Disneyland Resort Update: Food & Wine Festival 2022

Disney California Adventure, Anaheim, CA

Happy Hump Day! We’re back at the Disneyland Resort to cover the return of a springtime tradition—the Food & Wine Festival at Disney California Adventure! Though it’s still technically winter the blooming Tabebuias and the seasonal shift have signaled the arrival of spring at DCA, and after being cut short two years ago and on hiatus last year, the fan-favorite seasonal event is back with a new line-up of tasty foods, new graphics and imaging, new merchandise, and more great entertainment!

Although the event is returning for the first time in two years, the format will be familiar for past guests. In addition to the Festival Marketplace food stands—12 in all this year (down from 14 last time), there are also gourmet culinary seminars, booze talks, local merchants along the Festival Corridor, kids activities, educational displays, photo ops, and different assortments of live entertainment. So without further ado, lets get into this year’s event!

Welcome to this year’s Food & Wine Festival! There’s a photo op right in front of the backside of Grizzly River Run to welcome guests to the event!

There is also a Welcome Center for guest information.

Guests can also purchase a Sip and Savor Pass adjacent to here.

Here’s a map that shows locations of event activities, to get a lay of the land.

The Hollywood Backlot in Hollywood Land is offering cooking seminars and demonstrations, but only on Saturdays and Sundays.

There are also some live shows in Hollywood Land, though I was unable to get photos of Jammin’ Chefs and Alice’s Wonderland Bakery Unbirthday Party.

There is plenty of “edutainment" around, with signs explaining food information and history for many California-associated ingredients scattered throughout the Festival Corridor.

Kids can engage in coloring and craft activities here, outside the Little Mermaid ride.

In the gazebo at the Boardwalk Restaurants area next to Goofy’s Sky School, another photo op by artist Nate Baranowski was just being completed when I stopped by Friday afternoon.

It’s an optical illusion that makes guests the star of dinner.

This is a great, colorful piece!

Festival Shopping and Merchandise

The Festival Corridor (i.e. Parade Corridor) has plenty of souvenir shopping opportunities in between the food stands (which we’ll get to in a bit). This year’s Food & Wine merchandise seems to favor wine color tones, and there is an assortment of T-shirts, spirit jerseys, glassware, and headwear to take in. As usual, there are also local, non-Disney merchant stands here and there offering their products to guests.

It’s not a Disney event without plenty of merchandise.

Here are the designs for this year’s Food & Wine mementos.

There are several booths along the Festival Corridor.

The main souvenir stand is still located outside the entrance to The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure attraction.

Corksicle has partnered with Disney for a line of F&W insulated mugs.

There are stemless wine glasses too.

And stemmed versions.

T-shirts.

And another look at the spirit jersey.

And this Disney cook book is once again for sale.

Third party merchants, like perennial Disney festival attendee, Kayla’s Cake, are also featured.

Yum, macarons!

Festival Foods

Of course, the highlight of the Food & Wine Festival is the food and beverages offered for this limited time. There are 12 stalls located mostly along the Festival Corridor from Carthay Circle to the end of Paradise Park, with one of the dozen located in Hollywood Land near the Monsters Inc. attraction and another located in Grizzly Peak in front of the lift hill. Guests can order food from one booth and choose items from other booths in addition to (or even excluding) items from the food they’re at. This allows them to only have to wait at the pick-up lines at the remaining booths. While there is no mobile order feature available for the Festival Marketplace food stands, this strategy is still efficient.

The long waits that plagued the Lunar New Year Celebration were largely absent on opening day last Friday (which points to the Lunar New Year Festival problems really being an issue of not enough supply to meet the guest demand). According to a Cast Member I spoke to, guests have the option to order food of other stands up until one hour before the food stands close, which itself is generally one hour before park closing.

There are a dozen food stands at the Food & Wine Festival this year. Save time by placing your food orders all at one food stand and picking up at the others.

Look for the shortest order line, or a shorter order line. On Friday, the Golden Dreams booth—which is out of the way in Grizzly Peak—seemed to be frequently empty.

One note… the D*Lish booth is located in this nook off the Festival Corridor, just past the Welcome Center and Carthay Circle Restaurant (or just before if coming back toward the entrance of the park).

Lines weren’t terrible. The longest I experienced was at Garlic Kissed, which seemed to also be one of the most popular booths.

This is how long the line stretched, but it was only a 20 minute wait (much better than the 45 minute wait just for pick-up during the Lunar New Year Celebration!).

Also back this year is the Sip and Savor Pass, which provides 8 tabs for use on food and non-alcoholic beverage items at any Festival Marketplace food stand and select quick serve dining locations. The cost is $57 for the general public and $52 for Magic Key holders, which equates to a $7.13 / $6.50 break-even point (meaning don’t use a Sip and Savor tab on an item cheaper than the aforementioned amount if you’re looking to get your money’s worth). This generally means sticking to the savory items, which are in the $7 and $8 range.

