But I found the meat itself to be a little dry. Not surprising, really. They were making A LOT of wings at once. I’m sure overcooking is prevalent.
Canada
This one is a fan favorite, and with good reason.
Canadian Filet Mignon
I honestly don’t even know how long this has been a menu option at the Canada booth at Food and Wine Festival, but it’s a classic.
They’ve changed the name this year and it sounds slightly different, but the overall dish is still the same.
Historically, this was straight from Le Cellier’s menu. In case you didn’t know, Le Cellier is a signature restaurant at Epcot, which is Disney’s version of fine dining.
Now don’t get too excited, you can’t get fine dining caliber out of a food booth, but you can get something close.
On the whole, this shouldn’t be missed. The meat is tender and all of the flavors together are wonderful.
However, this is a dish that suffers from lack of consistency. The meat can easily be overcooked in a mass production setting, so it’s not a perfect cook, but fortunately, it’s still tender due to the cut of meat.
In all the combination of flavors from the the meat, mushrooms, and the sauce is delicious. It’s not wonder this one is so popular.
At $9.25 it’s one of the more expensive options in the whole festival, but you get what you pay for with this one.
The Fry Basket
Last year, only the Adobo Yuca Fries were designated gluten free. This year, all of the fries are gluten free, which makes me very excited. The Fry Flight is top of my list of Food and Wine Festival options to try this year!
Adobo Yuca Fries
I’ve never before had the opportunity to eat yuca so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Right off the bat, you can see that these are much thicker than traditional fries.
They are also fried to a golden crisp. And when I say crisp, I mean crisp! The cook on these things was absolute crispy perfection. Even to the point that it was challenging to cut with a crappy plastic knife.
The flavor of these is so gosh darn good, and the serving size is generous. Especially once you consider that this is only $5.50 and you get a lot of food.
The seasoned coating of the fries combined with the aioli worked very well together. They were also generous with the aioli which is good since there are more fries here than you originally realize.
My recommendation is to try to mix the fries around with the aioli as best you can so you have the aioli on the bottom fries as well.
Truly, it’s the combination of both together that makes this so good.
Let’s face it, starchy carbs can be filling and this is no exception. Especially when you are eating all of this stuff yourself!
As far as I’m concerned, these are a must do for anyone at Food and Wine Festival this year. And aren’t we lucky they are gluten free?
Greece
Don’t let this unassuming option fool you…
Griddled Cheese with Pistachios and Honey
Let’s be real, you’re going to look at this picture and wonder why on earth it’s even an option. It is deceptively simply looking. But trust me on this one, you want to give it a whirl.
This is a repeat item for the past couple of years, and thank goodness it’s back.
The savory and sweet combination work so well together, and the chopped pistachios on top give the dish a nice crunch. The blend of flavors from the honey and the cheese are simply delicious.
This is another one that is fairly filling due to the heaviness of the cheese. That’s good in the sense that you won’t need to buy more food to get full, but not good since you won’t have as much room in your stomach for more.
When talking with some strangers who shared my little table later in the day, they asked me which menu item I would recommend, and I told them the Griddled Cheese. They commented that they’ve heard from from other people as well.
At least I know I’m not alone in my love of this one.
As a bonus, this is also one of the cheaper menu options of the whole festival with a price tag of only $4.75.
Kenya
I’m not going to lie, the word coffee in the name worried me some. I’m one of the few people that hates the flavor of coffee. And I mean hate.
However, I didn’t need to worry about that since I couldn’t detect an overpowering coffee flavor!
Kenyan Coffee Barbecued Beef Tenderloin
I found this dish to be visually appealing. The way they plated it with the sweet potato and corn mealie pap on the base and all those colorful vegetables on top made it one of the more attractive dishes.
Fortunately for all of us, the taste matches the visual appeal.
The dish as a whole is pretty vibrant. The flavors blend really well. I particularly liked the sweet potato and corn mealie pap. But then again, I love sweet potatoes and corn meal, so that’s no surprise.
Really, the beef, the pap, and the crunch of the vegetables mixed well with one another.
My only complaint was that my beef was a bit overcooked. Again, this is the risk with beef at the global marketplaces. It wasn’t horribly overcooked so I was still able to enjoy it. All of the other flavors helped to mask it.
The slaw had a slight tang that I didn’t particularly care for, but not enough to stop me from eating it.
Spain
I apologize now, but this one is about to get a little rough. I’m going to preface it all by saying these were the last three items that I ate. It’s possible I was just plum tired of eating. But I don’t think so since eating is my favorite pastime.
