Cheese Studio Booth Menu & Review: 2019 Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Cheese Studio is a booth at the 2019 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. In this Walt Disney World dining review, we’ll share menu prices, food photos, and offer thoughts on what’s worth your money or Disney Dining Plan snack credits. This booth is home to our new go-to cheap & fast pre-fireworks Epcot meal, which we’ll also cover here!

This marketplace is one of a handful with corporate sponsors, something that I often find groan-worthy as it means the unnecessary inclusion of almond milk into recipes or the booth selling overpriced plastic bags of tomatoes. Not so with Cheese Studio, as it’s presented by Boursin Cheese, which I actually rather enjoy.

After all, Boursin is a fine cheese that’s beloved at social gatherings in France (per Bousin, and since their corporate website says so, it must be a fact). It’s sophisticated stuff for discerning palates, not some swill like Babybel. Never mind the fact that they’re both made by Bel Brands USA (and also the reality that Babybel is a delicious guilty pleasure). But I digress…

Here’s the food menu for Cheese Studio at the 2019 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival:

• Braised Beef “Stroganoff” with Tiny Egg Noodles, Wild Mushrooms and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese Sauce (KA)
• Black Pepper Boursin Soufflé with Fig Marmalade (V)
• Maple Bourbon Cheesecake with Maple Bourbon Cream, Caramel and Pecan Crunch (V)

Here’s how it all looks together:

Although with covered this with our previous Chocolate Studio Marketplace Review, Cheese Studio is part of the Culinary Corridor, which is also home to the “Next Eats” area that debuted in Future World about 5 years ago with a small space devoted to the now-defunct ABC television series, The Chew.

In typical TV fashion, those booths inspired a series of spinoffs, and that has led us to the two groups of booths in Future World, those with “Eats” in the name and those with “Studio” in the name. The “Eats” booths are all located behind the former Innoventions West building.

Above is where you’ll find the various “Studio” booths, on the pathway heading between Journey into Imagination and World Showcase. Cheese Studio is the middle of the trio in the photo above, directly under the left side of the pyramid.

With that said…here are our food reviews from the Cheese Studio Marketplace:

Braised Beef “Stroganoff” with Tiny Egg Noodles, Wild Mushrooms and Boursin ($5.50) – After being less than impressed with this last year, we decided to revisit it this year because the menu picture looked radically different (in reality, the presentation only mildly different) and because it’s inexpensive by Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival meat dish standards.

We were significantly more impressed this go-round. The braised beef was perfectly prepared, tender, and (although you can’t tell) the portion was sizable. Critically, the Boursin cheese provided a mildly sour, creamy flavor that paired nicely with the has a rich, savory quality of the Stroganoff. The egg noodles are substantial and interesting, giving the dish some added heft and soaking up the ‘run-off’ flavors from the meat and cheese nicely.

This is highly recommended if paying out of pocket, and also a recommended use of a Disney Dining Plan snack credit. I envision this plus the Maple Bourbon Cheesecake being my go-to light, under $10 “grab and go” meal when arriving last minute to Epcot for IllumiNations or Epcot Forever!

Black Pepper Boursin Soufflé ($5) – This is actually the only item at the 2019 Epcot Food & Wine Festival that we’ve had twice this year, as I ordered a second one by mistake while we were doing “clean-up” work for these reviews. (Doubling up and forgetting items is actually fairly common; sometimes items sell out opening day…or I forget to get photos–not that you care!)

We mention this because presentation, portion size, and taste were consistent both times. Sarah loves this, finding the soft and creamy soufflé to be a winner. I like the mix of contrasting flavors, with the pepper, cheese, and marmalade all playing their part, but the soufflé itself isn’t crisp and flaky enough for this to be a home run for me. It’s still a winner, just not ‘best of’ caliber. Recommended, either way.

Maple Bourbon Cheesecake ($4.50) – Finally, this glorious dessert. Last year, this dethroned the Chocolate Liquid Nitro and took the mantle as the best dessert at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Having them in quick succession this year (for the sake of research) only further cemented that for me. Both are a tremendous 1-2 punch, but the Maple Bourbon Cheesecake is simply the better item, and the more ambitious one.

The cheesecake is rich and savory, but with a somewhat light consistency that’s absolutely perfect. This contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the maple and caramel flavors and earthy sharpness of bourbon, while the crunch of the candied pecans offers a wonderful texture.

The Maple Bourbon Cheesecake is sublime, and one of the few we’ll revisit again and again during the course of the event. Everyone should order this, but value-wise it makes most sense to pay out of pocket unless you have a surplus of Disney Dining Plan snack credits.

In terms of alcoholic drinks, here’s what’s served at the Cheese Studio Marketplace at the 2019 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival:

• Florida Orange Groves Winery Sparkling Blueberry Wine, St. Petersburg, FL
• La Crema Pinot Gris, Monterey
• Domaine Saint André de Figuière Rosé, Côtes de Provence
• Alta Vista Estate Malbec, Mendoza

Overall, the Cheese Studio is one of the best overall booths at the 2019 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. The soufflé is my least favorite item of the trio, and even that I’d order more than once (and already have!). The other two items are among the best of the fest, and have a sophisticated quality that elevates them far beyond the comfort food characteristics of some other things we enjoy.

The whole Next Eats and Culinary Corridor areas contain some of the best booths at the 2019 Epcot Food & Wine Festival–to the point that you should start in this area while you’re still really hungry and get more selective as you get to the weaker, less ambitious Global Marketplaces in World Showcase.

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 Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival Guide 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 Cheese Studio 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!