Finding just the right mid-day snack in EPCOT can be overwhelming.

With so many great options between snacking on a sweet treat from Karamel Kuche or stopping by one of the Food & Wine Festival booths for a walkable snack, there are so many places you can’t go wrong. But where do you go if you’re looking for a little cooler snack but still want the option of walkability that won’t slow you down on the way to your next ride? We’ve got just the answer for you!

As you’re making your way around the World Showcase in EPCOT it’s easy to get distracted by all of the beautiful sights and sounds from each pavilion. We found ourselves in search of a quick treat that would keep us still on track for our park day without having to stop for a significant amount of time to eat. That’s when we remembered L’Artisan des Glaces.

If you’ve never stopped by here before, don’t worry we tried out several of their offerings for you so that you can decide on what you’d like to try the next time you’re walking around EPCOT.

Atmosphere

This is themed to be a smaller shop in the France pavilion of the World Showcase. It’s tucked away in the back corner of the pavilion neighboring Monsieur Paul and Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie.

Most of the time you’ll see the line backed up outside of the restaurant because there’s very little room inside. It’s big enough to step inside, order at the counter, and wait while your order is being prepared.

Since it’s an artisanal ice cream shop, there’s usually a longer line for this spot since it’s super popular, especially on those hotter days. They serve 16 handmade ice cream and sorbet flavors.

Once you’ve ordered your items at the counter the cast members will get to work helping prepare your treats, but you’ll need to talk to them and present your receipt to help them know what to prepare for you. They’ll also ask you about options for sauces offered in raspberry, chocolate, or caramel syrup on a few of the menu items. Bottles of the optional alcohol are also sitting out on display so you can see what to choose from to accompany your ice cream.

As you’re waiting for your order to be prepared, there are stations available for spoons and napkins to pick up.

The whole restaurant keeps in theme nicely with a quiet French village storefront and features beautiful stonework on the exterior with colorful bright window frames that allow you to peek inside without being in line to order.

Menu

When you first step inside L’Artisan des Glace, you’ll see a menu of flavors on each side of the entryway before you approach the register to place your order. Most of the flavors are fairly consistent here, but occasionally you’ll see a seasonal flavor pop up. In our case, this time it was Pumpkin.

Once you’ve decided on your flavor or flavors, it’s time to approach the register and place your order. There’s a smaller menu just out front in a frame outlining the prices for the various drinks, eats, and ice cream options that are available and their respective prices.

If you haven’t fully decided at this point, try talking to the cast member at the register. They’re more than happy to help you finalize your decision, especially if you’re torn between options. It might be a tad confusing at first, but after ordering at the counter, you’ll hand your receipt over to the cast members in the center of the restaurant, and they will prepare your items for you.

Your order will be delivered to you at the right-hand side of the counter.

Drinks

Let’s talk about the drinkable stuff first! We ordered the Cafe Glace for $8.50

This is made of an iced cappuccino with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream with caramel sauce. For this review, we chose vanilla to go with the creamy cappuccino.

This one is drinkable or scoopable with a spoon if you really want to get to the ice cream first. It’s a sugary coffee mix. The top whipped cream was smooth and fluffy as you would hope it would be. The vanilla ice cream helped brighten the flavor against the cappuccino coffee flavor and the additional caramel syrup we had drizzled on top of the whipped cream.

The whipped cream didn’t stand a chance in the heat even on a windy, somewhat cooler day in EPCOT. You might find it most helpful to drink with a straw first and get that whipped cream down below the cup line to keep it from getting too melty on you. If you enjoy a sweeter, creamy coffee this would be a great match for you, and it is customizable with other flavors of ice cream, but if you’re someone who enjoys a stronger, straight coffee flavor, you might not enjoy this one as much.

We also picked up the Ice Cream Martini for $14.95.

We decided to have ours made with 2 scoops of coconut white chocolate and a shot of whipped cream vodka topped with caramel sauce.

Wow, the flavor of this one! Right away the most prominent flavor to the martini is overwhelmingly the whipped cream vodka and it was not wimpy, y’all! This drink was so strong! The coconut white chocolate ice cream was just as smooth and creamy as the vanilla but distinctly coconut in flavor. We also discovered coconut shavings and chunks of macadamia nuts blended throughout our scoop which added great flavor, crunch, and texture to the bites of ice cream.

We thought surely as it melted and mixed with the ice cream that would help cut down the intensity of the alcohol but it didn’t help much if at all. Right away we got a tongue-numbing sensation after just a few sips, and this one could easily be one of the strongest drinks you’ll have around the World Showcase in EPCOT as the alcohol is poured right on top. If you’re into more subtle alcoholic drinks this is definitely not the best option for you.

