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Your Guide to Vegan Options at the Food and Wine Festival 2023 in Disney California Adventure Park!

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It’s that time of year again! Let’s see what’s vegan at the Food and Wine Festival 2023 in Disney California Adventure Park!

A few important notes before we begin:

Here is a link to the complete Disney Parks Blog Foodie Guide for your reference, but what you read below in this blog post is a guide to the vegan options only with my reviews and tips.

This year’s Food and Wine Festival in California Adventure is March 3 – April 25, 2023.

I went for the soft opening on March 2, and the info below is what I found. All of the food booths were open and serving their full menus, so there wasn’t much difference between the soft opening and the official first day, but as always, I will keep adding details as I get more information.

In general, they are not prepared to modify items at the Food and Wine Festival, because much of it is prepared in offsite kitchens and only partially assembled in the booths. Some minor modifications might be possible, but I think it’s best to stick to the items that are designed to be vegan – those will also be the best bang for your buck!

For beers and wines, many of the brands/breweries/wineries are listed on the menu boards, but not if they are a component in a cocktail. Beers are almost always vegan, and wines are often vegan. Once you know the brand, you can look them up on Barnivore if you are so inclined. But some brands aren’t on Barnivore, or the information there is quite old, so it is hard to know. This is the sort of thing that borders on “possible and practicable” in daily life, so I encourage you to draw the line wherever you feel comfortable.

The festival is a part of DCA, it exists throughout the park, and there is no separate ticket to buy. It’s just part of your day at DCA.

The Sip & Savor Pass is an optional way to pay for small food items and non-alcoholic drinks. This is the first year that there are enough vegan options that I would say that it makes sense to get one! Very exciting!

The normal price is $59, and $54 with a Magic Key discount. It has 8 tabs that good for non-alcoholic beverages and tasting size portions of food. That comes out to $7.38 per tab for normal price, and $6.75 per tab with Magic Key discount. The tasting size portions of the items at Paradise Garden Grill are $7.49-$7.99, so if you use your tabs for those, you will come out ahead. Just make sure to not use your tabs for things that are below that price.

But as always, you can buy the items individually if you think you might not use up all the tabs. Make sure that you will be able to use them, because once the Festival is over, you can’t use them for any future events.

A note about the plant-based menu icon, which looks like two leaves. It is defined on the menu boards as “made without animal meat, dairy, eggs, or honey,” i.e. vegan without modifications. If an item has this icon, that means that all components of it are plant-based versions of that ingredient – so, for example, if it says “cheese,” that implicitly means “plant-based cheese,” for example Follow Your Heart or Daiya. If it says “egg,” it implicitly means “plant-based egg,” Just Egg. They do this to avoid having to say “plant-based” over and over in the menu description. The reason that they don’t list brand names of anything except for Impossible is that there are sometimes supplier issues, and they need to switch which vegan cheese they are using. If it matters to you which brand of vegan cheese it is, make sure to ask the cast members and chefs when you order.

Below is my video that accompanies this guide! It has my more thorough reviews/taste tests of each of the food items:

If these guides are helpful to you and you would like to show your appreciation, you are welcome to buy me a Dole Whip 🙂

Now let’s get into the options for this year!

Table of Contents / Jump to a Section

Paradise Garden Grill

Paradise Garden Grill is a restaurant in California Adventure that has a seasonal menu that changes along with the festivals, and for this year’s Food and Wine Festival, something unprecedented has happened – the entire menu is vegan! There is seriously an all-vegan restaurant in DCA/Disneyland now, even if it is only during the festival. This is such amazing progress, and I so hope that this is a trajectory that continues forward!! If you can, please do your best to go get these items and show demand for them. I really want them to sell well so that we can keep making progress!

Here are the menu descriptions, every single one with the plant-based menu icon (defined as “made without animal meat, dairy, eggs, or honey,” i.e. vegan without modifications). Please see the note at the top of this blog post for more about the plant-based menu icon. Any mention of cheese, egg etc. implicitly refers to plant-based versions of those.

