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Show Notes:

If you think a visit to Walt Disney World (or Disneyland) means days of chicken fingers and churros... think again! While those classic park snacks are fan favorites, the food (and wine) scene in the parks and resorts is no joke! I am am HERE. FOR. IT.

It isn’t just about food, though; it’s about the memories made with friends, the laughter shared, with my family and the pure joy of experiencing Disney through the lens of a food lover (is that you?)

So, whether you’re planning a trip or just dreaming of one, let’s dig into the deliciousness that awaits at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Listen in to my recent visit for all the tips on some lesser know delicious bites across Disney property (and some classic favorites).

• What cocktails we sipped poolside at the Riviera Resort
• My standout mouthwatering offerings at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival,
• The bites from the Honeybee kiosk that paired so well with a very surprising wine option
• The new and improved food offerings at Olga's Cantina in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge
• My FAVORITE breakfast item on Disney Property
• A sneak peak into 2 NEW (to me) locations and what we ordered that blew us away!

Links and other Resources:

Wines mentioned in this episode:

Florida Orange Groves Sparkling Blackberry Wine

Florida Orange Groves Orange Blossom Honey Wine (Mead)

Joseph Drouhin Burgundy (Pinot Noir) enjoyed at Toplino's Terrace

Protea South Africa Chenin Blanc enjoyed at Wailulu Bar and Grill

Nikki's Links:

Follow me on Instagram to get the scoop on upcoming episodes and to see all the Food and Drinks you heard about today!

The wine that I make, Sollevato Sangiovese is available to be shipped to most US States. (Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off.) It's a delicious, medium bodied, aromatic red wine that is perfect with pizza, pasta and your charcuterie spread!

Enjoy some of Nikki's favorite products from our Sponsors:

You NEED some delicious California Olive Oil from our awesome sponsor American Olive Farmer. Use code SipWithNikki for $10 off your order!

Check out Sena Sea's website to get your hands on some beautiful wild-caught Alaskan fish shipped right to your door! Use code sipandsea for 10% off your order and sign up for their email list (great recipes!) and be entered to win a monthly $50 gift card drawing.

If you'd like to be an ANGEL and Support the Podcast, you buy me a glass of wine and get a shout-out on a future episode!

Questions? Comments? Guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

I was having so much fun, I actually extended my trip another day. I didn't want to leave and I wanted to stay in the Disney bubble.

So I added a night with my Disney vacation club at the Riviera Resort, changed my flight, and my good friends David and David came to hang out at the Riviera with me. And we did some poolside drinks. And then their pool bar, called Bar Reefa has not only great drinks, but a really nice menu.

And we just wanted a snack because we were going to head into the park and over to the Polynesians. So we got their fresh burrata salad. Oh my gosh. That is one of the standouts of the trip. Well, hello. Welcome back to SIP with Nikki.

I'm Nikki Lamberti here in Sonoma County, California. And before I dive into this week's magical episode, I have a really exciting announcement.

So you'll notice in this episode we've added a second sponsor with Sena Sea, Wonderful Alaskan Fish Company. And that makes two sponsors with American Olive Farmer. And more are coming.

And I'm so grateful because first of all, I'd love to share with you the things that I love and I'm passionate about, which is the criteria to sponsor this podcast. But their sponsorship also helps to pay for the operating cost.

So coming soon, I am going to be offering a membership with multiple tiers, one of which will give you these episodes ad free and bonus content. And then I'm really excited about the tier where I'm going to include all of that.

But then also offer a private Facebook group that you'll be able to join. And in that group I'll be doing live stream virtual tastings, Q and A and have previous guests like Dr.

Hobie Wedler that you've heard, like Dan Richer, maybe even Heather, who doesn't like wine. We're going to have live streams where you can interact, meet them and have Q and A.

So listen for the details to be invited as an inaugural member of the Sip with Nikki podcast.

And if you're not already signed up for the mailing list, just visit sipwithnikki.com resource to be the first to receive your invitation to be an inaugural member of our SIP community. And when you sign up, I'll send you my free wine tips cheat sheet that has all my best tips for understanding wine.