The Sip and Savor Pass can be purchased at the Food & Wine Festival welcome center just past Carthay Circle Restaurant, but I’d recommend purchasing at the Festival Marketplace food stands, where the line will probably be much shorter. Guests don’t have to us the pass all in the same day. Those who return another during this year’s Food & Wine Festival run can use leftover tabs until the final day of the event. Of course, if you’re not coming back before the Festival ends, then split a Sip and Savor Pass with a friend or two and share the eats.

The Sip and Savor Pass is back this year.

Here are the rule and conditions.

It comes with a brief menu of items at the Festival Marketplace stands.

Though you can buy a Sip and Savor Pass at the Welcome Center, the line for this was often long. Each Festival Marketplace food stand sells them too, so save time by purchasing there.

Here are photos of the various Festival Marketplace food stand menus, plus the Paradise Garden Grill seasonal menu for the festival and the Festival Beer Garden booze line-up. A complete line-up of every specialty food item being featured at the Food & Wine Festival—including those at snack stands, quick serve restaurants, and Downtown Disney establishments—can be found at this Disney Park Blogs post.

During my visit last Friday, I was able to sample nine of the items featured at this year’s Festival, focusing on those that are new for this year. Eight of those utilized the Sip and Savor Pass and totaled a $65 value, which meant I saved $13 by using my Sip and Savor Pass. The remaining item (the Frozen Guacamole) I purchased separately, because it was only $5.50 and below the value point that warranted using a Sip and Savor tab.

As with previous years, the Festival Marketplace items are more “tapas” sized, meaning not a full meal, and thus are pricier than even normal Disney park food in terms of quantity of food per dollar. But that’s part of the specialty of the gourmet event—the dishes offered are more unique and elevated compared to Disney’s normal food line-up… at least in theory!

Of what I tried, I would recommend the following to others:

The Black & Tan Beef Potato Puffs at D*Lish
The IPA Sausage Dog at California Craft Brews
The Chile Relleno Empanada at Peppers Cali-Ente
The Mango-Carrot Gazpacho at Golden Dreams
The Grilled Top Sirloin at Garlic Kissed
The Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese at Garlic Kissed (my overall favorite)

There were definitely items that I was interested and didn’t get to try, on account of being on my own and only having so much food capacity! The menu at Paradise Garden Grill, which includes items that come in “Sip and Savor” sizes, also looked very appealing. But here are more detailed descriptions of what I did try, in order of when I tried them…

D*Lish:
Black & Tan Beef Potato Puffs: Karl Strauss Wreck Alley stout gravy and lager micro sponge

I guess Potato Puffs are the new fancy terminology for tater tots. This was basically a pulled beef pot roast, and it was rich and hearty and tasty. I wish there was more gravy to help with the beef and taters. The amount I received rendered the dish a bit dry.

L.A. Style:
Glazed BBQ Pork Belly with furikake-togarashi mac salad

Flavor-wise, this was a potent and delectable dish, with an East Asian tanginess and extremely tender pork belly meat. By its nature, the pork belly was oily and fatty, and the sauce was a little on the salty side—though that didn’t bother me much. The orchid was edible, and the Mac salad was relatively light. The L.A. Style meat dishes tend not to disappoint, and this was one of my top favorites.

Garlic Kissed:
(left) Grilled Top Sirloin with roasted garlic-Gruyère smashed potatoes and black garlic chimichurri
(right) Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese with peppered bacon

Looking at the menu, I figured that Garlic Kissed would be my favorite booth, and it was. The steak was well flavored and fantastic with the very garlicky mashed potatoes, though of course, I wish the beef was cooked medium or medium rare. The chimichurri was delicious, and I enjoyed pop of spice from the red chili peppers slices.

The Mac and cheese was my favorite dish of everything I tried. Disney has made a lot of disappointing Mac and cheese dishes in Food & Wine Festivals in the past—at least for me. Only two or three of them have been actually flavorful. But add this to the list of winners. It also helped that the batch I got seemed to be pretty freshly made. But the savory flavor profile of this dish was exquisite.

Golden Dreams:
(left) Honey-Orange-glazed Salmon Salad with citrus vinaigrette
(right) Mango-Carrot Gazpacho with grilled shrimp and jalapeño crema

The Verlasse salmon that Disney has offered in past food festivals has typically been tender and flavorful, but unfortunately, that seemed absent from the salad, which featured a salmon that was very flaky but almost tough. The greens might provide relief from the predominately protein and carb heavy offerings of the other booths, but the salad as a whole just wasn’t that great—although the orange vinaigrette had a nice, refreshing flavor.

The gazpacho, however, was a surprising hit. Despite it being a chilly evening when I tried this, I love the flavors of the mango and cream mixed together. The grilled shrimp was well seasoned, and the mix of cool and savory and tropical was sharp and delightful. I really enjoyed this dish.

