We are heading into a guest-favorite spot in Epcot to grab a quick lunch — Sunshine Seasons!
So, if you haven’t been to Disney World yet, let me assure you that Sunshine Seasons deserves a moment of your time. It doesn’t look like much, but this counter-service location in The Land pavilion features some unique, fresh items as well as a treasure trove of bakery treats that are not to be missed.
Atmosphere
Have you ever visited The Land Pavilion in Epcot’s
Future World? Of course you have! Because it’s not just home to Living with the Land, that tour of all things fascinating and food-related at Epcot. It’s also the home of Soarin’ and Circle of Life, a film about conservation starring Timon and Pumba from The Lion King.
The Land Pavilion in Walt Disney World’s Epcot
The building also hosts not one, but two restaurants. As you enter from the top of the round building and make your way toward the bottom, you’ll pass Garden Grill Restaurant. This table service restaurant hosts one of my favorite character dining experiences. Check out our most recent review for lots of food and action pics.
Sunshine Seasons Sign
But once you pass Garden Grill and take the stairs (or the escalator) down to the bottom level, you’ll find Sunshine Seasons. This place is usually buzzing unless you arrive early in the morning — as we did in order to grab this pic from above. The seating area of Sunshine Seasons is comfortable and expansive.
Sunshine Seasons at The Land pavilion in Epcot
It is a GREAT place to relax for a while, especially during a rain storm or a hot day.
Eats
As you arrive, you’ll find pictures of featured menu items. It’s a great way to get an idea of your options.
Menu Board
Once you’ve entered the ordering area, you’ll see that there are different stations with menu boards above each.
The Oak-Grilled Entrees are some of my favorites, and they get high marks with our readers as well.
Sunshine Seasons Menu — Oak Fire Grill — Click to Enlarge
If you prefer a lighter meal, there are always interesting Soups and Salads.
Sunshine Seasons Menu — Soups and Salads — Click to Enlarge
While the Sandwich options were small in number, I like the variety here.
Sunshine Seasons Menu — Sandwiches and Such — Click to Enlarge
There’s an Asian Grill that serves up some fan favorites, like Mongolian Beef.
Sunshine Seasons Menu — Pan Asian Dishes — Click to Enlarge
And finally, here’s a look at the meal options for kiddos.
Kids Zone Menu — Click to Enlarge
Before I show you what we chose during this visit, let’s take a look around.
In addition to the stations, there are Grab and Go options. You’ll find prepared cold foods, such as Salads, Fruit and Cheese Plates, and even Sushi.
There are also lots and lots of Pastries and Desserts to choose from. Muffins and Cookies abound, and you’ll find cult dessert favorites, like Strawberry Shortcake and Key Lime Tarts. My favorite new menu item at the bakery is the Warm Peanut Butter Brownie.
Warm Peanut Butter Brownie — Cross Section
Also be on the lookout for great cupcakes here.
If you follow a special diet, you’ll find some treats that might be a good fit.
Treats for Special Diets
In addition to fountain beverages, Sunshine Seasons stocks a wide variety of bottled and canned drinks — both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Draft beer is available as well.
Bottled Beer
Bottles and Cans of Beer and Wine
Bottled Drinks
In the same general area, you’ll also find the Kids Menu Drinks and Sides selections.
Kids Meals Beverages and Sides
I also hung around and scouted out the on-stage kitchen in action (yeah, I’m a stalker that way), so I got a few extra shots for you of some of the menu items!
Here are close ups of some of the Oak Grilled Options. The Salmon is always a popular choice, and is served with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans. Not exactly your normal theme park quick service meal, eh?
Oak Grilled Salmon
Roasted Potatoes
Green Beans
The Pork Chop looked good as well, and the cast member I spoke to said that it was one of the more popular choices on the menu.
Bone-In Pork Chop
The day we visited, Soup choices included Pumpkin Squash and Five-Bean Vegetable.
