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My memory of Kings Island food in 2014 and prior was that it was basically bland, besides pizza and chili. (Not being from the area, skyline and La Rosa have been a treat typically reserved for Kings Island. Before I started going to ki alot in 2014, I only ate skyline and La Rosa when going to the park). I remember the hamburger meat was terrible in 2014, the patties still had the round extruded look and feel, and tasted terrible. It wasn't until 2015 coasterstock that I was eating some sandwich special at Reds that Chef Nate designed that was really good, that I took much of an interest in park food.

I want to clarify by saying, I myself have yet to have a bad KI food experience to where I can't finish what I eat. I've enjoyed everything I've had at KI. However, I will say the food isn't as good as it was under Chef Major and over the last few years, I have seen numerous complaints about food being undercooked, food being left out under the lamp too long, food being overcooked, among other things that really take away from the guest experience. While some of that stuff is at the fault of the food employees, the fact it continues to happen despite all the complaints comes down to training/management which falls on the executive chef. Things like portion sizes, no ice in the machines, watered down drinks, machines being out of drinks is a budget thing while things like properly preparing, cooking, and/or storing food has nothing to do with budget. That's a management/training issue.

Hence why they stand out, at least to us.

I think the problem with food is that they, as a chain, are trying to do two things, which are diametrically opposed: Act like their food is "elevated", "fancy", etc to try to get people to pay out of pocket for it Continue selling hugely underpriced dining plans because (as Disenchanted Parks is finding out) passholders will not pay out of pocket for food after having dining plans for 11 years, and raising the prices will only get the people they actually make money off of to stop buying them The thing is that a lot of the issues with food don't have anything to do with the chef or even really the park, it's corporate budget cuts due to the failure of the merger. Even the worst chef would admit that, say, selling a $20 burger that doesn't come with any toppings is an obvious fail, but the parks do it because it saves a little bit of money.