Peppers Cali-Ente:
Chile Relleno Empanada with arbol pepper salsa and Oaxaca and Cotija cheeses

This really tastes like a Chile relent, which is interesting, because it wasn’t like they just took a Chile relleno and deep fried it within a pastry shell. The inside was a little dry and not as cheesy as I was expecting, but the flavor was as advertised, and the arbor pepper salsa was tangy and creamy. This was a pretty popular hit with a lot of other guests I spoke to also!

California Craft Brews:
IPA Sausage Dog on a soft pretzel roll with onion-pepper Jardinière, cheddar cheese sauce, and malt vinegar-jalapeño crunch

By the time I was eating this in the evening, I had gotten pretty full. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the IPA Sausage Dog, which had creamy, fondue goodness and a nice kick from the onion-pepper and sausage. The pretzel roll was indeed soft, and though this item could get a little messy, it was wonderful comfort food.

Avocado Time:
Frozen Guacamole—Avocado paleta with lime crema, pico de gallo, and chile-lime seasoning

Along with the Peanut Butter & Jelly Mac from the Nuts About Cheese booth, which has a Pop Rocks topping, this is probably the most adventurous item at this year’s Food & Wine Festival line-up. It’s a mix of savory from the toppings and sweet from the actual avocado and lime cream, which form a frozen popsicle. This item ended up being the favorite dish that our friend, Heather, from Disney Food Blog, tried. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as big of a fan, as the mix of savory with the dessert sweetness the frozen avocado bar portion did not mix well with my palate. Maybe it was because I was expecting a dessert flavor, but the texture and the added chile-lime seasoning made for a weird dish. I ended up chowing down on the toppings and then finishing the bar separately. That said, this dish seemed to be pretty polarizing. I spoke with a few guests who had it, and half loved it and half hated it. Definitely interesting, though!

In addition to food, there are plenty of potent potables available at the Food & Wine Festival. The Festival Beer Garden, near Goofy’s Sky School, is back and offering a selection of craft beers. Each of the Festival Marketplace food stands also offers its own selection of specialty cocktails, beer, and wine—varying depending on the location. In addition, there are free Beer Chats occurring Fridays through Sundays at 3:30, located over by the Boardwalk Restaurants area. Sonama Terrace also offers wine and beer tasting seminars and education talks for $25 per person. These occur Thursdays through Sundays.

Food isn’t the only appeal at the Food & Wine Festival. Beer is popular too! So the Festival Beer Garden is back.

There are a variety of craft brews—local and not local—to offer.

Beer Chats are offered Fridays through Sundays. They’re free, but guests need to register.

There are also Wine, Beer, and Mixology Education and Tasting seminars that come with beverages and cost $25 per person, all adults 21 years old or above, of course.

Festival Entertainment

Finally, live music entertainment is featured at two primary locations at the Food & Wine Festival: the Palisades Stage, i.e. the main stage located in the middle of Paradise Park, in front of Paradise Bay, and the Paradise Garden Bandstand, located in front of the Paradise Garden Grill. A rotation of musical artists—many recognizable from previous stints at Disney festival events—plays throughout the run across afternoon and evening hours.

Over in Hollywood Land, there is also more “spontaneous” entertainment in the form of Jammin’ Chefs at the end of Hollywood Blvd and the Alice in Wonderland Bakery Unbirthday Party in Hollywood Backlot Sound Stage, near Monsters Inc. I wasn’t able to get photos of these events due to time constraints and mis-timing in general, but they’re part of the show line-up.

The scheduled entertainment line-up at this year’s Food & Wine Festival.

Midnight Hour

This 1960s blues, soul, and R&B cover band has been seen as recently as just last month, playing in Downtown Disney as part of the Celebrate Soulfully Black History Month festivities. On opening day of the Food & Wine Festival, they had the feature spot at the Palisades Stage, bringing their wonderful sound and classic energy to the audience. From The Supremes to Tina Turner to Aretha Franklin to even Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, this quintet put on quite a terrific show across several sets throughout the afternoon and evening.

Urban Music Society

At the Paradise Garden Bandstand, Urban Music Society provided covers of more modern R&B songs from the 80s, 90s, and today. This band has also recently been playing Downtown Disney but has moved into DCA for the Food & Wine Festival, playing select days along with a rotation of other artists. Their grooving covers of popular songs and infectious energy provided a nice, active atmosphere for guests dining in the area!

That does it for our Food & Wine Festival coverage this year. The event runs daily now through Tuesday, April 26th, so there is plenty of time to catch the festivities. The Food & Wine Festival at DCA is part of a host of springtime food festival events around Southern California, joining other offerings like the upcoming Knott’s Boysenberry Festival and the Sea World San Diego Seven Seas Food Festival, which our friends at Park Journey were able to cover. There are plenty of options to make your tummy happy this and next month, so COVID continues its retreat, get out there, stay safe, stay comfortable, be considerate, and lets get back to a sense of normalcy!