If you follow me on either Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw last week I had an amazing trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando.

And if you don't follow me on either of those things, now's the time Nikki Lamberti on both of the platforms and the idea to turn this into a podcast episode really came from a listener question on Facebook. Listener questions so Melissa in Massachusetts commented on my post last week and said, what are some of your favorite spots at Walt Disney World?

So I do go back to Walt Disney World often, not only to visit the wonderful friends that I had made there, but also because I do still work seasonally for the Disney company in recruitment.

Now I say that because I'm about to gush on and on and on about Disney food and beverage and all of the delicious things that I ate and drank on my trip. This is in no way sponsored by Disney. I don't work in food and beverage. I just love food and beverage.

So this episode is really just Nikki as a visitor wanting to share all of the delicious things that I discovered. Some were old favorites, some are new favorites.

And so if you're traveling to Walt Disney World in the near future, you have friends and family that are you're going to get all of the tips on where to find, in my opinion, the yummiest things. And also of course, the pairings.

If you're not traveling to Walt Disney World, that's okay too, because this is a fun listen and gives you some ideas of flavors that pair well even if you're doing it at home in your kitchen. Now this recent trip happened to fall during the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, which happens every spring.

And that's different than the Food and Wine Festival that happens every fall.

And if you've not listened back in the early days of the podcast, I have two episodes of Eating and Drinking around the World in Epcot that were recorded on location. This episode is different not only because of the different offerings at this time of year, but it's not just Epcot.

We got into some other special and interesting places that I can't wait to share with you. The bottom line is this.

All right, so I am just going to go at this chronologically so you can live it day by day like we did.

And our first full day was in Epcot and we just happened to be there during the Flower and Garden Festival, which happens every year from March to early June. So this year it runs until June 2nd.

So the first couple things I'll highlight were specific to the booths that are brought in these extra little kiosks like the Food and Wine Festival in the fall. This is the counterpart festival where you have all these additional bites.

And if you're going before June 2nd this year, you'll be able to hit these items and if not, look for them if you make it there next spring.

So the first thing we hit in Epcot, and this is almost like a non negotiable, especially because we usually stay in the resorts like the Beach Club, the Boardwalk or the Riviera that either have us walking or taking the Skyliner in. And we enter the park in the back entrance called the International Gateway.

And so the first country we always hit is the uk and that is usually the first stop with a pint, whether it's a Guinness or a Black and Tan or a harp. And luckily, all year round they have what my family has unanimously agreed on, the best fish and chips.

Even having had them in London, sorry, England, the real England, they are phenomenal and they're always super fresh. Burn your fingers. And we get lots of malt vinegar to put on them.

And it comes with two really big pieces of very crispy fish, so we'll usually just share it. And of course, lots of very fresh fries. So that was our first foray into our day, fish and chips.

And then my sister and I shared a Guinness and it was a perfect pairing. And we sat down on the water in the little tables that are behind where you pick up those fish and chips.

And if you heard the episodes last year where Michael and I were eating and drinking around the world, you will hear that was a stop for us too. It's usually the first thing we hit from there. We hit a couple of the temporary kiosks that are there for the Flower and Garden Festival.

And here's a little tip. The first stop, wherever you are, you can always pick up a little booklet. They do that for the Food and Wine Festival too. And then.

And it'll list everything by location, what are the bites and what are the drinks. And if you're a nerd like me, you could plan your attack as you go.

So we stopped in Japan and had frushi, a frushi roll, which looked very much like a sushi roll, but inside was strawberry and honeydew melon. And then it was wrapped in coconut rice and drizzled with a coconut sauce and then some toasted coconut on the top.

So you have to like coconut for this. And I actually paired it with a strawberry sake, so I thought, let's go for that approach in pairing with similar.

And I wasn't sure if it was gonna be too much, but it was actually really delicious. Three little bites of this roll. Very fresh, very clean, and then that beautiful strawberry sake.

We almost went back for seconds on that one, so mark that down. Another great kiosk that we hit was in Canada.

