EEEEEATSCON is The Infatuation’s signature food festival, created to bring the restaurant-discovery website’s recommendations to life. The name is intentionally playful, with all those E’s emphasizing the idea that this is a festival built around eating. Rather than focusing on tiny tasting portions, cooking demonstrations or traditional food-industry panels, EEEEEATSCON was designed more like a music festival, with restaurants serving as the headliners. The first EEEEEATSCON took place in Los Angeles in 2017, and the New York edition debuted in 2018. Since then, it has developed into one of the city’s more distinctive restaurant events.
For 2026, EEEEEATSCON New York returned October 3 and 4 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 76. The waterfront location gave the festival a very different atmosphere from a conventional restaurant event, with guests moving from stand to stand while enjoying the Hudson River setting, music and other entertainment. More than 25 restaurants from New York and around the country participated, making it possible to sample restaurants that normally require reservations, long waits or even a plane ticket. The 2026 event was presented in partnership with Chase and was available to Chase cardholders.
One of the most appealing things about EEEEEATSCON is that the food isn’t simply a collection of miniature versions of restaurant dishes. Many participants create special items specifically for the festival, while others bring signature dishes that have made them popular with The Infatuation’s editors. There are also collaborations between restaurants that normally don’t work together, giving people the opportunity to eat combinations that may never appear on a regular menu. That emphasis on one-time-only food is a major part of what makes EEEEEATSCON different from an ordinary restaurant tasting event.
One of the biggest 2026 highlights was the collaboration between Golden Hof and Bánh Anh Em. They created two festival-exclusive bánh mì sandwiches, including a beef-cheek version with soy-garlic-braised beef cheek, coconut gochujang mayo, pickled carrot and daikon, perilla, cilantro and Thai basil. There was also a much more luxurious Busan Lobster Bánh Mì featuring cold-poached lobster, ginger-garlic mayo, gochugaru-apple vinaigrette, pickled vegetables and fried caramelized shallots. It was a good example of EEEEEATSCON’s tendency to combine different culinary traditions in unexpected ways.
Pizza lovers had a particularly good reason to visit Ceres Pizza. The restaurant is known for making whole pies, but EEEEEATSCON allowed guests to buy individual slices of its cheese pizza. The slice featured San Marzano tomatoes, scamorza, fior di latte and Vacche Rosse Parmigiano. Another major attraction came from Miami’s Sunny’s, which brought its sought-after burger to New York along with Everglades oysters, a Berkshire pork corn dog with spicy mango mustard and a festival-exclusive key lime sundae.
Classic New York comfort food was also strongly represented. Brooklyn institution Defonte’s offered several sandwiches, including its Golden Boy with chicken cutlet, melted mozzarella, prosciutto and vodka sauce, while an EEEEEATSCON-exclusive Shrimp Parmesan sandwich featured crispy fried shrimp, marinara, mozzarella and Parmesan. Charles Pan-Fried Chicken brought cast-iron pan-fried chicken and slow-smoked jerk barbecue wings, served with three-cheese baked macaroni and cheese, cinnamon-citrus yams and honey cornbread.
There was plenty of international food as well. Adda served chicken biryani, paneer kathi rolls and mango lassi, while Bark Barbecue presented a distinctly New York combination of Dominican and Texas barbecue, including brisket with mac and cheese, chicharrón with maduros and wood-fired pork with Dominican moro rice. Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile offered three fried-pork-lard chalupas topped with shredded beef and onions, along with Mexican street corn and aguas frescas. Tacos Domingo served carne asada, pollo asado and an exclusive pork chop, bacon and cheese taco.
Asian flavors were especially prominent throughout the festival. I fell in love with my Dan Dan Noodles made with pork, scallions and peas from 1915 Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles of New York’s own Chinatown. (As you can see from the above photo, noodles were hand pulled right in the booth!) Noz Market served bluefin tuna, Hokkaido scallop and an EEEEEATSCON-exclusive nodoguro handroll, while Mei Lai Wah brought its famous baked roast pork buns and a special fried-pork-chop pineapple bun. Ramen by Ra offered ramen cups inspired by breakfast, including bacon, soy egg and cheese in chicken shoyu broth. Laab Bar by Kru contributed Thai-inspired laab wings and carbonara khao soi noodles, combining northern Thai curry flavors with ingredients such as guanciale, pork belly and pecorino.
Dessert was almost an event within the event. Hani’s Bakery & Café offered a triple chocolate chunk cookie, pistachio halva Rice Krispie treat and an exclusive cookie-butter brownie topped with flaky sea salt. Caffè Panna created a special mango sticky rice sundae with mango ice cream, coconut sticky rice arancini, mango coulis, coconut caramel, panna and toasted coconut. Mishie’s Sunnyside brought elaborate pies including key lime, passion fruit and mango, banana banoffee and pumpkin pie with maple whipped cream. I did scoff down a Key Lime Pie myself and fell in love!
What makes the October 2026 EEEEEATSCON particularly interesting is the range: it wasn’t simply a showcase of trendy New York restaurants, but a culinary tour that moved from old-school institutions to buzzy newcomers and from neighborhood favorites to restaurants from outside the city. Maine’s Eventide Oyster Co. brought a brown-butter lobster roll, Los Angeles’ Miya Miya brought its popular chicken shawarma wrap, and Raleigh’s 321 Coffee supplied specialty coffee and matcha drinks. In that sense, EEEEEATSCON remains true to its original concept: taking The Infatuation’s restaurant recommendations off the screen and creating a lively, one-weekend-only food experience where the restaurants themselves are the stars.
