From their earliest days, eating inside theme parks revolved around corn dogs, churros and other deep-fired fair food designed to please simple palates. But in his recent wide-ranging interview with journalist Graham Bensinger, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner credited improved food (along with avant-garde architecture) with attracting upscale East Coast audiences who had previously dismissed Orlando’s offerings as only for children.
The effects of the dining and drinking revolution Eisner launched decades ago will be especially obvious this weekend, when adult theme park fans will have three different food-focused festivals to choose from across the town’s major resorts.
Whether you’re headed over to EPCOT for the finale of the annual International Festival of Arts — which is making way for the International Flower & Garden Festival’s debut in only two weeks — or enjoying the ongoing Universal Mardi Gras International Flavors of Carnival or SeaWorld Seven Seas Food Festival (continuing through April 4 and May 17, respectively), there are far more notable noshes on offer across the parks than even my seasoned stomach can sort through.
That’s why this week I’ve turned to theme park food blogger Jon Self for some alimentary assistance. Once an Adidas-sponsored athlete who traveled the world playing tennis, Self was a theologically moderate Protestant minister preaching in Illinois when COVID hit, and he began converting his frequent visits to Orlando from vacations to a vocation.
Freelancing for online outlets like Touring Plans and Attractions Magazine (which I also contribute to), as well as Main Street Magic and Pixie Vacations, Self has carved a niche for himself by writing comprehensive opening day taste-tests of Central Florida theme park food festivals.
A frequent guest on theme park podcasts, Self jokes that hosts tell him that he talks just as passionately about food and the value of food and what people should get as he does about your faith. And while we both attend media previews, Self goes the extra mile by buying and biting every single new or significantly updated menu item, in order to fairly evaluate what actual customers will be consuming.
To complete such epic challenges of culinary criticism, Self employs a personalized rubric that includes elements such as flavor, portion size and creativity, or “can I make this at home just as good, [or] can I go to Publix and pick it up?” On that last metric, Self says “the Festival of the Arts is all about creativity, which they usually are successful with,” although he admits a few items are “Instagram-worthy and horrible to eat.” SeaWorld, on the contrary, “has decided to play it safe this year,” while Universal strikes a middle ground by retreating somewhat from the sprawl of several years ago, but still adding exciting new live-fire cooking demonstrations around the park.
When it comes to quality of execution, Self says it’s a thin line, but Universal Orlando “juggles it the best,” claiming that SeaWorld is too inconsistent because they don’t have enough on-stage kitchen capacity and rely on bringing food from the back. EPCOT also uses some third-party vendors (such as Japan’s Mitsukoshi), which Self says “leads to inconsistency regarding pricing and food quality.”
Asked to pick his favorites at each of the events, Self suggests Universal’s Chilean Verlasso salmon and Mexican flautas with abuela-approved tomatillo salsa; SeaWorld’s Indian butter chicken and mushroom truffle burger (one of this year’s rotating menu items); and the three-course combination of lobster Caesar salad, peppercorn-crusted steak and dark chocolate torte from The Artist’s Table outside EPCOT’s American Adventure. (“That’s the slam dunk … it was off-the-charts good.”)
Of course, every event has landmines to avoid, and Self’s least-liked item this year was SeaWorld’s “absolutely terrible” Guinness beer-cheese nachos, which join last year’s much-loathed Reuben egg rolls at the Ireland booth. Vegans only have three plant-based dishes to choose from this year at Universal, and Self says the hyped Jamaican Rasta Pasta “has no flavor, no coconut cream sauce, no nothing, and it’s definitely not Jamaican.” And at EPCOT, Self says the China and Japan locations lagged behind even Italy (IYKYK), with the overpriced purple wagyu bun especially earning his ire.
Last but not least, the elephant in the room is always the cost of these festivals, and Self says the conventional wisdom on value has surprisingly switched, with Disney now offering the lowest average cost on non-discounted dishes. “We used to joke you could go to EPCOT, spend $50 and still be hungry, [but] they’ve done a better job on prices at EPCOT, with a few exceptions.”
At Universal, annual passholders can buy a $150 gift card for $120, and also get their usual dining discount on top of that, but $17 for a small serving of Finnegan’s fish & chips is still unreasonably steep.
SeaWorld’s booth menus are liable to give you sticker shock, with small dishes running around $12, but a tasting sampler brings the per-item cost down to as little as $5 for annual passholders, making it by far the best bargain if you fully redeem your lanyard. Just keep in mind that SeaWorld has gone cash-free, and operating hours for food booths are frequently subject to change.
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This article appears in Feb. 18-24, 2026.