Eats

After some adventurous drinks, it was time to try out a snack, so we ordered the Croque Glace for $9.50.

This is made of pressed brioche that sandwiches a scoop of ice cream between the brioche pieces. We opted for ours to be made with Caramel Fleur de Sel ice cream and caramel sauce (are you sensing a theme here yet).

This treat is made by scooping the ice cream and accompanying sauce into the center to be sandwiched and heat-pressed between two brioche pieces. It’s served directly to you in wax paper so you’ll want to expect it to be rather hot when it’s first handed to you.

The brioche bread tastes like a sweet croissant and we could taste hints of butter. The bread was pressed but was very soft and pillowy. The caramel fleur ice cream and caramel sauce gave it an extra level of sweetness but complimented the warmth of the bread well. It doesn’t look too large at first but after cutting into it and seeing how much ice cream was truly pressed into it, it could easily be shared between two people.

Since it is fall, we decided to try the seasonal flavor too, so we decided on the Pumpkin Ice Cream in a waffle cone for $5.75 as a single scoop.

Since the fall season around Disney World sees so many pumpkin-style treats we really speculated on just how good this one would taste and to our surprise, it was incredible.

It was a rather hefty scoop of ice cream set into the waffle cone and the pumpkin flavor was prominent but not overly sweet. We felt like this was a more true pumpkin flavor rather than noticeably artificial flavoring and mimicked pumpkin pie filling. It got a little melty after being out in the sun for a bit but that was to be expected since it’s a frozen treat. We thought this one was delicious and were still talking about it well after we had eaten it all.

The last thing we ordered was the Chocolate Macaron for $7.

This is a chocolate macaron with chocolate ice cream in the middle.

As for how it tasted, well, we have thoughts. We found the macaron to be tough and hard to bite through even with accounting for it just coming out of the freezer. The chocolate ice cream kept wanting to slide through the center as the two macaron pieces would tilt rather than break apart with the bite.

The flavors though are a chocolate lover’s dream between the chocolate ice cream in the center and the chocolate flavor macaron however, the macaron pieces had the consistency of a fried oreo. It wasn’t the best thing we had out of this review but it wasn’t totally hopeless. If you really enjoy chocolate overload, this is certainly one to try but if you’re looking for the ideal sponginess of a normal macaron we certainly didn’t have that experience with this treat.

Overall

Overall we enjoyed what we tried, and with so many different options to customize your treats, your imagination could really run wild here. The only things that really made a lasting impression on us were the Pumpkin Ice Cream, Croque Glace, and the Ice Cream Martini.

We’ll definitely be stopping back again on a future EPCOT trip for that Pumpkin Ice Cream and Croque Glace, but the martini might be something we need to work up to the next round. The Cafe Glace was good but wasn’t anything exceptional, and unless you were sipping it through a straw initially, you’ll probably be met with a big scoop of ice cream and whipped cream to bite through before tasting any of the coffee. We’re also interested in testing out a few new flavors and seeing if that might have affected how we feel again about each offering.

Nosh or Not?

Stop by L’Artisan des Glace for a sweet treat if:

• You’re totally craving a treat and only ice cream will do. There’s just not a lot of variety here beyond ice cream, ice cream, and more ice cream so know that most everything here will have something to do with ice cream.
• You’re looking for an artisan-style treat. You’re probably going to pay a premium for ice cream here because of the artisanal style and presentation, if that doesn’t matter to you, you probably can opt for less fancy ice cream.
• The snack you’re looking for is ideal for walkability. This is not a place you’re going to stop for long. The restaurant is only big enough to order and leave and if that’s up your alley, then it’s calling you over!

You’ll probably be stopping elsewhere for a snack if:

• You’re just NOT that into artisanal ice cream. If you’re not into paying a premium for ice cream, there are plenty of other options for you that might be a better fit in EPCOT.
• Your ideal treat is a bit more savory. Even the “savory” bread here has a sweet twinge to it, so if you’re leaning more toward a savory option, this isn’t the place to stop.
• You prefer to mobile order your food. If you’re really set on mobile ordering, it just doesn’t exist here. The line for this place can get really long on extremely hot days (understandably so) and if you’re looking to fast-track that order process by mobile ordering you just won’t have another way around waiting in line with everyone else.

So the next time you find yourself in search of something sweet and unique in EPCOT, now you’ll know just where to impress yourself and your friends. We’ve reviewed thousands of food, drinks, and snacks across Disney World so be sure to check a few more of our reviews below and stay tuned with us at Disney Food Blog for the latest.

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What’s your favorite thing to order at L’Artisan Des Glaces? Tell us your winning combination in the comments below!

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