Primavera Kitchen Italy Menu & Food Review: Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

Italy’s Primavera Kitchen is an Outdoor Kitchen at the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. In this Walt Disney World dining review, we’ll look at the menu prices, share food photos, and offer thoughts on what is worth your money. Plus, what you should avoid from Primavera Kitchen at all costs.

We’re start with words of caution about the Primavera Kitchen. A clear pattern has emerged when it comes to Italy at the various Epcot festivals: the food booth is notorious for their prices, perplexing culinary choices, lack of ambition, and the menu usually changes completely for every event, every year.

This pattern extends right down to the cuisine. There’s usually something that feels like it was inspired by an elementary school lunch menu, a microwaved pasta pick, a dessert that looks great by comparison to the savory dishes, and something that makes no sense whatsoever–as if it was prepared blindfolded with random ingredients and preparation methods chosen. Suffice to say, the Italy booth is notorious for questionable cuisine…

At Walt Disney Word, Italian cuisine is ubiquitous, undoubtedly because it’s a crowd-pleaser that appeals to a wide range of guests. Even mediocre Italian table service restaurants do pretty well with guests because pretty much everyone loves butter, oil, cheese, and meats.

When it comes to the Italy booth, throwing a few of those things together and microwaving it for 60 seconds tends to offer comforting and familiar results that are at least passable. In fairness, Italy has gone from a zero-effort venue where everything was cooked elsewhere, carted over, and reheated (no joke) to a booth that now prepares some food within the booth. Now that’s what I call progress!

Against that backdrop, let’s take a look at the menu for Italy’s Primavera Kitchen:

• Arancini: Fried Risotto Balls stuffed with braised beef served with grape tomato salad and balsamic emulsion
• Ravioli alla Boscaiola: Sweet sausage ravioli with sweet corn, spring vegetables, and cream sauce
• Bomboloni: Cream-filled Italian doughnut with raspberry sauce and powdered sugar

The biggest upside to the Primavera Kitchen menu is, frankly, that there are only 3 foods on the menu. In the past, the Italy food booth had as many as 5 items and we’ve dropped over $40 to try their terrible “treats.” I’ve gotta admit, this smaller menu has already made Primavera Kitchen a winner in my book. Fewer awful things to eat is fine by me.

Now our photos and reviews of a couple of the items from Primavera Kitchen at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival…

Ravioli alla Boscaiola ($13) – The Italy Global Marketplace is notorious for serving al dente pasta that tastes like it might’ve been prepared in a microwave. I mention that as context for this positive review, which found these reasonably well-prepared, savory, and creamy.

Calling them “good” might be a stretch, and this dish is not even remotely worth $13. That’s not a typo, these are thirteen dollars. If these were $4-5, we’d recommend them. They’re a no-go for this price.

Bomboloni ($12.00) – These are described as “Cream-filled Italian Doughnut with Raspberry Sauce and Powdered Sugar.” I swear the Italy booth has done these before for another event, but I can’t find the details in my archives.

Although the price might suggest otherwise, there’s nothing particularly special about the Bomboloni. They’re basically mini-doughnuts. Ours tasted freshly prepared and doughy-but-airy with a good flavor. They’re not exactly deserving of praise (see the price), but also not deserving of condemnation.

Arancini: Sweet Sausage Fried Risotto Balls with Pomodoro Sauce ($14) – This has got to be a joke, right? There’s no Disney Dining Plan this year but they’re still charging over $10 for these?! Sorry, but there’s no way I’m spending $12 on risotto balls–you’re on your own.

Based on my experience with several similar dishes at the Italy booth over the years, these almost certainly taste cheap, reheated, and flavorless. And the sauce is likely bland red sauce, not doing much to help the flavor.

In terms of alcoholic drinks, here’s what’s served at the Italy Outdoor Kitchen:

• Pilsner
• Pinot Grigio
• Chianti
• Prosecco
• Rosa Regale
• Moscato
• Italian White Sangria with prosecco
• Italian Red Sangria with cabernet sauvignon
• Italian Margarita with limoncello and tequila

Overall, one item that’s just okay, another that’s a culinary abomination, and another that we skipped out of principle because it was several dollars more expensive than any other dish at the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. Just another “normal” festival for the Italy booth. It defies logic that Primavera Kitchen continues to produce items of such low quality year in and year out–especially when the pavilion’s actual restaurants are pretty good varied quality–but those are the expected results from the Italy booth. Order at your own peril.

Check out our Outdoor Kitchen Booth Menus & Food Photos at EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival 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 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival before you go to get an idea of what to do, strategy for the festival, photos of the topiaries and floral displays, and much more!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of Italy’s Primavera Kitchen? Do you think we’re going too harsh–or too easy–on Italy? 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!