There are a few things in my life that signal to my brain that it’s officially summer:
School wrapping up.
My parent’s opening up the family Lakehouse.
And Bites & Pints at Kennywood.
There is just something so quintessentially SUMMER about Kennywood Park’s Bites & Pints food festival – the sun is shining, crowds of people are milling around the lagoon, Steel Curtain is roaring over the midway – it’s just a vibe.
And that season is officially here once again.
Bites & Pints is one of our favorite events that Kennywood offers (second only to Holiday Lights – their Christmas event will forever be my favorite, especially as they keep growing and making it bigger and better).
This food event, which Kennywood has dubbed “Pittsburgh’s Most Thrilling Food Festival” always seems to trigger a lot of questions though, so I wanted to create a guide to the event: What is it? What can you expect? Give some tips & tricks and answer some frequently asked questions I see over and over in local Facebook groups.
WHAT IS BITES & PINTS?
Bites & Pints is a food & drink festival that takes place on the weekends at Kennywood Park. If you aren’t familiar with Kennywood, I recently made an Insider’s Guide to the Park video that gives an overview of the park – I’ll link that below as a great starting point and introduction to Kennywood.
The food festival concept is not new to the amusement park industry. “Eating around the world” is an idea that stems from Disney’s Epcot – where many people flock to eat in the different countries located around the World Showcase.
In 1996, Epcot debuted their International Food & Wine Festival featuring specific food booths around the World Showcase – shining light on different countries and culinary specialties outside of the countries already located in Epcot.
The concept caught like wildfire – people just went crazy over the idea. Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival specifically draws massive crowds every year – and these are not thrill-seekers, but food-aficionados.
Drawing from this success, other parks began to introduce their own versions of the food festival concept. Dollywood hosts their Flower & Food Festival in the spring, Busch Gardens hosts their Food & Wine Festival in early summer, and Kennywood hosts Bites & Pints from Memorial Day through the end of June.
Bites & Pints was officially introduced to the Pittsburgh audience in 2021, and every year, this event gets bigger and better. It draws HUGE crowds to the park and really emphasizes that fun, summer, festival vibe.
The park has constructed booths that center around the lagoon in the main section of the park – and each booth houses a different country which offers a variety of foods and drinks to choose from.
In 2025, the park is featuring 8 different countries during Bites & Pints, which are: Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, and new for this season, Cuba and Spain.
Each country features three different “bites” or food options – ranging from seafood, to pasta, to sweet treats and beyond.
And each country also features several different “pints” or alcohol options – ranging from beer, to wine, to specialty cocktails.
In other words: there are TONS of food and drink options to try – truly something for everyone (even the eaters who might be a bit picky, like our son).
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Bites & Pints can be tackled in two different ways:
Option A: you can simply walk up to any booth and purchase any food or beverage item individually. Outside of each booth is a large menu, advertising not only what food & drink items are offered, but their stand-alone price.
In other words: if you know you only want to sample a few things, this a-la-cart route is the perfect option for you!
Option B: you can purchase a tasting punch card that gives you 8, 12, or 15 food and drink items. You take this card from booth to booth and you can mix and match any number of foods or drinks from each booth.
This is an open level card – you can use it to get 15 servings of churros if you like. You can use it to get 15 different drinks. You can go from booth to booth and simply choose the foods and drinks that sound interesting to you. It’s truly a “choose your own adventure” type of system.
These tasting punch cards are good for the entirety of the Bites & Pints season that they are purchased in. So, let’s say you go this weekend, purchase a 15 sample tasting card, but only get 7 items. You can come back the following weekend and use the same card to get your remaining 8 things.
You can also share these cards – which is what we do! As much as our children really want to have their own personal punch cards, that just doesn’t make sense, so we typically get one 15 sample card and split those items between the 4 of us.
You might wonder: with 24 different food options and 23 different drink options – maybe you need to get yourself two or three 15 sample cards, so you can try (almost) everything – and that’s totally up to you! I can just tell you from personal experience, the 15 sample card is PLENTY for our family of four and we always leave completely stuffed.
And that’s due to the sizes of the bites and pints.
Speaking to the food: the portion sizes are FABULOUS. The Corned Beef Slider is not a slider, but half of a sandwich, piled high with beef and cheese and cabbage. The Gyro is a FULL size gyro that they overflow with meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Every single option that we tried (and even the ones that we didn’t, but saw other people trying) were surprisingly large.
The park might call them “bites”, but these are definitely not bite-size portions.
Which, to be honest, is one of the things that really sets Kennywood’s food festival apart from others and makes guests come back year after year – bringing their friends and family. You truly feel like you’re getting an incredible value for your money and the food is incredible quality!
Speaking to the drinks: they are actually served in two separate sizes. If you are redeeming spots on your tasting card for drinks you will receive a smaller size than if you are out-right purchasing the same drink.
For example, Derrick purchased the Atomic Dog Original Hard Cider from the Italy booth outright. This means he got a full 16oz glass. If he would have redeemed a spot on our tasting card for the same drink, he would have received a 7oz glass (the same size Pina Colada I got from the Spain booth).
There are no size differences between using the tasting card vs. buying a-la-cart with the food, but there are the size differences with the drinks. This is all notated on the signs outside of each booth, but it can be confusing at first – which is why I wanted to make sure to clearly address it.