I’ll also say, these particular menu options were my least favorite just on paper. So I might be a bit biased.
Across the board, all three of these tasted way too salty. Like really salty.
As far as I’m concerned, this entire booth should be avoided. Save your money and spend it elsewhere.
Charcuterie
I’m just going to say this up front, I despise olives of any sort, so I already knew I would simply avoid eating them directly. I didn’t want to tarnish my overall opinion of the dish by adding my distaste for olives into the mix.
That being said, I stuck with the meat.
And it was awful. Perhaps I just don’t know what a good charcuterie is supposed to taste like. That’s actually quite possible. But everything was so gosh darn salty I couldn’t even eat it.
The meat was salty, the sauce that was mixed on everything was salty.
If you are someone who likes things to be salty you won’t mind this as much as I do. I admit that I don’t like too much salt. But I do like well salted things, I just felt this was over salted.
The sauce does have a little bit of bite to it, and I liked that part.
I will say I like the presentation of it inside of the clear cup.
Paella with Rice, Chorizo, and Shrimp
Holy dryness, Batman!
No seriously, this rice was so dry it stuck to the roof of my mouth. Perhaps I was just really dehydrated? Truly, I definitely was, and very thirsty, but to the extent that food was sticking like peanut butter? I don’t think so.
I stopped eating it after a few bites.
This is a dish I should have liked. I love rice, I love chorizo, and I like shrimp. I was pretty jazzed to try this one.
Ultimately, I was disappointed.
Again, it was just so salty I couldn’t tolerate it for more than a few bites, even the meat.
On the plus side, it’s actually a very generous portion of food. With a price of $6.25, that makes this one a decent value.
I’m willing to concede that maybe I just got this on an off day. Or maybe I really was just tired of eating. This is one I would give another chance to. Like I said, I really should have liked it.
Seafood Salad
Of the three Spain dishes, this one was the least salty, so that’s a win compared to the others. But again, I wasn’t the biggest fan. I think in large part that’s because there’s absolutely no balance with any of these dishes.
They’re all a protein fest. But seriously, don’t call something a salad and hand me something so utterly heavy.
While I get that this is a seafood salad so perhaps a vegetable isn’t quite the right fit, this dish, along with all the other Spain dishes, lacked a certain brightness.
If that makes any sense whatsoever.
Basically, they were all very one note. And that note happened to be salty.
Top 5 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Gluten Free Snacks 2023
Now that we’ve done a general overview, it’s time rank my personal favorites. Clearly, these are the ones I’m going to recommend making a bee-line for if you are only able to get a few items.
Because of the high number of heavy, savory snacks, I recommend that you balance these suggestions out with some standard gluten free Epcot treats.
This Raspberry-Lime Macaron is one of my favorite gluten free snacks in all of Disney World, so it’s a great bet.
The lack of sweet options is a chronic problem at these festivals. I’m sure you noticed there is a huge imbalance of mostly savory items. Of course, this should be surprising as most desserts involve gluten.
But eating every savory all day starts to wear on you. Trust me, I learned this the hard way while I ate my way through the entire gluten free menu in 2022.
So mix up some sweet and light options in there to help cleanse the palate.
But anyway, back my gluten free Epcot Food and Wine Festival top picks. I’m selecting these as the best options in both flavor and bang for your buck.
This is my list from 2022 and all of these items are still there in 2023. After this section, I’ll identify the items on the 2023 menu that I’m most excited about to give you some direction of where to head this year.
5. Brazilian Cheese Bread (Brazil)
These are just such a staple of Food and Wine Festival that they HAVE to be on the list. But seriously, these unassuming looking lumps of cheese bread are a nice treat for gluten free eaters.
I mean, they’re bread!
Also, because they are one of the most affordable options in the whole festival, you get delicious food AND it won’t break your wallet.
4. Kenyan Coffee Barbecued Beef Tenderloin (Kenya)
Honestly, for me it was the combination of all the elements of the dish, but especially the sweet potato and corn mealie-pap. It just brought something a bit different to the table from the normal fare.
Between the pap, the flavor of the beef, and the brightness of the slaw, this is an all around good dish.
3. Le Cellier Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon (Canada)
Yes, there’s another beef option on this list, but I feel like it’s unavoidable. Even with the potential consistency issues, this is a top contender.
Where else can you sample a meal from one of Disney’s signature restaurants for a fraction of the price?
And as you can see from the picture I posted of it above, when it’s good, it’s REALLY good. In fact, that picture is probably one of the most attractive out of all of them.
This one is a splurge since it’s one of the most expensive options in the whole festival, but it’s worth it.
