Reviewing Every Booth at Seven Seas Food Festival 2025, Rescue Jr. Now Open at SeaWorld San Antonio
The Seven Seas Food Festival has made its return to SeaWorld San Antonio now through May 18. The annual event features more than 60 cuisine offerings from all over the world, along with dozens of beer, wine and cocktail selections. Themed entertainment, including Baile Folklorico and the Japanese Living Garden, can also be found throughout the park. New for 2025, the Rescue Jr. children's area has debuted. Younger visitors can explore new rides like Seabird Swing, Ocean Quest Express and Beach Rescue Racer, SeaWorld's newest roller coaster.
Best Ways to Enjoy the Food Festival
Before we travel “around the world,” the most cost-effective way to enjoy a well-rounded Seven Seas Food Festival adventure is by purchasing the sampler card. For 2025, the sampler card only comes as a 10-item option. However, passholders receive 12 items for the price of 10. At $70.00 the sampler card evens out with most menu food prices, but also provides more convenience when making your way around the park. Of course, passholders who have 12 samples are bound to find that food items are cheaper than buying outright. Planning to drink alcohol? The sampler card is an absolute steal in terms of cost savings. Any unused punches can be utilized during a future Seven Seas visit, too.
Mexico
Our first stop, which tends to happen based on its location near Beluga Stadium, was the Mexico booth. Most of Mexico’s offerings are returning from previous seasons with the exception of the chile lime shrimp artisan tacos.
We decided to indulge in the new taco creation. The taco flavors meshed quite well and the ingredients were fresh. However, this new taco was on the heavier side when compared to its predecessors. Though that didn’t make it taste any less delicious, a lighter taco option tends to make our day flow smoother in the SeaWorld heat. 7/10
Germany
If you’ve visited the Seven Seas Food Festival in the past, you’ll notice that food booths have been modified and reallocated for the 2025 season. Our next stop took us to Germany. Though we thought the beer cheese dog and black forest strudel were mislabeled as “new,” they actually are new after looking back at past seasons.
However, we stuck with one of our classic favorites, which was the braised beef with cabbage and spaetzle. Another of the heavier dishes (but worth it), the braised beef falls apart and is marinated phenomenally. The egg noodles hold their own, being cooked almost to perfection and featuring their own buttery palate of taste contribution. Germany has quickly become one of the stronger food booths and 2025 is no exception. 10/10
Mediterranean
Located near the entrance to Tidal Surge is the Mediterranean booth. This year, SeaWorld San Antonio has taken items from the former Greece and Italy booths and condensed them into one stand. New for 2025 is the grilled mushroom flatbread and the non-alcoholic Cherry of Chios beverage.
One of our all-time favorites, the provolone stuffed meatball slider, has returned for 2025. The slider features a delicious gourmet meatball that is simmered in traditional red gravy. To top it off, the brioche roll is nice and fresh Our experience with the slider was nothing short of chef’s kiss. Though these two food booths have merged, it appears the strongest offerings have survived. 9/10
The new, non-alcholic Cherry of Chios drink also caught our attention. The drink only consists of cherry syrup and pink lemonade. It is quite refreshing when being outside all day and the cherry syrup does a great job balancing the tart presence of the pink lemonade. 9/10
Jamaica
Jamaica, located near the Great White roller coaster, is a booth that I consistently expect to be retired. However, it looks like Jamaica continues to be an offering that SeaWorld San Antonio is set on keeping around. New for this year is the Jamaican bread pudding and the Island Vibez cocktail.
I was excited to see a new dessert offering at Jamaica, primarily because we’ve consistently found the savory items to be a bit underwhelming. The Jamaican bread pudding consists of vanilla custard, raisins, cherries and rum sauce. Though not a ground-breaking mix of flavors, it was a perfectly fine dessert that doesn’t stray far away from an American bread pudding recipe. It is worth noting that the bread pudding is priced below what a 10-sampler punch is worth at $5.99. 7/10
Gulf Coast
We were particularly excited to come upon the park’s new 2025 offering, the Gulf Coast booth. Located near the entrance to Catapult Falls, Gulf Coast takes over the spot once occupied by Korea. Every food and beverage offering was also making its debut. I’m not sure if it is due to the booth being new or time of day, but we were unable to acquire the Gator Kisses and the beignet as they were “sold out.”