  • Torta de Chilaquiles: Fresh-made Telera bread with green chilaquiles, chorizo beans, chipotle crema, pickled onions, cilantro, and avocado spread (New) (Plant-based offering)  
  • Bulgogi Fried Rice with kimchi, egg, pickled cucumbers, green onions, and sesame seeds (New) (Plant-based offering) 
  • Impossible Gyro Fries: Waffle fries topped with gyro-spiced Impossible ground beef, cauliflower cheese sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, tzatziki, and pita bread (New) (Plant-based offering) 
  • Buffalo Mac and Cheese topped with roasted buffalo cauliflower, ranch, and a carrot and celery salad (New) (Plant-based offering) 
  • Peach-Blueberry Cobbler (Plant-based offering) 
  • Kids’ Quesadilla: Mozzarella on a Whole Wheat Tortilla served with a Cuties Mandarin Orange and Applesauce, with a small Dasani Water (Plant-based offering) 
  • Kid’s Mac and Cheese: Served with a Cuties Mandarin Orange and Applesauce, with a small Dasani Water (Plant-based offering) 

Three of these items can be ordered either as the full entree version, or the Sip & Savor size tasting portion. Even if you don’t have a Sip & Savor Pass, you can still order the smaller tasting portion. It just gives you the option of using one of the pass tabs, or paying the lower price that goes along with the smaller tasting portion. Here is the difference for each item that can be ordered as either a full entree or as a tasting portion:

Bulgogi Fried Rice: full entree price: $14.49 / tasting portion price: $7.99

Impossible Gyro Fries: full entree price: $12.99 / tasting portion price: $7.99

Buffalo Mac and Cheese: full entree price: $13.99 / tasting portion price: $7.99

We got the tasting portion size for the 3 items above, and then the regular size portions for the Torta de Chilaquiles, the 2 kids meals, and the dessert (there are no tasting size portions for those). Below is everything pictured all together, and then individual photos below.

I’ll give a quick review of each here, but if you want the full review, please watch the Youtube video at the top of this post!

First up, I’ll show you my favorite out of all of them, the Impossible Gyro Fries: Waffle fries topped with gyro-spiced Impossible ground beef, cauliflower cheese sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, tzatziki, and pita bread.

These were so mouth-wateringly good! It seems like the cauliflower cheese sauce is housemade. It’s really creamy and luscious, without feeling oily or greasy. With the tzatziki and cucumbers, it really has a lot of dill going on. It has so many interesting flavors and textures that complement each other so satisfyingly. The second time I went, I got the full size!

Here is the smaller tasting portion size:

And here is the full entree size:

Next up: Buffalo Mac and Cheese topped with roasted buffalo cauliflower, ranch, and a carrot and celery salad. This was super tasty!! For the cheese sauce, I believe that it is the same “cauliflower cheese sauce” listed in the definition of the Impossible Gyro Fries.

This was a close second favorite after the Gyro Fries for me. Very well executed! Heather, who was helping me eat, said that she very seldom likes vegan cheeses and generally avoids them, but she actually enjoyed this, which is saying a lot.

Here is the smaller tasting portion size:

And here is the full entree size:

Then the Bulgogi Fried Rice with kimchi, egg, pickled cucumbers, green onions, and sesame seeds. This might remind you of the Plant-based Kimchi Fried Rice dish that they had here at Paradise Garden Grill recently for the Lunar New Year Celebration 2023, and it is a variant of that dish, but with some differences. The Lunar New Year dish also had Just Egg in it, along with the Kimchi, but this one is different in that it has a plant-based beef. I asked the chef, and he said that it was a plant-based beef made from fava beans and soy beans. As always, please make sure to ask when you are there if you have any allergies.

A lot of people have been saying that this one is their favorite! When I went on the first day, I liked the Impossible Gyro Fries better, but then on the next visit, I wasn’t sure anymore, I thought maybe that this Bulgogi Fried Rice dish was my favorite! It’s so hard to choose! Everyone has told me that they really love this plant-based beef. The texture of it is soooo good!

