One of the hardest foods to get at Tokyo DisneySea is now available at Disneyland

If you’ve tasted it before, it’s likely because you waited for an hour or more at Tokyo DisneySea, the theme park that’s the counterpart to Tokyo Disneyland the same way Disney California Adventure is to Disneyland Park. There, the snack is among the most coveted in the park: a “Gyoza Dog,” which takes the traditional pork and vegetable filling of a gyoza dumpling and puts it in a soft, steamed bao bun, making it an easy-to-eat treat whether you’re traversing the park or waiting in a ride queue. 

In Japan, park guests line up for hours to get them. When SFGATE editor-in-chief Grant Marek visited that park earlier this year, it took him two tries. “It had the most insane line I’ve seen in my entire life,” he said. “It took an hour to get a single food item — but it was so delicious.” 

“We waited in the line one day and gave up, then strategized to line up before the thing even opened the second day,” he continued. “It was still like 40 minutes … but man, was it good.”

It only makes sense that a creatively upscaled dumpling would be an excellent park snack. According to the Joey Tribbiani Principle that I devised when trying Disneyland’s viral pickle dog — take “Custard, good. Jam, good. Beef, good,” and substitute food variables as needed — the sum of delicious gyoza and delicious bao should be even more delectable than its individual parts. 

Now, a version of the treat has made its way to Disneyland.

I ordered one for $8.99 and a side of chili soy dipping sauce for $1.39, and was pleasantly surprised to see the silver wrapper closed with a cute little Baymax sticker. I was at a cervecería, after all, so I added a Karl Strauss “Moment of Zen” Japanese Rice Lager ($13). There are eight Strauss beers and one hard seltzer on tap. 

But when I unwrapped the gyoza bun, it didn’t look like the one I had seen pictures of from Tokyo DisneySea. The basic idea was the same, but the decorations on top were different — whereas the Japanese version had intricate folds, this one looked smushier and less defined. I took a bite without the sauce: all soft, steamed dough and no filling. On the next bite, I got chopped pork, mushrooms and green vegetables. The flavor was very mild but improved with the dipping sauce, which added a salty (not spicy) punch the sausage bun needed. 

I liked it, and liked the lager with its citrus and floral notes as a complement, but I can’t see anyone waiting an hour for this like they do in the Tokyo park. Luckily, we don’t have to: I placed a mobile order at the stand for 4 p.m. and picked it up immediately; when I did, there were plenty more sausage buns available. 

Another difference: the Japanese version sells for 600 yen, about $4.17 in U.S. dollars, less than half the price of the California version.

What I did really enjoy was seeing how much busier and full of life the area was. San Fransokyo Square officially opened on Aug. 31 and instantly became more popular than Pacific Wharf had been in recent years. Now, people walk across the San Fransokyo Gate Bridge and line up in droves to meet Hiro and Baymax. (For Oogie Boogie Bash, Yokai, the villain from “Big Hero 6,” appeared on a treat trail in that spot.) 

Most of the restaurants, like Lucky Fortune Cookery and Cocina Cucamonga, are still there, but there’s more overlap in cuisine inspiration than there was in the past. Cocina Cucamonga now serves a Japanese-influenced street corn with togarashi mayonnaise, queso fresco, furikake and bonito flakes. Lucky Fortune offers a Mexican-inspired beef birria ramen with consomé, a soft-boiled egg, Monterey Jack cheese, cilantro, roasted corn, onions and radish.

It’s a natural evolution for the cuisine of the fantasy hybrid city.

“I think about these cultures coming together, sharing ideas and thoughts like ingredients, maybe techniques,” Disney California Adventure culinary director Jeremiah Balogh said at the San Fransokyo preview event in July 2023. “And then as they go back to their restaurants, they’re practicing some of those things that they’re learning and then maybe incorporating some of those lessons that they learned into their elements.”

The gyoza sausage bun, as well as the food at the other San Fransokyo Square restaurants, is available for walk-up and mobile order.