Disney4me Posted Monday at 09:00 PM Report Posted Monday at 09:00 PM Thirty years is a long time to be feeding EPCOT. Over three decades, the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival has given us dishes we still think about, dishes Disney has wisely brought back again and again, and a few things that probably deserved to remain a blurry photo in an old Festival Passport. Check inside the passport For the Festival’s 30th anniversary, Disney decided to crack open the archives. There are 30 special Legacy Items scattered around the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, with dishes either returning from previous festivals or getting reimagined for 2026. Naturally, we tried them. And after working our way through the ones released so far, one thing became pretty clear. Nostalgia can get a dish back onto the menu, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna like it. Some of these old favorites reminded us exactly why Disney keeps bringing them back. Others got upgrades that were genuinely better than what came before. And a few left us wondering whether perhaps we could have celebrated their contribution to Festival history with a nice plaque instead. So, which 30th anniversary foods are actually worth your Festival budget? Some Classics Are Classics for a Reason Disney didn’t tinker with every anniversary dish, and that was probably wise. The Pão de Queijo from Brazil remains one of the easiest recommendations we can make at this Festival. These little Brazilian cheese breads were once again fluffy, gooey, cheesy, and dangerous to anyone who had planned to “just have one bite.” They landed right back on our Best of Fest list this year. The only down side was that in previous years, we received three pieces of cheesy bread, and this year we only received two. So, it’s a bit less “shareable.” Pão de Queijo The Freshly Baked Carrot Cake from Milled & Mulled pulled off the same trick. It was moist without becoming dense, packed with just enough carrot and walnut, and topped with a cream cheese glaze that delivered sweetness without turning the whole thing into frosting wearing a cake disguise. Freshly Baked Carrot Cake Canada also kept all of the classics in their same form. Both the Cheddar and Bacon Soup and Canadian Filet Mignon are Legacy Items this year, and both remain some of the safest ways to spend your Festival money. The soup was still rich, smoky, creamy, and aggressively cheesy. Our pretzel roll could have been softer, but dunking bread into cheese soup has solved worse problems. Cheddar and Bacon Soup Meanwhile, the filet arrived medium-rare with a flavorful crust, mushrooms, and creamy mashed potatoes. At $10.49, it’s one of the pricier small plates at the Festival, but it continues to eat more like a miniature entrée than a snack. Filet Mignon And then there’s the Slow-roasted Pork Slider from Hawai‘i, another Best of Fest-worthy return. The pork was tender and juicy, the pineapple chutney added enough sweetness to keep things interesting, and the so-called spicy mayo wasn’t particularly spicy. We forgave it. Slow-roasted Pork Slider There is a reason some recipes survive multiple presidents, several versions of Test Track, and whatever EPCOT was doing with those giant Leave a Legacy tombstones. Don’t mess with the good stuff. France Fixed Its Escargot Problem Now we get to the reimaginings. And we need to start in France because this may have been one of the biggest anniversary glow-ups. The Trio d’Escargots puts three escargot bites inside croissant dough with a garlic-parsley dipping sauce. We had a version of this dish in 2025, and the dough was unfortunately chewy enough to get in the way of everything else. This year? Completely different story. The croissant dough was fluffy, buttery, and flaky. The escargot themselves were tender. Garlic and parsley did what garlic and parsley have been doing heroically for centuries. We liked this one enough to specifically call it Best of Fest material, and France ultimately took our title for Best Booth of the Festival. That is how you do a comeback. View this post on Instagram Italy. Yes, ITALY. We need everyone who has eaten their way through previous EPCOT festivals to understand the gravity of what we’re about to say. One of our favorite anniversary surprises came from Italy. The Pollo al Marsala is based on a dish that appeared at the Festival years ago, and we weren’t exactly writing it love letters back then. Pollo al Marsala The 2026 version gave us juicy, tender chicken with creamy potato gnocchi, mushrooms, and a Marsala sauce where we could actually taste the wine and seasoning. The gnocchi were tender. The mushrooms worked. The chicken had flavor. Italy took an old Festival dish and made us actively want to recommend it. Mark the calendar. Maybe frame this paragraph. Spain Knew What “Reimagined” Meant The Paella Caldoso also got a makeover for the anniversary, with this version combining chicken, chorizo, beans, and saffron rice. This was not a timid little menu shuffle. The