As many of you know, we have conducted comprehensive reviews of Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s annual Food & Wine Festival for BGWFans since 2014. Every Spring we pull together a team and spend a weekend tasting and scoring every item on the menu. But what has KDFans written about the food at Kings Dominion? Actually, a fair amount.
Looking back, we have previously reviewed a series of upcharge culinary events like the Haunt VIP meals and Tower Tastings, as well as a few special event menus such as Spring Bloom’s internationally-inspired food faire. More recently, we have embarked on a quest to review everything on offer at each of Kings Dominion’s updated and renovated eateries. Despite all of these examples, KDFans has never attempted anything approaching the scale of BGWFans’ annual, comprehensive, Food & Wine photo review.
Given how good the park’s food has become since the arrival of Chef Denis Callinan, we decided to interrupt our series of restaurant reviews (there are actually two articles sitting in draft waiting for a final edit and some photos) and produce a BGWFans F&WF-style assessment of every dish at Kings Dominion’s 2022 Grand Carnivale. We also used our standard 10-point scale:
- 0: Legitimately Unsafe to Eat
- 3: Disappointing & Not Recommended
- 5: Unremarkable & Probably a Bit Boring
- 8: Great, But Not Perfect
- 10: Pure Ecstasy
Before getting to the food, itself, we have a few thoughts on the event. Our initial impression was that we really appreciated Kings Dominion having clustered all of the food booths under the Eiffel Tower. In addition to being one of the most charming locations in the park, it made sampling dishes from multiple kiosks very easy.
The mini-themed areas surrounding each booth were lovely. Each highly decorated stall had unique seating and other artistic touches. There were also roaming, costumed actors for each represented nation, who participated in the parade at the end of the night.
Kings Dominion is selling two tasting cards: six dishes (no drinks) for $39.99 and ten for $59.99. Although the prices for individual items are actually very reasonable, these lanyards can save you money, especially the ten item card. All of the dishes at the event cost more than $6, the per unit price on the $59.99 option. 13 of 24 options are listed above $6.66, the cost of one dish with the $39.99 card.
For those of you who are used to the portions at other theme park culinary events, you may be surprised by the size of the dishes at Grand Carnivale. Many of the items we tried would be reasonable entrees on their own. Even splitting each item among the three of us, we struggled to finish all of the food, because of the sheer volume.
It is worth mentioning that we conducted our review during the soft open. Given the event’s limited run and our own schedules, the first Friday ended up being the only feasible day for all three of us.
Despite some obvious issues as the staff learned how to use the systems and developed a comfort level with their products, the food, itself, largely lived up to the quality we have been seeing across the park for the past few years. The vegetables were fresh, the dishes were flavorful, and the presentation was clever. Overall, Kings Dominion continues to impress us as a destination for excellent food.
With all of that said, it is time for the real point behind this article: the reviews. Not knowing what to expect from this effort, we opted for a slightly scaled down approach. You will not find the Best In or the Taster’s Choice awards, but we have provided the average scores for each dish, as well as photos and our thoughts.
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