And for those of you who are EPCOT nerds, you'll notice that our stops were not geographically in order. Our day, the way it fell, with the lightning lane passes that we had and the times of the attractions that we were also doing.

Yes, we also do attractions. Not just eating and drinking, but mostly eating and drinking had us backtracking. So we got some extra steps in the park.

But in Canada, we had a beautiful scallop dish. It was seared scallops with French green beans, marbled potatoes, and a bacon vinaigrette.

And then I was very intrigued with one of the beverage options, which was Florida Orange Groves Winery in St. Petersburg, Florida sparkling BlackBerry wine.

And my nephew and my brother in law loved this because apparently this is a reference in a country song, BlackBerry wine. I think a lot of country songs actually sing about strawberry wine, huckleberry wine and BlackBerry wine.

So our joke was, you could ferment anything, in this case BlackBerry. So I don't think I had ever had that before. And it was really delicious. I thought it was gonna be a little sticky sweet, but it wasn't.

And the sparkling made it very fresh. And it really was a nice pairing with the scallops, believe it or not, which had some savoriness because of the bacon vinaigrette.

And then when we do these things, there were like three of us that were eating these. We just get one little serving of the food and one of the beverage and we just do some little sips. And that one was a lovely surprise.

What was not surprising, and I knew this was gonna be delicious.

This was at the Honeybee Kiosk for the flower and garden Festival, which is in the pathway between Future World and as you go into the countries in the international gateway. This kiosk had chicken and waffles and it was crispy chicken with a sweet honey jalapeno bacon cornbread waffle.

I'm just gonna say that again because there is a lot to take in on just the waffle itself. Sweet honey jalapeno bacon cornbread waffle. And then it was topped with basically fried chicken.

And then it had a whipped honey butter and spicy honey drizzle. How could that not be great? But then my. My dilemma. Not dilemma, but my quandary was what to pair with that from a beverage standpoint.

I'm going to tell you the four things they had there, and you can guess what I did. So they had a honey peach cobbler freeze, non alcoholic. They had a honey peach cobbler freeze with blueberry vodka.

They had a Florida orange grove winery, same winery as before, but an orange blossom honey wine. And then they had a honey lager. What do you think I did?

I stayed with the Florida Orange Groves winery and I tried their orange blossom honey wine, also from St. Petersburg. And let me tell you, that was an awesome pairing.

That again, met that chicken and waffles, which had the spicy honey drizzle and a little bit of sweetness in the cornbread waffle. And the orange blossom honeywine was so aromatic.

It reminded me of when I used to live in central Florida in the spring when all the orange groves were blossoming. That smell is a very positive, nostalgic smell. And the wine had a very subtle hint of that, and it was delicious. That was a great pairing.

Highly recommend. And then our final stop in Epcot, because we had a lightning lane for the Ratatouille ride, which is adorable.

And when that ride went in, which is in the last five years, I think sometimes I lose track of timing. So don't add me if I'm wrong, but in my mind it's been in the last five years, they added a crepe stand.

And one of things that stands out in all of our memories is standing on the street in a little window where they made the crepes right in front of you. And having steaming hot ham and cheese crepes, Hamon et fromage, I should say. And so we had to get some crepes.

And then my niece Sophia was very excited when she saw they had Nutella, hazelnut and chocolate crepes. So we got one savory ham and cheese and one Nutella. And they were freshly made to Order and delicious. So highly recommend.

It's tucked in the back of the France Pavilion, over by the Ratatouille ride. So then that night after Epcot, we ate at Topolino's Terrace restaurant, which I affectionately call Topolino, which is one of my newer favorites.

And that's located at the very top of Disney's Riviera Resort, which, again, as I mentioned, is on the Skyliner. And just a little trivia for you. Topolino is Italian for little mouse. So giving a nod, of course, to the mouse.

Who started all of this, my boss, Mickey. And you don't have to be staying at the resort to dine there. And I highly recommend it because Topolino's up on the rooftop overlooking Epcot.

If you time your dining reservation correctly, the Fireworks are at 9pm at EPCOT every night. And you can actually watch them from your meal. And the servers there are fantastic at timing it all out. We had a later reservation at like 8:38,45.