saffron rice was creamy and fragrant, the chorizo added smoke and spice, and the chicken was tender and juicy. There was some heat, but it didn’t hang around long enough to bulldoze the other flavors. Paella Caldoso We called it a total hit, and Spain came extremely close to taking our Best Booth of the Festival title. If Disney wants to go digging through more old Festival menus after the anniversary ends, this is the blueprint. Find the good idea, figure out what wasn’t working, and then actually make it better. The Frozen Apple Drink We Didn’t Know We Needed Swirled Showcase brought back a piece of Festival history in the form of the Frozen Szarlotka, inspired by Polish apple pie. This thing tastes a bit like someone looked at apple cider and decided gravity was optional. It’s frozen, appley, refreshing, and packed with real apple pieces, with streusel adding cinnamon and texture on top. Frozen Szarlotka topping There is one warning. Drink it quickly. The streusel starts losing its crunch as it sits in the frozen drink, and eventually you’re dealing with a decidedly mushier situation. This is not a beverage for wandering into Creations Shop for 45 minutes and remembering you own it later. But fresh? We loved it. And Then Japan Happened Not every trip into the Festival archives paid off. The Spicy Temaki Hand Roll at Japan features spicy tuna, cucumber, rice cracker, and spicy mayo. We had several problems here. Spicy Temaki Hand Roll First, the seaweed was tough enough to make the hand roll difficult to eat. The tuna came across particularly fish-forward, which may be a problem for anyone who isn’t already very comfortable with that flavor. Despite “spicy” appearing twice in the description, we didn’t get much heat. Worst of all, the whole thing was simply too dry. Spicy Temaki Hand Roll At $9, this isn’t exactly the kind of Festival experiment you shrug off after two bites, either. There are other things at Japan we’d spend that money on first. Flavors From Fire Lost the Plot The Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer might hurt even more because we know this dish can be good. When we tried the previous version, the beef was juicy and cooked around medium-rare. It was one of the standouts at the booth. This year’s skewer was not that. The beef was overcooked, chewy, and difficult to eat. The marble potatoes were soft and salty, and the charred vegetables gave us some nice smoky flavor, so the supporting cast was doing its job. Unfortunately, the star of a beef skewer is generally expected to be the beef. This one was a miss for us. The Mousse Was Fine. That’s the Problem. Then there’s the Liquid Nitrogen Almond Truffle Mousse at Swirled Showcase. We didn’t dislike it. The milk chocolate mousse was light and tasted good. Sliced almonds gave it some texture. There’s whiskey-caramel sauce involved, which sounds on paper like someone assembled a committee specifically to earn our money. Liquid Nitrogen Almond Truffle Mousse But the caramel got lost. We wanted more from the almonds, too, particularly some salt to cut through all that chocolate. The result tasted like a slightly dressed-up chocolate mousse. Would we walk across EPCOT specifically to get it again when approximately 700 other snacks are yelling at us from nearby booths? Probably not. A 30th anniversary comeback needs a little more than “perfectly acceptable.” Not Every Dish Needs To Win Best of Fest There were also several Legacy Items living somewhere between triumph and disaster. The Chicken Souvlaki Gyro from Greece had flavorful chicken and plenty going for it, but some wilted lettuce hurt the texture. The Gulf Coast-style Seafood Roll at Hops & Barley came on an excellent buttery brioche bun, although we noticed a stronger fishy flavor in the filling than we would have liked. Dishes from the 2026 Hops & Barley Booth And the Ras el Hanout Cauliflower Bowl at Tangierine Café was well-seasoned, tasty, and a solid plant-based choice. It just didn’t feel especially distinctive in a Festival packed with food competing for limited stomach space. That’s the brutal math of Food & Wine. Something can be perfectly good and still lose. View this post on Instagram TL;DR Summary In case you need a quick reference guide, here’s the break down of all of the 30th Anniversary Legacy items, where to find them, and our thoughts for 2026. Some of booths haven’t opened yet, so there’s still a chance some of our favorite legacy items are yet to come! Item # Anniversary item Location DFB verdict so far 1 Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese The Alps Opens Oct. 2 2 Roasted Lamb Chop Australia HIT. Tender, flavorful, chips still work ridiculously well. 3 Belgian Waffle with Cookie Butter Belgium HIT, although VERY sweet. Cookie butter and speculoos absolutely run the show. 4 Pão de Queijo Brazil BIG HIT. Fluffy, cheesy, gooey, still fantastic. 5 Pickle Milk Shake Brew-Wing HIT, with an asterisk the size of Spaceship Earth. More pickle-forward this year, but still fun if you are Team Pickle. 