If you know anything about Filipino parties, then you know they’re all about the food. Well, also the karaoke, but mostly about the food.
So, as a Filipino guy fascinated by food studies, when I was invited to preview the edible offerings during the media day for the Disneyland 70th Anniversary Celebration, you know what I was most excited to see.
Disneyland’s food is constantly on rotation with whole blogs dedicated to what’s new to nibble on in the park. While it’s generally considered pretty good, I didn’t get to taste any of it. However, I did get to talk to two of the chefs.
Nostalgic Noshing
Tastes, menus and even restaurants change over the years. The Disney dining we know today is not the same as when Walt Disney opened the park in 1955. For the Disneyland 70th anniversary, chef Steven Medina said that the goal was to celebrate the evolution of the park’s food over the years.
Of the seventy dishes that will be offered through the anniversary celebration through 2026, some of the ones highlighted at the press event included Mickey Hat cookies with the Mickey Mouse Club decoration, a classic banana split using the same recipe that the park used when it opened and a banana split churro, the Hook’s Galley tuna melt, grilled Tahitian ribs and apple pancake rolls.
One of the main foods that Medina wanted to highlight was chili. A chili cheese corn dog and a W. E. D. (Walter Elias Disney) chili baked potato.
“You can’t talk Disney food or Disney history without talking chili,” Medina said. “Chili was something that Walt was notorious for loving and this is the recipe that he loves. We’ve been very grateful to play with that chili recipe and present it in ways that keep evolving with guest demands and our passion to put up new foods.”
The meal that Medina is most excited for is the tuna melt.
“When the park first opened, there was a Chicken of the Sea restaurant,” he said. “I’m a big tuna fan but I wasn’t alive to experience that restaurant. This is something that I’m passionate and excited to try.”
Medina also said that there are many items like cowboy fries (a sort of Frankenstein creation of fries, nachos and a burger) on offer that are intended to cater to parkgoers on the move.
“Burgers and fries have always been very popular, but Disneyland has become a walking park,” he said. “And guests want to get from one end of the park to another and this is kinda putting that meal together into one to help you.”
Among the culinary nods to Disney past are the Tahitian ribs which reference the old Tahitian Terrace restaurant, the fried tamale walking taco and mocha cream puff which both feature Fritos chips in reference to the former Casa de Fritos restaurant and the apple pancake rolls which are served rolled up like how pancakes were served when the park opened.
“We want to give the nostalgia factor to anyone who comes to the park and wants to enjoy our food,” Medina said. “We’ve pushed the boundaries a lot with out food, so how can we take those classic flavors and progress them to where we are today?”
Sweet Treats
From Dole Whip to churros, the word “food” at Disneyland is tied to its wide selection of snacks.
Like the main meals, there will be 70 different offerings availble throughout the park to chomp or sip. Some of the highlights from the media presentation include a special 70th anniversary blend of coffee “with chocolate notes” from Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company, a macaroon shaped like a Little Green Man from the Toy Story franchise filled with birthday cake buttercream and wearing a chocolate party hat, peach cobbler funnel cake fries, a specialty cold brew coffee topped with vanilla creme and chocolate medallions, a churro covered in ube sugar and topped with blue raspberry icing, and beignets filled with raspberry filling and topped with buttercream glaze and edible candles.
“The color theme is very bright and we wanted to use that as inspiration for our flavors,” said Chef Steffany Arce. “Most of our food is very berry flavored because berries give you that little pop of color, little pop of flavor, little pop of brightness. It’s a lot of blue raspberry and strawberry especially for the desserts. Since we start this summer and go all the way to summer 2026, that flavor and brightness really excited us.”
The color blue particularly influenced the flavors and aesthetic of the dessert menu because of how attractive and eye catching it is and how it contrasts well with other colors.
“You can see how the blue icing drizzle makes the churro really pop with the purple of the ube and the same thing with the beignet, popcorn buckets and tumblers,” Arce added. “Blue is also in the castle as well, so we have that represented in a lot of the food we have in the celebration.
Chef Steffany’s favorite items are the 70th Celebration Churro and the Specialty Cold Brrr-ew.
“With the ube flavor we just decided to go with something that would give a pop of flavor. We wanted to give the guests the chance to try something different and more exciting,” she said. “I’ve also been gravitating a lot toward coffee and Disney has been going really big with cold brew lately. The anniversary cold brew stands out a little more than others because it has a little more decoration like the chocolate ears and confetti sprinkles.”
Souvenir Snackers
Between movie theaters and theme parks, popcorn buckets and drink sippers have been all the rage lately. With recent hits like the Powerline Max popcorn bucket commemorating the 30th anniversary of The Goofy Movie, Disney wanted to create some unique and memorable novelty snack holders.
