Poll: Eating at the Zoo

[iloveyourzoos]

I chose buy lunch at the zoo (regular cafe food). I almost always end up picking up something, and am too lazy to plan ahead!

If a zoo is small enough to see in a couple hours, and close to outside restaurants, I may go to them instead before or after. But presuming the zoo is of sufficient size for me to get hungry and still have more animals to see after, I figure they've "earned" the extra dollars.

I haven't seen too many zoos with high end restaurants in the states, and am not sure how often I'd use them if available. I'm usually stopping more to boost my energy levels, rather than to have a dining experience per se. But if it was a super large destination zoo that I was visiting several days in a row, then I could maybe see myself wanting something nicer at some point.

 

[Lafone]

I usually do coffee, water or a snack - particularly in the summer it’s ice cream for the win but will sometimes take my own food.

Whipsnade in the winter I always take coffee and soup in the car as it helps with not freezing at the top of the Bedford downs! And a cup of decent coffee watching the rhinos is great.

I’m otherwise not a fan of carrying loads of stuff or a bag around the zoo as always have my camera with me so anything is either portable / picked up en route. Not really a fan of crowded places full of yelling kids - nothing against them having fun at all, just not fun for me if that makes sense, so that means most zoo cafes aren’t places I’d want to spend much time in.

 

[littleRedPanda]

Since the covid thing, I've been more willing to buy food at the zoo.

 

[KevinB]

At my local zoo, Zoo Planckendael, I rarely, if ever, buy any food, although I occassionally do buy something to drink (water or soft drink) when I am not carrying my reusable water bottle or we don't have drinks in the car. That is largely because a visit there rarely lasts more than 2.5-3 hours, and because I find the restaurants there to be underdimensioned and too busy.

At my other local zoo, Zoo Antwerpen, we usually eat in the more high-end, somewhat more expensive Grand Café Flamingo, as it is a bit more quiet than the zoo's large restaurant Savanna. I always get their vegetable lasagna, which I will definitely recommend.

At other zoos we usually buy food and drinks (soft drinks or water) at the zoo, with a lunch around noon and a drink and possibly a snack in the afternoon during longer visits. We usually prefer to get something like a club sandwich or salad. If we can we try to avoid fast food like fries and burgers. We have sometimes eating more high-end foods at zoos, but generally we don't as it probably takes more time we'd rather spend at exhibits.

I already have to take quite a bit of stuff when I go to the zoo and having to add lunch (especially if you add something to keep it somewhat cooler) seems like a bit of a hassle. And I like to support the zoo a little more by buying lunch. Unfortunately right now I might have to carry my own lunch as I have a medical problem with my temporo-mandibular joint. I can't eat things that are too big or hard right now. I can't eat (club) sandwiches or burgers and fried foods, snacks and salads are iffy. Some hot dishes would definitely work, but not all zoos offer those. So unless I can find out with certainty that they offer something I can eat, I will have to either take my own lunch or not go at all. I'm not someone who can skip lunch.

 

[Fallax]

For me I usually won't plan any meal and if I am hungry I will just buy something quick from a cafe/restaurant at the zoo.

Chester is my local zoo, and as a result I often don't spend a long time there as I can always go another day... If I am hungry I will usually just get some crisps or another snack as I am usually visiting between lunch and dinner anyway.

I visited two other zoos this past week, Bristol Zoo and Yorkshire Wildlife Park. At Bristol, I packed my own lunch prior as I would have been on the train for a long time and wanted to budget a bit... Which went out the window as I went to Five Guys after my visit since I spotted it on the bus back to the station

At YWP I just decided I would buy some sandwiches while I was there, which is what I did. It was extremely busy though, and it took a while just to get through the queue... I was also surprised at the amount of people buying full pizzas in boxes!

Some random food highlights at zoos I have been to would be the curry served outside Zurich's elephant house and a really good sandwich I had in Berlin. Also, for anyone visiting Chester, I would recommend eating at the "street food" restaurant in Islands as it has some interesting items such as some rather blue looking burgers

 

[amur leopard]

For London Zoo, I generally just take a sandwich unless I have company as the zoo food is fairly expensive and in many cases I needed to eat quickly due to the nature of the visits. For new zoos, I generally have the zoo food, whether that means a full sit-down meal or just grabbing something from a kiosk.

