Why is theme park food so bad?

[Geeky Pastimes]

Me and my wife were trying to think of our favourite theme park restaurants, and I realised there's very few theme parks across the world that even have 'good' food, let alone anything interesting or memorable.

Disney World still has some good options and a variety, even if it's expensive (but Satu'li canteen is something I always look forward to), Phantasialand has some great snacks and deserts, Universal Beijing had a great noodle restaurant, and Universal Japan does some cool themed restaurants with good food for their collaborations - but outside of those there's nothing really 'great' that I've seen.

I get that they don't need to excel because theme parks have a captive audience so they can overcharge for mid food and still make money - but when they're spending tens of millions on rides, it seems strange to neglect restaurants - they can make money, can be a reason to visit and they aren't likely to break down or be closed for the weather. I know we'd be way more like to revisit places like Europa Park or Carowinds if they had an awesome restaurant to visit.

 

[MannekenPis]

Europa doesn't have a decent restaurant? I've not been but I believe it has a michelin 2* restaurant and a 1*. If that's not making food part of appeal I don't know what is!

 

[Hyde]

But really, food and concessions are the profit driver for the amusement park industry. Capitalism unfortunately rewards the park operator who figures out lowest cost of inputs/greatest profit maximization.

A mildly spicy take to also add: those who celebrate meal plans or pre-paid food plans suffer the most. You are the one eating the lowest-price hot dog and fries.

Personally? I have experienced notable improvement of food variety at Six Flags, Disney, etc. parks; and I make it a point to step over the standard food offerings to spend a little more for higher quality food/variety. I was an initial naysayer of the "build your meal" style restaurants that Cedar Fair/Six Flags deployed, but have come around on appreciating they offer real pieces of meats and vegetables. ... just be ready to spend $20-$30

I'm also quick to leave a park if I have my own set of wheels, and glad to pop out to nearby restaurant, brewery, or fast food.

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

Europa doesn't have a decent restaurant? I've not been but I believe it has a michelin 2* restaurant and a 1*. If that's not making food part of appeal I don't know what is!

Neither of those are in the park (the 2 star one is at Bell Rock) and the 1 star is hundreds of Euros and takes two hours - not something I'd be interested in for a theme park day!

There are some theme park hotels with good restaurants, I liked the one at Grand Curiosa at Liseberg and the buffet at Parc Asterix

 

[VonRolland]

Europa has a great variety of quality, affordable food...

 

[Projektion]

As long as there's no ill talk of the Phantasialand Jambalaya.

 

[soleil]

Whilst I am sure that profit is a major factor in the theme park world, some places have in the past tried to offer better quality and choice than the distinctly average burger and fries, or the ubiquitous soggy-based pizza. I would never try the overcooked, steaming/bubbling water of a pasta dish.
Sadly many of the places I recall as much better have changed/closed: dhals/samosas @ Alton Towers, vegetarian buffet @ Liseberg, crab and steak @ Universal City Walk.
Many parks/resorts will not even let you bring your own food in - Walibi Holland and Efteling are parks where you can. It seems the dutch love their pull along trolleys laden with cooler boxes and picnic bags. Efteling had a great choice of food offerings though and I tried a tasty ice-cream/pastry cone.
Captain Jack's and Agrabah Cafe @ DLP were both good last time I went, but it was
Mythos @ Universal Islands of Adventure which for me was the one to beat. Excellent quality food, first rate service at a fairly brisk rate to boot. I do not know if this is still the case...

 

[Boodangy]

I'm kinda thinking what incentive do parks really have to try with any other options when 95% of guests are going to get a burger or nuggets with fries every time anyway.

I ate wings at my home park just recently. They were good. But they've got huge crowds and were previously free to enter (now a whopping 5€) so people come in just to eat, so it's different. Most parks especially not huge ones what are they really gonna do when guests have no sense of adventure.

 

[otwidalepda]

It's obvious really. Some people have touched on it. Restaurants typically have to balance perceived value of food - despite the costs involved. Profit margins are usually quite low. But people - as seen in some comments above - comment about food being pricey (even when it isn't that high). So, theme parks have a captive audience so the price can be inflated slightly to ensure a profit (that they may not achieve out of the park/resort). But realistcally, to offer better food the service, time, quality and price will need to increase. Average joe simply won't pay. Not the right crowd. For better food - the venue has to be the destination, not the park.

