Food Review: EPCOT International Festival of the Arts (2024)

 I think this dish has a lot of potential to be better. There are a couple of things that I found grating about this dish.

As you can see from above, the dish is made with duck breast, ricotta dumplings, baby veggies, and duck jus (gravy), however, as you’re eating through you don’t quite know what vegetable you’re eating outside of the carrots …and there’s a small pile of white polenta on the plate, too.

I do understand why it’s not stated in the ingredients list as the pile is trivial in the grand scheme of things, however, I’d be remiss in saying that it’s important for those who may be allergic to corn to know that this is in the dish they’re purchasing.

OK, but enough of my mini rant, let’s jump in.

The ricotta dumpling tasted of cheesy, ricotta goodness, but I felt a little confused with the dumpling as I didn’t know what kind of dumpling it was.

Lightly fried? Boiled then fried? Oven-baked? I don’t quite know but it wasn’t my favorite out of the entire dish.

As a lover of boiled and fried Jamaican dumplings and a wide range of Asian dumplings (specifically Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), I didn’t like the dry texture of this one.

However, I did think the carrots had a wonderful bite to them and honestly I enjoyed it. The other baby vegetable (radish? chayote? no clue, but it reminded me of something out of the onion family) was cooked well but looked like a small potato, but since I didn’t know what it was it threw me for a loop alongside the white polenta it sat on top of.

The nice thing was the white polenta was smooth and the flavor was subtle, allowing for other items on the plate to shine. And speaking of the star, the smoked duck breast and duck jus (gravy) were full of flavor, and tender, and the skin of the duck was delicious with a bit of a chew to it.

The duck and the dumplings pair well together with the duck jus adding that extra bit of saltiness and moisture to the meal.

I don’t think that anything on the plate was overpowering, or too salty aside from the dumplings just being below average for me. I just believe that with a few minor tweaks, this meal could shine a bit better with a more transparent ingredients list, otherwise, I would try this again.

Fun fact about me, I’m allergic to nuts (of the fruit variety and people 😬), but I’m one of those people who is always saying, “If I die, I die” eating them.

I just want to say that this dessert is worth the calories right off the bat. Starting with my favorite sweet treat in the world, outside of sweet gummy candies: the caramel was creamy, smooth, and delicious. Because they are on the side in small dollops, you can control how much caramel you want to add to your cake, and in my case, I added it all.

The banana cake was playing its part so well as it was perfectly fluffy, moist, and bursting with banana flavor (another fun fact about me: I only like bananas in baked goods!) beside a small pile of fresh and warm caramelized pineapple compote.

The cream cheese icing on the outside of the cake is light and sweet. If you’re used to a heavy cream cheese flavor in your icing (think cinnamon rolls or a carrot cake) then this frosting may be too subtle for your liking, but if you’re anything like me and don’t like a one-inch schmear on your bagel, then this icing is perfect for you.

Overall, everything on the plate paired so well with each other, from the caramel, cake, icing, and pineapples, to the pecans and the little dollop of whipped cream on the top which elevated the dish. Kudos to the pastry chef for this dish!

Looks can be deceiving with the Murasaki Blueberry drink, but don’t let it! It’s quite good and uniquely so. A combination of sweet blueberry and cream, this isn’t a combination most people would think to choose for a drink, but for a dessert, sure. Well, think of it that way – it’s dessert (and it’s yummy).

It tastes like heaven in a cup, but it is syrupy sweet, and smooth. The cream, while it looks very splotchy in the drink, has no real texture when it comes to drinking it.

At first, I thought it was almost something you had to chew through a little bit, but not in the slightest. The blueberry flavor is a little bit inexplicable for me as I felt like it was almost pumped up with artificial blueberry syrup mixed with real blueberries.

While very delicious, because it became cloying, I ended up having to get rid of it about ⅔ of the way through. Great drink to share though!

You know the phrase: “Skittles, taste the rainbow!” Yeah, you’ll be tasting the rainbow with this cake alright.

Every layer is a different original Skittle flavor (from the top: lime, grape, strawberry, orange, and lemon) and while it sounds like it could be bad, let’s be real, we’ve all eaten all five flavors together out of a pouch! It tastes the same but in cake form.

And as you make your way through the cake, you’ll almost feel like you’re tasting the colors simultaneously, kind of a trippy experience.

