Cheyenne Mountain doesn't have any of the traditional fried food stands that plague other zoos. Their "Grizzly Grill" has the best zoo food I've ever had. They have daily specials including BBQ, a deli, and an Asian food counter. Nearby, "The Overlook" has specialty burgers and local brews. The zoo is currently constructing a European style pizza restaurant across the pathway which is planned to open in early June.
I was looking San Diego Wild Animal Park's dining options the other day and they appear to serve nothing but sandwiches. With all the places they have to eat at, they could have slightly more options!
Oh my, what a selection! I would be spoiled for choice! The craft beer hand battered fish sandwich takes my fancy, though!
Had a nice lunch in Berlin Zoo a couple of weeks back. Schnitzel and chips with a mushroom sauce. And a glass of draught beer (though I actually asked for a glass of radler…) The money is the change I got from €20. I didn't eat the following day at Berlin Tierpark as I only had an hour, half of which I spent watching a polar bear.
The zoo with the best food is probably Anello's Torch Lite. This is because Anello's Torch Lite is not a zoo with a restaurant, it's a restaurant with a zoo.
Here is Wisconsin we call them cheese curds, and they are usually the preferred side to any meal, if available. The quality of taste ranges from disguising to excellent, but even if they taste awful they sell very well...
I'm going to tell you that you're wrong. Denver Zoo does a pretty good barbecue, and Singapore Zoo serves an excellent curry in a bread bowl. Though, any zoo where I can get a croque madame gets extra points in my book.
I disagree. If you can find a better location or a better Schnitzel than in Vienna, you are hacking life.
God now I wish the Bronx had something decent. I'm sure they can get some bodega cooks to make some good food.
Darn I only had half a day there and left right before lunch. I think I grabbed a sandwich to go at the train station in Vienna to eat on the ride to Salzburg.
You missed a fantastic lunch; we ate in the historic pavilion in the middle of the zoo, but you could also eat in one of the farmhouses and the food was equally good.
I don't usually eat the food when I visit zoos, but I've stopped in at the Glacier Grill at Henry Vilas a few times and it was never bad. It's just your classic, easy-to-make food, nothing classy.
I was ROFL more reading this thread than anything ever on Zoo Chat! What a blast! You had me craving vareniky when that came up, but then I laughed even harder at the thought of it ever making a menu here.. Levity aside, the real answer to why any given zoo serves what they do is demand. SDSP is a real outlier, I think, among US zoos in serving such incredible choices and such well-prepared food. Most assume--and I'll use my home zoo NZP as an example--that eating will 1) Be a necessity not necessarily a pleasure and 2) Kids will make up a disproportionately large percentage of visitors. From late March to June, busloads and busloads will come on school trips, and the zoo on those weekdays will be filled almost exclusively with kids. For those students groups and all the kids coming with parents on weekends, the safe bets are chicken nuggets, hamburgers, hot dogs, all with French fries, and soda (although applesauce, apple juice, milk, coffee, and water are also available). These are the die-hard fail-safes of kids going back decades, and if you're coming to the zoo with one, and one or all of these aren't available, you'll continue your day with one increasingly cranky kid. Why? Here, recreational activities like baseball games and amusement parks and movies are associated with these foods. Regardless of what Mom and Dad would like, they will appease Junior to keep things pleasant. I hang my head to admit that my own daughter's diet is still comprised almost entirely of these foods as an adult. As a result, this menu--plus salads--is really all you need to offer. NZP, like many urban zoos, is space-challenged and landlocked. There are two eateries, one walk-up service with outside tables and one I'll call a restaurant only because it has indoor seating. Both offer the above, plus the "restaurant" has ice-cream novelties. The zoo has no more space to allot to eateries, and the needs of most can be met this way. I don't even think the choices are done to be money-makers; they meet the necessity, and the zoo charges whatever they want to make a profit--the same way movies and athletic events do. However, I was stunned to find that on big holidays like Easter Monday (I know, I know, it sounds bucolic, just don't ever think of going) when the place is so crushed with people that you can't see your feet, they are now bringing in specialty food trucks! I just about fainted when I discovered one making fresh crepes, both sweet and savory. There was no place to sit, but I wound up there twice in a single day that's usually devoted entirely to animals--and I even took one home! All three were even better than my previous faves, all at SDSP. There's clearly a market for such "specialty" fare, but only on days of high attendance when they know there will a minimum threshold of childless adults in the park. A few things to note here, since many of you are from across at least one pond! Your zoos--and countries--have a completely different, more civilized way of combining gustatory delight and wild animals. When I arrive at the zoo, even after four hours of driving, I head straight to the animals and don't even think of anything else until my legs get sore walking the steep incline. I was surprised to find that some of you go to the zoo and start your day by eating breakfast while watching animals! You'd never see breakfast here, only rarely even hot chocolate if lids aren't prohibited. Your zoos go beyond providing what's needed; they provide what's pleasurable. **Europeans were shocked at the concept of the free refill, but they're standard here at zoos, amusement parks, and sports events. The cups are hard plastic and "collectible" in nature and save heavily on the number of individual paper cups that would be used and the amount of time a cashier saves in not having to ring up a sale. Considering how much most folks drink in a day and the price of individual sodas, the refillable ones ($12-15) end up paying for themselves. **Every zoo I've ever been to here has water fountains. They don't in Europe now, just to avoid a "freebie"? **Straws are forbidden in many places here due to the worry of them ending up in some animal's gut and causing torsion, which is fatal if not discovered in time and corrected surgically. Many zoos have no lids for the same reason. This makes the "free-refill" cup even more appealing, as it comes with one of those heavily ribbed straws that's practically impossible to remove, even when you want to clean it. **Almost all zoos here had picnic groves in their beginnings, as well as bandshells and dancing pavilions, just as in amusement parks. You can still find picnic tables in some small zoos, and I saw a literal grove at the huge African Lion Safari in Ontario, but I think these have gone by the wayside, not really to make a profit as at the movies, but because space is at such a premium. Yes, it's been against rules in any ticketed place to bring coolers or bottles, because these could be used as dangerous projectiles, especially in a heated athletic setting, but I find there to be far too little seating of any kind in DC, especially with the challenging terrain. There is a hillside facing a stage, which itself is not frequently used enough to warrant the expenditure of space imo, but it's at the very southern tip of the zoo, pretty far to go just to find a place to sit. People do sit there and eat, probably with provisions from home. **Since 9/11, security has been increasing in general. I've only had my bags searched once at a zoo, in DC on the crowded Easter Monday, but all Broadway theaters search bags, as well as amusement parks and sporting events, which use walk-through metal detectors as well. **God bless you, @ArizonaDocent! A fellow iced-tea lover! I drink nothing else, and literally have to take large bottles of my own homemade concoction everywhere. We in the North, lol from the days when there was no West, also blanch at the treacly sweet tea of the South. Though being less strong than hot tea was a downside to one tea-lover on here, for me, it's essential. Far too many diners and restaurants in the South must only make new unsweetened iced tea when the drum-sized urn of it is empty, and the result is a beverage looking somewhat like used motor oil, so opaque that you can see only through the ice cubes, which melt too quickly because the drum is kept at room temperature. Iced teas by soda companies are both too heavy and WAY too sweet, with far too little lemon--an all-important tea necessity that has been sadly overlooked in all the discussion of milk! I have my iced tea--always served in metal or glass--by my side everywhere I go, including to bed at night. Here, a chain called Bonefish Grill makes the kind of flavored teas @ArizonaDocent mentions, most recently a wild blackberry so perfect it needed no tinkering or additions! There are serious tea-lovers in the US!
