It’s time to get your gardening on with the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, which starts TODAY and runs through June 1, 2020. This annual event transforms the park with brilliant gardens, topiaries featuring your favorite Disney characters, Outdoor Kitchens with fresh flavors, the popular Garden Rocks Concert Series, and more. You won’t want to miss any of it!

Of course, as the resident foodie author for the Disney Parks Blog, the festival menus are always the icing on the cake for me! In addition to returning favorites like the frozen desert violet lemonade slushy from Pineapple Promenade, grilled street corn on the cob from Trowel & Trellis, and the ADORABLE Orange Bird novelty sipper filled with a delicious orange cream shake at The Citrus Blossom, there are a few new offerings this year.

A few of these new offerings include a brand-new Outdoor Kitchen, another cute sipper featuring Spike the Bee at the Honey Bee-Stro Outdoor Kitchen, and a Spike the Bee reusable souvenir spork available at various Outdoor Kitchens throughout the park while supplies last.

The new Magnolia Terrace Outdoor Kitchen is located at The American Adventure and features several incredible seafood dishes, house-made boudin, and a couple southern-style desserts. The Southern Seafood Boil features shrimp, mussels, crawfish, potatoes, corn, and andouille sausage. If that’s not enough seafood for you, why not chow down on grilled oysters served with a Cajun butter – YUM! My favorite dish at this food booth, however, is the house-made boudin two ways served with spicy mustard. It’s a great savory dish that’s bursting with flavor. After you’ve gotten your fill of savory, satisfy your sweet tooth with a couple southern classics: a pecan praline or pecan cake topped with maple whipped cream.

Other favorites from this year’s menus are the new lamb curry dish with sweet plantains and rice from La Isla Fresca, seared scallops from Northern Bloom, and the gluten-friendly roasted cauliflower from the Honey Bee-Stro.

There is also a great selection of plant-based options this year and the best way to try them is by participating in the Garden Graze Food Stroll!

For this fun activity, all you have to do is purchase five designated items from the Outdoor Kitchens and make sure to get your Festival Passport stamped when you make your purchase to keep track along the way.  Once you’ve completed the stroll, visit Pineapple Promenade to redeem your complimentary treats: a seed packet and a special plant-based Dole Whip dessert served in a souvenir vessel! The five plant-based items you’ll need to purchase to complete the stroll are:

• Grilled Baby Vegetables – Flavor Full Kitchen Hosted by AdventHealth (Located at Future World West)
• Impossible Farmhouse Meatball – Trowel & Trellis Hosted by Impossible Foods (Located at the front of World Showcase)
• Pineapple Skewer – Refreshment Outpost (Located at the African Outpost)
• Potato Pancakes with House-Made Applesauce – Bauernmarkt: Farmer’s Market (Located at the Germany pavilion)
• Watermelon Cucumber Slushy – Florida Fresh (Located between the France and Morocco pavilions)

Special dining packages are also available for the Garden Rocks Concert Series. This concert series runs for 90 nights and features over 250 performances by tons of popular artists. This dining package allows you to have either breakfast, lunch, or dinner at select table-service restaurants in the park and grants you guaranteed seating at one of three concert performances that day. Be sure to reserve these early to savor every single minute! For more information and to make your reservations, visit the Garden Rocks Dining Packages web page.

To check out all of the festival menus and to find more details and information on the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, be sure to check out my official Foodie Guide on the Disney Parks Blog, visit the Walt Disney World Resort website, or check out the My Disney Experience mobile app. The festival runs through June 1, so be sure to come on out and enjoy it with us! Happy Snacking!