The Pop Eats Food Studio is next up in our 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts coverage. This Walt Disney World dining review features real world photos of every food and dessert on the menu, plus thoughts on each dish.
Among Walt Disney World fans, Pop Eats is one of the most popular booths. (You can tell that’s a great pun because I had to italicize part of the word so you’d know it was a pun.) It serves up a couple dishes that have become marketing and social media mainstays, and that coupled with crowd-pleasing cuisine and a high-traffic location make Pop Eats perpetually busy.
In fact, what you see pictured above is just a portion of the line on a recent weekend in Winter 2024 at Pop Eats. The full line actually extended all the way to World Showcase promenade, near the Deco Delights booth. I passed Pop Eats on multiple occasions throughout the first week or so of the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts, and its line was often lengthy. I waited almost 30 minutes for my food, which was about 15-20 minutes longer than the average booth.
Here’s what’s on the menu at the Pop Eats Food Studio:
Food Items:
- Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese
- Tomato Soup with pimento cheese, bacon, and fried green tomato grilled cheese
- Rock the Dots White Chocolate and Orange Mousse with vanilla bean chiffon cake
Beverages:
- Brooklyn Brewery Pulp Art Hazy IPA
- Blanc de Bleu Cuvée Mousseux with boba pearls
Now let’s take a look at our photos and reviews of each food item…
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese – Pictured above is actually the version of this dish with pimento cheese, bacon, and fried green tomato grilled cheese. There are two versions of this sandwich, and the classic grilled cheese is the more popular of the two.
The regular grilled cheese is exactly what you’d expect from a competently-prepared sandwich: cheesy and gooey goodness held together by buttered and toasted bread. It’s incredibly simple, but it delivers. (Well, unless you get one that’s inexplicably cold, which we’ve had happen before.)
The ‘fancified’ version of the grilled cheese is what you should order. The pimento cheese and fried green tomato work fantastically together and are the stars of the show. The bacon is a nice enhancement that does not overpower (it’s diced chunks, rather than thick-cut pieces).
There there’s the tomato soup in the Warhol-inspired can. This is rich and creamy, perfect by itself or with a sandwich dipped into it. While we’d highly recommend this fancy/adult grilled cheese and tomato soup, we do question whether it’s worth the wait.
Rock the Dots White Chocolate and Orange Mousse – I cannot believe they replaced the fan-favorite Mondrian-styled Almond Frangipane Cake with this.
This vanilla bean chiffon cake is easily one of the worst dishes at the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, falling below even the sugary concoctions at Figment’s Inspiration Station.
Above is a cross-section. The outer chocolate shell of this dessert is light with a soft crunch that gives way to cake and cream on the inside. You mostly get white chocolate and vanilla flavors, with just a light hint of Orange. (If it wasn’t listed on the menu, you could easily miss that note of citrus.)
This reminds me of a Little Debbie Zebra Cake, which is not praise at all. (No disrespect to Little Debbie, I just expect more out of EPCOT festival cuisine.) At least it looks cool, I guess? Skip the Rock the Dots White Chocolate Cake.
I really, really hope they bring back the Almond Frangipane Cake (pictured above) for the 2025 EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Stylized to resemble a Piet Mondrian painting, this cake is the rare combo of delicious and photogenic. This had been a mainstay of the event since its inaugural year–I’m not really sure what they were thinking getting rid of it for 2024. The new dessert is a wholly inadequate replacement.
We’ve ordered probably a dozen-plus of these over the history of the festival, and have found each piece we’ve had to be moist and with a nice balance of berry jam and chocolate flavors. Bring it back, Disney!
Overall, the Pop Eats Food Studio is usually one of the “cooler” and more fun booths at the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. It’s a favorite stop among Walt Disney World fans, and has developed a cult following over the course of the event for its unique dishes that are approachable, photogenic, and delicious. Unfortunately, it coasts on its reputation in 2024, and now only the tomato soup and grilled cheese justifies stopping here.
Despite what the lengthy line for Pop Eats might suggest, this is not a life-changing grilled cheese. The reason this booth is so popular is because it offers approachable and comforting cuisine, rather than the ambitious and nuanced dishes of other Food Studios. Which is precisely why you should focus your budget and stomach space on those before going for this guilty pleasure.
As this event isn’t just about the cuisine, you’ll also want to read our full Guide to the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts for info about the non-culinary side of the festivities. That covers the Disney on Broadway concert series, visual arts, performing arts, participatory arts, and much more!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Pop Eats Food Studio? Have you tried any of the food items at this booth? What did you think of them? Do you agree that Pop Eats is one of the more clever and interesting Food Studios at the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts? Questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
