Ever finish your meal and then crave a sweet dessert? But then you have to get some savoriness/saltiness to balance the sweet? But then you need some sweetness again? Well, if you want to make sure your savory/spicy and sweet needs are met, there’s a booth we need to tell you about.

Right now, EPCOT’s 2023 Festival of the Arts is going on and will be offered through February 20th, 2023. We’ve been making our way around EPCOT to see EVERYTHING the park has to offer — from food booths and new eats to concerts, merchandise, and more. Our current adventure takes us to El Artista Hambriento (The Hungry Artist) where there are LOTS of new things to try! Are they new festival favorites? There’s one way to find out!

Menu

El Artista Hambriento really decided to shake things up in 2023 with 3 NEW menu items (1 sweet, 2 savory).

There are also 2 NEW beers as well as 1 returning drink. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get to the food!

Eats

First, we gave the NEW Carne Asada a try. This is made with Chipotle-marinated beef sirloin, sweet potato purée, and crispy-fried onions. It can be all yours for $10. 

Oh, yes. As soon as we tasted this we knew — Best of the Fest. Who would have thought a festival booth could make meat so tender?! It was cooked perfectly medium-rare and had that grilled flavor Carne Asada is known for. The crispy-fried onions were a bit more like caramelized ones, but we’re certainly not complaining. We thought the sweet potato purée was on the sweet side (go figure) but it paired nicely with the other flavors!

Next up we have the NEW Huarache de Champiñones. This features Guajillo chile and corn masa huarache with pinto beans, oyster mushrooms, Nopales, queso fresco, and pea tendrils. It’s priced at $7.50. This might be one of the best things we’ve ever eaten at an EPCOT festival — and we’ve eaten A LOT of things at EPCOT festivals.

The flavors here are outstanding — the Guajillo chile is smoky and not too spicy, but it blends perfectly with the earthiness of the mushrooms. There’s an excellent crunch thanks to the cracker, and we love eating queso fresco every chance we get. The flavors from the corn, mushrooms, and the other ingredients make this dish stand out.

And finally, if you’re the type of person that simply needs to balance the savory with the sweet, there’s a NEW Flan de Coco. This is a Gluten/ Wheat Friendly dish made with Coconut flan, guava sauce, and whipped cream. It’s priced at $6.50. We have ZERO complains about this. The combination of the coconut and guava flavors was incredible — the coconut was creamy and the guava had a nice tang. The crunchy coconut shavings on top added a nice crunch. Is this ANOTHER Best of the Fest contender?! We think so!

Whew, now that we’ve had our share of food, let’s talk about the drinks here.

Drinks

One of the NEW drinks here this year is the Bombon Margarita “Marshmallow”. How exciting does that sound?! It’s made with Ilegal Mezcal Reposado, marshmallow cordial, lime juice, agave nectar, and a hint of coffee and elderflower served with a toasted marshmallow. WOW. There really is a lot going on in this single drink — can it all work well together?

Well, if you’ve ever wanted to know what the Haunted Mansion tastes like… this might be it. We know mezcal is smoky by nature, but that smokiness combined with the marshmallow and elderflower somehow made the drink taste like fog juice. It was still drinkable, but not something we’re running back to get again.

The other new drink is called Las Californias. It has Tromba Blanco Tequila, strawberry-lime purée, and Las Californias Citrus Mexican Gin. It’s priced at $15.50. There’s definitely a bit less going on here compared to the Bombon Margarita.

This tasted like a pretty standard citrus margarita — but that’s not a bad thing! We tasted more of the lime than the strawberry flavor, but this was a refreshing cocktail if you like tequila. It wasn’t anything too special though, so we wouldn’t go out of our way to get this. Everything else at this booth though, we would DEFINITELY suggest going out of your way to get!

And finally, the last drink is the Mexican Craft Beer, which is Cielito Lindo Artisanal Mexican Craft Beer. It’s priced at $10. We actually saw this offered during the 2022 Festival of the Holidays (though it was not identified as a “craft” beer).

It was a pretty standard light beer, was refreshing, and had a strong hoppy aftertaste. Is it a must-get? It depends! It might be one you’ll enjoy even if you don’t love beer, but it’s not necessarily something that’ll blow you away.

OVERALL

Overall, this booth is really starting the year off with a bunch of NEW items. If you’re all about trying new things, then this might be a good place to start considering you’ll get to pick from 3 new menu items and 2 new drinks. Not only that, but all 3 new foods were absolutely contenders for this year’s Best of the Fest. In fact, we think El Artista Hambriento might even be the Best BOOTH of this year’s Fest!

Planning your trip to the 2023 Festival of the Arts and not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place! Click here to see the FULL menus for all of the food booths this year, click here to see a list of all of the NEW items at the Festival, and click here to see the items you can get to complete the Festival of the Arts Food CHALLENGE.

Want to know how to handle the Festival like a PRO? Grab our BRAND NEW DFB Guide to the Festival of the Arts for 150+ pages of tips, tricks, and advice.

We’ve got ALL of the information you’ll need in there to make sure you enjoy every single minute of the Festival and don’t miss the very best it has to offer!

Click here to get the guide!

We’ll be sharing FULL reviews of all of the booths at the Festival and all of the other information you need to know, so check back with us for all the latest Festival of the Arts news!

Click here to see our reviews for EVERY single EPCOT Festival of the Arts food booth!

What do you think about this food booth? Tell us in the comments!

The post REVIEW: 3 NEW Items Might Make This the BEST Booth at the 2023 EPCOT Festival of the Arts first appeared on the disney food blog.