Kings Island 2023 Food News and Reviews

[BeeastFarmer]

Have a great time at Opening Day, everyone!  Enjoy the new food offerings!  I'm 92%sure they are selling toasted sandwiches at the Coney Mall Subway!

[IndyGuy4KI]

18 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

 It would be cool if they had her on the KIC podcast some time. 

I would love to do that!

[LuvingKI]

Why are so many entrees missing at Coney BBQ?  

[chad_1138]

2 minutes ago, LuvingKI said:

Why are so many entrees missing at Coney BBQ?  

I asked one of the managers that was serving the same thing yesterday.  She said they are going with a simpler menu and may be rotating different items throughout the season.

[IndyGuy4KI]

It was open today.

[LuvingKI]

46 minutes ago, chad_1138 said:

I asked one of the managers that was serving the same thing yesterday.  She said they are going with a simpler menu and may be rotating different items throughout the season.

Ahhh, because I like the burnt ends or the wings and neither was there today

[Benjamin22]

Unfortunately for my health Sweet shop has an even better variety of sweets this year! The buckeye mousse was very good and the cheesecake creamsicle was decent.

[IndyGuy4KI]

1 minute ago, LuvingKI said:

Ahhh, because I like the burnt ends or the wings and neither was there today

I did miss the beef option. 

[Stoan]

57 minutes ago, chad_1138 said:

I asked one of the managers that was serving the same thing yesterday.  She said they are going with a simpler menu and may be rotating different items throughout the season.

I'd be happy with a simpler menu, but holy hell do they need to cook that rotisserie chicken more. It's barely crisped skin

[gad198]

100% agree with the above regarding the rotisserie chicken.  It looks like the chicken is cooked to a safe temperature and looks juicy, but it has very little eye appeal without the crisp skin.

[Stoan]

2 hours ago, gad198 said:

100% agree with the above regarding the rotisserie chicken.  It looks like the chicken is cooked to a safe temperature and looks juicy, but it has very little eye appeal without the crisp skin.

I wonder if they go at a lower temp in the oven to try to pace out the day a bit better. It'll be food safe cooked at 2 hours, but not overcooked and dry at 4!

[gad198]

I sympathize with food service when it comes to the rotisserie chicken.  The largest portion of the meat is white (breast) meat.  It's really hard to get both crispy skin and really moist white meat together in the same chicken because the window when both are right together is about 5 degrees in temperature wide.  I'm sure the skin issue will be addressed.

[BeeastFarmer]

If Costco can figure it out, surely the executive chefs of Kings Island could. 

[silver2005]

I'm honestly starting to have bad vibes about the park reducing to 1 Skyline location in the park.  I know its early and opening day should be taken with a grain of salt, but just from personal experience working for Skyline, I just get the feeling there will still be a strong demand despite the newer food in the park and focusing it on one location will be very bad for the staff.  It'll be something I look at every visit just to see how they fare out of empathy.  

[disco2000]

They need to do like they did with Chick-Fil-A - the need to reduce the width of the queue from where you place the order to where you get the food and use that freed up space to add another queue for the order line.

On Saturday, but even in years past, on a busy day it is not uncommon to see 30 or so people that have ordered and then all bunched up by the drinks and exit waiting for their number to be called.

If that queue was a normal queue width, then at least the bottleneck is at the cashier as they couldn't take another order until some of that line cleared out, similar to what would happen at I-street Skyline.

[Stoan]

57 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

They need to do like they did with Chick-Fil-A - the need to reduce the width of the queue from where you place the order to where you get the food and use that freed up space to add another queue for the order line.

On Saturday, but even in years past, on a busy day it is not uncommon to see 30 or so people that have ordered and then all bunched up by the drinks and exit waiting for their number to be called.

If that queue was a normal queue width, then at least the bottleneck is at the cashier as they couldn't take another order until some of that line cleared out, similar to what would happen at I-street Skyline.

