Best and worst new food items at the 2024 Epcot International Festival of the Arts

The 2024 Epcot International Festival of the Arts started Jan. 12, 2024, and we were there on opening day to try the 15 new food items for this year, including several types of desserts as well as lobster and salmon entrees.  We even ordered many items several times to gauge the quality overall, not just during one visit. As you might expect, we enjoyed some more than others, but we also encountered far fewer below-average items than expected.

We did find the prices noticeably higher than last month during the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays; however, many of the best new items still felt like good values.

Passion Fruit-filled Mango Cheesecake ($5)

This delightful cheesecake at Vibrante & Vivido: Encanto Cocina Food Studio (located between France and Morocco in the World Showcase area). The menu description reads, “Passion Fruit-filled Mango Cheesecake with coconut-pineapple cake, dragon fruit gelée, and dragon fruit-strawberry sauce.”

One person in our group particularly enjoys mango treats, so we let him try the cheesecake first. As expected, he loved it, which served as a good sign. Later that same day, the rest of us tried the Passion Fruit-filled Mango Cheesecake again. We thought the mango and passion fruit stand out as the distinct experiences for your taste buds. The coconut-pineapple also provides a good foundation, but would not qualify as the most robust flavor with this cheesecake.

Like many food items at the Festival of the Arts, the presentation was terrific. Overall, we think this dessert will be a hit with almost all guests.

Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak ($7)

At the Craftsman’s Courtyard in the Port of Entry area of Epcot, we found another item on our best list for this festival. In fact, this Festival of the Arts Food Studios presents guests with two new items we suggest trying.

The star at this location is the Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak described as “Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak with caramelized onions and mushrooms, blue cheese fondue, and arugula on a grilled French roll.”

We found the onions, mushrooms, and steak were a tasty combination, and the blue cheese enhances the sandwich without overwhelming it. Even the pickier eaters in our group appreciated this sandwich (and for a festival food item, the steak came very well prepared).

For the seven-dollar price point, we think this is an excellent festival food item; however, our only criticism relates to the portion size as we thought it could be more significant. Still, we understand the thinking behind smaller portions to allow guests to sample several different items during their day at Epcot.

Though it did not make our best new food items list, the Grilled Pork Belly at the Craftsman’s Courtyard Food Studio ($6.75) provided decent value, quality presentation, and reasonable flavor.

This pork belly dish features grilled pork belly, salsa verde, broccoli rabe, pickled peppers, and raclette cheese on grilled sourdough. The bread was a bit too hard for us (why it’s not on the best list), but we can still recommend it.

Rock the Dots Cake ($5.25)

Pop Eats in the Port of Entry area was one of the most popular Food Studios on opening day. While they offer two grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup varieties, the new food item that impressed our group is The Rock the Dots Cake, which might have been the favorite item overall for some group members.

This white chocolate cake with orange mousse also includes vanilla bean chiffon cake. Some of also noted lemon flavor, but we were not bothered by that. The “cake” portion serves to create a shell for the mousse, but we found the mousse to be the best part, and we definitely plan to order this again.

Besides being a tasty treat, it comes on a cute serving plate with a popular Disney character to remind you where you’re dining.

2024 Epcot International Festival of the Arts worst new food items

For this year’s International Festival of the Arts, we found most of the new food offerings to be quite good; however, we found one exception based on value and quality.

Crazy Chocolate Funnel Cake Sandwich ($12)

During our visits to Epcot, we enjoy the seasonal funnel cake creations at the Funnel Cake stand in the American Pavilion in World Showcase. This permanent location usually presents guests with a new style of funnel cake for each festival, and for this year’s Festival of the Arts, it’s a Crazy Chocolate Funnel Cake Sandwich.

Our concerns about this new food item relate primarily to the $12 price, which sounded high based on the initial promotional photos. That assessment turned out to be correct.

In addition, the menu description leaves out essential information guests might want. The menu description says it’s a mini funnel cake sandwich with vanilla ice cream, rainbow whipped cream, strawberry sauce, powdered sugar, and sprinkles. While the name indicates “crazy chocolate” (and we tasted chocolate), it’s not even listed in the description. That may have been intended since the chocolate flavor does not make a distinct impression on this festival item, but it would certainly be important information for guests with a chocolate allergy.

We also learned the ingredients of Walt Disney World Resort’s version of rainbow whipped cream, the flavor of which caught our group by surprise. Apparently, Rainbow whipped cream means basic whipped cream with sour candy sprinkles added. Without any warning, this took away any potential this funnel cake had to be a pleasing item.

In fairness, we only ordered this once (and do not plan to order it again), but our final concern with this messy treat relates to a confusing turn of events. We ate this soon after ordering it (and one of our group members actually watched it being made fresh). Still, when we sat down to eat it, the funnel cake had gotten cold very quickly. Sure, the ice cream factors into that; however, other funnel cakes we’ve ordered with ice cream have not suffered this fate. So, based on all of this, we find it hard to recommend ordering this.

Overall Thoughts

Despite one “worst” item, we found the new food selections for the 2024 Epcot International Festival of the Arts to be good quality. Sure, we would have preferred some items to taste better, but these new items stand up reasonably well overall for a theme park festival.

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts runs through Feb.19, 2024. Click here for more information.

Check out more of our opening day coverage here: