In a strong, invigorating turn from last year’s event, the 2021 EPCOT® International Food and Wine Festival will no longer be following the “Taste of” series and will instead be the fully fledged version of the festival. This means more food booths, more merchandise and a full list of activities. With all those additions comes the biggest and best addition to this year’s festival: more food.
With eight new food booths being added this year, there is more to try than ever before, so where do you start? Here are our must-tries from this year’s list:
Kenya
A new booth for this year, Kenya is bringing both food items and beer from the country. Africa is one of the most underrepresented world regions when it comes to flavor profiles in Epcot, so one of the newest booths in World Showcase will help diversify the festival with something it has been missing.
Hawaiʻi
The Hawai'i booth has historically been one of the very best at the festival. While the full menus have yet to be released this year, as long as any one of its usual dishes make a return, it will be heralded as one of the best of the festival for yet another year.
Tangerine Café: Flavors of the Medina
Moroccan cuisine has long been some of the best Epcot has had to offer, whether in quick service, table service or anything in between. Getting a dedicated booth to it at this year's festival makes it all the more exciting, as its a flavor profile Disney has consistently knocked out of the park
Rotunda Bistro
Similarly, Disney has crushed American-style food as of late. From the newer menu at Regal Eagle Smokehouse to the options and festivals and the staples at table service restaurants, this new booth—this time complete with fresh seafood—should have every expectation to continue that American-themed excellence.
The Alps
Not opening until Oct. 1, this is a booth you will want to wait for, even if for its warm Raclette Swiss cheese, served with a baguette. While not as unique in its spices as various other locations being represented, it provides a class of food only seen in a few locations in World Showcase year-round.
The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival is scheduled to run from July 15-Nov. 20, 2021 and will feature a total of 32 booths, with nine of them opening on Oct. 1.