Comprehensive Review of Busch Gardens Williamsburg's 2024 Food & Wine Festival

My Pick was a savory meat and custard dish. The beef had a hint of warm, spicy sweetness and the eggs were tender, combining to create a lovely and flavorful offering that was unlike anything we have tasted at the event previously.

This plant-based side dish was Zachary’s Pick. He admired its spicy flavors, complex textures, and uniqueness at the event.

These chicken skewers had some nice heat and the coconut was evident in the accompanying rice. While the rice was well cooked, we did think the meat was a little overdone.

The highest-scoring option both at the booth and among the event’s sweets, this custard-based dessert was not too sweet, instead relying on almond and cinnamon. The team was struck by the variety of textures, from the creamy custard, to the tender and flakey pastry, to the lightly caramelized and gritty sugar on top.

The beer-cheese dip was… fine. If you want to grab a snack with your BarKastle beverage, you don’t mind paying a premium for fairly basic fare, and you don’t want to hike to a more traditional food kiosk, it is probably your best bet. The beer flavor was much stronger than the pimento, and the bacon was a bit chewy.

This bourbon-forward chocolate tart seems very appropriate at an alcohol-focused booth. While it was rich and dense, the whipped cream effectively lightened a mostly heavy dish.

We enjoyed the large chunks of feta and cool and crunchy vegetables. This salad paired well with the kebab, as well.

The döner kebab-filled shawarma was fine. Because the meat was dry, we wanted some kind of sauce with it and a lot more feta.

At an event where the bread is brutally bad everywhere, a dish that is nothing but bread is kinda doomed. So, our giving this dry sesame bread ring the second lowest score at the event seems inevitable.

Our favorite dish at this booth was good enough to impress a chocolate hater. It was rich and fudgy, and creamy rather than super-dense. The textures and flavors were varied and complimentary, with the pistachio working very well with the chocolate.

Our favorite dish at this booth was also Gavin’s Pick. With a bright, fresh lemon flavor, nice hints of thyme, and well-baked flaky crust, this tart was an amazingly refreshing treat that he could not get enough of.

Everything we said we liked about this previously top-scoring dessert changed this year. The mousse was the flavor of Strawberry Nesquik and the whipped cream tasted fake. The basil was still completely MIA. To be fair the texture was excellent.

Even though these better hush puppies seemed slightly undercooked, they still had a lot of well-prepared shrimp and “the best sauce in the game.” We would forgive almost anything for that Pickapeppa Dip.

The highest-scoring dish at the booth, this meat pastry was spicy and delicious. The sweet sauce complimented the beef perfectly, and the crust was flakey (although one of our tasters found it to be too heavy).

This sandwich is usually very popular with our tasting team. This year, unfortunately, it was ruined by stale bread and bland slaw. We still enjoyed the jerked meat and mango salsa, but there simply was not enough of either.

It was definitely a rum cake. We had no problem tasting the rum. The rum overwhelmed the coconut, in fact. Also, the cake was dry. Maybe it should have been soaked in the rum.

We were very impressed with the new pork taco, which was the highest scoring dish at the booth. The lime paired perfectly with the warm spices in the well-cooked meat. All of the components worked well together, although the pickled onions were not a standout.

Given what a passionate and devoted following this taco has always enjoyed, we were shocked at the quality of shrimp, which we found rubbery, overcooked, and too heavily breaded. The incredible, tangy sauce and the crispy vegetables were not enough to save the dish from being the lowest scorer at the booth.

The new beef taco was unbalanced and oversalted. We wanted more mango salsa and cheese.

The team loved that the park added the option of getting one of each type of taco at a discounted price ($7.25 individually, or $18.75 for all three). The distinct flavors made it an interesting collection, and the excellent flour tortillas and large lime wedges added continuity. We would love to see more combinations like this at the event.

If you prefer a tangy cheesecake this one is for you. The filling and toppings were great, especially the crunchy cinnamon-sugar. The pastry was this dessert’s real weakness: it seemed undercooked.

We thought this cute cupcake (it looks like a rose in the wine garden!) was very well executed this year. The buttercream was smooth and the cake had a great consistency, as well. There were a lot of berries and we could really taste the merlot.

The highest-scoring item at the booth, this grilled beef dish offered tender, nicely-charred meat, paired with one of the best chimichurri sauces we have ever been served at BGW’s F&W.

Coming back from a weak 2023, this flavorful sausage once again impressed the tasters. It was juicy and well-cooked with a “snap” on the skin. The grilled vegetables were nicely seasoned, as well.