6 Cheddar and Bacon Soup Canada HIT. Soup remains excellent; pretzel roll was tougher than ideal. 7 Canadian Filet Mignon Canada HIT. Flavorful crust, creamy potatoes, properly cooked filet. 8 Dumplings Trio China HIT. Crispy dumplings, tender fillings, excellent sweet-tangy sauce. 9 Potato Pierogi Festival Favorites Opens Sept. 9 10 Bo Ssam Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps Festival Favorites Opens Sept. 9 11 Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse Trifle Festival Favorites Opens Sept. 9 12 Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer Flavors From Fire MISS. Chewy and overcooked, especially disappointing after 2025’s juicy version. 13 Trio d’Escargots France BIG HIT. Massive improvement over 2025, with fluffy, flaky dough and tender escargot. 14 Schinkennudeln Germany HIT. Creamy, cheesy and unapologetically heavy. 15 Apple Strudel Germany HIT. Excellent vanilla sauce and apple-cinnamon flavor; apples were a bit mushy. 16 Chicken Souvlaki Gyro Greece MIXED. Good chicken and fresh flavors, but some wilted/mushy lettuce dragged it down. 17 Slow-roasted Pork Slider Hawai‘i BIG HIT. Juicy pork, pineapple sweetness, great balance. 18 Gulf Coast-style Seafood Roll Hops & Barley MIXED. The buttery brioche did a lot of the rescue work against a noticeably fishier filling. 19 Potato-Pea Samosas India Opens Oct. 2 20 Chicken Tikka Masala India Opens Oct. 2 21 Pollo al Marsala Italy BIG HIT. Juicy chicken, flavorful gnocchi and Marsala mushrooms. A redemption arc nobody expected from Italy. 22 Spicy Temaki Hand Roll Japan MISS. Tough seaweed, little heat, fish-forward flavor and an overall dry bite. 23 Taco de Camarón Mexico HIT. Great shrimp, crunch and creamy aioli, although we wanted the breading crispier. 24 Freshly Baked Carrot Cake Milled & Mulled BIG HIT. Moist, balanced and exactly sweet enough. 25 Sweet Potato Mealie Pap Refreshment Outpost HIT for spice fans. Legit heat, nicely cooked vegetables, filling plant-based option. 26 Paella Caldoso Spain BIG HIT. Creamy saffron rice, smoky chorizo, juicy chicken. 27 Frozen Szarlotka Swirled Showcase HIT. Essentially frozen apple cider in a very good way; streusel gets mushy if you dawdle. 28 Liquid Nitrogen Almond Truffle Mousse Swirled Showcase MISS/MIDDLE. Good chocolate mousse, but caramel disappeared and we wouldn’t make a special trip for it. 29 Ras el Hanout Cauliflower Bowl Tangierine Café GOOD, NOT MEMORABLE. Well-seasoned and tasty, but not especially unique. 30 Crab and Corn Macaroni and Cheese The Wedge Opens Sept. 18 So, Did Disney’s 30th Anniversary Experiment Work? Mostly, yes. The biggest lesson from eating through Disney’s 30 years of Festival history was that the dishes with staying power generally earned it. Pão de Queijo is still excellent. The Canadian classics are still classics. The Carrot Cake remains one of the best values at the Festival. Hawai‘i’s pork slider can come back whenever it wants. All of the option from Canada But we were even more interested in the foods Disney actually improved. France took an escargot dish we struggled with last year and fixed the texture. Italy resurrected a Marsala dish and somehow made Italy one of our surprise recommendations. Spain rebuilt its paella into one of the Festival’s strongest savory bites. Those are the anniversary foods we want more of. Full booth Keep the recipes that work. Fix the ones that almost worked. And when 30 years of history tell you something was chewy, dry, or forgettable, perhaps nostalgia does not require a rematch. We’ve eaten our way around the entire 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, so keep checking DFB for all of our reviews, rankings, tips, and increasingly strong opinions about tiny plates of food. 9 Weird, Hilarious, and Shocking Things That Happened on EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Opening Day Read More About the Food & Wine Festival Hit or Miss: We Tried All 30 “Reimagined” Menu Items at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival2 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Booths Open THIS MONTHREVIEW: This EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Breakfast Got More Expensive and Less BoozyThe Disney World News We CAN’T Shut Up AboutREVIEW: We Don’t Care That It’s a Slushy, This EPCOT Food & Wine Treat Is Way Better Than We Expected IT'S WINE & DINE TIME! Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience. If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU! GET YOUR GUIDE NOW Learn More About the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival! Food and Wine Festival 101 Eat to the Beat Concert Updates EPCOT Food and Wine Festival - Fans Facebook Page Wine and Dine Half Marathon Details Get More Updates, Tips, and Tricks to Help You Conquer the Food & Wine Festival Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe! Did any of these returning dishes surprise you? Tell us about your favorites in the comments below! View the full article Quote
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