As for best zoo food out there - Vienna and Vincennes easily the best out there that I've come across. Vienna was so good in fact that I returned to Schonbrunn a second time just for the zoo food (didn't actually enter the zoo, just the farm restaurant which is accessible from outside the zoo as well as inside it). Both the restaurant within the rotunda, which is of course a beautiful setting and had great food and that on the zoo's border with the park in the farm area are great and I would highly recommend. As for Vincennes, food was of a quality that you'd expect from a very nice restaurant yet was thoroughly affordable and the system in place for getting and paying for the food is very smooth and easy to use.

 

[James Barber]

I always take my own food and drinks if I am visiting Chester Zoo because that place is so big and I don't want to be queueing up for ages in their cafes and that time for me is used to view more animals. I just have a quick lunch break on one of the benches around the zoo. I am saving my money a bit also as zoo food can be quite expensive.

When I visit Folly Farm, I usually have a bite to eat in one of their eatery places. I had a pasta bolognaise on my last visit which was really nice. I have had a lovely chicken burger there once also.

 

[JVM]

If I'm hungry, I'm hungry, and I like to eat, so I usually get zoo food at some point. I tried the bison burgers Brookfield Zoo sold right next to the bison yard, in fact -- always makes for a great story for people. I also had Dole Whip for the first time at Denver!

Not a zoo, but the Field Museum at least used to have an in-house McDonalds - we ate there once when I was a kid and it felt so novel. I always found it amusing finding McDonalds in weird places at that age.

 

[twilighter]

I prefer to re-visit big, heavy zoos, rather than visit small obscure zoo for the first time and in the most places I know my favorite place for lunch. Having lunch in Vienna, Leipzig or Borås is inseparable part of the whole zoo experience. Exploring new traditions is also exciting, tho. This year was fun to compare the Sausage rolls around UK. I visited 13 British zoos and in some places they were really good It has been mentioned already, but I will give one more vote for Albert's at San Diego as the best dinning experience!

 

[Skukuza]

Usually I bring my own lunch with me, cost is prohibitive at most zoos, I would prefer to use my budget to buy a guidebook or a souvenir of some description.

There is obviously the odd exception, one notable one would be Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge which we visited with the combined intention of seeing animals and dining. This probably blew through any savings i have made by not eating elsewhere!

I can however be tempted by a draft beer/lager though...
- Pilsner Steins in Duisburg
- Craft Selection on the deck at Bush Gardens overlooking the savannah
- SeaWorld Shamu Stadium were giving free samples
- The pubs on site at Longleat and Chester
etc etc

 

[Jana]

When I was younger I was super tight on money so I would usually pack my own food and only ocasionally would I treat myself to an ice cream or so.

Nowadays, I take with me just watter and some snack. And I buy full lunch inside the zoo if they have classic restaurant or canteen and I have enough time. Local zoo restaurants are reasonably priced.

My only bad surprise was more than a decade ago at Ostrava zoo with Saola restaurant - on workday outside main season I was their only guest but food was AWFULL, both soup and main dish.

 

[Van Beal]

Personally, when I go with my family to the Toronto Zoo, the drive is two hours so we're getting there around nine or ten o'clock am EST, so we're bound to spend our ordinary "lunchtime" at the zoo, so we do bring our own food for lunch BUT because it's usually mid-July/early-August when we go, chances are we end up getting a DQ Blizzard because it's right around where we always are once the younger members start to complain about the heat.

So really, we do buy food, however it isn't an actual meal, it's just a small cold snack to get us through the last three or four areas of the zoo.

 

[elefante]

I've only snacked when I've gone to a zoo. One of the best snacks I tried at a zoo were baked potato fries at Detroit several years ago.

