Roughly 100 new items arrive at the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and a small number of them are the opposite of comfort food. These dishes are designed to take guests out of their comfort zone. Fermented spirits, a milkshake made of pickles, a cocktail garnished with a pork wing, snails baked into croissant dough; this is food for the brave!
The 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival runs from 27 August to 21 November, and it is the festival's 30th, counting from its 1996 debut.
Disney has confirmed 43 festival menus and marketplaces, with more than 100 new items and 30 anniversary throwbacks that have either returned unchanged or been reimagined for the occasion. But, not every booth opens on day one. Festival Favorites begins on 9 September, The Wedge in CommuniCore Hall runs 18 September to 8 November, and Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, India and The Alps all open on 2 October.
New for 2026, guests can avail of Disney Gift Card 'wristlets' in Mickey and Donald designs, with a $15 minimum activation, usable at the Global Marketplaces and anywhere else Disney Gift Cards are accepted.
Here, we take a look at thirteen of the most novel and creative items on the menus across the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. Guests heading to Disney World's four-month-long food festival, those who are feeling brave, can decide which menu items may be worth gambling a festival credit on.
Where to find foods for the brave
Adventurous eating at this festival clusters in a few predictable places, and knowing which ones saves you a lap of World Showcase.
The Brew-Wing Lab at The Odyssey is the festival's designated laboratory, and it behaves like one. Many menu items are out of the ordinary, with wings with garlic-parmesan, or Carolina Reaper build, and a drinks list that has included a pickle milkshake since 2023.
China and Japan serve up strong spirit-led drink lists including some unusual tipples including baijiu, sake and plum wines, alongside bites such as a savoury noodle dish and wasabi-chips that may intimidate some festival goers.
Flavors from Fire and Refreshment Outpost handle the smoke-and-spirits end of things: bourbon with Dijon mustard in one case, African whisky with cassis in the other.
France, described by some as the best booth of the festival, takes a spot on the list for one 30th-anniversary item that has been quietly daring guests since 1996 (unless you're French, and snails are just a regular delicacy!).
Beyond those, other standout items will be found at the Mexico, Hawai'i, La Poutinerie, Swirled Showcase and the Norway Cart.
Now, without further ado, let's tuck in.
The thirteen foods for the brave
Unnecessarily Spicy Yet Extremely Tasty Carolina Reaper Pepper-Curry Wings
Brew-Wing Lab at The Odyssey — $7.79
Disney has already named this one, honestly. The 'Unnecessarily Spicy Yet Extremely Tasty Carolina Reaper Pepper-Curry Wings' comprises Pilgrim's jumbo wings in a Carolina Reaper and curry sauce, served with a creamy cucumber raita that exists purely to give you a way out.
The curry base is one thing, but it is the Reaper (one of the hottest chillies commercially available) that really brings the heat.
If this dish tickles your fancy, well, best of luck to you!
Pickle Milk Shake
Brew-Wing Lab at The Odyssey — $6.49 (non-alcoholic)
This absolutely falls into the don't knock it till you've tried it category, with many guests giving this green goo rave reviews.
And, personally, I can't knock it, because I doubt I'll ever talk myself into trying it!
Originally introduced in 2023, the Pickle Milk Shake is probably the single most divisive thing on the festival menu, and, it is exactly what it sounds like: a dairy milkshake fused with pickle and brine
Like I say, many guests swear by it, and along with the Fried Pickle Spears and the Brew-Wing Lab's strongly flavored wings, these are all very much part of the Festival dining experience.
Swine Brine
Flavors from Fire, near Creations Shop — $13.00
Another slightly jarring name for quite a curious drink combo. So, brace yourself, it is Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, apple-cinnamon cider, lemon juice and Dijon mustard, garnished with a pork wing.
The idea of the mustard is the part that stops some people, but foodies will tell you that it acts a bit like it does in a vinaigrette, by cutting the cider sweetness and adding body. And, the pork wing turns the drink into a light course in its own right.
This is perhaps the most interesting and most Instagramable cocktail at the festival, and maybe one of the few worth its price on novelty alone.
Trio d'Escargots, Garniture a l'ail et au Persil
France — $9.25
Making kids say ew since forever is French delicacy escargot (that's snails to me and you)
A 30th-anniversary item in this year's Festival is the Trio d'Escargots. After it debuted in 1996, it has been on the Festival menu in one form or another almost continuously since.
The current version comes as three escargot bites baked into croissant dough, served with a garlic-parsley dip.
Snails put a lot of people off in the abstract, and this preparation is designed to disarm exactly that: the pastry and garlic butter do most of the talking, and the texture is closer to a rich mushroom than anything alarming.