My favorite thing they did at the old Skyline is have 1 person running the line and 2 cashiers. Then I can just watch the manager and at least 3 other people roam in and out of the back door, where they did... something? maybe.

[silver2005]

10 minutes ago, Stoan said:

My favorite thing they did at the old Skyline is have 1 person running the line and 2 cashiers. Then I can just watch the manager and at least 3 other people roam in and out of the back door, where they did... something? maybe.

There's a kind of art to getting the chili right that, to my knowledge, no Skyline can get right all the time.  Getting the water levels right to get it not to thick and not to thin is tedious.   Spaghetti also needs to be constantly remade in batches and cheese grated (I'm assuming they get it in blocks like every other Skyline).  Most Skylines have their kitchen guys do spaghetti and cheese at minimum, and depending on the Skyline, managers or kitchen workers are in charge of chili. I'm assuming both the onions and Feta cheese comes pre-broken up. 

I don't think KI does separate kitchen workers to my knowledge which means you're requiring workers to monitor all that and work steamtable.  That's a WHOLE lot to balance and monitor.   I'd say for an operation like KI's Skyline, at minimum, you'd have a manager, 2 steamtable workers minimum and a cashier.  If you miss a spaghetti batch, its about 10 minutes waiting.  Cashiers should have it easy, the Skyline at the park only does coneys, ways, fries, and Greek salads, which is less than half of a normal Skyline menu (no wraps, chilitos, burritos, bowls, potatoes, vegetarian chili).  The reduced menu helps, but on a busy shift, there's still a LOT that goes on.  Yes, the individual items are quick to make, but keeping things restocked, particularly cheese, chili and spaghetti, is where the tediousness lies.  

[BeeastFarmer]

At the IS location, I guess it was based on the honor system. I would order my three-way and then I'd have to tell the line person what I had. First line person had to put spaghetti in a bowl. Second line person had to put chili and cheese on top of the spaghetti. How that would take 10 minutes. I have no idea. What would mess them up is when a parent would come through with eight kids and what separate things for each kid. Like kid one would only want noodles and cheese. Kid 2. Only wanted chili. Kid 3 wanted spaghetti and onions. No cheese or chili. Kid 4. One of the hot dog with cheese but no chili and on and on. Meanwhile, kids one through eight are down fighting at the fountain drink station while other people are coming through the gate to refill their drink. That place was always a mess unless you're the only person in line.

[silver2005]

The way the Skyline restaurants do it, 1-2 people puts together ways, 1-2 on coneys, one on burrito bar (salads, wraps, chilitos, pretty much everything else).  Depends on table size and layout, but each person puts together the items in full, not via assembly line. I can make make a full rack of 8 cheese coneys in under 30 seconds.  I work drive thru a lot and have to often put $50-70 orders together on my own on busy shifts.  I've even put together very large catering orders (in the ballpark of 100-300 coneys) together in an hour during a dinner rush in Clifton (because UC frats/sororities/AD stuffs).  I'd say a table crew at the restaurants can put together an average order for a family of 4-5 in under a minute (unless there are fries, most Skylines cook fries to order and those take 3-4 minutes depending on the fryer and its servers' discression whether to take them out with the whole order or take them separately).   The one in CM is more well suited for making Skyline so they can use both sides of the table, the on one I-Street doing it a la Subway is extremely inefficient. 

I never eat Skyline at the park (more due to not wanting chili+coasters, sounds like a terrible combination to me, the only time I consider it is before my Haunt visits and I usually eat at the one just outside the park or at Blue Ash Chili that's also close by), so I've never really seen them in action on a consistent basis.  

Obviously, making it all automated  orders cuts down on order confusion since there's a LOT of different lingo used to order Skyline (mostly coneys).  But siphoning everything to one location is going to be a pain for that staff. 

If you want to see how its done, assuming they're somewhat well staffed, go to one outside the park.  I think KI should partner with the one just outside the park to train employees before putting them on the line in the park.

