Coney BBQ and 2018 Food Reviews

[King Ding Dong]

Good lord, BBQ sauce is the last thing brisket needs. That’s just sinful. Ribs sure, brisket, hell to the no!   

For food service situations where it sits out it needs to have some of its own fatty drippings drizzled over it.  It needs to be sliced to order, the only way around that is to have the slices in a vat of juice and then it just starts falling apart unless one is very careful with it.  

Cant have a divider plate so the juice doesn’t soak your fries or slaw.  

I really hope our Chefs know better than this and the problem is the bean counters.  

[LuvingKI]

1 hour ago, King Ding Dong said:

Good lord, BBQ sauce is the last thing brisket needs. That’s just sinful. Ribs sure, brisket, hell to the no!   

For food service situations where it sits out it needs to have some of its own fatty drippings drizzled over it.  It needs to be sliced to order, the only way around that is to have the slices in a vat of juice and then it just starts falling apart unless one is very careful with it.  

Cant have a divider plate so the juice doesn’t soak your fries or slaw.  

I really hope our Chefs know better than this and the problem is the bean counters.  

Agreed, if they are having to put bbq sauce on the brisket, then they should remove it all together 

[Rallyomalley]

1 hour ago, King Ding Dong said:

Good lord, BBQ sauce is the last thing brisket needs. That’s just sinful. Ribs sure, brisket, hell to the no!   

For food service situations where it sits out it needs to have some of its own fatty drippings drizzled over it.  It needs to be sliced to order, the only way around that is to have the slices in a vat of juice and then it just starts falling apart unless one is very careful with it.  

Cant have a divider plate so the juice doesn’t soak your fries or slaw.  

I really hope our Chefs know better than this and the problem is the bean counters.  

 

13 minutes ago, LuvingKI said:

Agreed, if they are having to put bbq sauce on the brisket, then they should remove it all together 

I know this.  I'm just reporting what they've served me.  I did get the email for the VP of Food and Beverage.  It's a fella named Mark BXXXX (last name redacted for obvious reasons).  When I get the time, I'm going to send him the pictures I took and offer my impressions.  

I've eaten at Coney BBQ probably 12 times and there are many shortcomings in my opinion.

[LuvingKI]

They just need to add a McDonalds and taco bell and call it a good day

[silver2005]

Taco Bell at an amusement park sounds like bad juju.  

All the protein spills all the time.    Nothing good can come from that. 

[LuvingKI]

51 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Taco Bell at an amusement park sounds like bad juju.  

All the protein spills all the time.    Nothing good can come from that. 

Maybe, but my stomach is made to digest taco Bell... I could eat everyday

 

And half the food at KI I don't see as any (SAFER)

[King Ding Dong]

36 minutes ago, LuvingKI said:

And half the food at KI I don't see as any (SAFER)

Namely chili. 

[harmony29]

I had the brisket today and loved it, mine was not slathered in sauce but had some. I guess what one person likes another will not, I never tried the tri tip as it always looked dry and like it had been sitting there for hours plus everyone was saying how small the portions were, not the case w my dinner tonight.

[AnyPancakes]

12 hours ago, LuvingKI said:

And half the food at KI I don't see as any (SAFER)

First season on the dining plan here.  As near as I can tell it is all fast food.  Some of it carries the name of fast food (Chick-Fil-A, skyline, etc).  Some of it copies fast  food (Chicken Shack = Raising Canes, Hanks = Chipotle).  Unless you are disillusioned, Taco Bell isn't bringing down the status quo.  If anything it should just open your eyes up to what you are actually eating.

As a side note, I am a typical overweight suburbanite that love fast food.  I'm really not trying to be judgy with this post.  I paid $100 for three months of all I can eat food.  It shouldn't be that good.  It really can't be at that price.

On to an actual review- We had the brisket this weekend and found it to be on par with the other BBQ offerings.  The first day, I just believe the brisket was sliced wrong.  It looked like regular brisket today.  I tried the macaroni and cheese for the first time.  it is a pretty typical cheese sauce made from a roue.  I thought it was pretty good.  Putting it in a pan and baking it would do wonders for the texture.

