Food at your zoo...

What do you make of your zoo's food?

  • Excellent

    Votes: 9 12.3%

  • Good

    Votes: 24 32.9%

  • Alright

    Votes: 24 32.9%

  • Yuck

    Votes: 8 11.0%

  • I don't eat at the zoo

    Votes: 8 11.0%
  • Total voters
    73
Z

ZooLeopard

Well-Known Member
I am interested to know what other zoochatters think of their local zoo's or favourite zoos food facilities...

Do you like the food at your local zoo?

Is it reasonably priced?

Do you have to queue for ages to eat or sit down?

Is there a nice range of foods?

Dont forget to take the poll and to write down why you chose this option!
 
My local Zoo Linton Zoo is very small and has a rather small but very addequate Cafe and Gift Shop. The Cafe is in the small building but there are plenty of tables outside by the parrots within the Gardens.
The Zoo offers food such as Sausage Rolls,Jacket Potatoes,Cornish Pastry's etc and the usual Drinks aswell as a large array of chocolate and biscuits etc. It is pretty cheaply priced and freshly made so overall a pretty good deal. It may not have the big meals of other zoo's but being a small zoo it doesn't really need too. It generally doesnt get too queued up and caters for the Zoo at the right level it needs.
There are also some splendid picnic sites right within the Gardens and many people take the decision to bring their own food and eat within the Zoo Gardens during the Summer Months.
So overall = Basic Meals,Freshly made and rather cheap. Its all good.

But I do have to say one of the best meals me and my family have ever had in a Zoo would definately have to be at the new Dartmoor Zoo. It had a great range of food from what I can remember Fish and Chips, Salad, Pastries etc. It was very very nice and at a reasonable price and all made on site. I didnt have to que very much at all as it is a huge restuarant for such a small zoo. I was very suprised, the Restuarant was so profesionally done for a very recently run down zoo.
 
The food at Edinburgh is okay, but if the Mansion House is open I can recommend a meal there over and above Stripes or Oasis. The other two are very much your self services type place and fairly standard but the Mansion House food is absolutely incredible (and is also the RZSS dream to have all food to the same high standard) I'll go further and say that although the food is as good as any other zoo and compares favourably, ask anyone who works at the zoo and they will all say "could do better". We're just perfectionista up here and are never happy with what we provide!
 
I like this thread have to agree with Simon McGlary about Edinburgh,now for some different ones Chester the food is Ok but,is always better quality in the Oakfield or Accorn Bar but costs a bit more,Twycross the food is very good and very good value I`m always amazed at how they manage it given the facilities they currently have.Paignton is pretty good but from my own experience if you go later in the day you get a much bigger portion than earlier in the day.Newquay is done to order most of the time but is worth the wait.Never had a bad meal in any of the WWT collections.Howlets and Port Lympne is ok but to me very over priced.Never had any quality of food at any of the Safari Parks,just bog standard fast food.Cotswold Wildlife Park is reasonably priced and the quality is pretty good as well.
 
I stopped eating at the LA Zoo when I started volunteering there, which was two years ago. Mainly because I found out that the museum across the street had better food for a lower price.
 
could u change my vote, i think exellent, well the only zoos i hyave eaten at is busch gardensa and seaworld
 
Marwell is very wise-minded in where it gets it's food; all the teas and coffees are fair trade, and the food is locally produced, and I'd say one of the best things on the Cafe Graze menu are the local pork sausages. There is no mega-brand food apart from Pepsi, no Walkers Crisps or Ben and Jerry's ice cream: All from local companies. The vegetables in Cafe Graze are often picked on the day and supplied by the Winchester Food Market, and there is an ice cream parlour for Judes ice cream, a local family buisness just outside Winchester.

Anyway, the food in Cafe Graze is perhaps not outstanding, but very good quality. Recommend the local pork sausages I mentioned and if you're visting during the festive season, they're christmas lunch. It overlooks the African Valley which is a great location, though it's hard to make out sometimes if you're sitting down. The building is also very eco-friendly, and the produce is very low fat. Kiosks in the Park are Squirrel Snacks underneath the old Treetops Restaraunt near the entrance, the Africa BBQ hut opposite Into Africa, Bushtucker Bites in Encounter Village and the Judes Ice Cream opposite the rhino house. All other reasonable produce and fantastic hot chocolate. ;)
 
Dortmund is my local zoo and the food is famously bad there (by far not the worst in German Zoo - of the bigger ones, Wuppertal is a top contender for that position). There is another restaurant just outside the zoo right next to the entrance which has a bigger variety, but the food is bad as well, full of unhealthy additives and also way over priced. So, if you visit Dortmund, enjoy the zoo but please bring your own food !
 
Chester's food has improved massively this year, Junes pavilion offers a great choice of fresh sandwiches, past and pizza, burgers and chippy style fish and pies. We have lost the acorn pub food but as members get 20% off so I think it's really good value and quality :)
 
My city (Tucson, Arizona, USA) has two local zoos.

1) Reid Park Zoo - Food is average (that is the way I voted in the poll).

2) Arizona Sonora Desert Museum - Best food service of any zoo in America.
 
Ive noticed that alot of the zoos ive been to, the food service is getting healthier & taste better.
 
One of the best zoos I've ever eaten at is Antwerp Zoo. I had lunch at Flamingo which is a massive self service restaurant with a huge variety of food for anyone's preference. Belgium as a whole is very expensive so by their standards I wouldn't say it was over-priced. Artis Zoo had a similar style restaurant in their African section that I remember being pretty good as well.
 
I have generally found the food at the Los Angeles Zoo to be okay, and they are making some efforts to improve it.
 
mstickmanp said:
I stopped eating at the LA Zoo when I started volunteering there, which was two years ago. Mainly because I found out that the museum across the street had better food for a lower price.
Click to expand...

The food at the museum across the street has been getting worse, while the zoo is trying to improve.
 
Zoos aren´t the best place to have a good meal, but Lisbon does have a Mcdonald's in the entrance area, along with 3/4 good restaurants and several mini kiosks. I don´t like Mcdonald´s, but it´s a good place for people to eat i think. Kids love it. And we can see the Nile Crocs from there. :D

Lisbon Oceanarium is one of the best plces to eat. With the newly added temporary exhibit, there is a small cafe that has some good dishes. One of Lisbon´s best restaurants is under it, and there is Wall´s/Ola/Frigo(...) store and a Pasta Café. It´s near to Vasco da Gama, a big mall, and a row with cool restaurants.
 
At Brookfield Zoo the food is average but the only place I ever eat at is the Café del Sol next to the Living Coast which is pretty good. The Best I have eaten is at the Yak and Yeti at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
 
SoCalChevy said:
The food at the museum across the street has been getting worse, while the zoo is trying to improve.
Click to expand...

This has not been my experience. The Autry cafe has a great buffalo burger. I find the food there to be of much better quality than the zoo.
 
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