Australia Booth Review & Menu: EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

Australia is the next booth in World Showcase during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World. This Global Marketplace review looks at menu prices, shares food photos, and offers thoughts on what is–and is not–worth your money.

Australia is one of the longer running booths at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival (since 1997!). This Global Marketplace has done lamb for a number of years, plus a shrimp dish, and a rotating dessert option that rounds out the trio. Beer and wine options are also on the menu.

You’ll find the Australia Global Marketplace in a prominent location near the entrance to World Showcase, across from Refreshment Port as you head towards Canada. Thanks to a mix of its popular menu and lots of foot traffic, you’ll usually encounter a line at the Australia Global Marketplace…

Here’s the food menu for the Australia Global Marketplace:

• Grilled Sweet-and-Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp with pineapple, pepper, onion, and snap peas
• Roasted Lamb Chop with mint pesto and potato crunchies
• Lamington: Yellow cake with raspberry filling dipped in chocolate and coconut

In terms of alcoholic drinks, here’s what’s served at the Australia Global Marketplace:

• Yalumba ‘The Y Series’ Viognier, South Australia
• Château Tanunda Grand Barossa Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia

Now our photos and reviews of each item from the Australia Global Marketplace at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bushberry Shrimp with Pineapple, Pepper, Onion and Snap Peas ($6.75) – Want a loose rule for EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival? Get the scallops or salmon, skip the shrimp. That is a nearly-universal truth that could be applied with at least 75% success regardless of the year. Shrimp dishes are almost always overpriced, undersized, and what is present is rubbery or tough.

Nonetheless, Australia’s Bushberry Shrimp is a fine option as far as shrimp dishes go, with light spiciness from the onions and peppers contrasting with the sweetness of the pineapple glaze. The pea pods add a nice crisp crunch, which can be an especially enjoyable contrast if you get unlucky with rubbery shrimp. It’s potentially worth a Disney Dining Plan credit if you have plenty of extras, but we’d probably avoid this if paying out of pocket.

Roasted Lamb Chop with Sweet Potato Purée, Bushberry Pea Salad & Pistachio-Pomegranate Gremolata ($8.75) – As noted above, Australia has been doing a lamb dish for as long as I can remember, and it seems like every other year or so, it’s changed up considerably, to varying degrees of success. While I was a sucker for the previous version with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies, it was often undersized and fatty.

This year’s version is both a heartier and leaner portion of meat, but also perfectly roasted to a medium pink. The natural gamey flavor is enhanced with light seasoning, and the Pistachio-Pomegranate Gremolata makes this an inventive and interesting dish with subtle sugary and tart notes. The Sweet Potato Puree further sweetens the dish, while the Bushberry Pea Salad brings forth some texture and an earthy sensibility.

All in all, this is one of the few EPCOT Food & Wine Festival dishes that offers something for everyone. It’s completely approachable for picky eaters (it is, after all, a “meat and potatoes” dish) yet it’s nuanced and sophisticated for those wanting something more from their cuisine. We highly recommend this.

Our hope is that the Disney Dining Plan returns, as Australia’s Lamb Chop is always an objectively good use of a snack credit on the Disney Dining Plan and how we found ourselves frequently burning those in the past. Fortunately, the Disney Dining Plan is back for 2024!

Lamington ($4.50) – The dessert at the Australia booth is a yellow cake with raspberry filling dipped in chocolate and coconut. This is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s a relatively sizable cake with a variety of flavors and textures at a price point that’s not terrible by Food & Wine Festival standards. On the other hand, it’s a relatively basic cake. We’ve had slices that have been moist, and others that have been dry. We could go either way on this one–it’s safely skippable if you’re not willing to gamble or have limited stomach space for desserts.

Overall, the Australia Global Marketplace at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival is a winner solely by virtue of the Roasted Lamb Chop, which is one of the very best dishes at the event every single year. This year is no exception to that longstanding rule. We could take or leave both the shrimp and dessert, but you may find both to be better than we did, in which case Australia could be one of the elite booths for you.

Check out our EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Booth Menus post if you want to see and read more about every menu this year. You’ll also want to read our full Guide to the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival before you go to get an idea of what to do, strategy for the festival (yes, you will need a strategy), and much more!

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of the Australia Global Marketplace? Have you tried any of the food items at this booth? Any thoughts on these items? Portion-size or quality-wise, did you have better or worse luck than us with what you ordered? Questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!