This cake was ridiculously moist; it melts in the mouth! I had a hard time prying myself away from eating more of it. Thankfully, this cake isn’t outrageously sweet, but the flavors are not subdued.

The worst part of this cake is the freeze-dried Skittles, to be honest. If you enjoy biting into the hard-exterior-semi-soft-interior of a Skittle, you’ll be hard-pressed to like this hard-as-a-rock crunchy version of it. Eaten on its own, I don’t like it, however, eaten with the cake and the accoutrements of the frosting and some sprinkling of Skittle dust, it tastes quite delicious.

A few things before I move on, texture-wise, the freeze-dried Skittles may throw someone off and they may not be appropriate for a small child as it’s crunchier than a popped popcorn kernel.

The buttercream is smooth and not overly sweet, it’s just right. Also, random, but I think it’s worth mentioning: my cake had green and orange as the thickest layers, but even with them being so much bigger they didn’t overpower the other flavors, so if you get a cake like mine, don’t worry, it’ll all be copasetic!

Enjoy your ride on the rainbow!

I grew up on Pop Tarts; Frosted Strawberry happened to be my favorite. And before trying this, I knew that Disney wouldn’t be able to make one that compared and I was unfortunately right.

The sugar cookie, aside from what was touching the filling, was OK, which starkly contrasts from how I felt when I ate the cookie as the special festival treat from Deco Delights. I just didn’t expect it considering I was assuming more of a pie crust dough, so it threw me biting into it.

I wasn’t thrilled about it, but it was fine, but I was definitely biased going into it – I will not lie.

The blueberry filling of this tart was absolutely disgusting. I’m unsure how they managed to make a filling that should smooth and more like a jelly and effortless to eat into a gluey, tacky mess, but it did not work for me and I’m sure by the looks of other Disney goers’ faces, neither did it do the same for them.

I really tried with this, thinking that maybe I was momentarily eating it wrong, but between the soggy interior, the taste of the filling being off, and the feeling of mucilaginous jelly I just couldn’t go on. Shame really.

What did I like about it though? The retro design on top was very cool, reminded me of the late 80s/early 90s and the thickness of it (it’s a bit thicker than a regular Pop Tart). I think with a different pastry and a thinner filling that this pastry could work really well considering its familiarity in the American market, but as it stands, hard pass.

I think Gordon Ramsey would be pretty disappointed in this Beef Wellington. I completely understand the difficulties of creating a dish that is true to its roots, however, I think this should have been relatively easy to get right with trained, accomplished chefs, but the parks simply let this not live up to the hype.

If you’re new to the Beef Wellington discussion, it is an English dish that is not meant to be cooked well done.

Well … The beef was overcooked, dry, and a bit chewy. The pastry was wonderfully cooked on the outside, however, as you can tell from the picture, the pastry on the inside is a bit soggy (if this was featured on Great British Bake Off circa Mary Berry, I don’t know what she’d say about it, but I know Paul Hollywood would be unimpressed that’s for sure).

I will give them the benefit of the doubt as the pastry is taking in a lot of moisture from the beef and from the mushroom duxelles that surround the beef, but I don’t know.

But speaking of the mushroom duxelles, I’m not a lover of mushrooms, but I couldn’t taste it in this dish. Oh, and I couldn’t even place the Proscuitto in this dish, either.

The only things I could taste in the Wellington were the slightly chewy beef and the half-soggy-half-flaky pastry. What I will say is that I did think that the beef was a little saltier than I envisioned it to be, but I suppose that was the Proscuitto, but I wasn’t able to pinpoint it either way.

I believe it melted into the meat since they typically are made with thin slices wrapped around the beef. In any case, I think that they could add more mushroom duxelles for that thicker layer that a Beef Wellington is known for and be good to go.

Otherwise, the mashed potatoes were smooth, creamy, and salted well, but didn’t help the Wellington in any way. It holds on its own and is honestly a better star than the beef.

I enjoyed the carrots, and the spring onion bulb, and I liked the red wine demi-glace (the viscosity was perfect and the umami saltiness helped add extra depth to the dish; really loved it).

I thought the coffee was smooth and not overly sweet. It did come in a large, filled to the brim with ice, cup so there is ample opportunity to get your caffeine fix. The interesting thing about this coffee is, if you’re anything like me, it doesn’t immediately make you think it’s coffee at all as it’s not bitter, but it is muted.