Here is the smaller tasting portion size:

And here is the full entree size:

And a close up of the texture of their plant-based bulgogi beef:

Next is the Torta de Chilaquiles: Fresh-made Telera bread with green chilaquiles, chorizo beans, chipotle crema, pickled onions, cilantro, and avocado spread.

This doesn’t have a tasting portion size; it is only available in the full entree size. You can see that it’s chilaquiles (chips covered in sauce/salsa) inside telera bread, which chips as a side, so it is a lot of bread/tortilla going on. Each side of the bread is spread with the chorizo beans and avocado spread, and then the chipotle crema is drizzled on top of the chilaquiles.

This is quite an interesting item! The Food & Wine Festival is all about being innovative and pushing the boundaries, so an unconventional combination like this is perhaps expected, but you’ll need to decide for yourself whether it sounds appetizing. The chipotle crema and the chorizo beans take the spice level up quite a lot. On the first day when I went for the soft opening, it didn’t have much sauce, but then on subsequent days, it’s much saucier and better!

Next, the Peach-Blueberry Cobbler. How nice to have more vegan desserts in the park now!! Many of the table service restaurants have debuted vegan desserts in the past few months, but there are still very few in the quick service dining locations. But here is one!

This was quite delicious! In general, I think cobblers are just okay, and I will always privilege a chocolate dessert over a non-chocolate one, so I’m perhaps not the target audience for this. But as far as cobblers go, I think this was well-executed and tasty! The sweet crumble on top had a nice crispy texture.

And with a few bites taken out so you can see the inside:

Then the Kids’ items: the Kids’ Quesadilla and the Kids’ Mac and Cheese. The Quesadilla is just the most simple version possible – vegan mozzarella melted between whole wheat tortillas. The Mac and Cheese is from the same batch as the Buffalo Mac and Cheese above, but without the buffalo cauliflower topping. They come with cuties oranges, applesauce, and a drink.

There is also a Wine Float Cocktail (Tequila, Triple Sec, Agave and Lime & Orange Juices with a Red Wine Float) on this menu that I didn’t try, and it looks vegan, but as always, see the notes at the top of this blog post about wines and beers.

Paradise Garden Grill Beer Garden

These beers are available here. You can put any of them into Barnivore if you like. I would be suspicious of the Vanilla Cream Ale and the Coffee Porter, but otherwise they should all be vegan.

  • Stereo Brewing Co. Perfect Day IPA 
  • Stone Brewing Co. Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager  
  • Golden Road Brewing Get Up Offa That Brown Ale (New)  
  • Golden Road Brewing Ride On 10 Hop Hazy IPA  
  • Mother Earth Brew Co. Cali Creamin’ Vanilla Cream Ale  
  • The Bruery Or Xata Blonde Ale 
  • Rincon Reservation Road Brewery Rez Dog Hefeweizen (New)  
  • Smog City Brewing Co. Coffee Porter  
  • Beer Flight: Create your own flight of four beers 

Avocado Time

  • Impossible Al Pastor Taco: Al pastor taco featuring Impossible pork with grilled pineapple and avocado-tomatillo sauce (New) (Plant-based offering) 

This one has the plant-based menu icon! It was delicious, with a lot of sweetness in the Al Pastor, and the Impossible pork is a relatively new product from them, so it has a unique taste that is quite interesting if you’ve only ever tried the Impossible beef. Everything works together quite well, and it’s really good, but I’d rank it in the middle, given that there are so many vegan options this year!

Note that the Impossible Nacho Mac & Cheese (Cheddar mac featuring seasoned Impossible ground beef, tomatoes, olives, jalapeños, and guacamole) is not vegan; it does not have the plant-based menu icon, and it is made with a dairy mac & cheese. It’s designed to be a vegetarian item; not a vegan one.

