Hello friends, Nikki here reporting less than 24 hours after leaving WDW. Hope to give you some useful food reviews so those traveling in the immediate future can get recent information. I will be doing three separate reviews- one for counter service, one for table service, and one for Food and Wine Fest. I was on the Dining Plan for this trip, and will include more thoughts on that later. I also tend to be fairly wordy so please feel free to skim!

The standards I use for evaluating dining are very basic: I'm not Lady Mary. I don't live at Downton Abbey. The staff at Disney are not there to wait on my every want and need. That's just not how I roll. So, what may be considered awful service to some could register as it's-not-that-bad to me. I'm certainly going to include the bad along with the good where it is warranted, yet I am happy to say there were very few instances of bad this trip!

So, on to the reviews of Food and Wine Fest!

I took advantage of F&W on Thursday, knowing that Saturday would be absolutely insane with crowds. This was a good choice, as even at 10 a.m. I walked on Soarin' in 15 minutes. This was a good sign!

Canada was first. I headed back to WS at 10:45 just in case there was already a line. A couple kiosks were already open, including craft beer, lol. Luckily there was no one in line at Canada yet so I stood around for a couple minutes and was first in line when they opened. I ordered the three main dishes- Mushroom Filet, Spicy Chicken Sausage with Polenta, and Cheddar Cheese Soup. All three were outstanding.

Greece was just across from Canada so I got a Griddled Greek Cheese. So good but had trouble cutting it with the side of my fork. Should have got a knife!

Caribbean Stopped here to get a Torched Cherry Limeade. I thought it was going to be on the rocks but it's actually frozen. It was refreshing but not strong enough for me. Then again it was about 11:15 a.m. so that was probably a good thing.

Mexico Had the shrimp taco. It was good but I should have gotten the meat kind. Seafood in a taco is a little too out there for me!

Cava del Tequila Couldn't wait to get a here! I got there early, about 10 minutes before they opened. There were only a couple people waiting with me and when they opened I was the first customer of the day! Ordered the Avocado Margarita. I love avocado but this tastes like banana. Not complaining, just an observation. The hibiscus salt rim made this drink for me though. The combination was so good.

Prosecco Was thirsty again in Italy (and my buzz had worn off ) so I got a nice bubbly Prosecco. It was crisp and just a little sweet. Enjoyed this while watching the street performer.

Ireland Another booth that would likely be very popular on Saturday, so I got the Lobster and Scallop pie. This was veeeery yummy! My portion had some really nice chunks of seafood in it and the mash on top was really creamy and cheesy.

Frozen Kirin (aka Ice Cream Beer) Listen to the next podcast for some great commentary about this little beauty. Needless to say, it rocks

Sweet cream cheese pretzel I was not thrilled with this. It wasn't very sweet and there wasn't a lot of cream cheese. Maybe I just got a bad one? Not worth the snack credit to me.

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel OOOOOOH heaven. I ate half of this on the trip and finished the other half as I unpacked last night.

Citrus Swirl This was a quick mid-morning snack. We (Jared and I) walked by only a couple minutes after they opened and the machines were still getting going, lol. I hadn't had one of these before and was expecting more of an orangey taste. Instead it was more tart like grapefruit. I liked the combo of creamy vanilla and the frozen juice.

Dole Whip Saved the best for last. I can actually get these here in Ithaca and nearby in Cortland if I'm really desperate. But there's just something about waiting until being in the Magic Kingdom to eat one that makes it special.