We recently welcomed the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival into Disney World with LOTS of merchandise, entertainment, and (of course) food booths!

And, while there’s more to come this Fall, we gave you a look at the best value eats and the MOST expensive snacks so far, as well as our top picks for the Best of the Fest this year! But, not everything is great at the Food & Wine Festival. So, we’re giving you a few tips on the dishes that you may want to avoid!

Strawberry Soft-Serve

The Shimmering Sips is just one of those spots that has a pretty name and even MORE beautiful returning snacks, treats, and drinks that draw in both kids and grown-ups! Regardless of the fact you can find a few fan-favorites that have made their way back to the menu again, there’s something pretty disappointing about the Shimmering Strawberry Soft-Serve that you might not even realize!

The soft-serve itself is pretty simple with its flavors, even though the presentation is adorable. So, you’d think that Disney would make up for that simplicity by giving you a satisfying helping of ice cream for the $5.25 price tag. Yet, we noticed that the cones were a LOT smaller than they were in previous years, giving about half of the swirl of soft-serve that was previously provided to guests!

The price might be like a great deal, but it’s gotten to be less and less of one as Shimmering Sips practically cuts its helpings of soft-serve in half. If you’re really craving ice cream, there are plenty of other treats that are a better bang for your buck, whether it’s a classic Mickey Bar, Dole Whip, or cone from the Plaza Inn Ice Cream Parlor.

Mimosa Fans — This is Your Must-Visit Booth at EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival

ALL the Wings

We’ve been VERY hyped about all the new booths at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, and the Brew-Wing at the EPCOT Experience combines two fan-favorite items — beers and wings! The menu is made up of mostly chicken wings with five different flavors ranging from mild to hot.

The flavors consist of the mild Garlic-Parmesan Sauce Wings…

…medium BBQ Sauce Wings…

…medium Traditional Buffalo Sauce Wings…

…medium Teriyaki-Sesame Sauce Wings…

…and hot Mango-Habanero Sauce Wings. Along with the wings, celery and ranch are also provided for dipping!

Even though the wings were tender and tasted great, there weren’t any standout flavors or specialty parts of them! In fact, there are even better wings around other Disney World restaurants that fit the price tag.

And, the wings at Brew-Wing might seem like a bit of a rip-off for $7.50, since we weren’t blown away by them. However, wings have been getting more expensive in general everywhere due to a shortage, so you’ll want to keep that in mind before you grab them as a snack in the parks!

Forget the Wings! You’ve Gotta See the BOOZE at This NEW EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Booth!

Mini Candied Bacon S’mores Funnel Cake

You know we can’t pass up a funnel cake in Disney World! And, we DEFINITELY had to stop by Funnel Cake Stand in the American Adventure Pavilion for the booth’s festival option. This year, the menu featured the Mini Candied Bacon S’mores Funnel Cake with crispy and sweet funnel cake and all the toppings! But, was that $9.50 worth it for such a small funnel cake? Probably not, considering the fact that there are bigger AND less expensive options of funnel cake elsewhere.

Over in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Epic Eats is a small kiosk that features MASSIVE funnel cakes. Along with the Cookies and Cream, Strawberry, and specialty flavors, the best part of these huge snacks is that you can get them for under $9! (Yes, all of that for so little!)

Besides, the toppings on the Mini Candied Bacon S’mores Funnel Cake weren’t all what we expected, as the s’mores flavors were great but there was very little candied bacon to round it out. On the other hand, Epic Eats usually hits it out of the park with its toppings and flavors, making its funnel cakes an awesome treat whenever you’re in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

A Candied BACON S’Mores Funnel Cake Is Taking Over the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

Fried Falafel Pita

While the Tangierine Café restaurant recently closed as Disney took over the Morocco Pavillion, the Tangierine Café: Flavors of the Medina marketplace opened inside the building as part of the festival offerings this year. The marketplace has a totally different menu from the Morocco booth last year with nods to the past Tangierine Café.

You might recognize the plant-based Fried Falafel Pita with Tahini Sauce as a popular item, but you may want to think again about getting it! We may have thoroughly enjoyed the Falafel with the creamy Tahini Sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, and cucumber packed in a pita. But, it was pretty lacking compared to the other more flavorful items you can find around the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival for $5.25.

There’s nothing majorly special about it that makes it seem like a “festival food,” as the Fried Falafel Pita with Tahini Sauce feels more like a typical item you’d regularly find in the parks. However, it’s still a tasty snack, if you’re looking for something on the simple side!

FULL REVIEW of the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Tangierine Café Booth!

Flightless Wine and Beer

Food & Wine is part of the name and game, so it’s practically a necessity for grown-ups to have a drink or two when they’re at the festival. And, with all the wine and beer flights around the festival booths, it’s actually more of a deal to grab them instead of the individual sips! For example, over at Hops and Barley, we paid $9.75 to try all the new beers in the Beer Flight, whereas a 6 oz. pour would cost $5 and a 12 oz. pour would cost $9 for a single drink.

This is the same situation with wine flights, as we saw at Shimmering Sips. Each of the Tropical, Key Lime, and Blood Orange Mimosas were priced at $6.25 on their own. But, you could try all three in the Mimosa Flight for $13! The benefits in the prices of the flights vs. the individual drinks can add up, especially if you plan on trying a bunch of the sips featured at the food booths around the World Showcase!

Beer Fans Will NEED to Stop Here at EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival

While these items might be rip-offs in our opinion, you can try some of the most incredible snacks and drinks you’ll find during the festival by watching our Best of the Fest breakdown below!

6 guilty pleasures we love at EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival!

What has been your favorite booth so far at this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 of the Biggest EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Rip-Offs from This Year first appeared on the disney food blog.