CA Food & Wine 2019 reviews? thoughts? tips?

[gottalovepluto]

Has anyone hit it up yet this year? Title says it all here. If you've been already, or are prepping to go, any tips to share? or reviews/thoughts on this year's booths and items?

I have one thing I didn't know. Apparently you can order any food item from any booth at any both. WDWinfo says they tested this during the Lunar New Year Festival? Anyone try this? This will certianly be a time saver for anyone who is organized enough to know what they want and not lose the receipts in transit between booths!

"You can go to any cashier (find the shortest line) and purchase items from ANY of the Marketplaces. You’ll get a receipt for each item, so when you’re ready for that item, skip the cashier and head straight to the window to pick up your food!"​

 

[Whistlebee]

We’re here now. Spent the day in CA yesterday. It was the most crowded day I’ve ever personally spent in CA. Guardians was 160 minute wait most of the day. It didn’t seem like the lines were too long at the booths considering it was the first official day. We had the jalapeño margaritas and they were very good!

 

[dina444444]

We’re here now. Spent the day in CA yesterday. It was the most crowded day I’ve ever personally spent in CA. Guardians was 160 minute wait most of the day. It didn’t seem like the lines were too long at the booths considering it was the first official day. We had the jalapeño margaritas and they were very good!

Guardians only had one of three towers in operation yesterday according to a CM I spoke with today. Only 2 of 3 were operating this morning.

 

[midnight star]

I was there this morning. I only got the cheesy bread bowl soup, which I thought was good. I was sick earlier this week, and didn't want to try anything heavy. But I got my sip n savor pass! I'm going to try and go every weekend this month and get something new.

Also, was it just me, or was DCA very packed today?? Granted I didn't get there until 10:00 am rather than opening, but still. I saw that some of the wait times got over 100 minutes . I went over to DL around 12:30, and while it was still busy, it wasn't nearly as bad as DCA. I didn't even go back to DCA.

 

[Whistlebee]

I was there this morning. I only got the cheesy bread bowl soup, which I thought was good. I was sick earlier this week, and didn't want to try anything heavy. But I got my sip n savor pass! I'm going to try and go every weekend this month and get something new.

Also, was it just me, or was DCA very packed today?? Granted I didn't get there until 10:00 am rather than opening, but still. I saw that some of the wait times got over 100 minutes . I went over to DL around 12:30, and while it was still busy, it wasn't nearly as bad as DCA. I didn't even go back to DCA.

DCA was crazy crowded yesterday and wait times were much higher than at DL. We haven’t been into DCA today. Heading there soon tho. The rain has definitely kept the crowds away today.

 

[midnight star]

DCA was crazy crowded yesterday and wait times were much higher than at DL. We haven’t been into DCA today. Heading there soon tho. The rain has definitely kept the crowds away today.

I feel like it was still somewhat crowded on DCA...DL was fine though.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... Apparently you can order any food item from any booth at any both. WDWinfo says they tested this during the Lunar New Year Festival? Anyone try this? This will certianly be a time saver for anyone who is organized enough to know what they want and not lose the receipts in transit between booths!

"You can go to any cashier (find the shortest line) and purchase items from ANY of the Marketplaces. You’ll get a receipt for each item, so when you’re ready for that item, skip the cashier and head straight to the window to pick up your food!"​

MP twitter verified this, but made it sound like it won't always be convenient:

A Vincent-Phoenix Retweeted MousePlanet

This *is* handy, but you’ll need to know which booth the item you want comes from (the CMs won’t always know), AND be prepared to arrive at the other booth and find the item is sold out.

 

[gottalovepluto]

MP twitter verified this, but made it sound like it won't always be convenient:

A Vincent-Phoenix Retweeted MousePlanet

This *is* handy, but you’ll need to know which booth the item you want comes from (the CMs won’t always know), AND be prepared to arrive at the other booth and find the item is sold out.

Sold out would be severely disappointing! The booth thing makes sense, the CM would need some guidance as to what you were purchasing in order to find it in their system. Sounds like this will only work if you know it off the top of your head or you have marked what you want in the booklet and are ready to roll with the punchases if an item is out of stock. Thanks for the heads up on that!

 

[midnight star]

MP twitter verified this, but made it sound like it won't always be convenient:

A Vincent-Phoenix Retweeted MousePlanet

This *is* handy, but you’ll need to know which booth the item you want comes from (the CMs won’t always know), AND be prepared to arrive at the other booth and find the item is sold out.

That would suck if you rip a tab off your sip and savor pass, and come to find out the item is sold out..looks like I'll just go directly to whatever booth I want to get food from.

 

[l4dyj8]

Oh I didn’t know you can do this! But I don’t see it really helping if one booth is busy and another is not. I find that the flow once you’ve ordered works out just fine. It’s the line to order that takes long. The pick up is fine. But maybe we ca n test it tomorrow

It’s been busy/crowded at CA this weekend. And much more than expected on such a rainy weekend!