The pistachio syrup and flavor are sweet, however it is very balanced if compared to a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks (for those who have never had this, it is a coffee drink overloaded with caramel syrup and a sickeningly sweet, but delicious, amount of sugar and cream). And yes, I do get a little sleepy while drinking it, but it’s worth it for me.

The sprinkles atop the whipped cream (which was nothing special) are delightfully crunchy, adding contrasting texture to the drink, and the green is beautiful (my favorite color!) if I do say so myself.

I’d say this coffee blend is best for those who want something subtle or don’t like coffee. Overall, I would recommend this drink to anyone who wants a different flavor profile from your everyday coffee drink and isn’t afraid of trying something new.

First of all, I love the alliteration of this beverage, rolls off the tongue in a fun way. Secondly, I really enjoyed this drink a lot.

I think it’s one of those drinks where everyone will find common ground that it’s really good! At first I didn’t know what to expect, I had popped off the lid and sipped the drink, but didn’t realize that the drink wasn’t truly complete and came across cold lemon-y black tea. However, I figured it out quickly after shoving a straw into the drink and sipping the raspberry syrup that was languishing at the bottom.

So, yeah, I mixed it.

And after that it the drink was perfect. The syrup turns an otherwise bitter tasting drink into a heavenly lightly sweet mixture. The combination of raspberry and lemon blends well and with the drink being a half-frozen-regular drink mix it elevates the refreshing feeling of it all.

This dish contained pork belly, tomato jam atop onion bread pudding, and watercress espuma. At first glance, this dish is aesthetically appealing bursting with color and creative artistry. The plate is adorned with mayo drops in the corners, which adds visual depth to this already pretty-looking dish.

The pork belly is juicy and has a beautifully nice thick crusty base, encased in a lightly fried exterior. The spheres on top of the pork are unknown to me in terms of anything I can comprehend. They are texturally hard, but they add no flavor aside from crunch and I did not like them.

Eaten with the pork belly and they add nothing but crunch, and eaten together with the entire meal it almost disappears. I also tried the spheres with the onion and tomato combo and I didn’t like it at all.

The onion bread pudding with tomato jam is honestly the star of the show. It tastes incredible. The bread is soft, tastes like hints of garlic are in there, and together with the tomato jam there is an explosion of flavor.

The watercress espuma adds nothing but sadness to the dish, highly do not recommend it – alone or paired with all the other elements. It just does not work. I tried every combination – watercress and mayo dots, watercress and pork belly, watercress and onion bread pudding with tomato jam, and watercress with everything: bleh.

Plain and simple.

I think if it were a whole watercress it would’ve been fine, but as the espuma it just … no. Also, before I move on, the texture is akin to a foamy puréed guacamole.

Otherwise, all elements are cohesive and make sense (outside of the watercress). I do recommend this as a dish to try during the festival.

Encased in a plastic square cup, this frozen drink comes with a plastic pipette filled with strawberry syrup. As a general FYI, an original mint julep is made with bourbon, mint leaves, and simple syrup (bitters can sometimes be added, too). The nice thing about this drink is that it’s not too heavily “bourbonized.”

It is a pretty general mint julep with the addition of strawberry mixed in, and you can add in more strawberry with the pipette. The only thing is that it felt like no matter how much I added to the drink it didn’t get stronger in strawberry taste, rather it got sweeter because it is of course, syrup. I do think that the syrup was made with considerably less sugar, or with a sweetener that doesn’t

However, this is a fantastic drink for those who aren’t looking for something too strong, but something closer to a “juice drink” as it’s nice and muted.

You can’t tell me that when you look at this that it’s not anything but impressive. I personally find the deconstructed trend to be a passing fad from yesteryear, however, I’m glad that Disney has kept this food studio around so that I can taste what a key lime pie tastes like in its elements.

And it’s a tremendously beautiful dish presentation-wise and taste-wise.

Each element on the plate is distinct and when put together does a bang up job at accomplishing its mission. There were decorative (and edible) raspberry coulis drops that were smooth and a little sweet and fresh, cold, tart (!!!) raspberries.

Typically on top of a key lime pie there is a fluffy blow-torched meringue, this meringue was crunchy and melted easily, however it wasn’t necessarily the best part of the dish, but I did understand why they did it. It wasn’t too sweet, but there was a weird aftertaste to it that made it feel like it was burned (potentially they kept the meringue in the oven too long).

