Sneak-Shriek: How Disney’s Culinary Team is Bringing the Flavors of Monstropolis to Life

Disney4me · 2026-10-06T11:03:01Z

Next year, the gates of Monstropolis from Disney and Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. will open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, inviting humans into this monster-filled metropolis for the first time ever. Guests of all ages will have the chance to step into a bustling city full of laughs, adventures, and some monstrously delicious dishes.

Before guests can enjoy their first bites and celebratory toasts at the iconic Harryhausen’s and the all-new Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, Disney culinary and beverage experts face an unusual challenge: creating food that feels authentic to monsters while remaining delicious for humans. This monstrously talented team is bringing memorable food moments from the films to life by taking characters, locations and even the tiniest details from the films and turning them into experiences guests can actually see, smell, and taste.

To learn more about how the team is bringing the flavors of Monstropolis to life, we recently sat down with Chef Brian Piasecki, Director of Culinary and Concept Development, and Evan Rosenthal, Beverage Director – two of the creative minds developing the menus – for a sneak-shriek!

New Food and Beverage in Monstropolis at Walt Disney World

A Taste of What’s Coming

From the streets of Monstropolis to the food on your plate, this land will be packed with monster-sized personality, and its dining experiences are no exception.

The unique creative challenge of creating menus fit for a monster but still appetizing to us humans led to a series of questions this culinary team never thought they’d ask themselves: Do they slurp? Do they chew? Is this too many eyeballs?

“There were so many moments where we asked, ‘Is this too much?'” said Evan. “And sometimes we’d hear back, ‘No. Can we take it further? Can we make it brighter, bolder, and more interesting?’ Those are the moments of true collaboration.”

“Monstropolis is full of fun, adventure, zaniness, and craziness,” Brian explained. “We’re taking familiar dishes and adding unexpected twists that feel authentic to this world.”

The result is something the culinary team affectionately calls “grossly fun” food: familiar flavors reimagined with playful monster-inspired twists.

Two New Restaurants Coming to Monstropolis

Two new-to-human restaurants will come alive in Monstropolis and invite guests of all ages in for a bite, slurp or chomp!

At Harryhausen’s, Imagineers are building what you saw in the film – including its head sushi chef, a new Audio-Animatronic figure you’ll see using eight talented tentacles to prep food in the center of the dining space. The table-service restaurant will offer a vibrant dining experience that feels like it’s straight out of the movie and features more than just sushi.

While the teams have room to invent new menu items and experiences, every decision starts with staying true to what fans know and love about Monstropolis from the screen.

“In a place like Harryhausen’s, it’s the swanky place that you go for a night out, but we want it to be fun for guests of all ages,” said Evan. “Making sure that the menu appeals to younger guests, to older guests, and then challenging ourselves and taking things that we love and saying, is there something we can add that gets people talking about it and gets them to come back because it’s delicious and entertaining.”

Some of the menu items being explored at Harryhausen’s include iconic ramen bowls inspired by traditional Japanese flavors, but with monster-sized personality. The dishes will feature familiar, classic ingredients like rich tonkotsu broth and alkaline ramen noodles, plus a few others with playful, monster-y twists like fishcake sliced to look like eyeballs and green eggs.

Just down the street, Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza showcases a completely different side of Monstropolis. Inspired by Monsters University, this quick-service restaurant will feel like the beloved pizza spot where generations of monster college students gathered with friends after class.

“When ideating the menu, we kept those thoughts of nostalgia in the front of our minds, remembering what we loved from our neighborhood pizza shops as kids, and finding a way to add those elements of fun unexpectedness,” said Evan. “At its core, it still feels like the pizza shop that you want to go back to time after time.”

A staple from Pixar’s Monsters University will make its real-world debut at Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza.

Blort is one of the most popular soft drinks in all of Monstropolis, but no human has ever seen it or tasted it, giving Disney beverage teams the opportunity to dream big.

The result? Maybe it’s a purple frozen spin on Monstropolis’ favorite soda topped with a Scream Apple Foam that’s so tasty, it’s scary.

Together, Harryhausen’s and Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza offer two distinct ways to experience everyday life in Monstropolis, from a lively night out on the town to a favorite hangout for Monsters University’s finest students.

All Eyes on Monstropolis Dining

When thinking of the creative direction behind the food that fuels our favorite monsters, the culinary team worked together with Walt Disney Imagineering, studying the rich storytelling in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University to cook up menus that guests of all ages will love.

“The best part of our job is that with every project and every story, we get to see it through a new lens and then add things to it that feel uniquely Disney and can’t be replicated anywhere else,” said Evan. “Whether that’s with one eyeball or dozens of them.”

And if you’re wondering whether there can be too many eyeballs on the menu? The team already has the answer: you can never have enough eyeballs in Monstropolis!

Amid all the fun of finding ingredients to make dishes playfully monster-inspired and showcasing the iconic dining locations from the films, the heart of this new land is its storytelling. Each dish and experience is thoughtfully designed to create meaningful memories for fans and families, inviting them to step through the screen and into the beloved story of Monsters, Inc. in a way like never before.

We can’t wait for you to experience Monstropolis when it welcomes humans in for the first time in 2027. With two dining experiences ready to serve up many laugh-powered flavors, start working up an appetite now and save some room for the delicious creations that will leave you growling for more! Keep an eye (or two, or ten!) to the Disney Parks Blog for more details.