Drinks: I’ve like the Meyer Lemon Mule (Citrus booth) and the Jalepeño Margarita (Peppers booth). I’m usually a wine drinker but I have never felt that the wine offerings were that great or worth the price. The beer lines are long.

Food: so far we’ve only been to the citrus booth and all offerings are great. Trying more tomorrow.

 

[BGinCali]

I went to Avocado Time today - loved the Impossible Burger, and was good size (not meal sized, but I felt a good value). The chicken on pita was good as well. I’d get either again! I also had the beef tenderloin slider at Cluck-A-Doodle-Moo - it was a favorite last year, and tasted the same this.

I didn’t think lines were bad - and they moved quick. Not sure if the gray skies and threat of rain impacted attendance, but I felt it was a pleasant day crowd wise. I did not get in line for any beer - those lines seemed to be the longest.

 

[pblack]

We went to food & wine on Saturday and we had great crowds due to the rain. We only tried a few things: the mac and cheese with garlic bread crumbs from the garlic stand (totally recommend, it was super yummy and would be really great as a bigger portion with grilled chicken), the chocolate peanut butter churro found at the churro cart in hollywood land (I didn't try this, but my DH said it was good but messy), the blackberry saison (don't remember the brewer or which stand), and the Karl Strauss festival brown ale (same stand as the blackberry saison but can also be found at the Karl Strauss beer cart). The blackberry saison was good, but tart. The brown ale my DH said was ok/good. It wasn't his favorite brown ale. He much preferred the Karl Strauss oatmeal stout he had later on that evening.

The lines for us weren't too bad, but that could have been due to the weather. We wanted to get the stout marshmallow from one of the booths, but we were just so full and never went back to get it. Same thing with the cheesy bread bowl soup.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I am getting so hungry and excited for our trip next week! So many yummy treats to try out.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

We were there yesterday afternoon and tried a few things. DCA was noticeably way more crowded than DL, which I would assume is because of Food and Wine, but the booths themselves weren't that crowded. Kinda weird. As we left at 5:30, the booths all had decent lines. Anyway, reviews:

Tiki Cocktail from LA Style - pretty tasty! I think it's my favorite non-wine festival beverage (out of all the food festivals so far at DCA). It was sweet but not cloying... I'd get it again, but for $13.50, maybe not.
Petite Impossible Burger from Avocado Time - Ok, this was SO much like a normal hamburger that I actually Googled "Impossible Burger" to make sure I wasn't mistaken on this being veg. I would definitely eat this again.
Citrus-brined Pork Roast with Tangy BBQ sauce and Lemon Pepper Slaw from Citrus Grove - This portion was HUGE; I'm not sure if I got lucky or if that's how much they're supposed to serve. I didn't really taste citrus, and the slaw on top looked and tasted like it came out of a grocery store tub, but the pork itself was tender and yummy.
Fresh California Berry Pie from Berry Patch - This was pretty good, my daughter gobbled it up. I thought it was a little soggy and colder than I'd prefer, but definitely still worth eating. Basically what you'd expect from a mass-produced berry tart.

*We tried to get the Black Garlic Soy-braised Pork Belly Bahn Mi from Garlic Kissed, but it was sold out. The Strawberry Float also hadn't been at Berry Patch "yet today" as of like 3:00.

We did not notice signs indicating that you could buy food at any booth - they had signs up for that at Lunar New Year, and of course it was reported that you could do it here, but I didn't see anything about it. I am curious if they decided it's too much of a problem for F&W and gave up on it. The AP corner had a cute photo op and a nice pin, so that's worth a quick stop for APs, I think.

We also did the Jr. Chef show - showed up like 10 minutes before the show that's at 1-something but they were full, so we came back at 3:20 for the 3:45 show and were more than halfway through the sign-ups but had plenty of time. I'd say anyone who showed before 3:30 probably got in. They've changed the cookie so it's made with almond flour, and it sounded like you can get a nut-free one if needed, but you can't avoid contact with the almond flour for participants. I could be wrong about that, just based on a conversation I overheard between a parent and a CM.

I also made us ears, my first DIY ears attempt!

 

[pblack]

@Skyegirl1999 super cute ears!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

@Skyegirl1999 super cute ears!

Agree!! So cute and creative!

 

[BrianL]

I've been and tried a few items. My favorite item was the berry pie from Berry Patch, but the beef and ginger tacos from LA Style and the pinwheel from Nuts About Cheese were also great. Also, the spicy pork thing, but I can't remember where it was from. I do think they were a bit disorganized with the lines, so on't get frustrated when people line up to the side then people start making another line that goes straight. Ever hear of tensa-barriers? Yeah, they need some!

 

[BrianL]

Guardians only had one of three towers in operation yesterday according to a CM I spoke with today. Only 2 of 3 were operating this morning.

I can confirm. We went to GotG at rope-drop and one of the towers went down as we were in the boiler room. It took a while to get through and we noticed that they basically stopped FP distribution and had consistently long wait times all day. It appeared to be fixed the next day. One of the shafts was down for the entire trip, though that seemed like it may have been for planned maintenance. Losing a second one though caused chaos!