But when it was paired with everything I think it threw off the balance texturally, but I do like that they tried something a little different when considering stability concerns.

The key lime curd was my favorite part of the entire dish and if I’m correct there was a hint of lemon in there, too. It’s eye-wateringly tart, but the curd was smooth and enveloped my palate.

Now, the small brown cake is a Graham cracker cake and it’s spot on with the taste of an actual Graham cracker – the cinnamon and honey are both subtle, but if you concentrate you can definitely taste them. I liked how complex the cake was for such a small treat and how the vanilla helped bring out more of the sweetness in it.

Fun fact: did you know that Graham crackers is capitalized because it was named after the inventor, Sylvester Graham? Yup.

The key lime mousse (the green lime on the plate specifically) exterior almost reminds me of a craquelin, but due to this being a cool treat and the non-doughy exterior, it’s definitely not that. If anything, it’s probably a chocolate that was sprayed, or poured, on top of the mousse and then given the dimple treatment to resemble the outside of a real lime.

I think the effect is spectacular.

And the mousse and the chocolate together work well, neither detracting from each.

Strangely enough, all of these elements together is a recipe for a sour overload. When I ate it I had to laugh over how sour it was (and I LOVE sour things). But very delicious nonetheless.

First impression, it’s not very appetizing looking and it wasn’t on a stick, which defeats the purpose of it being a kebab. I did like this dish despite that, though.

The carrot-chickpea salad had the inclusion of onions and golden raisins and it was very good! I’m not one for fruits in my vegetable (think salads) or meat dishes, however, I’m glad I went outside of my comfort zone and tried this dish.

The golden raisins give a nice sweetness to the savoriness of the grilled lamb, while the carrots are refreshing and crunchy (even after sitting under the heat lamp!). However, the chickpeas were mushy, which wasn’t as much of a vibe as I’d hoped it would be. Unfortunately, even with all of these elements, the salad was pretty bland.

The star of the show is very clearly the lamb as it brings everything together in this dish. The garlic aioli is very good on the lamb, too, and adds that nice amount of flavor to the entire dish.

The lamb is spicy (my family is from the Caribbean, so the level of spice is relative here), so if you’re a salt and pepper kinda person, I wouldn’t suggest you get this, but if you like something packed with a lot of flavor and don’t mind the potential of “burning” your tongue a little bit, I’d suggest grabbing this.

The lamb isn’t necessarily tender, but it is cooked well … I’d say the texture is likened to cooked ground beef of the medium-well hamburger patty variety.

If you like salmon, this could be a nice teaser in your day. The salmon was flaky and perfectly cooked as it was a little juicy and not dry. The spinach was decent, although, I feel like it lacked a bit of flavor and I don’t know if that’s because it wasn’t fresh, but rather frozen, however, paired with the salmon it was delicious.

The sauce, which was a Chardonnay sauce, was subtle but did pack a nice punch, and (especially if you’re not a seafood fan), it tied it all together.

The puff pastry was wonderfully baked, buttery, and flaky. If you were to run a fork over it you’d hear how crisp it was, whew, so lovely.

One thing to note is that while the dish looks like it’s packed full of this spinach-salmon mix, it’s not as it’s a very shallow hole cut into the pastry. The nice thing is that you can eat this with your hands, but this isn’t a shareable item as it’s a smaller portion of food than other samplers at the event.

Not sure how to express my disappointment in this cocktail.

This cocktail is supposed to be made up of sparkling wine, St. Germain liqueur, and mint. One thing to note – the mint is just a leaf, it adds nothing except for presentation and even that failed. The mint leaf I was given was browning, and limp, and honestly felt like they had just tossed dirt into my drink, was not impressed in the slightest by that.

However, all I tasted in the drink was the wine and I even watched them pour in the liqueur. There was not a hint of elderflower in the drink to be tasted.

I swished the drink around, and let it sit for a little bit as I walked around to England, but honestly, it really and truly was a disappointing cocktail! If the elderflower had been present I would have immediately given this a better rating than it received, however, without it, it’s just not worth the price or the calories.

Presentation wise, I think this dessert trio is super cute! I love the varying shapes and sizes and different flavor profiles on the plate, it opens up the field to having an option for someone on the plate. I’ll start with the Strawberry Mousse.