So we had just sat down, but they took our drink order and got everything started and then said, go out on the terrace and watch the fireworks. And they pipe the music in so you get the full experience.

But you're at eye level of the fireworks being on the rooftop, not unlike if you've watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the top of the California Grill. It's a similar experience. I could go on and on about our meal at Topolino. It is very Mediterranean, a blend of French and Italian.

But the one thing I want to call out because it's been a staple on the menu, so hopefully when you do get to go there, it will still be on the menu. It is their ricotta cheese.

It is served with a beautiful, almost tomato like compote, like roasted tomatoes, aged balsamic, a little bit of cracked pepper, a little bit of basil. And then they serve it with these beautiful fresh baguettes that they make every day.

And we have got this every single time that we've been there, and it's fantastic. So as far as wine that we did at Topolino, we started with a beautiful Burgundy, right?

So Pinot Noir from the Burgundy region, from a producer that I know, which is Joseph Drouin. And I picked it because I know it, but also because it's a great price point when it comes to being on a restaurant menu.

Just like most restaurants around the country. You will pay a corkage fee, but normally they'll waive that if you're purchasing a bottle there and bringing your own, which is what happened for us.

And then we got to enjoy a really special wine made by yours truly with the entrees, which few people at the table had rigatoni with chicken and truffle. I shared that with my sister.

And then we also shared one of their signature dishes, which again, I think they've had since they opened day one, which is the sole meun. Beautiful delicate sole with capers and squash and asparagus and little potatoes and just really fresh.

And with both the Drouin Burgundy as well as the Solevato. We actually asked our server if he would pour all of us both of those wine side by side.

And it was fun to play and go back and forth and see Pinot Noir and Sangiovese both being light to medium body and light to medium tannin. They really both did sit at the pocket beautifully.

I liked the Pinot Noir with the sole and I liked the To Lovato with the ricotta and with the rigatoni. So, yeah, such a beautiful meal up there. One of my favorite.

So we went to bed with full bellies and the next day we had to walk it off at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which we did so many steps and had an awesome time showing my family the Galaxy's Edge, which is the whole Star wars new edition of the park. In the last couple years, they hadn't seen that. And I also stumbled upon new to me.

Again, it had been a couple years since I'd been there, but a new taphouse called the Baseline Taphouse. I think it used to be Ellen's Coffee Shop. It's right across from Star Tours.

And that was a really cool new ad because they have a lot of draft beer and a lot of seating inside and outside, which was great. And then just a big awesome pretzel served with both cheese sauce and hot mustard.

And that was just a delicious park snack that exceeded my expectations. Then we went to Galaxy's Edge and we had a reservation at Olga's Cantina.

So if you've never been, that's supposed to be like you are entering the cantina from the movies and they have some really fun drinks in there. That's what they're known for. They're very galactic looking. Drinks, fun presentations.

Even the non alcoholic that my niece and nephew got, they were fizzing and bubbling and doing all of these really cool spacey things.

But the last time I had been there, and I've been to the Olga's Cantina in both Disneyland and Disney World in the last couple years, they just had really limited snacks. They were like these freeze dried veggie chips with a little dip. And they still had those.

But I was really wowed at the additional food that they have added to that menu, one of which was like a full charcuterie board. Really impressive. And I like no charcuterie. It's my love language. And it was a really lovely spread, very unexpected.

And then they also had a warm pretzel roll that had also like a warm cheese dip accompanying it. So we doubled down on the pretzel and cheese. But come on, you're in a theme park, so who's counting the calories? That was really fun.

So I highly recommend the charcuterie board and the warm roll in there and then all the fun drinks that you can get. And then the next morning we were checking out of the Beach Club Resort.

My sister and brother in law and family, they were moving on to South Florida to go to the beach. And I was sticking around for a few more days to visit with my Orlando friends for many years.

And so I first met my dear friend Michelle at a new location for both of us, which is the Cake Bake Shop at Disney's Boardwalk Resort. Cake Bake Shop is owned by Gwendolyn Rogers, who's a really well known pastry chef.

