The EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival has returned to Walt Disney World this fall for its 30th year, showcasing celebratory menus featuring fan-favorite items from throughout the event’s history. But how do these throwback dishes compare to our memories of the originals? We recently taste-tested five retro Food & Wine offerings with roots in the festival’s first few years, and we ranked them from bottom to top, based on how well they lived up to their legacies.
I had only been a resident of Orlando—and a Walt Disney World annual passholder—for a few months when I stumbled into the very first EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival way back in 1996. I distinctly remember stepping up to my first food booth for Russian caviar and being confused that the samples weren’t complimentary; later during that same visit, I mistook the permanent fish-and-chips takeaway in England for a festival kitchen. But over the next few years, I fell in love with the event, taking full advantage of long-lost elements like cooking classes and liquor tastings inside the former Wonders of Life pavilion.
As part of the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival 30th anniversary celebration, Disney has revived well-remembered dishes from the event’s earlier decades, dedicating a centerfold within this year’s free festival passport to calling out returning dishes with their year of origin. During our latest visit, we sampled four menu items that were identified with the festival’s very first year, plus one new dish that’s a close cousin of one of my early favorites. Here’s the list, from least-liked to must-have treats:
5. Seafood Pot Pie at Coastal Eats
Disney doesn’t officially list this dish as part of its Food & Wine anniversary selections, but as soon as I heard that Coastal Eats—which has served some of my top picks in past festivals—would be serving a seafood pot pie, I was immediately reminded of the similar item originally served at the long-gone Ireland booth, which once stood outside the Rose & Crown Pub. Although it evolved over the years, that item always offered tender chunks of shellfish in a rich sauce wrapped in flaky pastry, which is what I was hoping for in this later-day interpretation.
Instead, I got a few rubbery shrimp and oddly crunchy peas swimming in a watery bisque and topped with a gummy, undercooked crust. I guess the legendary Ireland booth’s seafood pie—along with the equally missed Guinness chocolate cake—will have to remain just a memory.
4. Dumplings Trio at China
Since my first visit to EPCOT in the 1980s, China has been the EPCOT pavilion where I’m least likely to pause to eat, simply because the Orlando area has so many better options for Chinese food. However, I’m a sucker for potstickers, so I broke my longstanding rule to sample the throwback trio of chicken, pork, and veggie dumplings, which turned out to support my tradition.
Unfortunately, all three fillings were varying degrees of bland, and the wrappers were raw in the middle with unpleasantly chewy edges—and without the crispy crust I was expecting. To add insult to injury, mine was indifferently plated with an excess of sweet-spicy sauce slopped on.
3. Spicy Temaki Hand Roll at Japan
One of the oldest forms of sushi, temaki hand rolls are hot right now, and this year’s offerings from Japan are honorable (if slightly undersize) representatives of the culinary art form. I don’t recall Wagyu beef— which tops one of the two featured temaki—being on the menu 30 years ago, but I do have fond memories of the sriracha-spiced tuna used in the other.
There’s no fault in the flavor or freshness of the fish in this dish, and the crispy cucumbers and rice-cracker balls topping it add a delightful crunch. However, the tuna has been minced into a fine paste the texture of cat food—rather than being left in recognizable chunks, like in the spicy tuna rolls sold year-round at the nearby Kabuki Cafe—and the seasoned rice below is served cold instead of body temperature as intended, which allows the nori seaweed paper underneath to become limp. The result is tasty but texturally troublesome and tricky to eat without it falling apart.
2. Trio d’Escargots at France
For several years, EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival was my only annual opportunity to enjoy escargot, and sampling the snails has always made me smile, even as their portion size became skimpier as time went on. Happily, this year’s escargot offering is among the most satisfying in memory, even if it isn’t exactly the old-school in-shell preparation I prefer.
Instead, guests get three squares of buttery croissant pastry, each with a plump gastropod baked inside. Although not ginormous, none of mine were rubbery or gritty, as is often the case. Most importantly, the pastry-wrapped pulmonata are really just a delivery vehicle for the ambrosial garlic-butter sauce, which is helpfully served in a small ramekin for dipping (or drinking).
1. Potato Pierogi at Festival Favorites
Even though Poland was part of Food & Wine’s opening-year lineup, it is no longer represented by a Festival kitchen, so Communicore Plaza’s walk-up window has stepped up to represent this festival favorite. Thankfully, this year’s return of Potato Pierogi with kielbasa sausage lived up to my memories of this favorite from my first visit in 1996.
As the spouse of a proud Pennsylvanian, pierogi and kielbasa make frequent appearances on my household’s dinner table, so I can vouch for EPCOT’s version as a very edible representation of the real deal, down to the sour cream topping the sausage’s snappy skin. The caramelized onions are an extra-nice touch, though I’d love some coarse brown mustard.
30th Anniversary EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival Final Thoughts
It’s hard for the present day to live up to hazy happy memories from 30 years ago, so it is little wonder that some of the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival throwback menu items didn’t hit quite the same way as they did back then. But one thing that was somewhat surprising, in a positive way, was the hit of these retro dishes—or lack thereof—on the wallet, relative to price increases we’ve seen elsewhere in the resort. For example, in the span of 30 years, the price of our top-pick pierogi dish has doubled from $3 to $6, a modest increase roughly in line with overall inflation, compared to the 300%+ jump seen on tickets and other food items in that same time.
Finally, there’s one last big change for this anniversary event that longtime Food & Wine Festival fans will certainly have feelings about. New waste receptacles with curved solar-panel tops have been deployed around the park, which means an end to the age-old technique of balancing food and drinks atop them. Without trash cans as makeshift tables, visitors are advised to look for some picnic tables and high-tops deployed along the shorelines, as well as the rest area along Imagination Pathway.
Which throwback EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival items excite you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
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