I am not a big strawberry ice cream fan, actually, I’m no fan at all. So, when I scooped up this mousse I was nervous that I wouldn’t like the dessert at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. The strawberry mousse is wrapped in a thin flexible strawberry white chocolate outside that was buttery smooth and paired well with the refreshingly delicate strawberry notes of the mousse.

There is a green white chocolate disc on top that was smooth and not grainy in any way. Combined with the mousse, the white chocolate helps to elevate the strawberry slightly, giving it just another layer of deliciousness to this already scrumptious treat.

The mousse was light and while you think it’s going to be bursting with strong strawberry flavor, it’s not, it’s subdued but still very present. Under the green disc is a dollop of the strawberry mousse holding the entire thing together. It sits on top of a bright green vanilla sponge cake that is soft, fluffy and moist.

I don’t particularly think it adds too much to the dish though except for a different in texture, but I did like it a lot.

Moving on to the Chocolate Tart, this tart is fabulous! The tart encased around the milk chocolate mousse is roughly one centimeter thick (give or take) and is a nice hard shell holding everything in. There is what I assume to be a chocolate ganache on top of the tart, too.

This is a dessert meant to eaten with your hands, but because it was hot and things were melting quickly in the palm of my hand, I decided to eat with a fork. Of course, trying to cut through a tart with a plastic fork can be a little difficult, but that’s not something that should be against the dish in any way.

There is a brownie on top of the tart with, what I also assume, is a small bit of chocolate caramel underneath a thin dark chocolate square. The chocolate square was also smooth and I’m unsure what was sprinkled on top of the square but my fingers turned red holding it on one side and not the other.

I think it was potentially an inert cayenne pepper to help bring out the dark chocolate flavors cause it was very good. The chocolate caramel has a deep rich taste and really helps to bring this dish together.

The Vanilla Bean Cheesecake confused me a little if only because I didn’t remember what it was! I thought it was just vanilla bean cake, not cheesecake; Alex was a little slow today on that one.

Well, the cheesecake sat on top of a buttery cookie and it tasted exactly like what a cheesecake would taste like, however, I wasn’t a big fan of the texture. I thought it was more crumbly than I like my cheesecakes (I’m from New York City baby, we have cheesecake royalty à la Junior’s).

While it had a good consistency, it didn’t melt in the mouth the way a cheesecake ought to, you know?

The blue encasement around the cheesecake tasted like it could have been chocolate, but, I really had no idea what it was as it felt oily and like it wasn’t a good chocolate. I could very well be wrong and I am open to owning up to that, so if you know what it is, please let me know.

Otherwise, I didn’t think the cheesecake was anything special and I personally didn’t care for it.

I was under the impression that the only treat you receive was a palette cookie (for some reason I envisioned chocolate chip, no clue why), but it’s an Artist Palette Sugar Cookie and a Wild Berry Smoothie in a souvenir cup.

Starting with the smoothie, I thought it was refreshing considering I was sitting out in the sun as the skies decided to grace us with some warmth. It seemed to be a mix of strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and maybe even another, but the color was vibrant and it was unexpectedly smooth!

They strained all of the seeds so if you’re anything like me and struggle to down a smoothie with them in it, you won’t find them here. It was pretty thin for what I would consider to be a real smoothie, but I did like that it was thicker than grabbing a juice.

I couldn’t taste any hint of a dairy product, however, I would ask to make sure if you need to avoid it.

And for the cookie, the base was thick, buttery, and had a nice color on it. The consistency is in between a soft and a hard cookie (needs to hold its shape!) with a slight crumble and it snaps quite clean if you only want to eat a small portion.

The royal icing was smooth and wasn’t overly sweet. Surprisingly when you taste all the elements together you’re not immediately thinking you’re going to go into sugar shock, but this isn’t a cookie you eat in one go either. Take your time (I ended up bringing it home for my family to try).

There isn’t anything special about either of these treats though, just that you get them for free, and in a place where you have to spend money it’s a nice reprieve for your wallet.

Aside from the goat cheese and the beets, I would never touch this dish again. 😒

I only went for it because of the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine menu items and I figured I would go out of my comfort zone, and I was once again reminded why I don’t typically venture outside of it. The beets came in a regular maroon color and also a golden beet (which I liked).