Soups
Vegetable Soup Close-Up
Both the Spicy Fish Tacos and Oak-Grilled Vegetarian Flatbread Sandwich looked like interesting options.
Spicy Fish Tacos
Vegetable Flatbread Sandwich
And in fact, we decided to give the Tacos a try since they looked so good. They were made with Blackened Tilapia and were topped with Cabbage Slaw and Poblano Pepper Aioli for a little extra kick.
Spicy Fish Tacos
The serving of fish was substantial — definitely a filling option. The crunchy, cool slaw complemented the spicy flavors nicely. This one was a winner.
Spicy Fish Tacos — Up Close
The Potato Salad as a side dish was also a nice change of pace, with its Vinaigrette Dressing.
Potato Salad — Up Close
But I couldn’t pass up my favorite meal here — the Oak-Grilled Chicken won out with me. This beautiful plate features half of a Rotisserie Chicken with a substantial side of Black Beans and Rice. It is a HUGE portion, and totally shareable for two — especially if you add a salad. Overall, I really appreciated the side of rice and beans instead of fries.
Oak-Grilled Chicken with Black Beans and Rice
But that definitely doesn’t mean we skipped dessert! While we have lots of favorites at Sunshine Seasons, we had to try two cupcakes that we hadn’t seen before this visit.
The Black Forest Cupcake looked pretty gorgeous.
Black Forest Cupcake
The chocolate buttercream frosting was very good, and I was delighted to see a pile of cherry pie filling inside the chocolate cake!
Black Forest Cupcake Inside
But in terms of taste, the Black Forest cupcake paled in comparison to our other choice — the Apple Spice Cupcake.
Apple Spice Cupcake
This one was deeee-licious! A sweet cream cheese frosting (at least I THINK it was cream cheese) topped the super moist spice cake. The sugar crystals on top gave it a sweet crunch. The whole things just worked perfectly well. I know this one is seasonal, but I wish it was there all the time.
Apple Cupcake Inside
Ah — look! Time for our Soarin’ FastPass! I love when a plan comes together. 🙂
Overall
Epcot has arguably some of the best food in Disney World, in terms of overall variety and quality. So it’s no easy task to earn a reputation as a must-have stop in this park. But Sunshine Seasons manages to do it. And even more interestingly, they manage to stay at the top.
In a world — Future World, that is — that’s largely forgettable on the food front, Sunshine Seasons delivers consistently. It’s a good example of excellent quick service food that’s both relatively healthy and delicious.
Even if you’re just stopping by to raid the bakery case, it’s always worth a visit to this hidden gem.
Is Sunshine Seasons a favorite stop of yours? Let us know what you think in comments!
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I love Sunshine Seasons. During my last solo trip, I had their sesame noodles with seared tuna. It was very good, especially for a counter service spot.
It was also a great place to charge the phone. While waiting… I had a nice conversation with another solo traveler. It was quite a memorable linner (lunch/dinner).
We always have a meal here at least once during our trip. As you mentioned, the different items that you can order here, compared to the other quick service places, makes it a go-to stop for us. Everyone in the group can find something that they like. The salmon meal is one of my personal favorites. My wife always tells people how good the pork chop is. This is also one of the few places where you can refill your fountain drink too.
I love Sunshine Seasons. It’s just so nostalgically EPCOT. I eat so many fish tacos I could very well turn into a fish taco, so I will definitely be checking that out next time! My husband and I like to eat at Sunshine Seasons after catching the Timon & Pumba show upstairs and then we talk about how ironic it is to watch a show about building a theme park that ruins the environment in a theme park.
Sunshine Seasons is a favorite must-do for us. The day we arrive we always head over for the Chicken Caesar and the Pickled Beet Salads. Plus Epcot is our favorite place. I have also had the Pumpkin Squash Soup and it was great. I miss some of the Asian combos they used to have. One evening I wasn’t feeling real well but needed to eat something so I got the half chicken and they let me have the mashed potatoes and corn. It was wonderful and I felt much better. I wish I was there now!