PRO TIP: if you know you are going to buy a tasting card – you definitely want to buy it online instead of buying it in person at the park. Just like general admission tickets are always cheaper online, Bites & Pints tasting cards are discounted online as well. You simply hop over to Kennywood’s website, choose which card you want to buy, make your purchase, and then show your receipt (which is emailed to you) at the Welcome Center and they’ll give you your tasting card.
Kennywood even offers a special tasting card exclusively for season passholders – giving them an extra 3 spots on their tasting card for free! Just another little perk of being a Kennywood season passholder and a small way for the park to say “thank you” for being a loyal Kennywood guest.
As I said: once you purchase your tasting card online, you will receive an email with with your receipt and a bar code which you will present at the Welcome Booth. This booth sits at the front of the lagoon – at the end of the main midway – that’s where you’ll start your delicious journey!
If you will be purchasing alcohol with your tasting card, they will scan a copy of your ID at the Welcome Booth and give you a bracelet so you don’t have to dig around and pull out your ID every time you order an alcoholic drink. (In year’s past, they’ve had different policies with the ID process and this new 2025 version seems much more efficient and effective!)
FAQ
Bites & Pints is still a fairly new event for Kennywood Park to host, so it makes sense that a lot of people have questions about how it works.
I see these questions surface in local Facebook groups all the time, so let’s dive into the most frequently asked questions I’ve seen lately!
What Do The Tasting Cards Cost?
The cost of the tasting cards varies simply because the park is almost always running a discount or promotion around the cards.
To purchase them in the park, you will pay full price: which for the 2025 season is $59.99 for the 12-sample card, and $54.99 for the 8-sample card.
However, as I mentioned, the park is almost always running some sort of discount or promo online. I’ve seen the discount range from $10-15 off – so definitely buy your tasting cards online before heading to the park!
Are The Tasting Cards A Good Value?
The a-la-cart prices of each food item range from $5.99 to $8.99 – with most items falling in the $7.49 price-range. If we simply take that average and multiply it by a 12-sample tasting card, that’s an $89.88 value – so even at FULL price, that’s a $30 savings!
The drinks are a bit harder to calculate, simply because you do get a smaller size than the a-la-cart price of $9.99, which is the drink price across the board.
I’m not here to do a ton of math, but I think we can all agree: the tasting card is clearly the way to go to get the best bang for your buck – and when you purchase your card online during a promotion – you get an even better deal!
Needless to say: for less than $50 (because we purchased our tasting card online during a promotion), our family of four us ate a huge variety of delicious food. Taking into consideration that going out to a nice restaurant typically costs us more than that, I’d say that’s a fantastic value!
Are They Full Size or Just Bite-Size Portions?
As I mentioned above: the food portion sizes always blow us away. The park might call them “bites”, but these are definitely not bite-size portions!
Our family of four split 15 items during our most recent visit to the park and we left so full we couldn’t even eat dinner later that night. We ate a huge variety of food: from shrimp, to tacos, to gyros, to dumplings, to ice cream, to churros – and somehow: we completely missed getting anything from the Poland booth (which is where I always go to get kielbasa & pierogies – a taste of my Grandma’s heritage!) I guess you know what that means: A return trip is in order!
What Time Is Bites & Pints Open?
For the 2025 season: Bites & Pints runs every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from May 23 to June 29. On Fridays, the booths open up at 4pm and run until 30 minutes prior to the park closing. On Saturdays and Sundays, the booths open up at 1pm and run until 30 minutes prior to the park closing.
We’ve attended the event across Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and in our experience: Fridays are the best nights to go. The crowd is typically a bit smaller – but to be honest: as Bites & Pints grows in popularity, the crowds just get bigger and bigger.
Thankfully, the park does staff their food booths very well (on average there will be 3-4 people working at each booth). This means that they are very efficient at preparing the food and even though the lines might seem long, they do move very quickly!
If I Buy My Tasting Card Online, Where Do I Pick It Up In The Park?
Repeat after me: it’s not “if” you will buy your tasting card online, but “when”. Got it? Good.
Armed with the email you receive from the park after buying your tasting card online, you’re going to walk into the park, walk straight down the main midway (past The Old Mill, the arcade, and Jack Rabbit). The Lagoon will be right in front of you. If you look to your left, the Welcome Booth will be the first booth you see (and it’s very clearly labeled). You’ll take your email to them (the digital copy on your phone is fine – no need to waste ink and print it out!) and they’ll give you your tasting card, plus your wristband if you’ll be sampling the alcohol.
Do I Have To Use The Entire Tasting Card In One Day?
This is the most common question I see asked and the answer is NO! Feel free to purchase the largest card you can and then come back to the park a few weekends in a row! The cards do not transfer from season to season (you can’t buy tasting cards in 2025 and expect to use them in 2026) but Bites & Pints does run for 6 straight weekends, so buy a large card and treat yourself to several lovely evenings at Kennywood Park!
If you can’t tell, we LOVE Bites & Pints. It is always such a fun event that kicks off an incredible summer season at Kennywood Park. The food is not only large, but really delicious, the quality is fabulous (definitely not your average “fried amusement park food”) and we just love the entire experience.
We love trying new and different cuisines and introducing our kids to food items that they might not normally be willing to try, but in a fun, festive amusement park atmosphere? Sure! They’ll take a bit out of something that might look a bit “different” and guess what? Most of the time, they love it.
When Bites and Pints is going on, Kennywood Park takes on this whole new level of a beautiful, alive, summer festival feeling. It’s so much fun, so delicious, and we LOVE spending an evening at the park, eating and drinking our way around the Lagoon – and I bet you will too.