And this is a small chain that started in Indiana and just came into the Disney Boardwalk in the last year or so where the old ESPN club used to be. So Michelle and I met for coffee. Shout out to Michelle. She is like one of the most loyal listeners of this podcast.

She listens every morning on the treadmill. Hi Michelle. I'm just remembering our beautiful coffee date that we had. And we had some classic pastries, like just a beautiful fresh croissant.

But I tried one of their signature coffee drinks, which is a rose cappuccino. So the cappuccino was literally infused with a rose syrup and it was really subtle. It wasn't like stinky perfume.

But it was just enough to be like, oh, I'm getting a little bit of floral on the finish of this cappuccino. It was beautiful. Just as beautiful as the place. Next time you are there, check it out.

The Cake Bake Shop, they have a takeaway side where you can get their famous slices of cakes or even whole cakes, gorgeous cakes if you have A wedding or a sweet 16 or something. Beautiful cakes, but they also sell them by the slice. And you can take coffee away. We actually sat down in the restaurant side.

And when you open those doors and walk in there, check this out on my Instagram Highlights. It is so just visually stunning and appealing. The design that they've done in there, it's very whimsical, very white, very bright, lots of floral.

Just really fun. Add to what was already one of my favorite areas on all of Walt Disney World property, which is the Disney Boardwalk area.

And after I said goodbye to Michelle, I was double timing it with a second breakfast with my family once they had gotten up and gotten it all checked out and it just went right next door to Trattoria al Forno. Also at Disney's Boardwalk. Used to be Disney Spoodles and then it was Cat Cora's restaurant.

And then I don't know, in the last decade or so, I think it switched over to Trattoria al Forno. And they have an outside pizza window, which is a great quick option. Great full Italian dinner. But man, their breakfast.

So when my sister said she wanted to have breakfast there, I immediately remembered, gosh, more than five years ago, Mike and I had breakfast there. And this one item stood out in my memory and I was hoping it was still there. And did what? And it is the Alforno eggs.

So it's literally a skillet cooked in a wood oven. And it's a very savory kind of traditional Italian breakfast dish with eggs and polenta, fennel sausage and a spiced tomato sauce.

And it's all just think almost like eggs in purgatory, if you're familiar with that. And then this big, beautiful, crusty, toasted country bread in there. And I think hands down, this is one of the best breakfasts on Disney property.

So if you find yourself in the area there, eggs el Forno. And the pairing was a beautiful iced coffee, which I was just gonna get regular coffee.

And our wonderful server was great at suggesting things and she talked up their iced coffee to the point where all of us sitting at the table were like, yeah, I'll have that. And it was really delicious. So highly recommend.

So on my final day of my trip, which was really my final day because I was having so much fun, I actually ext trip another day. I didn't want to leave and I wanted to stay in the Disney bubble and just have some downtime.

So I added a night with my Disney vacation club points at the Riviera Resort. Changed my flight and my Good friends David and David, who I've known for over 25 years, we taught traditions together, all as Disney cast members.

They came to hang out at the Riviera with me. I was having a pool day and we did some poolside drinks. And then their pool bar, called Bar Riva, has not only great drinks, but a really nice menu.

And we just wanted a snack because we were going to head into the park and over to the Polynesians. So we got their fresh burrata salad. Oh, my gosh. That is one of the standouts of the trip.

Check my Disney highlight bubble for the food porn picture of that because it was all multicolored heirloom tomatoes, big, beautiful fresh hunk of burrata basil, swimming in olive oil in the most beautiful way. And I paired it with an aperol spritz because that is a very vacationy drink for me. And man, I was on vacation.

And they actually paired beautifully the freshness of the spritz with the freshness of the burrata. It was a perfect start to our culinary afternoon and evening. And then we went into the park.

So some of those flower and garden snacks that I already spoke about were part of that journey.

And then we got on the monorail and took that over to Disney's Polynesian Resort because there is a new tower that's been recently added as part of the Disney Vacation Club, and I hadn't seen it since it opened. And the Davids, as we call them, shout out to the Davids, by the way, who are also avid listeners. If you're my friend, you have to be a listener.

