REVIEW: Should This Food and Wine Festival Dish in EPCOT Come With a WARNING?

If you thought you had seen everything the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival has to offer — you would be WRONG!

Noodles Exchange

The festival kicked off back in July, but Disney is keeping us on our toes by opening up some food booths LATE! Throughout the festival, there are plenty of food booths, merchandise items, and concerts too. But now we’re heading to one spot in particular — the Noodle Exchange — to let you know if it’s worth your time and money!

Eats

Let’s dig in! We started with the new Shaved Beef Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots, and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and a soy egg in citrus-sesame broth for $6.

Shaved Beef Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and a soy egg in citrus-sesame broth

This was the star of the show for us. It had the perfect amount of soy flavor, balancing the ingredients together well. The beef was cooked medium-well and had a nice chew to it. The noodles, although not cooked perfectly, were easy to eat and still delicious. We think this would be the crowd pleaser.

Shaved Beef Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and a soy egg in citrus-sesame broth

Next, we had the IMPOSSIBLE Pork Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, baby bok choy, and a soy egg in savory chicken broth. This will run ya $5.75 at the fest.

Impossible Pork Ramen

We really enjoyed this one. The noodles were cooked perfectly, making them a good texture. The broth was savory and had a lot of flavor. The egg had a soy flavor, and the ingredients all worked together really nicely. We would definitely pick this one up again.

IMPOSSIBLE Pork Ramen

Returning this year is the Thai Shrimp with rice noodles, shiitake mushrooms, and basil in coconut-curry broth, which we got for $6.50. When we had this last year, we thought it had just the right amount of heat, but that coconut cut through the spiciness with a good amount of sweetness.

Thai Shrimp

This year, we think this dish should probably come with a WARNING! Why? Well, the shrimp were not peeled or deveined, so it’d be pretty uncomfortable to bite into one without first taking care of that. Once they’re peeled, though, the shrimp were tasty!

We found this to be the one with the most spice to it, but it is still very manageable (especially once you let the dish cool down a bit). The noodles were softer and a little mushy.

Thai Shrimp

And finally, the Tofu Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and baby bok choy in citrus-sesame broth is another new-ish dish for $5.75 — last year it was Tofu Pho instead, but the ingredients appear to be the same.

Tofu Ramen

This was not our favorite. The large chunks of tofu had a soft and almost mushy texture to it. It was crumbly and bitter in taste. The broth was very heavy on the salt.

Tofu

What are we washing it all down with?!

Drinks

If you’re thirsty, pick up the Parish Brewing Strawberry Mochi Berliner Weisse! A 6oz pour is $5.50 and a 12oz pour is $9.50. But if wine is more your thing, you can grab the Pacific Rim Old Vines Riesling for $8 instead.

Noodles Exchange

So, was the Noodle Exchange worth the wait?!

Overall

Make sure you stop by the Noodle Exchange booth if you’re looking for a variety of different Asian-inspired noodle dishes. We especially loved the Shaved Beef Ramen, but the IMPOSSIBLE Pork Ramen and Thai Shrimp with rice noodles were great, too! The only one we’d for sure skip in the future is the Tofu Ramen.

Full Spread 2023

That’s it for this booth, but there’s a LOT more where that came from!

Click here to see FULL reviews of EVERY. SINGLE. BOOTH. at the Food & Wine Festival!

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

And don’t forget to pick up our 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival e-book! See more details about the book below.

IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!

Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.

If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!