Disney World Announces Opening of New Booth at 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival is in full swing, approaching the one-month mark in its run from now through November 22, 2025. With this, Walt Disney World has finally revealed what’s happening with CommuniCore Hall, the event space that’s been inexplicably closed since the conclusion on Cool Kid Summer. Well, partially revealed.

Walt Disney World has announced that the Festival Favorites Global Marketplace is debuting at the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and shared the menu of returning fan-favorites to this location. This Global Marketplace wasn’t previously one of the delayed openings that was listed back when menus were released; instead, the booth is a surprise opening on the same day that it’s being unveiled (September 21, 2025).

Festival Favorites replaces Grab-N-Goof, which was available for Cool Kid Summer as part of the GoofyCore Hall takeover of CommuniCore Hall and in the weeks after the official kick-off of the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. It’s one of 3 booths to debut in the second wave of the event, with the brand-new Gyozas of the Galaxy (the only new booth this year) and Coastal Eats both opening on September 28, 2025 over by Test Track and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Given this last-minute news, it wouldn’t surprise us if Walt Disney World has one more booth yet to open before October 1, 2025. The other booth would be inside CommuniCore Hall, and would most likely be the “Macatizers” all mac & cheese booth. I’m honestly surprised that isn’t back already, given that it was one of the most popular Global Marketplaces at last year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

Festival Favorites isn’t brand new nor is it a booth, per se. It’s a permanent quick-service food & beverage window on the outside of CommuniCore Hall, right next to the CommuniCore Plaza Stage. It’s one of the few “booths” that tends to operate even during Diet EPCOT.

As astute readers will probably already realize given the name, Festival Favorites serves up fan-favorite menu items from EPCOT Festivals over the years. So basically, it’s booth a new booth and a returning one, in the sense that nothing here is new–it’s exclusively dishes that have migrated over from other Global Marketplaces, all of which are ‘extinct’ for the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

This quick-service window is valuable as a de facto secondary counter service restaurant servicing the front of the park. Connections Cafe & Eatery is perpetually slammed–even during festival season–and this becomes overflow for that.

This is somewhat sad from my perspective, as I love Sunshine Seasons and would love to see that make more of a comeback. (Sunshine Seasons has also been shockingly busy thus far during the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, but that’s another topic for another day.)

Here’s the menu for the Festival Favorites booth at the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival:

Food Items:

• Kielbasa and Potato Pierogis with caramelized onions and sour cream
• Curry-spiced Fried Cheese with mango-curry ketchup

 Beverages:

• Frozen S’mores: Chocolate Milk Shake with marshmallow syrup topped with mini marshmallows and a graham cracker (Non-alcoholic)
• Irish Milk Shake: Guinness Stout, Baileys Original Irish Cream Liqueur, and Vanilla Ice Cream
• Katherine Goldschmidt Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, CA
• Martin Ray Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, CA

We haven’t frequented Festival Favorites at the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, but since this is a bunch of returning dishes, here are our reviews of dishes from the Festival Favorites Global Marketplace quick-service window last year:

Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi with Caramelized Onions and Sour Cream ($6) – This dish was previously available at the Poland Global Marketplace, which is not appearing at the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Actually, it’s been a long time since the Poland booth last appeared–about a decade if memory serves me correctly.

The Kielbasa and Potato Pierogis were pretty good! The sausage was glorious, and the pierogis were pretty good–thick wrappers that were nice and chewy. The caramelized onion and sour cream brought it all home, making for a rich and creamy indulgence with the right medley of flavors and textures.

Honestly, the Kielbasa and Potato Pierogis would not make my personal list of ‘Festival Favorites,’ but I can certainly see why others love them. They’re a nice comfort food that’s satisfying and tasty. I also appreciate Disney bringing back something after such a long absence. It gives me hope. This is a reasonably good option if paying out of pocket, but not so much on the Disney Dining Plan.

Curry-Spiced Crispy Cheese with Mango-Curry Ketchup ($5.25) – This moves over from the India booth, which still exists but “streamlined” its menu, which means reducing the food dishes to only two. On the ‘Festival Favorites’ menu, it replaces the BBQ Pork Rinds with Pimento Cheese that were brought back from the defunct Swanky Saucy Swine (RIP).

For those who are intimidated by Indian cuisine and might find it too exotic, this is the perfect dish. The crispy paneer is essentially mozzarella sticks or fried cheese curds, international edition.

The exterior here provides a nice crunch and the paneer cheese underneath has great texture and flavor. We personally didn’t find the mango-curry ketchup to be necessary, but the flavor is likewise excellent. This would be an excellent addition to make the Fry Basket more interesting, freeing up a spot for a true Festival Favorite. In any case, it’s good enough to recommend, just pay out of pocket rather than using Disney Dining Plan credits.

Frozen S’mores ($5.25) – This is a Chocolate Milk Shake with marshmallow syrup topped with mini marshmallows and a graham cracker. This originates from the Desserts & Champagne booth at the 2020 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, and was served last year at Festival Favorites.

We all have our guilty pleasures, and this is mine. Look, there’s nothing special about the Frozen S’mores Shake. It is exactly what you’d expect. But for whatever reason, I found it really satisfying (that “reason” probably being triple-digit feels like temperatures). It also worked well for me in approximating s’mores, right down to an ever-so-slight hint of campfire flavor (that I presumably imagined since there’s nothing to suggest it actually had this).

In any case, I can’t offer any objective reason for loving the Frozen S’mores Shake, but I do–and I did in the past, even when ordering it around the cooler holidays. Do with this information what you will. (Either way, don’t use a DDP credit on it.)

Irish Milk Shake ($13) –  The fan-favorite Irish Milk Shake consists of Guinness Stout, Baileys Original Irish Cream Liqueur, and Vanilla Ice Cream. It was previously found, as you can probably guess, at the Ireland booth. (Note that the beloved Chocolate Pudding Cake has been migrated over to Flavors of America. Sure, why not.)

This website would go bankrupt if we reviewed booze (see that price!) and I’d likely die of alcohol poisoning (or perhaps more likely, diabetes). Regardless, I had this photo from a few years back and figured I’d include it. Also, it’s worth acknowledging that this is most definitely a fan-favorite drink. People absolutely love it.

Ultimately, there’s nothing at this booth that we’d consider our favorites of the festival. In fact, if all of these items were lost to the sands of time, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Don’t get me wrong, the stuff here is mostly fine…but ‘fine’ is a far cry from ‘favorites.’

Nevertheless, I can acknowledge that other Walt Disney World diehards have different tastes than me, and I can also appreciate what Disney is trying to accomplish with this booth. Even as the world’s biggest CommuniCore Hall hater, I can admit that I like this concept and am glad it exists. I just wish it were more ambitious and filled with actual favorites.

On the the plus side, its existence leaves the door open for some of my personal, long-forgotten favorites to make a comeback. Disney, if you’re listening, I’ll never say another negative word about CommuniCore if my beloved Pumpkin Mousse is brought back!

If you want to know what we actually do recommend from the 2025 event, check out our list of the Best Dishes & Desserts at 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. The good news, for those who want something from this area of the park, is that the nearby Harvest Hollow is absolutely stacked.

So if someone from your party wants a dish or drink at Festival Favorites, it’s easy enough to grab that and then a table in the nearby shaded section of CommuniCore Plaza (our favorite ‘sleeper spot’ for eating at EPCOT) and send a runner to Harvest Hollow.

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 Festival Favorites booth? Have you tried any of the dishes, drinks or desserts here? 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!