This is a topic that has for some reason really been bothering me lately. Let me tell you all a quick story. At the beginning of the year I was at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and in my anticipation to get there as close to opening as possible, I skipped breakfast. So when I got there I was hungry but hesitant to eat, as I assumed typical zoo food would be all that is offered. However, when I sat down to eat I was so happy to be wrong. I ate a fantastic salmon burger with tarter sauce, parmesan garlic fries and a small salad with a refreshing class of coke as a drink. The food was excellent and certainly worth the price. Not to mention there was the overall aesthetics of the eating area. A semi shaded deck with African music in the background, that was not so loud that it was disruptive but just loud enough to where I could here it. Not to mention, the deck overlooked a splendid shoebill stork island with dozens of ducks and pelicans swimming about. I didn't even care I was using time I could have been spending looking at animals. It was a brilliant experience, so much so I'm willing to declare it the best zoo meal I ever had. I may even be willing to declare it the best meal I ever had. Though perhaps I feel this way not only because the meal was excellent in its own right, but because it exceeded anything I ever eaten or experienced (Food wise) at a zoo before. My local zoos food has some, eh, issues in my opinion. There are plenty of eateries scattered throughout the parks, but food ranges from passible to down right awful. Its usually just grossly overpriced fast food. It's not just my local facilities that have this issue, many other places have eateries that serve really quite bad food that is much to expensive. I never knew how good a zoo meal can be until the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The zoo was also quite good may I add. A chicken caesar salad while staring out at a gorgeous look of the jungle landscape below. Not quite as good as its sister location, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of either. So what are ways zoos can improve with their food and café quality? What are some of the best zoo eateries that currently exist?
Had excellent halibut at Wroclaw Zoo, hundreds of miles from the sea. Zoo restaurants are usually rubbish, among the exceptions are Paignton and Newquay.
I have to agree that San Diego (the zoo and safari park) have by far the best zoo food (the field isn't very strong though) I've eaten. I usually avoid eating when I got to my local zoo (mainly due to being insanely overpriced) but judging from past experiences the food is poor. I have a theory that zoos usually serve poor food because it's cheaper to make and visitors are practically forced to eat at some point in their visit.
At Dusit Zoo at Bangkok in Thailand, where you can get delicious food at street stalls 24/7, my wife (who is Thai) send a meal back as not being fit to eat. On another visit to the same zoo I asked if they did latte coffee and was told they did, what I was served was a black coffee. When I queried it they said they only did 'latte' coffee without milk?!?!? Best to stick with the branch of KFC in the zoo, you know what you are getting.
I’m a real foodie and my meal at the zoo is a huge part of the experience for me. Chester (Bembe Kitchen), Burgers, Münster, Cologne and Bali Zoo have been some of the best experiences food wise. Belfast, Ueno, Bali Safari and Phnom Tamao were all positive experiences for different reasons. Belfast was such good value for money, Ueno was food with a view looking out across the water, Bali Safari for the sheer amount of choice and Phnom Tamao was a real traditional Cambodian experience. Queens Zoo was probably my worst experience as all I could buy was a sandwich. Madrid had ridiculously long queues for food. For me, aside from quality food, there needs to be variety, value for money, plenty of space to sit comfortably, good hygiene, quick service and ideally a pleasant atmosphere to stand out.
I will say, despite my personal gripes with my local zoos food, I have never seen such a lousy meal as the one Zoo Duisburg provided to @Newzooboy. https://www.zoochat.com/community/attachments/gourmet-lunch-duisburg-zoo-sept-2010-jpg.4102/
My favourite restaurant is still the one in the Masoala hall in Zurich with a fantastic view into the rainforest. The only downside is that you are kindly requested to donate a kidney everytime you want to buy something....
Actually, never mind. I just remembered that Minnesota Zoo has an actual restaurant (Erbert and Gerbert's) inside the zoo, so I guess that counts as good food (It is actually pretty good).
I once had an excellent pumpkin and parsnip pie at Whipsnade. It was a special for Halloween week. Never seen it, or had a meal there quite as good since. London food is usually pretty decent, if a tad expensive. Living Coasts was very good too, and you can use the cafe without entering the zoo, so went back on a subsequent day (Paignton and Living Coasts are both palm-oil free too). I liked Bristol's food, even if the at seat service maybe isn't the best option for a family-filled zoo (and the staff were very kind and made sure I wasn't forgotten sat on my tod)
I recently heard a zoo director state, in response to a staff member suggesting that the new restaurant serve only healthy, decent food, that most other facilities that have tried that approach lost money on the restaurant (when restaurants need to be profit centers at zoos). Apparently cheap crappy food sells better to zoo visitors and offering better quality to those who prefer it won't pay the bills
I quite like eating at zoos - we usually have something at Dudley and have never felt disappointed by the fish and chips, and I have eaten a couple of times at Twycross (fish and chips was nice, and I had a very pleasant burger in the restaurant in Himalaya). I seem to remember having a sandwich at Whipsnade, but it was unmemorable if nothing else. The food at Paradise Wildlife Park was.... well suffice to say I'd not choose to eat there again. Good for families wanting bog standard grub, I guess. I used to like the food at Bristol Zoo, but have not been since the new restaurant opened there. I was quite surprised at Paignton as I hadn't expected much from the busy restaurant, but it was perfectly decent. I usually have a jacket potato at Hamerton - I don't expect gourmet food from their little cafe, but the jacket potatoes are always very nice. I think my favourite place to eat is Yorkshire Wildlife Park. I usually make it an overnight trip there so I can have breakfast in the restaurant at the entrance (yum!) and depending on how much time I have spent watching the Polar bears and tigers, possibly lunch as well. I have just got back from another trip to Chester and am a fan of the loaded fries at the street kitchen. However, I did once have a sausage sandwich breakfast in Bembe Kitchen - never again. (You can always spot me at zoos, I am roughly spherical in shape!)
I normally just get a burger from zoos, maybe my favourite being from Highlands Wildlife Park (venison, I think). Thinking about a couple of the places mentioned, reminded me of popping out to Morrisons supermarket while at Paignton and the photo from Duisburg of the selection of sausages. I'll usually try other things at Chester zoo, as they have a good variety. Ooh, I think Cologne's chilli was great value and nearly had a second helping I noticed there was a lot of negativity posted about Whipsnade's seating only arrangement on their facebook (as well as here), so maybe that is not the way forward for zoos.
I had that same "lunch" too -as a bonus I got into a "language barrier misunderstanding" with an increasingly irate vendor trying to communicate my having to pay more than the advertised price for my purchases (realised later it was the deposit on the soft drink bottle).
