Crawfish Etouffee Review at Busch Gardens Mardi Gras
We tried the classic New Orleans dish, Crawfish Etouffee, at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s Mardi Gras. Is it worth your time?
Busch Gardens Mardi Gras provides guests with a parade, beads, and festive food. This event runs on weekends until March 2. As part of this theme park event, several food and beverage options are available for purchase in a typical food festival fashion. Most Mardi Gras food cabins open at 2:00 p.m. on Fridays and noon on Saturdays and Sundays of the event. Since it is a Mardi Gras celebration, we decided to try the Crawfish Etouffee.
Crawfish Etouffee at Mardi Gras at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Etouffee (pronounced “eh-too-fey”) is deeply rooted in Louisiana’s cultural history. The challenging word to say is derived from a French word meaning “to smother.” Étouffée is a classic Louisiana stew similar to other Cajun and Creole favorites, like gumbo. What sets étouffée apart is that it is a stew using a blond roux rather than a soup. Also, the key protein of etouffee is almost always crawfish. Still, like most Cajun or Creole dishes, guests should expect the “holy trinity” in etouffee.
The menu description for the Busch Gardens’ version of this Mardi Gras classic reads, “Crawfish simmered in a sauce with the holy trinity (onions, green bell peppers, celery) and tomatoes, thickened with a blond roux served over rice.” So far, everything sounds on point for a Mardi Gras etouffee.
Mardi Gras Crawfish Etouffee Review
Just so you know, we tried every Mardi Gras food offering on the event’s opening day (Jan 11). Then, the Crawfish Etouffee ranked in the middle in our opinion of the Mardi Gras food. On that day, we shared a few items with a colleague who had a less positive view of the Mardi Gras food than we did. We went back to try Mardi Gras food again. We plan to visit Mardi Gras at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay at least once more before the event ends. You can follow our social media channels for those updates.
About the Crawfish Etouffee with Rice at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Mardi Gras, our experience this time matched the previous experience in many ways. Nevertheless, we noticed some significant differences. This year’s event involves rice, rice, and more rice. A majority of the savory food options at Busch Gardens Mardi Gras include rice.
The Crawfish Etouffee with Rice will cost guests $10.99. Still, like most food festival events at Busch Gardens, the pricing steers people to buy a “Sampler Lanyard,” which drops the price to $8 per item and below $7 per item for pass members.
Different Presentation of the Crawfish Etouffee
We recently visited Busch Gardens Tampa Bay with LaughingPlace and tried the Crawfish Etouffee with Rice. Our first reaction to this dish was that it featured rice, as we expected.
However, the presentation looked very different from our previous visits. The festival food item showed a much better balance between rice and the other components. Our opening day experience involved this dish having way more rice than anything else. This again proves that festival items change as the event goes on. Based on this, we attempt to review festival food based on how we think the preparation will continue during the event.
Photo by Jon Self
Just like when we ordered this previously, the aroma of the etouffee was pleasant. After that, the overall flavor was a bit bland but a touch of spice. The blond roux tastes good. In addition, the background flavors of this dish overwhelmed the roux more than would be ideal for this item. However, the crawfish tasted “fishier” this time.
Ranking of Crawfish Etouffee
Like our previous experience with the Crawfish Etouffee with Rice, this item falls into the not-bad category. It fails to offer enough to achieve a must-try rating. We would still choose the Shrimp Gumbo with Rice over this dish, which we tried again on the same day we ate the Crawfish Etouffee with Rice again.
Still, we appreciated this dish’s improvement from the opening day version. Also, this Mardi Gras food item meets essential criteria when deciding on theme park festival food. The critical variable is: Can or will the average person make this at home for less? Would it be hard for them to acquire the ingredients to make it once? The crawfish component would be challenging for most people to obtain and prepare. Thus, this became our second favorite at the 2025 Mardi Gras event at Busch Gardens.
More about Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Many new things are happening at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in the upcoming months. They include:
- Wild Oasis opening
- Food & Wine Festival and Concert Series
- New pass member lounge opening February 22
- New partnership with AdventHealth
For more theme park news, visit MSM News. As always, eat like you mean it!
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