Planning Epcot Food & Wine 2026? See which reviewed dishes are returning, what changed, and what got dropped from last year’s festival menu.

The 2026 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is here, and it is once again asking guests to loosen a belt notch and make some tough decisions about which of more than 30 Global Marketplaces deserve a stop. Walt Disney World has revealed the full lineup of menus for this year’s event, and it is a mix of brand-new dishes and old friends making a return trip around World Showcase.

We spent a lot of time last year eating our way through the festival, and several of those dishes are back for 2026. Some returned completely unchanged. Others got a menu tweak, a recipe overhaul, or in a couple of cases, quietly disappeared. Below, we break down what is actually the same, what changed, and what you should know before you plan your day.

When Is the 2026 Epcot Food & Wine Festival

The festival runs from August 27 through November 21, 2026. It is included with valid Epcot admission, so there is no separate festival ticket, although the food, beverages, merchandise, and certain activities all require additional purchases. For the complete rundown of every 2026 Global Marketplace menu, check out our full Epcot Food & Wine 2026 menu guide.

Beyond the Food: Epcot Food & Wine 2026 Festival Extras Worth Knowing About

The festival is not only about eating, even if that is the main event for most of us. A few returning experiences are worth building into your day:

• Eat to the Beat Concert Series: Returns to the America Gardens Theatre with performances from August 27 through November 16, featuring both returning acts and Epcot newcomers.
• Emile’s Fromage Montage: The cheese-focused food stroll returns, letting guests collect Festival Passport stamps at participating cheese dishes for a redeemable prize.
• Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak: The scavenger hunt sends guests searching World Showcase for hidden Remy figures, with a map and stickers available for purchase.
• Cheers to Cheese!: A new interactive cheese-themed experience arrives at CommuniCore Hall starting September 18.

Epcot Food & Wine 2026 Returning Favorites We Reviewed Last Year for Main Street Magic

Here is where it gets interesting. We went back through our 2025 festival reviews and cross-checked each dish against Disney’s official 2026 menus. A few items returned exactly as we remembered them. A few returned with a noticeably different recipe. However, at least one dish we reviewed last year for Main Street Magic, the Trio de Pintxos, along with the New England Slider and the Peruvian Ceviche, did not make the cut for 2026 at all. Here is the breakdown, booth by booth.

Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer — Flavors from Fire (Unchanged)

This one is back with the same lineup: marble potatoes, charred shallots, roasted baby peppers, and that chimichurri sauce that tastes suspiciously like what you get at the Garden Grill inside the Land Pavilion. In our 2025 Rodizio-style Beef Skewer review, we called it one of the festival’s best savory values for the portion size alone, even if the beef doneness varied a bit from bite to bite and there was never quite enough chimichurri to go around. If you loved it last year, order with confidence. Nothing about the dish has changed for 2026.

Basque Cheesecake — Spain (Unchanged)

Still with orange sauce, still baked hot enough to caramelize that signature burnt top, and still one of the better dessert values at the festival. Our 2025 Basque Cheesecake review called it the highlight of an otherwise underwhelming Spain savory lineup, and it also counts toward Emile’s Fromage Montage. The 2026 menu lists it with the identical description, so expect the same light, creamy result.

Beijing Zhajiang Noodles — China (Unchanged)

The noodles, minced beef, cucumber, chili, carrots, and Douban sauce combination returns exactly as it was in 2025. In our 2025 Beijing Zhajiang Noodles review, we found the noodles a little overcooked and the sauce oddly sweet instead of the salty, umami punch Douban sauce usually delivers. Since the menu description has not changed for 2026, we would not expect the execution to be dramatically different, but the ingredients are certainly capable of a stronger showing than we experienced last year.

Mixed Berry Pavlova — Australia (Unchanged)

The crunchy meringue shell, macerated berries, and whipped cream are all back for 2026 with no changes to the description. We named it one of the better festival desserts in our 2025 Mixed Berry Pavlova review, praising it as a light, cooling option for Florida’s heat. It remains an easy recommendation for guests who want something sweet without the heaviness of a lot of other festival desserts.

Schiacciata Sandwich — Forest & Field (Unchanged)

Mortadella, prosciutto, sun-dried peppers, arugula, stracciatella, fall squash mostarda, and pistachio pesto on warm focaccia, all still exactly as described in our 2025 Schiacciata Sandwich review. We called it a great handheld value last year, with the only knock being a slightly bready focaccia-to-filling ratio. That balance appears to be unchanged for 2026, so if you liked it before, it should taste the same this time around.