If you are building a "brave" itinerary for someone who is nervous, it is perhaps a good place to start rather than at the Reaper wings.
Aside from the escargot, France is also home to some of the favorite and top-rated menu items of the Festival - so, if you skip the snails you won't go hungry.
Hawaiian Rice Bowl
Hawai'i — $6.29
SPAM, eggs, eel sauce, spicy mayonnaise and furikake. It is not standard fare, but also not quite as out-there as some of the festival's other menu items.
Guest reviews seem to rate it highly.
SPAM is genuinely central to Hawaiian food, so its not just a gimmick. So it may be a rare and adventurous pick for some, and it is also a straightforward good bowl of food for many others.
Also, at $6.29 it is one of the most substantial and affordable savoury items on the Festival's entire map.
Bo Ssam Pork Poutine
La Poutinerie Hosted by Air Canada — $11.99
Listed on the menu as "Seoul, South Korea", part of La Poutinerie's global-mashup format.
This speciality take on the Canadian 'delicacy' sees the combination of French fries and cheese curds with bo ssam pork, gochujang gravy, kimchi pickles, aïoli and sesame. Basically, gochujang and gravy bring the heat, the curds and aïoli pull it back.
It is the largest and one of the more expensive items, but it's also more filling than many other 'taster' sized bites around the festival.
Beijing Zhajiang Noodles
China — $8.50
Stir-fried minced beef, cucumber, chilli and carrots in a savoury douban sauce.
Douban is a fermented broad bean paste, and it gives this a deep, salty, faintly funky base that is unlike anything else on the festival menu. It potentially reads more unusual than it tastes.
Baijiu Punch
China — $14.25
Baijiu spirit with lychee syrup, soda water and piña colada mix.
Baijiu is the most-consumed spirit in the world by volume and one of the least familiar to Western drinkers, with a pungent, sometimes savoury profile - and that's what the lychee and coconut are designed to soften.
For guests who want to experience without the more savoury version, the China pavilion also pours the Hainan Prosperity at $14.25 and a Frozen Strawberry-Jasmine Cocktail at $14.00.
Sapporo Reserve paired with Wasabi-Soy Sauce Potato Chips
Japan — $8.50 to $13.00
Japan is not to be outdone in the heat stakes, even if it's in snack form, with wasabi-soy chips. The chips are teamed up with Sapporo Reserve beer, served in small and large pours.
Guests who prefer to keep it alcohol-free can have the same chips paired with a Mango-Apple Fruit Pearl drink, priced at $10.00, which combines creamy Calpico with apple popping pearls (which arguably makes it the stranger of the two pairings).
Japan's other cocktail worth flagging here is the Autumn Breeze at $8.25, a plum wine cocktail with kiwi syrup and yuzu. Its , and one of the cheapest genuinely unusual drinks in the park.
Midnight Safari
Refreshment Outpost — $17.50
Mansas African Whisky with G.E. Massenez Crème de Cassis de Dijon and sour mix, garnished with blackberry and mint.
African single-grain whisky is rare, let alone in a theme park, and a pairing with blackcurrant liqueur is an unusual combination in its own right. It is also the most expensive drink in this guide, so go in knowing that.
Frozen Szarlotka with Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka
Swirled Showcase — $13.00 (non-alcoholic version $6.79)
bImage courtesy of Walt Disney World
bImage courtesy of Walt Disney WorldAnother semi-adventurous 30th-anniversary throwback, first introduced at the Poland marketplace in 2013.
With an apple pie filling and apple-cinnamon cider topped with streusel, spiked with Żubrówka, the Polish vodka flavoured with bison grass and carrying a distinctive herbal, faintly vanilla note.
Although it is the throwback many guests may not have seen, and the non-alcoholic version at $6.79 is a genuine bargain if you want the dessert without the vodka.
Tostada de Osso Buco
Mexico — $8.25
Pork osso buco on a fried corn tortilla with chipotle black beans, salsa verde, queso fresco and chives.
Osso buco is a slow-braised shin cut, and Mexican food lovers would say putting it on a tostada is not exactly a common combination.
So, unlike other menu items on the list, the flavors may not be especially strange together, but the construction is a fun take; remember it, because not everyone is up for the Reaper wings.
Caramel Cream and Gjetost Norwegian Brown Cheese Bolle
Norway Cart
Gjetost is a caramelised Norwegian whey cheese, brown, dense and closer to fudge than to anything most guests might imagine when they think of "cheese".
Before you go
Menus at EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival change. Booths sell out of individual items, phased openings move, and Disney reserves the right to alter anything on the list.
Check the My Disney Experience app on the morning of your visit, particularly if you are travelling for a specific item.
And, if you are going before 2 October, remember that Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, India and The Alps will not be open yet.
