REVIEW: We Had Such High Hopes for Disney World’s Festival Poutine.

Disney4me · January 14, 2022

Whether you prefer the unique foods and drinks or the art and free entertainment, EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts has something for everyone!

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It’s an EXCITING day!

This year’s festival has a ton of things to see, do, and EAT, and we’re trying it ALL to let you know what’s worth it! Our next stop along the way is at Refreshment Port, which isn’t an official festival food booth, but it does have some special items on the menu!

There are only a few options on the menu this year, but we ALWAYS look forward to the poutine options at Refreshment Port!

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Refreshment Port

Will this year’s poutine lineup be as successful as it has been in the past? Let’s hop in line and see what they have to offer at this year’s festival.

Food & Drinks

This year’s specialty festival poutine is the Gnocchi Poutine, made with red wine-braised beef, cheese curds, basil, and burrata. It’s available for $9.

Gnocchi Poutine with red wine-braised beef, cheese curds, basil, and burrata

We LOVED Refreshment Port’s Lobster Poutine served last year, so we had high hopes for this year’s poutine! However, we felt like this dish had a TON of potential and only partially delivered. We found our gnocchi to be a bit on the dry side due to the fact that they were fried to resemble french fries.

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Gnocchi Poutine with red wine-braised beef, cheese curds, basil, and burrata

The red wine-braised beef on top, however, is quite flavorful! We wish that there would have been more of the juices from the beef to be soaked up by our somewhat dry gnocchi (even a little drizzle of olive oil would have gone a long way in adding more moisture to this dish!). Dryness aside, this dish was tasty and fresh, but we actually would have preferred more of the burrata than cheese curds because they were two very different textures and the cheese curds added a chewiness that this dish didn’t quite need.

Gnocchi Poutine with red wine-braised beef, cheese curds, basil, and burrata

If you want to play things a little safer, you can also order Traditional Poutine with french fries, beef gravy, and cheese curds for $7.50. It’s a classic Refreshment Port dish that we’re always glad to see return to each EPCOT festival.

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2021 Traditional Poutine from Refreshment Port

Refreshment Port is also where you’ll find the festival’s signature Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie for $5.50! This is a super fun and playful treat that kids and art fans alike will enjoy!

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2017 Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie

There’s a new cocktail on the menu this year called the Blood Orange Cosmo for $11, which is vodka with blood orange, cranberry, and lime. This cocktail in particular is really good, thanks to the balance in flavor! It’s not your every day “sweet Disney World cocktail.” It’s more tart from the blood orange, so if you prefer your cocktails to be sweet, you may not enjoy this one quite as much! However, we noticed that this cocktail had a nice brightness and refreshing taste to it from the lime and cranberry. We would absolutely order this drink again — our only note is that we wish it had a garnish!

Blood Orange Cosmo

You can also order Original Sin Brewery Brighter Times Hard Cider at this location for $10.75.

Overall

There are a few things you can rely on at each EPCOT festival, and one of those things is a tasty plate of Traditional Poutine from Refreshment Port. We appreciate that they offer a new and different style of Poutine dish at each festival, and the Gnocchi Poutine was definitely a bolder choice. If the dish had just a little more moisture to it, it would have been a runaway hit! But we were ultimately letdown. Luckily, Refreshment Port is open year-round, so no matter when you visit EPCOT, there will be some variety of Poutine waiting for you to try.