Gulf Coast-style Seafood Roll — Now at Hops & Barley (Slider Dropped)

Here is a partial return. In 2025, this dish appeared at the Flavors of America marketplace alongside the New England Slider, and we covered both in our 2025 Flavors of America review. For 2026, the Flavors of America name is gone from the official menu list, and the Gulf Coast-style Seafood Roll, still built with warm-water lobster, rock shrimp, lobster bisque, and sherry crème fraîche on a toasted brioche bun, has resurfaced at the Hops & Barley marketplace in American Adventure instead. The New England Slider does not appear on the 2026 menu at all. So the lobster roll survives the move, but if the slow-braised pot roast slider was your favorite, you will not find it this year.

Festival Favorites Booth (Partially Changed)

The Festival Favorites marketplace returns for 2026, but the lineup got a shakeup. We reviewed the original 2025 opening in our first Festival Favorites coverage and then went back for a closer look at the food in our Festival Favorites pierogi and fried cheese review.

What returns for 2026:

• Potato Pierogi with kielbasa, caramelized onions, and sour cream, same as last year.
• Frozen S’mores (non-alcoholic), the chocolate milk shake with marshmallow syrup, mini marshmallows, and a graham cracker.

What is new or added for 2026:

• Bo Ssam Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps with kimchi slaw and spicy aïoli.
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse Trifle featuring Philadelphia Cream Cheese with citrus sauce, spice cake, and cranberry streusel.
• Frozen Apple Blossom, a new cocktail with apple cider, ginger ale, apple brandy, mini marshmallows, and maple syrup.

What did not make the return trip:

• The Curry-Spiced Fried Cheese with mango-curry ketchup, and the Irish Milk Shake, both absent from the 2026 lineup based on Disney’s official menu.

If the pierogi was your go-to, good news: it is back and unchanged. If you were hoping to grab that Curry-Spiced Fried Cheese again, you are out of luck this year, but the new Bo Ssam Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps look like a reasonable substitute for guests who want something savory at this stop.

Coastal Eats (Epcot Food & Wine 2026 Menu Overhauled)

Coastal Eats returns near Creations Shop for 2026, but the menu is not a straight repeat of what we covered in our 2025 Coastal Eats review. Last year’s lineup included the Lump Crab Cake, the Peruvian Ceviche, and the Seaside Pot Pie. For 2026, the booth lists a Crab Cake with tropical fruit chutney, mustard sauce, and micro celery, which reads as a reworked version of the original, and a Seafood Pot Pie with shrimp, scallops, and lobster bisque, which drops the crawfish tails that were part of the 2025 Seaside Pot Pie. The Peruvian Ceviche does not appear on the 2026 menu at all.

Our 2025 review noted that both the ceviche and the pot pie suffered from inconsistent preparation between visits, with the ceviche’s citrus marinade swinging from overpowering to underwhelming depending on the day. Guests who want the seafood pot pie again should find a familiar, if slightly simplified, dish. Ceviche fans will need to look elsewhere at the festival this year.

Paella Caldoso — Spain (Recipe Changed, Mussels Gone)

This is the biggest recipe change on our list. Our 2025 Paella Caldoso review covered a seafood-forward version built with rock shrimp, bay scallops, and smoked mussels, and we found the mussels completely dominated the dish, to the point that even the rice tasted like mussels. That version, listed with an identity crisis somewhere between paella and soup, is gone.

The 2026 Paella Caldoso at the Spain marketplace is a different dish entirely: chicken, chorizo, gigante beans, romano beans, and saffron rice, with no seafood listed at all. If the seafood version was not for you last year, this is worth a second look. If you were one of the guests who actually liked the mussels, you will want to know that dish is no longer on the menu.

What Was Best (and Worst) Last Year

For broader context on how the 2025 festival’s new dishes stacked up overall, Attractions Magazine’s roundup of the best and worst new Epcot Food & Wine items named the Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer and the Korean BBQ Wings among the standouts, while the Paella Caldoso landed on the worst-of list. As noted above, the paella has since had a full recipe overhaul for 2026. So in a way, Walt Disney World appears to have listened. Maybe?

How to Plan Your 2026 Food & Wine Day

With more than 30 Global Marketplaces spread across Epcot, trying to hit everything in one visit is a losing battle. We would recommend studying the full 2026 menu guide ahead of time, building a short list of must-try dishes, and mapping out where each one is located before you start walking. It will save you from the classic Food & Wine mistake of circling half of World Showcase only to realize the dish you wanted was back near where you started.

Whether you are chasing the dishes that stuck around unchanged, curious about the reworked Paella Caldoso, or mourning the loss of the Curry-Spiced Fried Cheese, there is still plenty on the 2026 menu worth the trip. As always, eat like you mean it.

Expertise. Ease. Value.

Ready for your bucket list trip? Our trusted partner, MEI-Travel, will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable vacations. 

Contact for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.