Woo-hoo! We were SO excited to hear that the California Adventure Food and Wine Festival was coming out of hiatus this year. And I’m thrilled to report that it’s AWESOME!
Yep — the festival, which runs in Disney California Adventure in Disneyland Resort on weekends through May 1, opened for business yesterday. And DFB was there to explore!
Food and Wine Festival Signage
Yesterday, we mostly explored the brand new food booths that are debuting at the festival for the first time. Those of you familiar with the Epcot Food and Wine Festival in Walt Disney World will know the set-up. Small booths featuring several tapas-sized menu items and selected beverages are set up around the festival. This is the first time that the California festival has done this, so we were super excited to check it out.
Here’s what we sampled and tasted yesterday!
If you want to read more about the rest of the festival and see schedules for the Beverage Seminars and Celebrity Kitchen events, head on over to our main Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival Page!
DCA Food and Wine Festival Food Booth Reviews
Yesterday, we visited several of the booths set up around the festival. No worries, though, we’ll be back soon with reviews of e’erything!!! Let’s take a first look…
Gold Rush Booth
The Gold Rush booth features some of our favorite dishes at the festival so far!
Gold Rush Booth
Gold Rush Booth Menu
First up, we sampled the Artichoke Chips with Spicy Aioli ($5.00). These were yummy, and were a favorite…
Artichoke Chips with Spicy Aioli
…until we tried this!!!! The Triple Cheese Mac with Smoked Chicken ($6.00) was off. the. ranch. y’all!!!! Spotlighting fontina, cheddar, and gouda, the cheesiness was spectacular.
Triple Cheese Mac with Smoked Chicken
Next up from this booth? Dessert! And this one is going to sound crazy…’cause it was. Apple Bacon Whoopie Pie with Maple Cream Cheese Icing and Bacon Brittle ($3.74), anyone? Um…yeah. That was happening.
Apple bacon Whoopie Pie
We also got the specialty beverage option — the N/A Flower-Field Lemonade ($4.25). This one was pretty, but VERY flowery. Too flowery. And served without ice? Wha?
We heard good things from our readers, but it was a no-go for us.
Flower Field Lemonade
By the Bay Booth
We headed on over to the By the Bay Booth for some San Francisco eats next!
By the Bay Booth
By the Bay Booth Menu
I couldn’t wait to tackle that teeny-weeny bread bowl filled with White Cheddar Ale & Bacon Soup ($5.50)! Can you even take this cuteness?? You can sort of see the spoon next to it to get a feel for the size of this thing.
Our only complaint was that they needed to scoop out the boule more to make more room for soup!!!
White Cheddar Ale and Bacon Soup in a Bread Bowl
Next up? The Coconut Tapioca layered with Fresh Mango, Lychee Boba, and Mango Coulis ($4.25). This was refreshing and delicious.
Coconut Tapioca
The Farm Booth
From the Bay over to the Farm!
The Farm Booth Menu
We had to try that Golden Thai Vegetable Curry ($5.75) first. We loved it. Check out that coconut! The serving here was a little small, though.
Golden Thai Vegetable Curry
And because we can’t ever say no to Meyer Lemon anything, we had to check out the Meyer Lemon Macaron ($3.50). This one included Blueberry Marmalade, Meyer Lemon Cream, and Blueberry Dust! Yummo!
Meyer Lemon Macaron
Inside Lemon Macaron — blueberry marmalade!
LAStyle Booth
LA was next!
LA Style Booth Menu
We didn’t try this booth yet, but a new friend sampled the Chilled Ahi Poke with Avocado Creme, Wakame Salad, and Sesame Tuille.
Chilled Ahi Poke
Viva Fresca Booth
Over at the Viva Fresca Booth we sampled one of the larger festival menu items.
Viva Fresca Menu
The Anaheim Chile & Roasted Cauliflower Burrito with Jack Cheese and Avocado-Lime Crema ($5.50) didn’t strike a cord with us. We loved the avocado crema, but the overall flavors weren’t something we need to get again.
Chile and Cauliflower Burrito
Inside Chile and Cauliflower Burrito
Wine Country Booth
The Wine Country Booth held some promising goodies! We grabbed a shot of the Zinfandel-Braised Wagyu Beef while we were indulging in dessert!
Wagyu Beef
But it was this Blackberry Tart with Rosemary Vanilla Bean Creme Fraiche that caught our eye. This was gorgeous (and delicious)!