One of the few things I do not like about the new FastPass+ system is that because I always have a FP for Soarin’, and because I no longer need to sprint to The Land first thing when I come in through the International Gateway Entrance, I no longer get up to Sunshine Seasons at Breakfast Time. Their Breakfast Paninis are some of the best things in all of WDW and well worth a special trip just for those.
Everything about Sunshine Seasons makes me happy. I love being in the Land pavilion in general. The Mongolian beef is my go-to, always fresh and delicious.
They better bring back that Lemon Blast cupcake !!!!
At the Oak Grill section you do NOT have to get the sides that “come with” the entrée. I always get mashed potatoes with the chicken instead of the rice. The other sections will probably let you choose your own side(s) too but I haven’t tried yet.
Such a hidden gem… My daughter still raves about the chocolate croissants!
At the end of a long week of WDW sit down dining – we bailed on our family eating at Chefs de France.
High tailed it here and used it as a take out restaurant.
Enjoyed dining in our room at BLT with out take out!
A great place to have lunch or a snack at still reasonable prices. Love those fish tacos. Wonderful snack for two or a delicious filling lunch for one. Highly recommended.
Wonderful place to eat. I had the veggie sandwich once (even tho I eat meat) and was disappointed because it was cold. They said it was a cold sandwich and meant to be that way, but I just couldn’t eat it. I asked them it they had a microwave and could they please pop it into the micro to heat it up. They did and it was absolutely delicious, one of the best veggie sandwiches I’ve ever had. The desserts and overall selection of entrees is excellent.
I’m glad to see the good review. I love the place but my last trip there wasn’t exactly my favorite meal. What I had appears to be off the menu now so it’s clear they noticed what wasn’t working and made changes. I’ll drop by next time I visit.
Is this review a repeat? I could have sworn I remember both those cupcakes being reviewed together…
Melissa — We did review the cupcakes in an earlier post because we were so excited about them! Cupcakes also tend to change up pretty quickly, so it was important to get that info out first. We had reviewed the Peanut Butter Brownie as well. We always want to give you as much content as possible in a review. This is the first time that we’re talking about the rest of the items from this visit, however. 🙂
I love the grilled veg. flatbread, great flavor.
I stopped by here a couple of weeks ago after finishing my Soarin’ Fast Pass, and I picked up the tuna salad with the fan favorite strawberry shortcake. I wasn’t hot on the salad- I actually found the Epcot-grown veggies more interesting than the tuna or noodles in it, both of which left me cold. But that shortcake, though. As enticing as the other desserts here look, I could go for just that again.
My favorite part of the place, though, is how it’s hotel dining-themed. And you know what that means? Free refills. Aww yeah.
Thanks for the review, Aviator! And re: the free refills — I wonder when they’re going to start putting that little RFID tag on the cups in counter service restaurants. 🙁 Can’t be too long, right?
We absolutely love Sunshine Seasons. The pork chop meal was awesome, I had the sauce on the side, but was very glad I got it once I tried it, yum! We have had the Salmon and the Chicken and both were awesome as well. Whatever we have had here from sandwiches to desserts has been great. We prefer it to many of the sit down options at Epcot. A must do several times for us on any WDW vacation!
I had the fish tacos about a month ago and they were excellent. Similar to the ones they serve at California Pizza Kitchen, but much larger and definitely have a kick. I don’t eat meat but I do eat fish so these were a great option. As you said, not exactly standard theme park food…much better.
I had the tuna noodle salad a couple weeks ago and also thought it was very good for counter service, although more noodles would’ve been nice.
The best place to eat in all 4 parks. 2nd best is Flametree BBQ in the AK.
Pork chop is fantastic. Half the price and way better than one at a particular table service location in World Showcase. These are cooked by Disney Chef’s, not by a chain chef at the brand x location.
We have eaten at every table service location in all 4 parks and we have found them bland and over priced.
We don’t eat at chains when we’re home, so we won’t at Disney. Counter service all Disney and way better.