Tangierine Cafe Flavors of Medina Review & Menu: 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

Tangierine Cafe: Flavors of Medina is a restaurant in World Showcase at Walt Disney World, and is considered a Global Marketplace during the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. In this booth review, we’ll look at the menu prices, share food photos, and offer thoughts on what is—and is not—worth your money.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, Tangierine Cafe was a counter service restaurant in the Morocco pavilion. When the parks reopened, the location was open for a few days before closing as its operator faced financial woes. After a relatively brief saga, Walt Disney World took over ownership of the pavilion, its retail and restaurants.

Since then, Walt Disney World has overhauled the menu of Spice Road Table, the relatively new table service restaurant on the waterfront. More noticeably, Imagineering has gone through Morocco, making a variety of aesthetic and design changes. While some fans initially feared the “cartoonification” of this beloved pavilion, that has largely not been the case…

To be sure, there has been a degree of Disneyification to Morocco, and there’s a bit more Aladdin than before. However, the changes have largely been positive, with richer details added to some of the pavilion’s newer elements, along with some overdue attention to the grounds and features of Morocco.

In any case, this is how Tangierine Cafe is both a counter service restaurant and a food booth. Walt Disney World considers it the latter–and the portion sizes reflect this–but it’s housed inside what was previously a quick-service venue, and has a more robust menu as a result of being a permanent location with a full kitchen. Generally speaking, the quality also reflects this.

While its direct predecessor was an excellent counter service restaurant, prices had gone up over the years and some menu additions were questionable. Nevertheless, Tangierine Cafe was great. We still miss it and hope that someday it’ll be a counter service restaurant again (near term, that seems unlikely given some of its modifications).

Another apt comparison is its indirect predecessor: the Morocco booth at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival (and other events). There’s a night and day difference between the old Tangierine Cafe and those booths, though.

The Morocco booths had been a train wreck for the last few years, annually among the worst at every Epcot event. The operating participant had raised prices while cutting quality and portion sizes at the Morocco booth, with the Spicy Hummus Fries being a prime example of this.

This might be a surprise twist that no one saw coming, but this Morocco booth is better and cheaper under Walt Disney World management than under the prior third party operator…

Here’s the food menu for Tangierine Cafe – Flavors of Medina during the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival:

• Grilled Kebabs with Carrot-Chickpea Salad and Garlic Aïoli
  • Chermoula Chicken
  • Moroccan-spiced Lamb
• Fried Falafel Pita with Tahini Sauce (plant-based item)
• Stone-baked Moroccan Bread with Hummus, Chermoula and Zhoug Dips (plant-based item)
• Pistachio Cake with Cinnamon Pastry Cream and Candied Walnuts

Tangierine Cafe Flavors of Medina Beverages:

• 3 Daughters Brewing Fig Hard Cider, St. Petersburg, FL
• Keel Farms Raspberry Citrus Hard Cider, Plant City, FL (NEW)
• Blake’s Hard Cider Co. Peach Party Peach & Blackberry Hard Cider, Armada, MI (NEW)
• Fig Cocktail with Fig Vodka, Sparkling Wine and Cranberry Juice
• Hard Cider Flight
• CORKCICLE Stemless Flute

Now our photos and reviews of each item from the Tangierine Cafe: Flavors of Medina Global Marketplace at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Chicken Kebab ($6.25) – There are three grilled kebabs, each of which are served with couscous, tomato-onion salad and garlic aoli.

The chicken is a winner from a taste and quality perspective, as it’s tender and nicely seasoned. Portion size was a bit disappointing, but that could’ve just been poor luck. Given the rest of the menu, we’d consider this skippable.

Lamb Grilled Kebab ($6.25) – Again, same idea here with the sides, just swapping out the meat for lamb.

Without question, this is the best of the bunch. I’m always partial to lamb, but even setting that aside, this is definitely the best of the trio. Tender, juicy, flavorful–exactly what you’d expect. Highly recommended.

Fried Falafel Pita with Tahini Sauce ($5.75) – This is the plant-based option at Tangierine Cafe: Flavors of Medina, and it’s a good one.

The Morocco booth always does a pita, and in the last several years, it’s price jumped to $8-9. This offers a price reset back to a more reasonable level. The falafel here is absolutely fantastic, with an exterior crunch giving way to a warm and soft center. Flavors are nuanced, with the perfect amount of seasoning. The only minor quibble is that the pita itself seems low quality as compared to the fantastic falafel. Still highly recommended.

Stone-baked Moroccan Bread with Hummus, Zaalouk and Zhoug Dips ($5.50) – One of our favorite off-property restaurants near Walt Disney World is Bosphorous Turkish Restaurant. They do something similar to this that is literally one of the best breads we’ve ever eaten.

This is not quite on that level, but it’s shockingly good. The bread is airy but doughy, and easily tearable. It’d be good enough to enjoy on its own, but the accompaniments enhance it even further. Speaking of which, the hummus, zaalouk, and zhoug dips are all relatively ordinary–each one of them is mild–but they’re “good enough” that this is still something we highly recommend.

Pistachio Cake with Cinnamon Pastry Cream and Candied Walnuts ($5.25) – Imagine the best possible version of a cake with the aforementioned description/ingredients, and that’s what this is.

The pistachio cake has a delicious core flavor that’s taken to the next level with the distinctly cinnamon cream. The moist and light cake works really well with the light spice of the cinnamon and candied walnuts. Refreshing, delicious, and once again highly recommended.

Harissa-marinated Beef Tenderloin Tips Grilled Kebab (Currently Unavailable) – This is another kebab that is available from time to time, but is not presently on the menu for the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

The portion size here was larger, and it’s a more interesting dish with better texture, but the quality seemed slightly lower with the meat being a tad tough. Were this at just about any other booth, we’d probably be singing its praises, but the Tangierine Cafe menu is stacked.

Mediterranean Flatbread (Currently Unavailable) – We watched these flatbreads being cooked in Morocco’s oven, and were really optimistic given that and the attention to detail. However, ours simply was not any good.

The flatbread is topped with za’atar, artichokes, olives, mozzarella, and feta cheese–a seemingly good mix. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough toppings and they don’t have full coverage of the crust. In addition to that, nothing tasted particularly fresh or high quality. Perhaps you’ll have better luck, as the preparation process is solid and the size is solid for the price. We don’t recommend this, but it’s potentially worth the gamble.

Overall, Tangierine Cafe: Flavors of Medina is a huge winner and it’s nice to see the one-time best counter service restaurant in Walt Disney World return to Morocco in some capacity, even if it’s just for the various Epcot International Festivals. While I’m a bit disappointed that the location seems intended for food booth use beyond just this event, it’s tough to argue with the menu quality and value for money here.

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 2023 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!

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Your Thoughts

Are you disappointed that Tangierine Cafe is returning as a food booth instead of a restaurant, or just happy it’s back at all? If you’ve tried any of the cuisine at Tangierine Cafe: Flavors of Medina, what did you think? Portion-size or quality-wise, 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!