Blackberry Tart
Inside Blackberry Tart
We’ll be back with full coverage in just a few days of this amazing festival!! Stay tuned!
In the meantime, there’s one more thing I wanted to share with you about the festival.
Passholder Payment Lanyard
UPDATE: DCA has now lowered the price of this lanyard to $39. Passholders who purchased the lanyard on the first weekend can return to the Blue Sky Cellar and get a $10 gift card in return. Well done, DCA!
DCA has introduced a Passholder Lanyard ($45). This is similar to the lanyards used for the VIP Premium packages at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Disneyland Annual Passholders can purchase a lanyard and use the six tabs to purchase items at the booths. (Which items you can purchase with tabs is printed on the lanyard.)
Passholder Lanyard
Passholder Lanyard Back
You can use the lanyard anytime throughout the festival, but once the six tabs are gone, the lanyard can no longer be used for purchasing.
Is this a good deal? Um…no. If you look at the pricing on the menus, there aren’t enough things that are priced high enough to make this come out as a money savings (alcohol is excluded). So, if you get this, look at it as a souvenir instead of a money-saving strategy.
Overall
So far, so good! The festival is a hit as far as we’re concerned. Stay tuned to DFB to see even more coverage!
And if you happen to be in Anaheim next weekend, come on out to the Lifestyle Stage in DCA at 11:30 on April 9th to see Heather and AJ present on their favorite Disneyland eats!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
I feel like this whole thing was kind of a letdown. We were very excited about it, as we love the Epcot festival. Lines were SO long, and once you ordered food, it took forever to actually get it, as there were simply not enough people working in the booths, and putting together each individual dish took forever. Ingredients were left out, or they ran out of things altogether – two of the booths shut down altogether at one point because they ran out of food midday. The Tecate Michelada was being made with Corona – guess they ran out of Tecate and ran to the liquor store to get whatever they could? So bizarre – they knew this would be a popular event. Dishes also seem way, way more expensive than those at Epcot – $8 for a few bites of pot roast? I’m hoping they get their act together soon.
I see it noted that the special events run on three weekends, however, I’m curious if there are any booths or food offerings during the week.
Jennifer — Booths are open throughout the week.
Thank you so much Brooke! Looking forward to partaking when we’re there this time next week! 🙂
Jennifer — Yay! Keep us posted!!!
I have gone several times. My favorite thing is the FLOWER FIELD LEMONADE!!! OMG, I would drive miles and wait hours for the stuff! It is addictive… so sweet and wonderful. I am dying to find out how I can recreate it at home. Your photo above looks like they didn’t give it to you the right way… It should be dipped in lime juice and rolled in sugar first, then the ice, then the lemonade. You will be amazed when you try it the right way, trust me. It is sweet and delicious.
The Flower Field Lemonade alone makes me skip the alcohol and the desserts!
Heather & AJ – so sorry I missed you present yesterday! We didn’t arrive in the park until 12:45 after you had already started, bummer! Hopefully you can post here what you covered at the event. To the other posters I have to add that I thought the festival was just okay. Not as much offered in terms of variety as the Florida festival and the lines were slow moving — it seemed like at many booths they didn’t start to prep items until they took your ticket (but spent a lot of time pouring drinks and seeming unprepared for the lines). Plus they seemed highly understaffed for a Saturday and if you asked a castmember a question on where festival merchandise was located, a few seemed unaware. I noticed the food portions in many cases were smaller than the FL festival, not to mention at many booths we waited nearly 20 minutes only to find out that they had just run out of what we wanted to order. This happened throughout the day and so I didn’t get to try at least 4 items I really wanted. Even the cast members seemed annoyed by it. Oh well. Still a great concept and I hope they improve.
Also to anyone with a California Select annual pass that is otherwise blocked out on the weekends of the festival except Friday April 29, please note that despite Disney’s earlier announcement, the booths are available throughout the week too. The only part of the festival you can’t partake in are the special events and seminars which are strictly weekends only.
This was a huge letdown! We were there on this past Saturday. The parks were great and less crowded than usual. Around 5 we approached our first booth only to find out they were sold out of the soup. They said we could instead get it at the Pacific Warf Café so we happily walked over there. We inquired about the beer cheese soup and they looked at us like we were crazy. We told them we had been sent there to get it and they said the booth people were wrong.
We wanted to try other booths but the lines were very long and not worth the wait.
They try but this just isn’t all that great.