But they really are. And they wanted to show me the new restaurant that opened along along with that tower called the Wailulu Bar and Grill. And this was brand new to me.

And it, it's so fun when I've lived there for 15 years and I visit at least once a year, if not more. So anytime there's something new, I'm like, I have to see it. That was like the cake bake shop on this trip too.

So Wailulu Bar and Grill was new for me and it is gorgeous. Oh my gosh, the way they built that out. It's a big open air bar and restaurant. The big banquette seating booths have running water along them.

It almost had a little bit of Aulani Disney Resort in Oahu and a little bit of an Aulani feel to it.

But you're right on Bay Lake on the water, and you're looking across the water to the castle, so nestled right up there next door to The Grand Floridian and the wedding pavilion, so just really scenic. And while we were waiting for our table, I got a glass of South African chenin blanc.

It was a warm evening, and chenin, to me, just sounded light and refreshing. Protea was the producer in South Africa, had that before.

And then little David got a Mai Tai, which was gorgeous, with a plumeria flower floating in it. And big David got a banana old fashioned. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. So tasted both of their cocktails. They were excellent.

And the banana old fashioned was, again, just a very subtle banana, almost on the finish. Not overpowering, but just gave it that tropical wink, and it was great.

And then again, some of the standout dishes of this entire trip were those appetizers that we had at the Wailulu Grill. So one of the ones that David had heard about was actually a Spam dish, because, you know, in the Hawaiian culture, they do a lot with Spam.

You can get Spam sushi rolls, even current day. And so this one was called musubi M U S U B I musubi, which was glazed Spam with crispy rice pearls.

And then furataki, which is like a dried kind of fish condiment with sesame. It's very umami. And then it had a sriracha honey on it. It was sliced. It almost looked like pork belly sliced on the plate.

It was very savory and delicious. And then they had a garlic shrimp appetizer.

And when we asked our wonderful servers about that, they're like, if you like garlic, this has garlic four ways. It has black garlic emulsion. It had a garlic lemon butter. It had crispy garlic on the top. So it was like garlic on garlic.

And then three really big prawn shrimps. And that was delicious with some smoked paprika on it.

And then for me, I think, again, one of the standouts, both visually and in my mouth, was the ahi chips.

So this was almost like nachos, but on fried wontons with a beautiful marinated ahi tuna, an avocado crema, a sriracha aioli, and then a soy glaze, and it was outstanding. And the pairing with my chenin blanc, because I had got a second glass by then, was perfection.

They just met in the middle, they hugged, they elevated each other, and we capped off our meal, literally from our table, sitting there watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks and the castle across the water. They also dim the lights in the restaurant and play the full music of the fireworks. What a perfect, perfect ending to my.

I need to come up with another word, but it really is the perfect trip.

There's a lot going on in my life right now as all of us and I just that week of magic with family and then friends and then all of these culinary exquisite trees. Is that even a word? I don't know. I'm getting like excited and carried away and making up words. But such beautiful treats.

So if you can check out any of these places that I recommended in your next Walt Disney World trip, I hope that you do. And then let me know what they were and let me know what I missed. There's a lot. 47 square miles. I didn't eat it all this time, but I'll be back.

I really am sitting here reminiscing back to a week and a half ago and tasting those flavors. Oh gosh, it was all so delicious. So I'm excited for you to get there and try these out and let me know what you think.

In the meantime, check out my Instagram Icky Lamberty and I've got a highlight bubble right on on the grid there called Disney Eats and you can actually see all of the things that you were listening to.

Give me a follow while you're there and if you prefer Facebook, you'll see my post from last week with lots of photos of what you heard about today as you were drooling. Don't forget to sign up for sipwithnikki.com mailing list to get more information about our inaugural membership rolling out soon.

And if you're curious to get your hands on my delicious Solevato Sangiovese that we brought to Topolino's terrace.

I hope you learned and laughed with me and whatever you do between now and next week, I hope that you sip well know wait.