First up is the mac and cheese with “mud bugs.” The dish is nothing ground-breaking, but you cannot go wrong with a hearty blend of mac and cheese and crawfish. The Cajun seasoning, though not spicy, takes the spotlight on this one. It tends to overshadow the mac and cheese and crawfish flavors. You do, however, get a ton of crawfish in this dish. 8/10
Next up was the Gulf shrimp cocktail, consisting of shrimp, spicy tomato juice, cucumber, onion, tomato, jalapeno and cilantro. This cold dish is much more bold than the mac and cheese with “mud bugs,” bringing in bold flavors that cut through anything else you may have on your table. The cocktail mix and presentation was great, though I’m not personally a huge fan of these types of dishes. 7/10
The Seashells by the Seashore mocktail rounded out our visit to the new Gulf Coast booth. It doesn’t stray far away from the mocktail we tried at the Mediterranean booth as it features pink lemonade and south seas blend syrup. I couldn’t quite point to what the south seas blend was supposed to taste like at the time, but I didn’t care much for it. A quick online search after the fact says it is a mix of mango, guava and ginger. 5/10
France
France has found a new home across from the entrance to Wave Breaker Rescue Coaster. I prefer this new location much more than the previous near Journey to Atlantis! The team at the booth also seemed to have an easier time keeping up with crepe orders. New for 2025 is the daring escargot, the crepes suzettes and the French gimlet cocktail. We ran into another issue with food availability as the crepes suzettes was “sold out.”
The France booth insisted that we dare our tastebuds, thrusting escargot into the spotlight. Six escargot come presented on top of toasted garlic bread. Acquired taste doesn’t even begin to describe this experience. I’m open to trying most foods, but this hit me with a “sea” flavor I wasn’t ready to contend with. The presentation and quality of the food, however, was on par with what SeaWorld San Antonio is known for during this event. 6.5/10
Japan
A short way down the path is the Japan booth. For 2025, a new cocktail and mocktail has been added, but the food menu remains unchanged. In fact, some of the former Korea booth has been lumped into Japan, further limiting what is offered. We were disappointed to see the removal of fresh tuna from Japan and the beef short ribs that were once at Korea.
That being said, we opted for the chicken bulgogi bowl, which includes rice, carrots, cucumber, radish, scallion, cilantro, mint, sesame seeds and red chili aioli. The dish was well prepared and had a great bite of spice on the back end with the red chili aioli. Overall, a safe option for those wanting to try an Asian-inspired dish, but not an offering that stands out for our tastebuds. 7/10
Hawaii
A stroll past the Steel Eel roller coaster takes us to the Hawaii booth. Hawaii’s menu doesn’t feature any new offerings and, in fact, has been slimmed down with the removal of the hula dog and Hawaiian macaroni salad. These were some of our top-rated selections from the past couple of seasons, so it was sad to see their food festival demise.
Our food of choice to review ended up being the tuna poke bowl. It is the freshest offering on the menu, including sticky rice, jalapenos, cucumber, wakame salad, edamame, grape tomatoes, radish, pickled ginger and masago. This year’s presentation isn’t as stellar as in past seasons, but the flavor profile and food quality was executed wonderfully. It is worth noting that your fish proteins are served raw (it isn’t for everyone). 8/10
Brazil
Brazil was the final stop on our food adventure and we were quite full upon arrival. For 2025, the food items remain unchanged, though a new cocktail has been introduced.
We opted for the frozen blackberry acai since we’ve previously tried all three savory items in past seasons. With full stomachs, the acai was the perfect way to end our day. The sorbet was not too sweet, which complimented well with the frozen berries. A hint of mint also kept the coolness rolling. I appreciate that many of the dessert offerings are not overly-sweet, which greatly helps your stomach when moving booth to booth. 8/10
Wrapping Up
Overall, we had a great time at this year’s Seven Seas Food Festival, presented by SeaWorld San Antonio. It was our first experience with multiple food offerings being unavailable, which isn’t great considering you are urged to prepay for a sampler card. However, the dishes that we did try were well above the quality you’d expect from standard theme park food. This year’s menus didn’t see many revolutionary changes, which may coincide with recently hiring a new executive chef, Shan Pussella. Several operational woes were addressed, including the separation of Germany’s register and kitchen, the relocation of France to a more open area and the combining of France and Greece. The acquisition of dishes from every booth was efficient and quick, which is just as important! The Gulf Coast booth was also a welcome addition, but not at the expense of Korea and its great offerings. Jamaica is still a sore spot for our tastebuds, while booths like Germany stand out above the rest. Critical notes aside, Seven Seas Food Festival is a great way to spend your day (or two). I’d recommend visiting before San Antonio starts to really heat up!
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