Bring your appetites to Busch Gardens for the second annual Busch Gardens® Food & Wine Festival. The festival runs weekends through June 29 and features 14 tasting kiosks with 55 menu items that can only be sampled during the event. The festival also offers over 71 varieties of wine, beer and specialty cocktails.
It’s a good thing they’re doing this every weekend because there are still a lot of things I want to try! Plan your trip well…you’ll want to taste everything! They are small sampling plates priced at $3 – $7. I enjoyed this set up since it allowed us to try a wide array of options in a single visit.
The sonoran spice pork and chocolate lava cake in the adobe-themed American Southwest tasting station are not to be missed. The ‘lava’ has just the right hint of ancho spice to complicate the flavor but not anger the children. And it was a generous portion for $4. This would easily be a $6 – $8 dessert at any restaurant. The chicken adobo with mole sauce was so good that we circled back a few hours after our first tasting because my daughter was begging for more! I had a glass of the Bloom Riesling, which was lovely.
Also high on our kid list was the mac & cheese with bacon from the Canada kiosk – both kids loved it. Brian and I shared the cheddar & lager chowder in Canada but were not particularly impressed.
I really enjoyed the tapas plate from Spain with paprika roasted Marcona almonds, olive medley, and Manchego cheese. Greece offers a trio dip plate too – roasted garlic hummus, kalamata olive puree, and a very tasty feta dip.
I never made it to the Crepes & Coffee kiosk – which is top on my list for the next visit! And I heard others raving about the scallop wrapped in cured ham with saffron rice & romesco sauce in Spain…next time!
You can check out the Menus for each kiosk before you go and they hand out great little tasting menus to carry around while you’re there.
Cultural hosts are on hand at each kiosk to provide background information on the cultures represented at the festival. Busch Gardens makes sampling simple with a cashless wristband. Guests can link a cashless wristband to a credit card to make purchases throughout the day. This convenient payment system can be used while touring the food and wine festival kiosks. The Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 29. For more information, visit www.buschgardens.com/foodandwine.