 

[Lucy]

I also think that not all theme park food is bad - I echo the opinions about Europa Park, they do some really nice stuff. Also, Paultons food is very good too - when I went recently, I had lunch in their new Feasting Hall and it was very tasty and reasonably priced too.

 

[JamesB]

This was something I was thinking about the other day, funnily enough! I'll start off saying the Chinese restaurant at Phantasialand was great and probably the best theme park restaurant I've eaten at.

A few more opinions
-Walibi options are pretty hit and miss although I did have a decent curry at Walibi Belgium
-Port Aventura has loads of options however so many are closed during off-peak. The Italian at Ferrari Land was mediocre at best
-Plopsaland's offerings were decent but nothing exciting
-Similar to PA, Parque Warner has a few decent restaurants but again most are closed outside of weekends/holidays
-Emerald Park has a fantastic restaurant, sure the options are limited but their roast is great
-if memory serves me right, the worst food offerings I've encountered were at Grona Lund, the burger I had was appalling and lengthy wait times

 

[MannekenPis]

Me and my wife were trying to think of our favourite theme park restaurants, and I realised there's very few theme parks across the world that even have 'good' food, let alone anything interesting or memorable.

Disney World still has some good options and a variety, even if it's expensive (but Satu'li canteen is something I always look forward to), Phantasialand has some great snacks and deserts, Universal Beijing had a great noodle restaurant, and Universal Japan does some cool themed restaurants with good food for their collaborations - but outside of those there's nothing really 'great' that I've seen.

I get that they don't need to excel because theme parks have a captive audience so they can overcharge for mid food and still make money - but when they're spending tens of millions on rides, it seems strange to neglect restaurants - they can make money, can be a reason to visit and they aren't likely to break down or be closed for the weather. I know we'd be way more like to revisit places like Europa Park or Carowinds if they had an awesome restaurant to visit.

Having now been and seen how many places to eat there were that looked worth trying, I'm intrigued by how many places you tried at Europa before concluding it didn't have an awesome restaurant? Be useful to know which ones you tried and considered not up to scratch.

 

[Swat]

It’s already been covered but profit is one of the biggest factors.

One thing that probably has an impact on the UK parks is that most people want a quick service style option given the small park operating hours.

A proper resort that opens later into the evenings would encourage better sit down options when they don’t have to worry about a longer meal taking up your ride time.

 

[Cruisin@325]

Dude Worlds of Fun has bonkers good food in a couple spots. I went last week, and in one spot they gave me an absurd amount of good food for a good price. (The BBQ seasoned fries were awesome.) My dad got even more than I did. Also they accepted the discount on my Six Flags pass lol.

 

[MannekenPis]

It’s already been covered but profit is one of the biggest factors.

One thing that probably has an impact on the UK parks is that most people want a quick service style option given the small park operating hours.

A proper resort that opens later into the evenings would encourage better sit down options when they don’t have to worry about a longer meal taking up your ride time.

I think that is a very fair observation, I have been to Efteling, Phantasialand and Europa on tight turnarounds, and even though I knew they had good food options, I always went takeaway. And UK parks are institutionally tight turnarounds.

 

[toofpikk]

I think it's one of the defining factors of a theme park visit from a guests POV.

What do you remember about a theme park?
You remember the parking, the weather, a few of the stand out rides, how the park is to navigate, and the food.

Plopsaland is one of my least favourite parks to visit, because the operations are bad and the food sucks.
Parc Asterix would've been an all timer park for me, if the food wasn't terrible.
Dollywood stood out on a 13 park road trip, because the food was great.
I've never been that fussed about Efteling but I can appreciate it's a high quality day out, especially because the food is really good.
I didn't like Energylandia much anyway, but it singlehandedly has the worst food I have ever eaten in my life.

European parks seem to be clocking onto this more and more, with places like the Walibi group making big efforts into improving their food offering. Toverland, Phantasialand, Le Pal, Europa, Mandoria and I'm sure many others now all have really decent food. Everyone above has said completely valid things - captive audience, easy profit margins, mass production to allow for tight turn arounds... But food is one of those stand out elements you remember about a visit. Parks should absolutely utilise this to boost profits. In making sure they're selling a good quality product as well, the weight a meal has on overall guest satisfaction should not be under-estimated and can really tip an enjoyable park into a must-visit.