[harmony29]

We have the dining plan and I disagree that it's all fast food. Yes some of it is. My husband and I are both watching what we eat and I haven't had fast food outside of the park since October when I was diagnosed with diabetes. There are healthy options... rotisserie chicken, salads, etc. Yes most is not healthy but even at Hank's I just ask for small iubts of some of the stuff and never eat even half of it. Amusement parks have to feed large amounts in a timely matter and a lot of that constitutes hamburgers, pizza, etc. I have noticed skyline looks like they put a pound of cheese on their dishes, we don't go there as I'm not interested in chili that has cinnamon in it 

[Stoan]

Side note, I finally got around to the chicken. It was delicious, though the corn kind of sucked this time. I really am not a fan of the BBQ sauces they offer.

 

[IndyGuy4KI]

5 minutes ago, Stoan said:

Side note, I finally got around to the chicken. It was delicious, though the corn kind of sucked this time. I really am not a fan of the BBQ sauces they offer.

 

I have heard others not caring for the BBQ Sauce. It would be nice for KI to offer several varieties of BBQ sauces for those that are not big on the house BBQ sauce.

[King Ding Dong]

4 minutes ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I have heard others not caring for the BBQ Sauce. It would be nice for KI to offer several varieties of BBQ sauces for those that are not big on the house BBQ sauce.

Agreed but that is going to be a bean counter no go.   To much wasted sauce and portion cups from people getting a sample of all six varieties.

[Stoan]

Just grab some Montgomery Inn sauce from RHoF.

[harmony29]

2 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I have heard others not caring for the BBQ Sauce. It would be nice for KI to offer several varieties of BBQ sauces for those that are not big on the house BBQ sauce.

That's the problem , the sauce at coney is not a house sauce, it's sweet baby Ray's which I don't really care for. Funny at Reds the sauce is Montgomery Inn.

[AnyPancakes]

I wonder if security would let you sneak your own bottle of BBQ/ hot sauce in?

[sixohdieselrage]

7 minutes ago, AnyPancakes said:

I wonder if security would let you sneak your own bottle of BBQ/ hot sauce in?

Well, they dont let you bring *little* bluetooth speakers in the park, so probably not.

 

 

Unless you claim it's for a diet. 

[KImom]

14 minutes ago, sixohdieselrage said:

Well, they dont let you bring *little* bluetooth speakers in the park, so probably not.

 

 

Unless you claim it's for a diet. 

Find a mom with a stroller and ask her to stash it in her diaper bag. Trust me, no issues. hahaha 

[flightoffear1996]

So far the best thing I have had at the park was the 50's diner across from The Vortex.  Skyline service has always been slow and the food cold.  Not to mention the meal plan never works at the kiosk.

[Imperial79]

On the cookeatexplore site, they have a page dedicated to talking about Chef Major and Kings Island's new food lineup for 2018!   Here's the link.  

http://cookeatexplore.com/index.php/2018/05/07/kings-island-the-summer-food-lineup/

[Rallyomalley]

Looks like tri tips is back on the menu.

[Magenta Lizard]

However, they've continued the trend of slathering them in BBQ sauce rather than depending on the more subtle flavoring of slow-smoking. 

On the other hand, they gave about twice as much meat as last time I got the tri-tips. 

[BoddaH1994]

Disappointing day for food.

Lines incredibly long, Park was busy but there were also widespread register issues. 

Waited until 8:00, went to Coney Skyline. Employee standing out front telling people they were out of chili. 

Went to Street Skyline, line pouring out the door. Punt on Skyline.

I go to Panda. Line is shorter. I noticed that the menu options are VERY limited this year. I guess it didn’t matter since all they had was orange chicken left.

Waited in line for my orange chicken. Informed by employees that their drink machine was “broken” and they could only serve water. Water was room temperature and there is no ice in either machine. 

We get our food and go to the Express drink line on the other side of the Festhaus.   Huge line for drink refills because of the register problems (it’s taking forever to pull peoples’ food and drink plans up when scanning the passes, from what I understand). The employee just gives up and lets everyone in the exit. Of course - no ice here either. Coke wasn’t working, so you had to choose another soft drink. No biggie, but still...

