Epcot Food and Wine

Every October Epcot has their international food and wine festival. In addition to the international cuisine available in Epcot's World Pavilion, there are addition offerings at special kiosks sprinkled through the park. Each of these kiosks offer a full meal, but also a small sample of several foods native to the region or countries. It is a nice way to try food that you might not have readily available to you.
There are also different cooking demonstrations that take place throughout the festival showing how some of the food are prepared. Now if you have a little kids who may not be as adventurous with their dining don't worry. They still have plenty of options park wide for them (This is still a Disney Park after all).
Now if you live in an area that has a diverse population where you can get foods from exotic locals like Vietnamese, India, or Ethiopia. You may find that the offerings are not as exotic as it could be. In fact we actually found that we could get foods just as good if not a little better near our home. However if you live in an area that doesn't have as many diverse eateries you should definitely give it a shot, because it is a real treat to be able to try so many different cuisines in one spot.
All in all if you often find yourself at local food festivals near your home, you should consider attending this event. You will get all the benefits of the food festivals plus the added fun of Epcot and the other WDW parks. With that I wish you Bon Appetite!

Tokyo Dining

We visited Tokyo Dining in Epcot's Japan pavilion because I thought we might need a little bit of food we have available from home. I do love the different foods you can get in Walt Disney World but after a while you want to give yourself something that you are used to. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, we have an abundance of authentic Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai,and Japanese food available to us.  I live in a small city where just off the top of my head I can think of 10 different restaurants with Asian cuisine (and that doesn't count the two noodle houses or the Asian groceries). I say all this because even though I am not of Asian decent, I do know my Hui Tiu from my Won Ton Soup.

You enter the restaurant and the very friendly hostesses get you settled into either Tokyo Dining, or Tapan Edo (similiar to Benny Hana's). Tokyo Dining has a minimalist decor of white table clothes and simple water cups waiting at the table. Our server was very traditionally dressed young lady from Okinawa who was very attentive to my wife and I but also my son (making sure that he had crayons and a coloring sheet, as well as training chopsticks that she assembled at the table). Her courtesy was impeccable and she knew the menu extremely very well. My wife had a noodle dish with a side of Stir-fried vegitables which were flavored in a oyster/and soy sause and carnashed with those wonderful crispy noodles. I had a fried rice dish with pan fried vegitables (the cabbage was really great). while my son stuck to a teriyaki bento box (a good choice for kids because the food is seperated, and they can get an egg role, or fried dumpling, rice, chicken, and a salad all in a serving that isn't to much for a kiddo). The food was good, if not just a little under seasoned for our taste (they are after all cooking for a wide variety of pallets). What I did like is that even the food that was fried didn't show up at our table all greasy (which isn't something you can say about all the food in WDW). Also if you are hankering for some authentic sushi this is where I would feel safe doing it.

The lunch pace we had was very leisurely, our food was given to us as if they were watching to see when we were done with the previous course. It was nice and cool inside, with a nice view of the lake. While we were there there was more of a crowd in Tapan Edo so we could enjoy a conversation without raising our voices to be heard.

I recommend this place if you have a kid that likes teriyaki, or is an adventurous eater. The food was good and filling (even healthy), services was efficient and non bothersome. Most importantly it was an oasis from the crazy of the park (and the smell of greasy German and polish food) on an 90 degree day). If you can get reservations I do believe that you should give it a try. It will surprise you