 

[pendraig_milnerae]

Weather or not I go for food as a whole is dependent on visit duration, however the food option to go with will vary depending on the nature of the visit and who I'm with. Sometimes the higher end restauranting works for more event-based visits or if visiting with relatives outside of more direct family, whereas a more casual visit such as with friends or siblings, or even a longer one by myself, a more simple option is necessary. And of course if only in the zoo for a few hours little more than a drink is necessary, assuming I didn't bring enough (for instance my recent Marwell visit of around four hours, the heat meant I got through my water supply extremely quickly).

 

[MGolka]

Usually when my wife and I go to any zoo, if they have a dining option we usually stop at some point to eat or grab a snack. I do enjoy the zoos that have more than one option of a place to eat, especially if they have different menus. The reason we don't bring our own food in is that we like to try and support the zoo in any way we can, overpriced food or not, knowing that spending money at the zoo in some form helps them somewhere.

 

[Charles]

I usually go for a quick visit so I don’t take lunch but I always wish that with these new themed areas in zoos that they zone in on the full experience like offering snacks/food from that area rather than opening a generic kiosk and cafe or pizzeria (despite those all being very nice)

 

[RatioTile]

Most urban zoos I've been to are surrounded by ethnic enclaves/neighborhoods, so I like exploring those after going to zoos for dinner and groceries, trying new foods.

Ex: Bronx Zoo's vicinity has a lot of Dominican, Puerto Rican, and some Jamaican and Ghanaian restaurants, delis, and grocery stores. There's also a Little Italy that also has Mexican and former Yugoslavian restaurants.

Queens Zoo is surrounded on one side by Flushing, which has a huge Chinatown where food from every Chinese province can be found at reasonable prices. There is also a Korean neighborhood and scattered Vietnamese and Malaysian places. On the other side of Queens Zoo there's Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Venezuelan restaurants.

 

[Moorhunhe]

I usually bring my own food to the zoo, because I'm a bit stingy lol.

But then it also depends what they have to offer. If looking at what you get, for the price, sometimes we will buy something just because it looks really good, and even a good looking burger sometimes is nicer then a boring sandwich, lol.

 

[Sotolo]

On my zoo roadtrip throughout the Midwest (Omaha, St. Louis, Indianapolis) recently, I bought food there since it simplified my planning and limited driving (which I wanted to minimize on days I was not going between cities) and it allowed me to see how each operated. I also know that concessions are big moneymakers for most tourist attractions, so it's another way to support the zoo.

St. Louis and Indianapolis were fine, but Omaha disappointed me. The only place open that summer Friday which offered an entrée I wanted (I wasn't in the mood for pizza near the aquarium or hotdogs near the elephants, and Glacier Bay only had the ice cream spot open that day) was at the Treetops Restaurant, and it's throughput was absolutely dismal for being the only place with multiple options available open that day. It needs some overhaul on the backend to make things smoother.

At my local zoos (MN and Como) I only really buy stuff if I'm staying there longer than usual (typically going with friends), but they've all been good experiences, especially since MN has buzzers which allow you to find a spot to sit and talk with friends while food is being prepared instead of standing in line.

 

[TinoPup]

On my zoo roadtrip throughout the Midwest (Omaha, St. Louis, Indianapolis) recently, I bought food there since it simplified my planning and limited driving (which I wanted to minimize on days I was not going between cities) and it allowed me to see how each operated. I also know that concessions are big moneymakers for most tourist attractions, so it's another way to support the zoo.

St. Louis and Indianapolis were fine, but Omaha disappointed me. The only place open that summer Friday which offered an entrée I wanted (I wasn't in the mood for pizza near the aquarium or hotdogs near the elephants, and Glacier Bay only had the ice cream spot open that day) was at the Treetops Restaurant, and it's throughput was absolutely dismal for being the only place with multiple options available open that day. It needs some overhaul on the backend to make things smoother.

At my local zoos (MN and Como) I only really buy stuff if I'm staying there longer than usual (typically going with friends), but they've all been good experiences, especially since MN has buzzers which allow you to find a spot to sit and talk with friends while food is being prepared instead of standing in line.

Food isn't great at Omaha but you get to sit there and watch over all of the jungle