 

[soleil]

But food is one of those stand out elements you remember about a visit. Parks should absolutely utilise this to boost profits. In making sure they're selling a good quality product as well, the weight a meal has on overall guest satisfaction should not be under-estimated and can really tip an enjoyable park into a must-visit.

I hadn't thought about it quite like this, but I have to agree.

But Swat is also right I think:
"One thing that probably has an impact on the UK parks is that most people want a quick service style option given the small park operating hours.
A proper resort that opens later into the evenings would encourage better sit down options when they don’t have to worry about a longer meal taking up your ride time."
Visitors expect a choice of better quality and reasonably priced food and drink offerings. Parks will then be able to boost their profits accordingly. It is increasingly depressing to visit a park mid-week/off-season and see so many food and drink locations closed...especially when the few open ones have lengthy queues.
It was memorable at Djurs Sommerland that a fresh fruit and veg stall just inside the entrance area was so busy when I visited. I don't know if this was a park initiative or a trader renting space in the park. The Danes made a beeline for the fresh peas . By early afternoon the stall had sold out and was being packed away...

I wonder what percentage of visitors take their own food where they can?

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

Having now been and seen how many places to eat there were that looked worth trying, I'm intrigued by how many places you tried at Europa before concluding it didn't have an awesome restaurant? Be useful to know which ones you tried and considered not up to scratch.

We haven't been to Europa in a while (not since their flying theatre opened I think) but the Rollercoaster restaurant Foodloop and the French place ( Bistro La Cigale I think, from looking at the map), the restauranty downstairs at La Colloseo and the breakfasts at Bell Rock and the Castle Hotel - can't remember where else. I think we also had a dinner buffet at Bell Rock in the same place the breakfast was.

I know the first time we went by the late afternoon when we were getting hungry again most of the food places had shut in the park so we didn't get to try as many as we had wanted.

The breakfasts were definitely good, especially the Bell Rock one, but all the rest of the food we had was either very average (like Foodloop where you're just paying for the novelty) or very expensive and average for how much we paid (like the Bell Rock evening buffet).

It just seems strange to me that there's food halls and night markets all over the world where you can get quick, inventive, affordable and delicious food, which are destinations in themselves, but theme parks seem to insist on expensive but incredibly average food (or expensive and terrible food like the Merlin parks). I know there's plenty of parks that I'd be much more inclined to return to if the food had been good, even if their ride offerings aren't great.

 

[MannekenPis]

We haven't been to Europa in a while (not since their flying theatre opened I think) but the Rollercoaster restaurant Foodloop and the French place ( Bistro La Cigale I think, from looking at the map), the restauranty downstairs at La Colloseo and the breakfasts at Bell Rock and the Castle Hotel - can't remember where else. I think we also had a dinner buffet at Bell Rock in the same place the breakfast was.

I know the first time we went by the late afternoon when we were getting hungry again most of the food places had shut in the park so we didn't get to try as many as we had wanted.

The breakfasts were definitely good, especially the Bell Rock one, but all the rest of the food we had was either very average (like Foodloop where you're just paying for the novelty) or very expensive and average for how much we paid (like the Bell Rock evening buffet).

It just seems strange to me that there's food halls and night markets all over the world where you can get quick, inventive, affordable and delicious food, which are destinations in themselves, but theme parks seem to insist on expensive but incredibly average food (or expensive and terrible food like the Merlin parks). I know there's plenty of parks that I'd be much more inclined to return to if the food had been good, even if their ride offerings aren't great.

Tbf that is far more than I tried. There were a lot of tempting street food options though. Right now I'm in Walibi Belgium and shared a quite good hotdog and terrible pizza, both overpriced, next to which Europa is a veritable culinary paradise!

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

Tbf that is far more than I tried. There were a lot of tempting street food options though. Right now I'm in Walibi Belgium and shared a quite good hotdog and terrible pizza, both overpriced, next to which Europa is a veritable culinary paradise!

There's a quick service at the dock-themed area that we thought was alright for some fast food!