Should you try the Smoked Pulled Duck Roll at Busch Gardens Bier Fest 2025? We reviewed the pulled duck salad, grape apple slaw, and brioche bun combo. Well, more about that brioche bun combo later!

The 2025 Bier Fest Brews & BBQ event at Busch Gardens began this weekend. This theme park festival celebrates craft beer, classic smoky barbecue, and high-energy entertainment. This happens within the park’s lush, tropical Florida landscape. Running until September 1 on Fridays through Sundays (with a bonus day on September 1- Labor Day), the event features over a dozen beer gardens scattered across the park. Each highlights regional and international brews, from hazy IPAs and smooth lagers to fruity, barrel-aged ales.

Complementing the vast beer selection is a festival food menu. Guests should think of slow-smoked ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, Burning’ Bratwurst, and more inventive creations like the Smoked Pulled Duck Roll, complete with grape‑apple slaw and tangy house pickles. However, the food menu branches out into various cuisines, offering 28 menu items to choose from.

As you would expect, we visited to try some of the many theme park festival food items. We decided to visit the uniquely named food and beverage cabin, Tipsy Bird, for Bier Fest. This cabin offers four food items for guests to purchase. These include:

• BBQ Fire Rub Chicken Legs – Roasted chicken with grape-apple slaw and house pickles
• Smoked Turkey with Chipotle Blackberry Jam – Sliced smoked turkey with Chipotle Blackberry Jam on toasted Texas toast with grape apple slaw and house pickles
• Smoked Pulled Duck Roll – Pulled duck salad with a brioche roll with grape apple slaw and house pickles
• Baklava Bird’s Nest – Handcrafted Baklava with honey lime sauce and toasted pistachios

Smoked Pulled Duck Roll Review – $12.99

The Smoked Pulled Duck Roll at Bier Fest Brews & BBQ sounds intriguing to us. The online menu description reads, “Pulled duck salad with a brioche roll with grape apple slaw and house pickles.” The printed in-person menu description sounded similar. Like the Char Siu Bun(s?), we have a significant issue with the menu description. However, we will mention that later.

This Bier Fest menu item fulfills many things guests should look for in a theme park festival item. For example, these include:

• Unique flavor combinations
• Using products not commonly prepared in most households – smoked duck!
• Menu item not commonly found at quick service restaurants

Overall, we found this to have excellent flavor. The preparation achieves the goal of providing a decent festival food item. The Smoked Pulled Duck Roll offered a lighter option for theme park dining—each component inside the bun rates as good. In fairness, we would have liked more apple flavor in the slaw, but that might be too picky a complaint. Although this was not our favorite Bier Fest Brews & BBQ itemon opening weekend, it was a solid option. Additionally, our pickle expert commented that the six pickle slices were good quality.

Smoked Pulled Dick Roll Concerns

However, on the less positive side, we have two concerns. One qualifies as minor while the other is gigantic. First, we struggled to see how the Smoked Pulled Duck Roll fit the festival theme. Sure, we get that the duck is smoked. Still, the smokiness of the pulled duck did not stand out.

Secondly, and the most outrageous, the menu descriptions mislead guests. We noticed it immediately. The menu description, both in person and online, indicates a brioche bun. At first glance, we knew this was not to be the case. We received this on a hot dog bun. In fact, later, we confirmed this by seeing a twelve-pack of hot dog buns being used by a Busch Gardens ambassador to prepare the Smoked Pulled Duck Roll. Based on that, we joked about Busch Gardens Tampa Bay being like us and buying hot dog buns from Publix, where shopping is a pleasure.

Brioche Bun?

For a $12.99 theme park festival item, this error appears to be unacceptable. Still, we can see if an actual brioche bun was used; this Bier Fest item might be the best one of the festival event. Nonetheless, a standard hot dog bun hinders the work of the chefs at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Still, once again, the festival’s official press release photo of the Smoked Pulled Duck Roll does not match the version we bought.

If guests can overlook the hot dog bun issue, this makes a good option if using a sampler lanyard. If not, $12.99 makes this a tough sell. Of course, with a brioche bun…maybe?

Thanks for reading this bonus theme park dining review. We publish theme park dining reviews every weekday at noon Eastern Time at MSM News. As always, eat like you mean it!

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