Read our Festival Walking Taco Review from Bier Fest Brews and BBQ. Find out if this $12.99 nacho creation is worth the price—or just a cheesy letdown.
Welcome, fellow foodies, theme park adventurers, and anyone who’s ever paid premium prices for a glorified bag of chips. Today’s Festival Walking Taco Review comes straight from Bier Fest Brews and BBQ at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, where the beer was cold, the band was Bavarian, and the nachos… well, let’s just say they took an unexpected detour.
Bier Fest at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens’ Bier Fest Brews & BBQ is a lively, end-of-summer festival that combines a celebration of craft beer with a mouthwatering barbecue-inspired menu. This event, which is included with park admission, takes place through September 1 on select dates (mostly Friday through Sunday). This allows guests to sip and savor their way through a world of flavors. Each weekend features a rotating selection of dozens of craft beers from over 40 breweries, from crisp lagers to hoppy IPAs.
To complement the brews, the festival offers a variety of smoky, savory, and globally-inspired BBQ dishes. Guests can explore different food cabins with unique menus, from traditional bratwurst to modern takes like brisket mac and cheese in a waffle cone. To make the most of the culinary journey, sampler lanyards are available for purchase, allowing guests to mix and match their choice of food, beer, wine, or cocktails. Live entertainment, including polka bands, adds to the festive atmosphere. For more information about the event, please consult our guide to Bier Fest.
The Festival Walking Taco Setup
The menu painted a delicious picture: a Doritos bag stuffed with seasoned beef, cheese, jalapeños, pico de gallo, and sour cream. Sounds like a festive flavor explosion, right? In fairness, we felt some concerns ordering an item from a Bier Fest from a food and beverage cabin entitled Mis Amigos. That sounds like the title of our ninth-grade Spanish textbook.
But at the actual booth? Reality took a turn. Instead of the classic “walking taco” served in a bag for easy munching, we received a paper bowl to go with our walking taco bag. Already, our taco had lost its ability to “walk,” forcing it into a sedentary lifestyle it never asked for. In fairness, this walking taco utilized a bigger bag of chips to start with than at previous festivals at the Florida United Parks & Resorts‘ theme parks.
Not All Beef Is Created Equal
Our Festival Walking Taco Review continues with the first few bites. The toppings on top—cheese, pico, jalapeños, and sour cream—were enjoyable. No complaints there. The “seasoned beef,” however, wasn’t your classic ground beef taco filler. Instead, it was thick chunks of beef. Good quality, but completely unexpected for what is usually a grab-and-go dish.
We double-checked the menu, and technically, it never claimed to be ground beef—so that surprise is totally on us. But still, when you hear “walking taco,” expectations are formed.
The Nacho Plateau: A Tale of Two Layers
Here’s where our Festival Walking Taco Review takes a sharp turn: after the first few glorious bites, all the good stuff disappeared. What remained? A lonely landscape of plain Doritos. Not loaded Doritos. Not cheesy Doritos. Just… nachos in their natural, unadorned state with a few tiny spare pieces of toppings.
Imagine paying $12.99 for a few bites of toppings, then being left with what could have come straight from a vending machine. That’s the culinary equivalent of a roller coaster that ends halfway up the first hill.
Festival Walking Taco Review: Bier Fest or Bagged Lunch?
Let’s not forget the context here—Bier Fest Brews and BBQ. You’ve got bratwurst, smoky brisket, and an oompah band playing in the background. Against this deliciously Bavarian backdrop, our walking taco felt like a confused tourist who wandered in with the wrong passport.
It’s not that the dish was bad—it just didn’t belong. Like wearing flip-flops to Oktoberfest, it was out of place in both concept and execution.
Is It Worth It? The Festival Walking Taco Review Verdict
So, what’s the final word on this Festival Walking Taco Review? If you’re using a sampler lanyard, which brings the price down to about $7, it’s not a terrible snack. It’s familiar, relatively filling, and not offensive to your taste buds.
But if you’re paying full price? You might want to invest that $12.99 elsewhere—like on a beer flight, a smoked sausage, or, you know, something that actually stays loaded past the third bite. For all the promise of a walking adventure, this taco mostly stood still, stuck in a bowl, stuck in a rut, and ultimately stuck with Doritos dreams that never came true. Pro Tip: Use the sampler lanyard. Always. It might not turn a snack into a masterpiece, but at least it softens the blow to your wallet.
For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon. Additionally, we sometimes publish bonus dining reviews, like this one. As always, eat like you mean it!
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