Fry Basket Booth Review & Menu: EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

The Fry Basket is a returning booth in World Discovery during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World. In this Global Marketplace review, we’ll look at the menu prices, share food photos, and offer thoughts on what is—and is not—worth your money.

Pictured above, the Fry Basket is located near Cool Wash. If you take a hard right at the Test Track sign, you’ll pass it. This red little kiosk is a semi-permanent fixture of this area, which is also home to Space 220 Restaurant and Mission Space. The brand-new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is also in World Discovery as the Wonders of Xandar pavilion, which Walt Disney World has dubbed this the first “Other-World Showcase” pavilion at EPCOT.

The location that’s currently home to the Fry Basket has gone through several concepts, and was the Donut Box during the last EPCOT Food & Wine Festivals. I think it had another name at some point, but I don’t recall. Prior to that, the Taste Track food truck was in this same general location. This location was home to exceptional Epcot Sunshine Griddle for the last several months. How does the Fry Basket “compete” with its predecessors? Let’s take a look…

Here’s the food menu for the Fry Basket Global Marketplace:

• Pickle Fries with Dill Ranch (NEW)
• Adobo Yuca Fries with Garlic-Cilantro Aïoli (plant-based item)
• Fry Flight
• Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Fries (plant-based item)
• Barbecued Bacon Fries with Smoked Aïoli
• Sweet Potato Casserole Fries with Candied Pecans, Toasted Marshmallow Cream and Caramel Whisky

The Fry Basket Beverages:

• Stone Brewing Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager, San Diego, CA (NEW)
• Salty Dog Cocktail: Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka with Grapefruit Juice, Ginger, Simple Syrup and Lime with a Salted Rim

Now our photos and reviews of each item from the Fry Basket Global Marketplace at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival…

Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Fries ($7.50 for Fry Flight) – We’ll start by reviewing each individual option in the Fry Flight. First up, the standard salt & vinegar fries.

These tasted like regular Walt Disney World counter service fries, but oversalted. There was no vinegar flavor to speak of.

Barbecued Bacon Fries with Smoked Aïoli – Next, we have the BBQ bacon option, which sounded like the most promising of the trio.

Imagine taking whatever seasoning Lay’s uses on its BBQ potato chips, applying a light dusting of that plus a touch of mayonnaise and bacon bites to normal Walt Disney World counter service fries. However “good” that sounds to you is exactly how much you’ll like these.

Sweet Potato Casserole Fries – The final entry into the flight is sweet potato fries topped with candied pecans, toasted marshmallow cream, and caramel whisky.

I guess these are the best of the bunch? That’s sort of a “win by default” since the other options underwhelmed. These weren’t much better, with the fries being a bit soggy under the other ingredients. At least they tried something marginally interesting, though. I don’t know what that was–they didn’t really taste like sweet potato casserole–but they had a “savory snack meets dessert” sorta vibe.

Overall, this fry flight is definitely not recommended.

Adobo Yuca Fries with Garlic Cilantro Aïoli ($5.50) – As the name suggests, these are made with yuca instead of regular ‘ole potatoes. For those who are unfamiliar with it, yuca is a root vegetable that’s also known as cassava. It’s a nutrient-rich food that’s healthier than normal potatoes.

In fry form, yuca is denser and thicker than normal fries. I’m not sure that I’d say this is “better,” but it’s certainly different–and a change of pace is certainly good. The end result is something with the consistency and texture of a heavier steak fry.

The garlic-cilantro aïoli and seasoning also elevate the fries, but given the dense quality of the fry, even more aïoli would’ve been nice. Still, the toppings and overall quality of the yuca made this the winner of the options at the Fry Basket. With that said, nothing here was particularly impressive, so that’s a low bar. If we were giving numerical scores, the yuca fries would be a 3/10 v. 2/10 for the flight.

If I sound annoyed by the Fry Basket, it’s because I am. This was the one new booth at last year’s EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and it’s about as unambitious as possible. I guess that’s not totally true–at least they used yuca instead of potato on one of the dishes.

I wanted to like this, I really did. I’m a sucker for comfort food, and any excuse to eat loaded fries is fine by me. These could’ve been inventive or ambitious while still being crowd-pleasing, but that’s not the case in the least. It’s not like they’re awful or anything–fries are almost always good as a guilty pleasure, even the bad ones.

Ultimately, the Fry Basket is entirely skippable. Even if your party is made up exclusively of picky eaters, there are much better options all around EPCOT. Heck, even if you have kids who will literally only eat french fries, you have better options. It’s really telling when the booth devoted to them doesn’t even have the best fries at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

This is now the second straight year that Walt Disney World has transformed the ambitious and excellent EPCOT Sunshine Griddle into one of the worst booths at any event. It’s easily the biggest downgrade of any festival location from Flower & Garden to Food & Wine–a truly meme-worthy spot that even the Italy booth can look down on.

Check out our Global Marketplace Booth Menus & Photos for the 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 2024 EPCOT 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

If you’ve tried any of the flavors at the Fry Basket booth, what did you think? Did you have better or worse luck than us with what you ordered? Have you tried any of the drinks at this Global Marketplace? What was or was not worth the money? Do you agree or disagree with our food reviews? 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!