It was pretty quiet when I arrived at Valencia, so looking in my bag wasn't an issue. I can imagine it's a pain when busy though.
But this could be to stop people feeding the animals? Schmutzer Primate Centre inside Ragunan does this and I've always assumed it was for husbandry reasons.
Absolutely, it could well be. But I do suspect that it is more to do with them wanting people to use the restaurants on site. Their restaurants also have a pre-paid card system, which encourages guests to spend a bit more on dining.
I've come across it in various Asian zoos. It is indeed to stop people feeding the animals. When I visited Schmutzer they were also checking for cigarettes (it is quite common in southeast Asia for people to offer lit cigarettes to the monkeys and apes).
I am usually taking sandwiches and drinks with me when doing daytrips from home and full disclosure, I am not a fan of wasting too much time during a zoovisit in a restaurant for that matter, so i usually stop by a restaurant or cafe but mainly for coffee. All this may explain, that I am one of the rare people that is ok with Duisburg food. It is quick, inexpensive and as per simplicity a no fail ever, french fries and some sort of hot dog. The french fries at the new Africa Lounge used to be way better before the entire 'Lounge' remake, but still. It is not a restaurant situation at all, it is a snack bar thing, but I like it. The worst 'thing' I've ever eaten in a zoo was something called 'Steak-Frites' at Amneville, which turned out to be some beef and french fries in a baguette. Amneville food is closely followed by a 'pizza' Margherita at the Usti Nad Labem Zoo restaurant, which was in essence melted cheese on a plate with a whiff of tomatoes and a faint appearance of dough topped with dried sprinkled Oregano. So (besides the food situation in Wuppertal Zoo) those are my personal food hell experiences. Valencia with their strange no food - no drinks policy irritated me the most so far. I am usually at each zoo shortly before they open and - I was made aware of the fact that I could not bring sandwiches and stuff prior to my visit - smuggled to granola bars in my jacket and was let through with my water bottle all willing to get to the first restaurant and have a coffee. But they did not open for another 2 hours which was a real downer. Now, for the general explanation for why they do not allow visitors to bring food and any other drinks with them but a small water bottle, they do not get away with that because you can buy everything that you can bring with you and walk around the zoo with the food and drinks you purchased in the zoo. This is not a measure that hinders visitors from feeding the animals or littering, it is simply a way of making money, which again, is ok with me as long as you are honest about it. I stayed for an entire day and by the end the Valencia Zoo looked just like any other zoo (enclosures included). Cookies you could buy and popcorn in enclosures and litter next to trashcans etc. Smoking was generally allowed Food I liked Pizza at the Cafe at Prague Zoo next the cassowary enclosure, the Italian bar at Munich zoo next to the flamingos and just about everything everywhere at Burgers Zoo, Rhenen Zoo, Colchester Zoo and Leipzig Zoo. I think UK and Dutch zoos are overall great with feeding their visitors. In Germany it is a mish-mash type thing of expensive restaurants like Marché and something we would call 'Frittenbuden' with the above mentioned exceptions. From an atmosphere standpoint my No. 1 restaurant in any of the many zoos I visited is at the Scotland Highland Wildlife Park! The nicest people I have ever met, EVER! French Zoos are hillariously bad with zoo food given their general food culture - a thing that will never not amaze me.
Best food I ever had in a zoo: spaghetti in Tama and takoyaki in Tennoji. They felt good probably because I was hungry in both cases. and the Japanese have a thing for food too. Zoos in Turkey seem to have food the seem a bit instant or done without care if that explains batter.
Ooh, I need to ask about ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen. Chester zoo has a refill cup, where you buy a plastic cup that can be refilled free throughout your visit. I thought I had bought the same thing at Gelsenkirchen albeit a lot smaller, but still got charged for a refill. I noticed someone asking on Banham's facebook about drinkable water taps being installed recently (I haven't seen a response) and think all zoos should have them. Madrid is the only one I've seen so far, unless I misunderstood the sign
Until they tore it up as part of the construction of the so-called "Land of the Lions" there was a drinkable water fountain at ZSL London too.
The day any zoo in Germany offers some kind of 'all-you-can-drink' purchase, I will eat my socks . Most of the food sector is franchised out in German zoos (Cologne is an exception) and those competing operators will charge you each time for a drink (I guess like the place you got the refillable plastic cup from....) They should make this clearer!
It has a barcode but with a date wrote on with blue marker on the bottom. Most staff didn't even bother checking the date. Plus I would probably feel guilty using it again. Luckily there are multiple designs.
I think this is pretty much a given. Zoo food in general tends to be pricier than you might get at a fast food restaurant for similar quality, so if they want to keep the same profit margins on higher quality food, the prices would be more than what many guests would be willing to pay. I used to work at a popular theme park that, like any theme park, had high food prices. All of the stuff we made was frozen food from Sysco or some other company like that. There's no way the park was paying much for it so the profit margins must have been big. Most zoos probably serve the same type of stuff. Personally I'd like to see more variety in what zoos serve. It's all burgers, pizza, fries, chicken strips, that kind of stuff. Now, I do love those types of foods, but it would be nice to have other options, ya know? I live next to a McDonald's, I can get that stuff any time, ha ha. More options don't even have to be anything fancy, maybe some like, teriyaki chicken with noodles.
Toronto Zoo in Canada had several McDonalds outlets in the zoo. As I recall, the prices were pretty much the same as McDonalds outside the zoo. Hix
I took this yesterday at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (which has quite a nice cafe). The first two are prickly pear brewed iced tea and the farther two are regular brewed iced tea. Prickly pear cactus fruit is delicious by the way and so is the tea.
On a recent visit to Beijing Zoo with @Deer Forest I bought a hot dog out of desperation having skipped breakfast. It was one of the worst things I've eaten in my life, and certainly the worst in any zoo. 'Hot dog' is usually 50% accurate as a name, that may well have held true even though it was only mildly tepid.
