Flavors of America Review at Epcot Food and Wine
Flavors of America takes the place of Hops and Barley this year, representing the American Pavilion at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. We see two new dishes, a fresh spin on one of last year’s favorites, and a returning classic.
Overall, this festival booth has a lot going for it. But, like most booths, it wasn’t perfect. Below, we’ll look at what we’ve previously tried and the two entirely new items. If you love desserts, you’ll want to save plenty of room!
Flavors of America Menu Items with Prices
Below are the menu items with prices for Hops and Barley.
- Italian Hot Beef Sandwich ($6.25)
- Cioppino ($7.50)
- Chilaquiles ($6.75)
- Freshly Baked Carrot Cake ($4.50)
Beverages:
- Rogue Dreamland American Lager ($5.50 or $9.50)
- Goose Island Beer Co. Neon Beer Hug ($5.50 or $9.50)
- Left Hand Brewing Sawtooth Amber Ale ($5.50 or $9.50)
- Beer Flight ($10.00)
Flavors of America sits on the right-hand side of the American Pavilion at Epcot. This booth tends to be pretty popular, so you will likely encounter a wait.
However, the area has plenty of picnic tables in the surrounding area. So when you receive your order, you should be able to find a seat. Finding a table after picking up your food is half the battle at many booths.
Hot Beef Italian Sandwich
Last year, Hops and Barley had a hot beef Italian sandwich. However, this year it appears that a relish called Giardiniera tops the sandwich, and an au jus comes on the side.
Previously, the sandwich came topped with horseradish cream. It was served warm and full of flavor. Unfortunately, we cannot try every item, but after previewing this year’s version at the booth-they look identical except for the horseradish cream.
Cioppino
Oh, dear, I have mixed feelings about this next dish. On the one hand, I thought it could potentially be a great value because the Cioppino was packed with seafood. I counted four scallops, two shrimp, two mussels, and one clam.
However, the tomato-fennel broth was not great. It seemed like this dish could have benefited from being served in a bouillabaisse broth rather than a tomato soup.
That said, I could pull pieces of seafood from the dish, and the broth didn’t really adhere to them. But when I put the second mussel in my mouth, I quickly discovered it was ruined. This was the second item I had to spit into my napkin at the festival. I guess that happens with seafood. But it was unedible to the point I feared trying another bite afterward.
My other issue was that we waited a long time for our food. After we ordered, it took almost 15 minutes to receive our food, and it was unclear why we had to wait so long.
Chilaquiles
I believe that you either like cilantro or you don’t. There’s not much in between, and I fall into the do not like cilantro camp. Unfortunately, my chilaquiles had so much cilantro that I couldn’t take a bite without being overwhelmed with the herbaceous flavor.
After being offended by the first couple of bites, I decided to deconstruct the dish and inspect it more. The egg was perfectly poached and ran all over the dish. However, the chips were so soggy you had to have a fork to lift one. They could not hold any of the toppings up, which was sad.
So I feel like if you enjoy cilantro, you will probably like this dish. But if you know you don’t care for it, you’ll probably want to save your money and skip it.
Freshly Baked Carrot Cake
America’s popular freshly baked carrot cake returns this year. It was all I could do not to order it again. And I’m sure we’ll try it at some point before the festival is over.
The carrot cake comes in the shape of a cupcake. It’s then saturated with cream cheese icing. However, the icing is more of a sauce. But that’s completely okay.
You won’t want to miss this item if you love carrot cake. My other favorite dessert is the pudding cake at the Ireland Marketplace. Both are excellent options!
Overall, Flavors of America has some excellent items depending on your flavor profile. But some of the dishes are definitely not for everyone.
For more food booth reviews, try these:
- Japan Marketplace Review
- The Alps Marketplace Review
- Coastal Eats Marketplace Review
- Germany Marketplace Review
- The Fry Basket Review
Or you can browse our entire list of Epcot Food and Wine Menus with Prices.
In the Comments
What are your thoughts on Flavors of America? Will you add anything from this menu to your list of items to try?