The best thing about this dessert was that for once it didn’t taste like a dirty grill. That said, if I hadn’t watched them making it myself, we wouldn’t have known it had ever touched any kind of heat source. Additionally, we didn’t seem to have been served any caramel sauce. There was a lot of coconut and the fresh pineapple was huge. So there is that.

I was very excited to try this new rice pudding: spice, coconut, everything sounded fantastic. I was NOT very excited once I had eaten it, however. It had an unpleasant gluey consistency and needed more flavor. It did have the distinction of earning the lowest score of any dessert at the event.

The salt-forward beef was cold, chewy, and dry, although it did have a hint of smoke. Oddly, the kimchi was incredibly mild, lacking any of the flavors one would expect from the traditional fermented cabbage dish.

The chicken was rubbery and flavorless, although it wasn’t as dry as its beef counterpart. Similarly, the kimchi included with the chicken was slightly better than the kimchi that was served with the beef.

The highest scoring dish at the South Korea booth, the chewy ribs lacked any flavor or spice and were paired with a fairly one-note slaw. The crisp vegetables were actually better than the meat.

We couldn’t tell you what this overpriced, low-quality snack item was doing at a food and wine event. We can tell you that the dip was spicy and had a good consistency, even if the pork rinds were not the best.

This dip was hearty enough to serve as an effective accompaniment to a frozen cocktail, and we could taste all of the main ingredients. The bland and crushed plantain chips, however, were almost completely unusable and might as well have been cheap potato chips.

Like many of the sandwiches at the event, this slider was dragged down by terrible bread. The pulled pork had great flavor and paired perfectly with the pineapple and slaw, which was crunchy and tasty. Unfortunately, both were mostly lost in the huge, stale, and soggy bun.

We wanted to love this classic dish, we really did. It has all of the earmarks of the perfect, greasy comfort food. Unfortunately, we were served a flavorless and powdery slab of egg with unseasoned beef and what tasted like canned gravy. One reviewer commented, “I would eat it if I were desperate.”

This “shockingly bland” slider tasted almost exclusively like bread. We could detect neither Sriracha in the mayo nor salt in the spam. Likewise the macaroni salad, while well cooked, lacked the usual tang we associate with the dish.

The saving grace of this booth was the dessert. Although certainly not perfect, we enjoyed the flavors and textures of the island-inspired sweet. It was light and cool with crunchy coconut atop the creamy mousse.

This year the hushpuppies were crisp and light, and boasted distinct cheese and bacon flavors with a hint of smoke. The honey butter provided the perfect contrast to both the flavor and texture.

Once again the bun was too big and unpleasantly soggy. Given how much we enjoyed the thick crab cake and the remoulade sauce, this was particularly frustrating.

The team mostly enjoyed the crisp’s crunchy apples, crumbly oatmeal, and sweet glaze. The bacon jam, however, seemed less like a spreadable, multi-ingredient topping and more like chunks of bacon jammed on top.

This classic sandwich seemed out of balance. We barely tasted any olive with the tapenade somehow being overwhelmed by the ham. Moreover, there was no consistency in the spiciness of the slaw.

Although better than in the past, this thick stew had an unpleasant fishy aftertaste and some of us were served hard rice. The sauce was quite spicy, however.

This take on a traditional New Orleans sandwich boasted both the best shrimp and the best bread at the event, and was the highest-scoring savory item at the booth. The cool, fresh vegetables paired beautifully with the spicy sauce and the plentiful seafood.

Our favorite dessert at the booth, this rich and sweet cheesecake featured a variety of textures and flavors. We could taste the rum and fresh banana toppings and the crunchy pecans complimented the creaminess of the cake.

According to a resident of NOLA, the beignets this year looked in photos more like the real thing and less like fried dough. We enjoyed both the beignets and the light caramel sauce on top.

This fresh and flavorful dish was my recommended pick last year and the highest scoring savory option at the booth this year. The creamy and firm cheese and juicy tomatoes were topped with excellent pesto and balsamic. All of the flavors paired perfectly in the well-executed dish.

The meatballs have been updated and now have a sphere of cheese in the center. The addition was fun, even if it didn’t really add anything to the flavor or texture. The ground, itself, was grainy and dry and seemed as if it had been frozen. There was a lot of asiago on top, but the overwhelming flavor was of the too-sweet marinara.

If you like capers, feel free to get this (greasy) dish; if not just say “no.” All we could taste (other than the ton of capers) were olives and cheese, which is a problem for pasta reported to be topped with pesto (we couldn’t even see anything green or appearing to be made with basil).

This dessert was the high scorer at the booth, the highest rated dessert at the event, and Renee’s Pick. The refined cake was moist and lemony and balanced nicely with almonds. It’s perfectly baked crust had caramelized edges which provided a crisp counterpoint to the sponge.