Paired together with the goat cheese, both beets tasted lovely, but it shined with the golden beet. The beets were fresh and refreshing.

The porcini mushrooms were coated in some kind of vinegar concoction with the spicy pecans seemingly covered in what smelled like Tajin.

The blackberry gastrique (which is a sweet-and-sour sauce) tasted like a sweet jam, that initially I thought was strawberry-flavored, but on its own (and with the cheese-beet combo) I truly liked it. I even liked that combo with the porcini mushrooms, once I forgot how squishy the mushrooms were and just enjoyed the flavor combos.

Now the combined red beet-cheese-mushroom, I was glad for the cheese covering up taste and it distracted me from the spongy mushrooms. The cheese with the blackberry gastrique was the best part of the dish, sorry not sorry.

I think the dish is pretty, but personally after tasting the petite lettuce (which I immediately decided was a no) to the spiced pecans I just didn’t like this dish. This is an elevated dish for an elevated palate and unless my nut allergy subsides and I randomly start liking petite lettuce (that tastes like spongy grass), I’m just not about this dish.

And I’m more sad about that than you actually will ever know. 🙁

As an ode to Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup artwork, Pop Eats! has this tomato soup with regular grilled cheese. I tend to shy away from this particular comfort dish in my real life as I have never had a tomato soup I liked; I’m truly not kidding.

So, imagine my surprise when I liked this version. I don’t know if it was because I was hopped up on adrenaline reviewing other foods, but I liked it very much!

I had decided not to get the other grilled cheese (with pimento cheese, bacon, and fried green tomato) because I wanted something simple after eating the Verjus Roasted Beets. 🥴

There is some cream on top of the soup that I mixed into it. The soup is a bit tangy, smooth, and has the right consistency (not too thick or thin). The grilled cheese has a perfect toast on both sides; you can taste the butter used to grill it too, the cheese on the inside looked to be a mixture of American and Cheddar as it was very neutral. Dipped into the soup, the grilled cheese is heavenly.

Nothing is too salty in this dish, this dish is well balanced. It’s a wonderfully wholesome comfort food meal, especially for small children. It’s also a decently sized-sampler plate.

She’s a runner, she’s a track star! This empanada is crazy good, a home run for sure.

The yellow stripe is turmeric aioli and the orange is the annatto aioli. The turmeric aioli tastes exactly as it sounds, turmeric and a mayo combo, and the annatto was also neutral. I would say that the turmeric tasted more earthy and flat in its taste compared to the complex flavor of the annatto.

The chorizo and potato are cut up finely; the chorizo is like ground meat with some pops of the potato coming through. The crust is flaky, and buttery, holds everything very well, and at the edges, it’s got a nice crunch to it, and it’s decently sized! You can share this meal if you want, I saw a couple eat half of each and they looked satisfied.

The flavor of this empanada has a spicier profile, but I wouldn’t say it was as spicy as the Grilled Kebabs from Tangierine Cafe. If you’re able to handle even a little bit of spice, I think you should try this. The aiolis help to neutralize some of that spice because of the dairy base, so you should be fine if you’re looking for something out of your comfort zone.

I was struggling to figure out what this reminded me of, but the closest I could think of was a Jamaican patty, but the spices on the inside have a unique flavor profile that I couldn’t match properly against anything I’ve tried before.

I don’t think I was able to give this dish the moment to shine like it deserved. I try my best to eat early on during the festival due to time constraints, feeling overwhelmed with longer lines, and my patience starts running thin around slow walkers in the middle of the walkway.

In this case, I don’t think it was all my fault, L’Arte di Mangiare just didn’t live up to expectations.

I take less than a minute to capture the pictures and video I need for my content so there’s no way that I managed to create this issue. My dish was cold. And I mean, cold. The ground beef filling on the inside was tepid at best. I don’t know if the dish just wasn’t sitting under the heat lamp; I was disappointed considering how expensive it was compared to what you received.

Despite all that, I did see where they went well.

The white sauce tasted like a bechamel sauce and the marinara sauce combined was good, they’re not sweet so if you’re looking for that (something I realized some people expect from their pasta, which I do not), this isn’t your best bet.

The pasta has some bite to it and is a thicker pasta compared to elbow, the filling has peas in it that are distinct in its flavor and pop in the mouth. The filling is balanced and not overpowering. I can see why it is a popular dish.