This booth also has a vegan cocktail:

Blackberry-Lavender Lemonade: Blackberry purée and syrup, lavender syrup, and pineapple and lemon juices garnished with a lemon wheel (New)  

Uncork California

Nothing vegan in the food department, but a variety of wines:

  • 1923 Mimosa: Prosecco, white cranberry juice, white peach syrup, and lemon juice (New)  
  • 1939 Mimosa: Prosecco, pineapple and orange juices, and passion fruit and guava nectar (New)  
  • 1955 Mimosa: Prosecco, dragon fruit and rose syrups, hibiscus water, and lemon juice (New)  
  • Century of Magic Mimosa Flight (New)  
  • Daou Vineyards Chardonnay (New)  
  • Meiomi Rosé (New)  
  • Duckhorn Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc (New)  
  • McBride Sisters Wine Company Red Blend (New)  
  • Garnet Vineyards Pinot Noir (New)  
  • Robert Mondavi Vineyards, Private Selection
  • Cabernet Sauvignon aged in bourbon barrels (New)
  • Scharffenberger Cellars Brut (New)  
  • White Wine Flight (New) 
  • Red Wine Flight (New) 
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  
  • Food & Wine CORKCICLE Stemless Flutes (Limit two per person, per transaction; no discounts apply)   

Nuts About Cheese

This booth has nothing vegan; even the cocktail has honey in it. But there is the novelty item: Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)

Berry Patch

This booth has 2 desserts that have dairy, and also a Blueberry Pancake Cold Brew (Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Co. Mexico Origin Coffee, brown butter, maple and demerara syrup, and oat milk with a blueberry sweet cream made with cream, oat milk, vanilla syrup, and purée garnished with cinnamon-flavored cereal crumble) which seems like it would have potential because of the oat milk, but then there are other dairy components (brown butter, cream), so it’s best to steer clear of this one. And again, they have the Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  

D-Lish

This booth has no vegan food items, but these two drinks should be vegan. Coconut cream used in cocktails in Disneyland is dairy-free, it’s only from coconut.

  • Sake Melon ’75: Sake, ginger liqueur, prosecco, rock melon syrup, and lemongrass citron purée garnished with an edible purple orchid  
  • Apricot Tequila Colada: Reposado Tequila, Aperol, apricot purée, coconut cream, and orange and lime juices garnished with a lime wheel 
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  

California Craft Brews

This booth is almost all beer (it has one food item, non-vegan). The beers below should be mostly vegan, I’d just be wary of the Vanilla Milkshake IPA.

  • La Bodega Brewing Company Helles Lager 
  • Unsung Brewing Co. Light Ale
  • Harland Brewing Co. Double Dry-Hopped Pale Ale
  • Altamont Brewing Maui Waui IPA 
  • Barrelhouse Brewing Mango Fruited IPA 
  • Delahunt Brewing Co. 1924 Raspberry Blonde 
  • Brewery X Pineapple Vanilla Milkshake IPA
  • Bottle Logic Brewing Co. Aurora Borealis 
  • Chapman Crafted Beer Zodiac Series Hazy IPA 
  • Crowns & Hops Brewing Co. The Dopest Hazy IPA 
  • Golden Road Brewing Strawberry Cart Wheat Ale 
  • Ballast Point Brewing Co. Watermelon Dorado Double IPA
  • Russian River Brewing Company Happy Hops IPA
  • Bright & Balanced Beer Flight
  • IPA Beer Flight
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  

Cluck-A-Doodle-Moo

One cocktail here looks like it should be vegan:

  • Smoked Cherry Mezcal-iki Cocktail: Dark rum, mezcal, cherry purée, grapefruit and lime juices, vanilla syrup, and bitters garnished with a dried grapefruit chip (New)  
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  
  • Food & Wine CORKCICLE Stemless Flutes (Limit two per person, per transaction; no discounts apply)  

Garlic Kissed

These drinks look like they are vegan:

  • Raspberry Limoncello-Ade: Limoncello, grapefruit liqueur, house-made mint syrup, raspberry syrup, and lemon juice garnished with a white orchid (New) 
  • Guava-Lychee Mule: Vodka, guava nectar, ginger and lychee syrup, and lemon juice topped with guava and grapefruit hard cider and garnished with a lemon wheel (New)  
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person) 

Golden Dreams

These drinks look like they are vegan:

  • Central California Cooler: Peach purée, apple, orange and lemon juices garnished with an apple chip 
  • Ficklewood Ciderworks Guava Grove: Grapefruit, guava, and tropical flavors with Nelson Sauvin Hops

I Heart Artichokes

This drink looks vegan:

  • Passion Fruit Rum Cocktail: White rum, Italian amaro, passion fruit nectar, orange and lime juices, and guava purée garnished with an orange wedge 
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person)  

LA Style

A note on the Impossible Gyro-inspired Naan (Gyro-inspired flatbread featuring Impossible ground beef with chipotle hummus, tzatziki, and spiced crispy chickpeas): I asked about this one thoroughly last year, and it appears that it is identical to last year. The Impossible meat makes you think it would be vegan, but it doesn’t have the plant-based menu icon, and when I asked, I was told that it is a tzatziki with dairy in it, and that there is dairy in the naan bread. Thus this item is designed to be vegetarian, not vegan, and I would suggest avoiding it, and using your money to support one of the many clearly marked vegan options at the Festival instead!

This drink, however, looks vegan to me, and it sounds delicious! I will probably get one later on in the Festival:

  • Echo Park Cooler: Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Co. Ceylon & Raspberry Rose Tea, raspberry purée, lychee and rose syrups, and lime juice garnished with a lime wheel (Non-alcoholic) (New)  
  • Purple Glow Grapes and Green Glow Grapes (Limit 10 per person) 
  • Food & Wine CORKCICLE Stemless Flutes (Limit two per person, per transaction; no discounts apply)  

Peppers Cali-Ente

This cocktail below is vegan, and I happened upon someone from Instagram who was ordering it while I was looking at the sign, so I got a picture of it! She said that it was a very strong pineapple flavor, and very spicy, and quite strong on the alcohol.

  • Cantarito-Style Paloma: Reposado Tequila, habanero-infused pineapple juice, lime juice, rock melon syrup, and Fresca garnished with a pineapple wheel and chile-lime seasoning 

Cocina Cucamonga

  • Strawberry Horchata: House-made rice and cinnamon beverage with strawberry sauce (Non-alcoholic) (Available with Spiced Rum)  
  • Seasonal Mango Margarita  

In the past, the Horchatas at Cocina Cucamonga have always had dairy, so that is probably the case, but I didn’t have time to go and ask. I’ll ask as soon as I can!

Lamplight Lounge

This cocktail is available in both the main restaurant (downstairs) and the Boardwalk Dining (upstairs):

  • Lamplight Lounge Food & Wine Cocktail: Gin, elderflower liqueur, peach, basil simple syrup, lemon, blue curaçao, and fresh basil 

Cappuccino Cart presented by Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Co.

About the Horchata Cold Brew: Although Horchata is a rice milk based drink, people sometimes add cow’s milk to it as well. And this is unfortunately the case at Joffrey’s; they always have dairy in addition to rice milk in their horchata.

Studio Catering Co. Truck

  • Watermelon Punch: Korean-style watermelon punch with Sprite and oat milk 

This drink is vegan, but I’ve heard that it’s not the tastiest thing ever. The idea of Sprite and oat milk doesn’t sound too appetizing to me, but you never know! Please let me know if you try it!

That’s all I have for now! This information is of course only for the special menus associated with the Food and Wine Festival. If you are looking for the complete guides to all of the normal, year-round vegan options throughout Disneyland, DCA, Downtown Disney, and the hotels, those are also here on my website, linked in the menu at the top, and here:

I hope to see you at the festival this year!! Please tag me on Instagram if you take any photos or videos of the items this year, I love seeing them!

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