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My family loves the Food & Wine Festival at Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virigina. We just got back from a trip to Williamsburg where we were excited about attending the Food & Wine Festival. And let me tell you, the festival this year did not disappoint!
There are a lot of fun things about the festival. We go over the festival in full detail here. But let’s face it, they give away the best part of the festival in the title. And that is the food and wine.
So we wanted to tell you about our personal favorite menu items. This is, of course, just our opinion and what fits our taste buds. But in our opinion, these are really delicious food and wine options you’ll want to try.
Best Wine
There’s a lot of good wine here, obviously, but what took first prize from us was the DAOU Family Estates Cabernet Sauvignon. You can get this at the Greece marketplace, which is located in the Ireland section of Busch Gardens.
You can have your choice of red or white wine, but we got red wine (we thought it would go well with the Lamb Burger Slider – more on that later). It had a great light flavor. It’s not as heavy as the Californian Cabernet Sauvignons we are used to.
Best 8 Food Items
There’s a lot of great food items, but we narrowed it down to our eight top choices.
1. Mushroom Risotto
There were a lot of foods we considered topping the list. But ultimately we chose the Creamy Mushroom Risotto with truffle oil & basil pesto.
You can get this at the Italy marketplace found in (what else?) the Italy section of Busch Gardens.
This menu item was delicious! It makes for a great lunch or dinner, although like with all choices at festivals like these, these are not large sizes.
All of it was delicious but we’ll single out the mushrooms. They were so good they were unrecognizable at first because they were that much better than mushrooms you would normally eat. So yeah, this is a really good choice if you are looking for food here at this festival. And you can eat it at the seating at Marco Polo’s Marketplace. Depending on when you sit down, you might even be treated to a concert while you eat!
2. Bananas Foster Cheesecake
Now let’s turn our attention to a dessert item. This one in particular is the Bananas Foster Cheesecake.
You can get this at the French Quarter marketplace, which is found in the France section. If you are looking for a place to sit down and eat it, check out the seating behind Josephine’s Creamery. There is plenty of shaded seating, and you get great views of the roller coasters while you eat.
But that’s not the main reason to get this delicious treat! The main reason is that it is lick your plate by the end delicious.
3. Loukoumades
Another delicious dessert item that my family highly recommends is the Loukoumades with honey & cinnamon.
You can get this at the Greece marketplace, which once again is in Ireland. There is plenty of seating in that area and you can often be treated by live Irish music while you eat.
I had had Loukoumades at a Greek Festival once before, so I thought it would be good. It exceeded my expectations. Everyone in my family loved it. The only negative is that it is a bit sticky but totally worth it! They were really soft, too, which I like.
4. Beignets
Another can’t-miss item here at this festival is the Beignets.
You can find this in the French Quarter marketplace.
The Beignets are really good. They are made with Puff Pastry, Powdered Sugar & Caramel. Now, caramel is not always something I see with beignets. But I really liked it. It added an extra sweet dimension to beignets, though if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth and you normally like beignets you may not like them as much. But for me, I loved the addition of caramel!
5. Lamb Burger Slider
But enough about dessert items! It’s time to talk about a main dish item again. And that is the Lamb Burger Slider!
You might remember I mentioned it before when I discussed the wine. I got this at the Greece marketplace.
This was another great menu item. All of it tasted great – the black olives, the feta cheese. The pita was soft, too, which we liked. But we will confess to removing the cucumber!
It comes with a cilantro mint sauce, which tasted a bit like sour cream. You can dip it in the sauce and that is delicious, too.
6. Pineapple Coconut Mousse
Okay, so it turns out I am not done with the dessert items! One other delicious dessert is the Pineapple Coconut Mousse.
You can find the Pineapple Coconut Mousse in the Hawaiian marketplace. This is in the Ireland section near the Eagle Ridge area. There are a number of tables near Abbey Stone Theatre (where Celtic Fyre performs) you can sit at to eat anything you buy at the Hawaii marketplace.
The Pineapple Coconut Mousse is really good. If you’ve ever been to Walt Disney World and had Dole Whip there, then I would say it is a bit like that.
7. Churrasco
Another menu item I really liked was the Churrasco with grilled beef & chimichurri sauce
I myself am actually not a huge steak person so I was surprised how much I liked it. The sauce is really good and it adds a lot to it. But I think if you like steak you will also like it. My only negative is that some bites are a bit harder than others. But overall, I loved this dish.
You can get this at the Brazil marketplace. You can find this in the New France section of Busch Gardens, near Trapper’s Smokehouse.
8. Hawaiian Mac & Cheese
And finally, the last item that made our list was the Hawaiian Mac & Cheese.
As you would imagine from the name, you can find it in the Hawaiian marketplace.
Now, this item appears last on the list because it was a bit mixed. One of my family members loved it, but the others just liked it but didn’t love it. I think I was expecting something a bit different. The crust was good, though.
Discount Tickets
Admission to the Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival is included in the cost of your ticket. You can find out how to get discount tickets, as well as read a full guide to Busch Gardens, by clicking here.