9:55 rolls around. We head to I-Street to watch the fireworks. Another member of my party decides to go to LaRosa’s, barely before they lock the doors promptly at 10:00 (remember when all of I-Street stayed open until the park cleared, you know - like the shops STILL do?) Anyway, LaRosa’s annouces that they had run out of bread sticks. Yep. They sell exactly two products there: pizza and breadsticks and they couldn’t manage to keep one of the two going. Did they offer anything else in exchange? Nope. Dining plan or cash - you got two slices of pizza, no breadsticks (as advertised). 

Should I have spoken to guest services about this? Sure, but what’s the point? Clearly the leadership either doesn’t care or is not competent enough to fix these problems. I understand that change takes time, but food quality, service, selection, and availability has been an ongoing problem for well over 3 years now. 

Many within the park attempt to discredit me at times when I am critical, however I think enough of you know that I am both involved and in tune with this industry as a business that I can tell you that parks the size of Kings Island are typically on point with predictions of attendance, demand, and material/labor needs. To write this off as “they didn’t know they’d be this busy” is simply out of the question. All of these problems are either indicative of poor planning, or a wreckless oversight that should not be acceptable in this scale of operation.

I’ll be the first to admit that there have been a lot of steps in the right direction, but how long can they last? I have known Chef Nathan for a long time now. I both admire and respect him. I also got to meet Chef Major. He has a resume’ that anyone would fight to have on their team.  How long are these guys going to stick around if their reputations are at the mercy of Kings Island’s food department? I personally know several members of management that have left because they wanted to make the department the best it could be, but felt as though they were powerless to affect change. 

I understand that this is over all an extreme case, but nothing I’ve listed here is unheard of. All of the employees I dealt with were very polite and I think they really tried. Where is the disconnect? What would it take to fix this?

 

[AZ Kinda Guy]

21 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Disappointing day for food.

Friday wasn’t any better. 20 minute wait for a salad AFTER the order had been placed on the kiosk. 

[silver2005]

And people keep asking me why I haven't bothered with a getting a meal plan.  I'm not incentivizing bad food department quality.  

Sounds like the Skylines are extremely understaffed if they're running out of chili (or mismanaged when it comes to stock).  Our kitchen guy is in charge of spaghetti and chili (and some other hot food that the KI Skylines don't offer).   Though, we do have table people actually go back to bring chili out.   We usually cook enough chili at the beginning of the shifts to cover them, and spaghetti is cooked around the clock (at least, proportionate to how busy we are at the time).  I hope KI has workers that focus on that at the Skylines.

Just be glad the Skylines at the park don't offer the full menu because THEN it would a real nightmare.  I wouldn't trust the park with making wraps, chilitos and deluxes in an efficient manner. 

[King Ding Dong]

Does the chili and/or spaghetti have to be fresh each day or can the extra be refrigerated and used the next day?

[silver2005]

^Near the end of the day, we try to make sure that there isn't a lot of either, at least enough for one small kettle of chili and one crock pot of spaghetti.  We keep just enough stuff from the night before to get through the first few hours  of opening in the morning until kitchen catches up with the cooked products we need to have when the lunch rushes hit.  

[harmony29]

22 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

^Near the end of the day, we try to make sure that there isn't a lot of either, at least enough for one small kettle of chili and one crock pot of spaghetti.  We keep just enough stuff from the night before to get through the first few hours  of opening in the morning until kitchen catches up with the cooked products we need to have when the lunch rushes hit.  

We had awful issues with food and drink Saturday as well. We went to Coney as it was the only place not busy, it was fine but we didn't want it for both lunch and dinner. We tried LaRosas in the back and of course they were out of salads, had the pizza and bread sticks which were good but just wanted something cold. It seems like the stands run out of stuff a lot and when it gets anywhere near closing time forget it, you have practically have no choice.

[silver2005]

How does KI not know how to stock its restaurants properly?  

Can KI have Dorney's, CP's, or KBF's food department manager(s)?  Please?  

[flightoffear1996]

I have noticed almost every time we get a drink we can only get 2 or 3 ice cubes and there is a pile of ice in tray of the machine.  I guess people are just jerks and fill the cups up and dump the ice out?