Primavera Kitchen Epcot dishes disappointed at the 2026 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, with bland arancini and a small pasta salad.
If you plan to snack your way around the outdoor kitchens at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, you’ll quickly discover there are dozens of tempting options scattered throughout Epcot. During the opening weekend of the 2026 festival, we sampled roughly 30 food offerings, and unfortunately, two of the biggest disappointments came from the same booth.
Located in the Italy Pavilion, Primavera Kitchen is serving two new savory dishes this year: the Insalata di Pasta and Arancini. Both sounded promising on paper. We had higher hopes than we should have after the “better” options at this location during the Festival of the Arts. Still, both new items left us wondering if the recipe cards accidentally fell into a bowl of plain rice. Let’s dig in… cautiously.
Primavera Kitchen Epcot: Arancini – $7.75
Risotto, beef ragoût, peas, parmesan, and tomato sauce (New)
The Arancini at Primavera Kitchen has unfortunately already sprouted a reputation as one of the festival’s worst dishes. That’s impressive, considering the festival features over 150 food and beverage options.
On paper, this sounds fantastic. Crispy fried risotto balls filled with beef ragoût, peas, and parmesan should deliver rich Italian comfort food vibes. In reality, what arrives is a fried ball with the personality of unsalted oatmeal.
The exterior crunch is decent enough, but once you break into the center, things fall apart quickly—figuratively, not literally. The risotto filling lacks the deep, savory richness you’d expect from a traditional ragoût-based dish. Instead, the flavor profile lands somewhere between “mild” and “did someone forget the seasoning?”
Even the tomato sauce, which could have saved the day with a punch of acidity, is surprisingly passive. It sort of sits there politely, like it doesn’t want to interrupt the blandness. For a festival built around bright, fresh flavors, this heavy fried ball feels oddly out of place. Also, at $7.75, it feels even more disappointing. If you’re looking for bold flavor at this festival, you might want to keep walking… preferably toward literally almost any other booth.
Primavera Kitchen Epcot: Insalata di Pasta – $7.50
Penne, apple, raisins, scallions, almonds, honey, and lemon dressing (Served chilled) (New)
Unfortunately, the Insalata di Pasta doesn’t do much to redeem Primavera Kitchen’s reputation this year.
The chilled pasta salad combines penne, apples, raisins, scallions, almonds, and honey-lemon dressing, which sounds like it could be a refreshing, sweet-and-savory festival snack. In practice, it’s a dish many guests may struggle with due to its awkward texture. Between the chewy raisins, crunchy almonds, soft pasta, and crisp apples, each bite feels like your mouth is trying to host a texture-based reality show where none of the contestants get along.
Flavor-wise, it’s better than the Arancini, but that’s a bit like saying “this roller coaster derailment was smoother than the other one.” The sweetness from the raisins and honey dressing dominates, and the overall dish lacks the bright balance you’d hope for. To make matters worse, the portion size is surprisingly small for $7.50, especially compared to other festival dishes like the Tuna Poke Bowl.
Perhaps the most telling criticism:
Both the pasta salad and the arancini feel like items someone could easily throw together at home using ingredients from a quick trip to the grocery store, without paying festival prices.
New Schedule for Outdoor Kitchens
A significant shift has arrived for the 2026 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Traditionally, the beloved Outdoor Kitchens opened daily at 11:00 AM, but Disney has introduced a split schedule to match midweek attendance patterns.
From Fridays through Mondays, the food booths maintain their standard hours, operating from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. However, if you are visiting during the week, take note: from Tuesdays through Thursdays, most booths are now open later and close earlier, running from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There are a few exceptions, such as the Florida Fresh booth near CommuniCore Plaza, which continues to open at 9:30 a.m. daily. While a thirty-minute shift may seem minor, it narrows the window for “tasting your way around the world” during possibly quieter days.
Final Thoughts About the Primavera Kitchen Epcot During Flower & Garden Festival
Out of the roughly 30 items we sampled during opening weekend, these two dishes unfortunately landed near the bottom of the list. That’s not to say you shouldn’t visit Primavera Kitchen Epcot entirely—after all, the festival is about exploring and finding your own favorites. Still, if you’re trying to maximize your snack budget, these may be two items worth skipping.
The good news? The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival runs for several months and offers plenty of other culinary highlights across World Showcase and the park. So if your festival adventure accidentally begins with these Primavera Kitchen Epcot dishes, don’t worry. Just grab another tasting passport, wander to the next booth, and remember:
Some plants at Flower & Garden bloom beautifully…
and some just need a little more seasoning.
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