Australia is a returning favorite this year to the 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival. If you want more details on the Food & Wine Festival, you can check out our Ultimate Guide to the Food & Wine Festival.
The booth is located just to the right of the Port of Entry store and almost across from the Refreshment Port. Its location near the entry area to the World Showcase and proximity to the Canada booth makes this a popular stop. The booth is also popular due to its excellent food and drink options.
The corridor where the Australia booth is located can get very congested, but there are a lot of high-top tables along the World Showcase lagoon waterfront in which to enjoy your selections.
We didn’t try any of the drinks at this booth, but we did enjoy all three food items offered. The lamb chop is a returning favorite. However, this year’s presentation and preparation is different. The shrimp is the same as previous years, while the deconstructed pavlova dessert is an entirely new offering this year. You can see the full Australia marketplace menu in the picture above.
Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp with Pineapple, Pepper, Onion, and Snap Peas (Gluten Free) – $6.00
This dish offers three medium-sized shrimp and a good-sized portion of the vegetables. The shrimp were well-cooked and not rubbery or chewy. The spice profile was not too strong but was prevalent enough to give the shrimp a great flavor. We enjoyed the snap peas the best of the vegetable blend. They were crisp with the crunch you would expect from a fresh sugar snap pea. The pepper/onion/pineapple blend was crisp-tender and not soggy at all. We do wish there were more shrimp to balance out the amount of vegetables and pineapple, but the fruit and vegetable combo tasted great on its own.
On a kids’ note, Elsa has become a huge fan of shrimp lately, and she loved the shrimp. It was not too spicy for her and she commented that she liked the flavor. Anna is not a shrimp fan, but she took a bite and agreed that she liked it. So there is hope! As always, your mileage may vary when it comes to children’s palates!
If you’ve got someone that likes shrimp and some mild spice, the shrimp in the Australia booth should satisfy their craving.
Roasted Lamb Chop with Sweet Potato Puree, Bush Berry Pea Salad, and Pistachio-Pomegranate Gremolata (Gluten Free) – $7.75
We were excited to try the lamb chop as we didn’t get to try it last year. The previous year’s lamb chop came with potato chip crunchies and mint pesto. While that sounded excellent, we were really excited about this year’s offering with the sweet potato puree.
We found the lamb chop cooked perfectly with a lovely pink center. The cut of meat we had was not overly fatty and offered a reasonably generous portion for the price. It was also very tender and melted in your mouth. We thought the meat had a good flavor and that the sides enhanced the dish overall.
The sweet potato puree was authentic puree – very smooth and not any texture from the potato left. Its sweetness was the perfect balance to the lamb. The pistachio-pomegranate gremolata offered some crunchy texture and a little kick of flavor to the dish. Honestly, the bush berry pea salad got lost in the dish for me, as the flavors of sweet potato and pomegranate stood out of the most.
As far as kids go, Anna and Elsa both liked the roasted lamb chop too. The flavors, while great, were not overpowering to them.
Overall, we loved the roasted lamb chop in the Australia booth. It’s definitely something that we would order again and may show up on our Best of the 2019 Food and Wine Festival list. If the flavors are something that appeals to you, we think you’d do well ordering it. Just make sure you get a knife to eat it. We forgot to grab one and had to run back to the booth.
One thing we want to point out is this item is snack credit eligible, and at $7.75, there’s some pretty good value to be had here. It’s also one of the larger items portion-wise of the festival (that we witnessed).
Deconstructed Pavlova with Pastry Cream, Citrus-Macerated Berries and Lemon Myrtle Meringue (Gluten Free, Kid Approved, Vegan) – $4.00
As I mentioned earlier, this is an entirely new offering this year, replacing last year’s Australia dessert of Lamington cake. The presentation of the deconstructed pavlova was beautiful. We found the berries were fresh and flavorful, while the pastry cream was delicately sweet but not too sweet. The berries and cream combo was perfection, and the four of us were fighting over it! The meringue added some fun texture but was not overly notable.
Mike and I loved the Deconstructed Pavlova from the Australia marketplace. Needless to say, the girls did too! We honestly could have ordered another since we all enjoyed it so much. The light fruit dessert was the perfect ending to balance out the intense flavors from the shrimp and lamb dishes. We highly recommend this dessert. It’s another one that may show up on our Best of the 2019 Food and Wine Festival list.
Wrapping Up
And with that, we’ll wrap up our Australia review for the 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival. There are strong offerings here across the board, but the Roasted Lamb Chop and Deconstructed Pavlova are what really stand out. We think you’ll do well ordering those two items, but the shrimp is no slouch.
If you’re looking for more of our Food and Wine Festival reviews, check out our Appleseed Orchard review.