The International Festival of the Holidays has arrived in EPCOT, but where do you even begin?

There are so many booths to grab food from, new things to try, and returning dishes you can’t miss. We’ve been making our way around ALL of the Festival booths and now we’re headed to Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen in the Japan pavilion to see whether anything here is worth your cash!

Menu

On the menu at Shi Wasu this year you’ll find a number of returning items as well as some NEW things or dishes that have seen some ingredient changes.

The Sushi Tree, for example, is a returning item but features new ingredients this year. The Mochi Cake is also a returning item in the sense that we’ve seen a Mochi Cake here before, but it’s been several years.

So let’s dig into the eats and drinks here and see what they’re all about!

Eats

We start with the Sushi Tree, which you can get for $7.50. This is a Sushi Roll with a Christmas tree design that features krab meat and cream cheese topped with tempura, Ikura salmon roe, and spicy mayonnaise.

Again, the tree itself is returning but it has some NEW ingredients this year — last year it had Sashimi-grade tuna, salmon, ikura, and yellowtail on an artistic bed of rice. Last year’s version was actually shaped like a tree as well, whereas the one this year is sushi pieces arranged to sort of look like a tree. For comparison, this was what the tree looked like last year…

…and this is the tree this year! In terms of design, we still think this is a cute snack (albeit not as “tree-shaped” as in previous years). The colors are fun and vibrant, and the sushi Christmas tree design is pretty cute. In past years, this snack hasn’t really had any standout flavors (at least in our opinion), though it would satisfy classic sushi fans.

This year, however, the flavor was the real star of this snack. The only complaint we had was that we wish the spicy mayo were a little spicier. Other than that, we thought this sushi was well-balanced, had complementary flavors, and was a great, shareable snack.

We tried the ALL-NEW sushi tree over at the Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen in the Japan Pavilion! pic.twitter.com/zpuiE1X68E

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 25, 2022

Next, we got the New Year Celebration Soba for $8.50. This is a returning item that features Buckwheat soba noodles in a hot dashi soup with yuzu, shrimp tempura, kamaboko fish cake, and chopped green onion. This is essentially the same as last year, except the yuzu seems to be a new addition for this year, there were shiitake mushrooms in the dish last year, and the fish cake wasn’t described as a “kamaboko” fish cake last year.

In the past we’ve felt like this is a good pick for ramen fans and we’ve loved the tempura texture and flavor of the shrimp. This year, we thought it was really just OK. If you really love ramen, it’s still a good snack. However, there just wasn’t anything that WOW’d us about it. It was filling and tasty, but not super exciting.

The New Year Celebration Soba retuned this year too – Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen pic.twitter.com/njrlnSHHMM

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 25, 2022

Last (in terms of food items), we’ve got the Mochi Cake for $6! Disney has identified this item as “new.” We’ve actually seen mochi cakes served at this booth in the past, but it’s been a WHILE! We saw a Cinnamon Mochi Cake here back in 2017. This year’s mochi cake, however, features different flavors. It is a gooey rice cake made with rice flour and served with Hojicha cream, strawberry, tangerine, and sweet red beans.

For those who may not be familiar with it, Hojicha is a Japanese roasted green tea. The mochi cake was pretty dense, so this was a heavier treat than we were expecting. The tangerine balanced out the creamy flavors, and we thought it was pretty good overall.

The ALL-NEW Mochi Cake – Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen pic.twitter.com/83ZCuUcnnK

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 25, 2022

And that wraps up our food tour through Shi Wasu, but there’s more here than just the food!

Drinks

When it comes to the drinks, Shi Wasu is delivering a whole bunch of NEW items (as well as a returning drink).

First up is the new Ichigo Milk Boba for $6.50. The drink is a cranberry and yuzu cream drink featuring Japanese Calpico Soft Drink and popping strawberry boba pearls and it’s non-alcoholic, so the whole family can enjoy it. We’ve seen an Ichigo Milk Boba here in the past (back in 2018) but it was a strawberry boba cream drink with Calpico.

We thought this drink was very good! It’s pretty sweet, so if you don’t like sweet drinks then you’ll want to skip it. But it wasn’t overpoweringly sugary, and it didn’t taste too artificial either. It was creamy and delicious.

The Ichigo Milk Boba! – Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen pic.twitter.com/vyWZub0Ti0

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 25, 2022

If the Milk Boba isn’t your style, maybe the NEW Japanese Christmas Punch will be the one you’ll want to grab.

The Japanese Christmas Punch! – Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen pic.twitter.com/5bILcA1Rzu

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 25, 2022

This drink is made with Shōchū, Plum wine, cranberry, and lemon and is priced at $8. It’s a little bit sweet as well, but not nearly as sweet as the Boba drink.

The final new drink is the Brew Hub Strawberry Lager. This is priced at $5 for a 6 oz pour and $9.50 for a 12 oz pour. If you get this, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below!

The last drink available in this booth is the returning Ozeki Sake Platinum: Junmai Daiginjo. This is a drink we’ve seen in EPCOT in the past. We actually grabbed it during the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival at the Japan booth.

When we’ve had it in the past, we’ve found the drink to be very floral and refreshing. If you’re looking for something to grab that’ll hit that flavor profile, this is it.

Overall

Overall, the Japan pavilion delivered a real mix this year — new dishes, some returning dishes, and some returning items with ingredient changes. If you’re a fan of sushi and ramen, this is THE booth to check out this year. And we thought that Boba drink was very tasty as well, plus the whole family can enjoy it since it’s non-alcoholic!

To check out more Festival of the Holidays news, check out the links below:

• Get the DFB exclusive 2022 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays map
• Check out our FREE DFB printable of the Festival of the Holidays booths
• Learn about the NEW light show that’ll debut in EPCOT for the Festival of the Holidays

We’ll continue to bring you reviews of ALL the booths today, so stay tuned for more news!

Click here to see our FULL reviews of EVERY booth at the Festival of the Holidays

What dishes would you get from Shi Wasu? Tell us in the comments!