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

Next year, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will welcome you to Monstropolis from Disney and Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. for the first time. This monster-filled city will offer guests of all ages the opportunity to explore a lively metropolis brimming with laughter, adventures, and some monstrously tasty dishes.

Before you can savor their first bites and celebratory toasts at the renowned Harryhausen’s and the brand-new Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, Disney’s culinary and beverage experts tackle a unique challenge: crafting food that feels authentic to monsters while still being delicious for humans.

This incredibly talented team is bringing memorable food moments from the films to life by transforming characters, locations, and even the smallest details from the films into experiences you can actually see, smell, and taste.

To discover more about how the team is bringing the flavors of Monstropolis to life, Chef Brian Piasecki, Director of Culinary and Concept Development, and Evan Rosenthal, Beverage Director, two of the creative minds behind the menus are offering a sneak peek!

A Taste of What’s Coming

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

The unique creative challenge of designing menus suitable for a monster yet still appetizing to humans led to a series of questions this culinary team never anticipated: Do they slurp? Do they chew? Are there 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 what the culinary team fondly 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, inviting guests of all ages in for a bite, slurp, or chomp!

At Harryhausen’s, Imagineers are recreating what guests saw in the film, including its head sushi chef, a new Audio-Animatronic figure you will see using eight talented tentacles to prepare food in the center of the dining space. This table-service restaurant will offer a vibrant dining experience that feels 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 begins with staying true to what fans know and love about Monstropolis from the screen.

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

Some of the menu items being considered 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 resemble 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 creating the menu, we kept those nostalgic thoughts at the forefront, 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 you want to return 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 or tasted it, giving Disney beverage teams the opportunity to dream big.

The result? Perhaps 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 considering the creative direction behind the food that fuels our favorite monsters, the culinary team collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering, studying the rich storytelling in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University to develop menus that guests of all ages will enjoy.

“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 elements 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 anyone wonders whether there can be too many eyeballs on the menu? The team already has the answer: there can never be 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. like never before.

They can’t wait for you to experience Monstropolis when it welcomes humans 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!