“We have a team dedicated to our novelties including popcorn buckets, sippers, straw clips and the items paired with our food,” Michael Lopez, a food and beverage synergy and media manager for Disney. “They’re trying to find out what hasn’t been done and what can be done, so for the 70th anniversary, they conceptualized how to bring a popcorn bucket to life. They wanted to walk, talk and move.”
While walking popcorn buckets aren’t a reality quite yet, the team did manage to create a popcorn bucket that can talk and move. The 70th Celebration Mickey Mouse Bucket can blink and move its head, and when you say “Hey, Mickey,” it will respond with a variety of phrases. Lopez said that the bucket may come with different snacks like cookies or french fries depending on the restaurant or food vendor that guests purchase it at, and food choice may also affect the purchase price ranging from $50 to $55.
Additionally, the park is also offering a the first ever light-up Mickey ballon bucket and a drink sipper shaped like Harold the Matterhorn’s abominable snowman that lights up and roars when you move his arm.
“Interest in popcorn buckets has grown incrementally year over year,” Lopez said. “The bigger and better we’re able to make them and find the right demographics, the more people will want them. We’ve found a market for the nostalgic like with the Powerline Max bucket that hit a big base group, and we’re moving onto the next new thing.”
Taste Test
As good as the food at Disneyland is, sometimes the dishes look better than they taste, and while we had the option to try some of the special 70th Anniversary menu, it was only a handful of items. (I’m especially upset that I didn’t get to try the ube churro.)
In terms of food, I had the chance to try the mocha cream puff with chocolate dipped corn chips and the 70th Stuff. The mocha cream puff had a good mocha flavor and it’s not overwhelmingly sweet, though the cream filling did burst everywhere when I took a bite, so be warned and have a napkin on hand. Texturally, the pastry part of the creme puff had a nice chew to it that was contrasted nicely by the crunch of the corn chips, aka Fritos. If you’re on the fence about trying corn chips dipped in chocolate, don’t be. The saltiness of the chips pairs well with the sweetness of the chocolate and compliments the mocha flavor. I’d give this dish a 5/10, a nice elevated treat for coffee lovers but something that you could skip if that’s not really your flavor profile.
The 70th Stuff is a play on the Grey Stuff sold at the Red Rose Taverne. Like the Grey Stuff, the new dessert also starts with a shortbread cookie base and has raspberry jam filling. However, the flavors have been updated. Instead of the inside layer being red velvet cake it’s now cookies and cream flavored, and instead of the outside mousse layer being cookies and cream it is now white chocolate. This dish is very sweet.
Different flavors aside, it’s not a dramatic change from the standard grey recipe and if you like the Grey Stuff or have never tried it, it might be worth giving the 70th Stuff a try for the sheer novelty of it. The flavors all pair well together and the different textures provide a fun and varied mouthfeel experience. When I tried it, the shortbread cookie was so hard that when I tried to break part of it off with my plastic fork, the fork shattered into several pieces, sending large crumbs flying everywhere. The hardness could be due to the dessert being served slightly chilled so that the mousse won’t melt, but overall it was the better of the two desserts and I give it a 6.5/10.
I also got to try two of the new drinks: the Celebration Cocktail, which was alcoholic, and the Sparkling Peach Punch, which was not. I am a big fan of blue colored drinks, especially ones that taste like blue raspberry, so the Celebration Cocktail was a big hit for me. Though the drink has tequila, rum and vodka, I could barely taste the alcohol and the blue raspberry lemonade combined with Sprite was very refreshing. I can absolutely see myself ordering this again, and I probably will, so this gets a 7/10.
Then there’s the Sparkling Peach Punch. Despite the fun name, it’s a very simple drink: just peach syrup, Sprite and popping boba. It’s a refreshing drink and the peach flavor blends nicely with the citrus of the Sprite, but at the end of the day you’re just paying for an expensive peach-flavored Sprite.
I also really dislike popping boba on a textural and conceptual level, so while it may be a fun garnish for kids or people who have never had it before, that garnish was another miss for me. It’s not a drink that I can recommend at all given the lack of effort or creativity and the theme park price point, so I’m giving it a 2/10. I wouldn’t refuse it if it was offered to me, especially on a hot summer day, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out, and the boba will remain unpopped.
That’s the food preview for the new foods crafted specially for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary. If you’d like a full list of the new dishes, check out the Disney Parks Blog. As for me, I’m Filipino so I’ll be hunting for that ube churro with high expectations.