We continue from Las Pasadas.
There was a time (2020) when China offered an ambitious holiday menu of previously-frozen (baked, kind of) egg rolls, microwaved (too long) bao buns, and a (gummy) meat of questionable origin. In a somewhat surprising move, the China booth is not open for this year’s Festival in any capacity. Instead, it sits with its slats shuttered and its doors deadbolted, presumably postponing operation until the Festival of the Arts. I would post a picture of the partitioned off kiosk, but I feel like this post is already as praiseless as a meal at Morimoto Asia precisely when you least predict it.
This haul, from the same booth when it actually operated, had been the norm since Disney began the Holiday Kitchen program a few years ago.
Instead, if you’re a Festival completionist, hopelessly lost looking for the entrance to Rise of the Resistance, or simply concerned that there aren’t enough other opportunities to order fried food filled with fake products at Walt Disney World, you can join the hubbub that is the Lotus Blossom Café ordering area. It’s approximately the size of your bathroom back at the All-Star Sports. You’ll find it on the left side of the Pavilion just past Nine Dragons Restaurant. You can see that there’s actually an extended queue for the eatery on the right, which I did not have on my bingo card for 2021.
House-made Cheesy Crab Wontons – $7.25
These are about 97% crispy wonton wrapper and not a whole lot else, which is about 17% higher than expectation for Rangoon of this variety. With three pinwheels arriving to an order, the mixture of Crab and Cheese that is present somewhere in the crevices is a creamy, satisfying combination that doesn’t suffer from being particularly fishy.
At $7.25, it remains a tough sell. That’s particularly true if you have to deal with what can be the hectic nature of the small ordering area at Lotus Blossom Café. The Chinese quick service can basically turn into the opposite of your local mall’s generic food court outlet, where there is literally never anybody in line for what is definitely not a money laundering operation.
Usually, Lotus Blossom Café is virtually empty though, and they’ve added more tables lining the area outside, which could make this a good stop for a free cup of water and a break, even if you skip the Wontons. I’ve also been known to enjoy the air-conditioning and seating of the waiting area for the Circle-Vision 360 Reflections of China, while disappearing before the show actually begins.
Taste: 3/10
Value: 2/10
Overall, you can probably move on to Refreshment Outpost, where a cool treat awaits.
I was excited to have “food booths” for my quick trip to EPCOT next week and now I’m not. Two countries in and nothing sounds good… Does it get better?!?
Yes Josh will be doing his Don Rickles outside of Disney World parking lot in the mornings.
Also singing kars for Kids ads if requested.
Oops, we both replied to a four year old comment 🙂
It gets, in my opinion, dramatically better on the other side of world showcase. Italy is always weak but this year China is also down plus the non-country booths are less prevalent on the Mexico side. The stretch from Hawaii heading counterclockwise to Germany is as strong as any festival in recent memory IMHO.
I wish Disney wouldn’t slather sauce all over the char siu. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it served with sauce at any Chinese restaurant. Maybe as a dipping sauce on the side, but not coated in it. The sauce totally ruined the char siu dish at Skipper Canteen.
I found that the booths were closed during the week, but were open on Saturday at least. I went Dec 5 through Dec 12, and booths were closed Monday, but open Saturday.