The Noodle Exchange Opens at Epcot Food and Wine

The Noodle Exchange Food and Beverage Location at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival opened recently. We visited that food and beverage booth to try some of the returning favorites.

Along with the Hawaii booth, Noodle Exchange opened, as scheduled, on August 15, 2023. This booth opened a few weeks after the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival started.

This booth returns this year with basically the same food menu as last year. The noodle bowl names have changed. Some of the components in each ramen dish have been adjusted. In addition, some of The Noodle Exchange menu items slightly increased in price over last year. Still, if you liked this booth last year, then it is very likely that you will like this booth in 2023.

Noodle Exchange Menu

The four food items served this year at Noodle Exchange are:

• Shaved Beef Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and a soy egg in citrus-sesame broth – $6.00
• IMPOSSIBLE Pork Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, baby bok choy, and a soy egg in savory chicken broth – $5.75
• Thai Shrimp with rice noodles, shiitake mushrooms, and basil in coconut-curry broth -$6.50
• Tofu Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots, daikon radish, shaved peppers, and baby bok choy in citrus-sesame broth (Plant-based) -$5.75.

We ordered the Impossible Pork Ramen. On some of the menus, you may see that this dish is listed as an Udon-style bowl. However, the original menus published at the beginning of Food and Wine say ramen. Also, the main menu board says “Ramen.”

The portion size for this festival food item at Noodle Exchange shows promise. Of course, we were still surprised that the Impossible Pork came with chicken broth. Nonetheless, The Noodle Exchange does present guests with the choice of a vegan Tofu Ramen option.

Impossible Pork Ramen – $5.75

We found some conflicting results trying this ramen bowl. The components look good. The noodles came well prepared. However, the broth lacked the flavor expected. The Impossible product presented a nice texture and flavor. This contrasted our recent experience at Everything Pop with Impossible alt-meat.

This festival item will provide a substantial snack. Nevertheless, the flavors could be a better option. The soy egg left us wondering if we got a bad batch. In fairness, this Epcot food and wine item costs under $6. There may be nothing special about it. However, this noodle dish should not be on anyone’s worst list for items at Food and Wine.

The Epcot Food and Wine chefs should get credit for a non-traditional theme park food item. We appreciate seeing this booth come back. Still, better options exist at this year’s Food and Wine. As always, eat like you mean it!