2. Adobo Yuca Fries (The Fry Basket)
This was the sleeper hit for me. I simply LOVED this dish. It gets bonus points for the fact that it’s the type of thing that most of us wouldn’t generally encounter.
This adds a bit of authenticity to the whole idea of the festival which is to try new foods from around the world.
Between the golden, crispy cook they get on these, the flavor of the yuca itself, and the aioli that goes on top, this is a serious win for the festival.
They actually sold out of this on opening day in 2022 because it was that popular.
Add in the fact that the price is on the cheaper end and you have a big winner.
1. Griddled Cheese with Pistachios and Honey (Greece)
Who would have thought that a pie wedge of cheese would be so gosh darn good?
I had this for the first time during Food and Wine Festival 2021 and was instantly smitten. Having it again this year just reinforced my love for this dish.
I don’t even know what type of cheese this is, but it’s delicious.
Again, it falls under the category of being a unique offering that you wouldn’t normally encounter.
But this combination of savory, sweet, and crunch is a dynamite combination that everyone should try. And since it is also one of the cheapest options at the festival it’s a huge win-win.
Snacks I’m Most Intrigued to Try in 2023
As promised, I want to highlight the new items that I’m most intrigued and excited by. You can bet your sweet bippy I’ll be trying each and every one of the items I list here. Then we’ll see if any of them make it into the top 5 for 2023!
- Chimichurri Marinated Skirt Steak Taco with Crushed Avocado, Grilled Corn Salsa, Pickled Red Onions, Queso Fresco, and Cilantro-Lime Cream – I am always a sucker for a good taco, and this sounds so interesting
- Fry Flight – this might be the option I am most excited about out of all of them. Specifically, I can’t wait to dive into the Sweet Potato Casserole fries!
- Thai Shrimp with Rice Noodles, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Basil in Coconut-Curry Broth – Because, noodles!
- Chilaquiles: Corn Tortilla Chips tossed in Salsa Verde with Ranchero Chicken, Queso Fresco, Cilantro-Lime Crema, and a Soft-poached Egg – I think you can probably start to notice I have a thing for Mexican style food. Seriously, if you put queso fresco on it, I want to try it. I can’t eat straight eggs, so I can only have this if I remove the egg, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
- Passion Fruit Cheesecake with Toasted Macadamia Nuts – Here is this year’s lone sweet option for the gluten free crowd. Considering how much I love dessert, you bet I’m heading straight towards this one
- Traditional Poutine French Fries with Beef Gravy, Cheese Curds, and Crumbled Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs – I have a complete and utter love of poutine and cheese curds. And too often the gravy is made with flour so it’s not an option. So of course I want to have poutine. I’ll probably try this traditional over the braised beef poutine, I’m not a fan of relish. But we’ll see what I decide when I get there!
- Grilled Impossible™ Spicy Sausage with Herbed Polenta, Puttanesca Sauce, and Ricotta – I love ricotta so I must try this. I had a tamale at Flower and Garden festival that was made with Impossible “meat” and it was delicious, so I’m going to give this one a go
Final Thoughts on Epcot Food and Wine Festival Gluten Free Menu
I’m more excited about the menu this year than I was last year. All of the items I like the most from last year return for this year, which makes me happy.
Once you add on some of the intriguing new options, I think it should be a pretty darn good festival this year.
I think one major issue every year is the complete imbalance between sweet and savory. I mean, there is really only one sweet option to choose from. Two if we try to argue that the Griddled Cheese in Greece is sweet because of the honey.
This imbalance makes everything over the course of the day feel quite heavy.
Admittedly, this won’t be a problem for most people. I definitely don’t recommend doing what I did and eating all of these over the course of 1.25 days.
I made the sacrifice so you don’t have to do it.
Here’s the approach I would recommend: pick the menu items that appeal to you the most and fit into whatever your budget is. Supplement that with some of the amazing sweet snacks you can get at Epcot year round.
France has several (macarons, macaron ice cream sandwich, parfaits, and more) while Norway has the beloved rice cream.
I think that would help to create a better balance and keep things from being too heavy on your palate.
Honestly, that’s what I think my biggest problem was, and I didn’t think it through beforehand. With only one sweet item, it was bound to be heavy and lopsided. I think if I had blended in some sweets or fruity flavors, it would have made everything else better.
So please, learn from my mistakes! If you do, I think you’ll have a great time eating the Epcot Food and Wine Festival gluten free foods.
Your Thoughts
What do you think about this year’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival gluten free menu? Are there any menu items you’re most excited about eating. Let me know in the comments below.
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