[Stoan]

11 hours ago, silver2005 said:

I usually eat at the one just outside the park or at Blue Ash Chili that's also close by

Blue Ash Chili closed the nearby spot, it is now what appears to either be Indian or Indian Chinese fusion?

 

But yes, the setup for Coney Mall's kitchen did get reset and does look to be a bit more in-line with standard Cincinnati Chili building. One person was running ways, and one person doing coneys. Also an expediter, fry person, and wiener chef. Everything they need to blow through a lot of people from what I saw during the rain on Sunday. Hopefully with some practice they can get an order out every 30-45 seconds or so, as I snobbishly cannot imagine any order really taking much longer than this. Though my Fast Food experience is more from Wendy's and making 20-30 Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers a minute during rush.

[Tr0y]

For those who have families and don’t want to spend a small fortune at amusement parks. Here’s a little trick I saw online: 
https://www.intheknow.com/post/free-food-water-park-amusement-park/

[disco2000]

1 hour ago, Tr0y said:

For those who have families and don’t want to spend a small fortune at amusement parks. Here’s a little trick I saw online: 
https://www.intheknow.com/post/free-food-water-park-amusement-park/

 

Just like the punks ruining it for good teens, people post this kind of stuff and then parks just ban it and ruin it for those actually having a birthday celebration...

Remember when Disney used to give people a free shirt if they were wearing something vulgar and then people made videos about it on how to get free merch and now they make people buy the shirt lol...

Why do people feel the need to post a hack that violates a park rule....if you figure out a hack keep it to yourself lol.

There was a member here many years ago that figured out a hack and posted it here and one day his pass scanned invalid and security had a talking to him...

 

[Tr0y]

1 minute ago, disco2000 said:

 

Just like the punks ruining it for good teens, people post this kind of stuff and then parks just ban it and ruin it for those actually having a birthday celebration...

Remember when Disney used to give people a free shirt if they were wearing something vulgar and then people made videos about it on how ro get free merch and now they make people buy the shirt lol...

Why do people feel the need to post a hack that violates a park rule....if you figure out a hack keep it to yourself lol.

There was a member here many years ago that figured out a hack and posted it here and one day his pass scanned invalid and security had a talking to him...

I mean the park isn’t really losing out on anything honestly. You’re allowed to leave the park and come back. 

[disco2000]

But it is still a park rule being violated and under the argument "the park isn't really losing anything" wouldn't be valid for Haunt nights as you can't leave and come back lol. 

But the point is under this type of mentality that is why other park policies are violated like people vaping and smoking. Guests don't get to pick and chose which rule is ok to violate.

So this park rule is ok to violate...at which park rule do you say it is not ok to violate?  Everyone will have a differnet answer...

It isn't up to the guest to pick and choose which rule or policy they think applies to them.  I am sure that kid didn't plan on shooting the gun as he was just holding for a friend so it was ok for him to sneak it thru since he didnt have a car to return it to right....

Whether we agree with the policy or not is irrelevant.  If someone doesn't like the policies in place then don't visit.  Many families have made a lifetime of memories going to the car to eat sandwiches out of a cooler.

TBH with everything going on in today's world parks will probably stop allowing wrapped gifts from entering since they can't be truly inspected.  It isn't food they are concerned with.

(BTW this isn't an attack on you but rather a commentary on these whole viral hack videos...)

[KIghostguy]

Tom and Chee opened today. 

[IndyGuy4KI]

I am disappointed that Enrique's no longer allows you to add queso on your entree (extra charge now.) That is what always gave a meal there extra flavor and pulled everything together.  

[Stoan]

11 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I am disappointed that Enrique's no longer allows you to add queso on your entree (extra charge now.) That is what always gave a meal there extra flavor and pulled everything together.  

Yeah sad times

[PKIVortex]

We found they out the hard way opening day.

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[LuvingKI]

I'm so upset with Coney BBQ not having Burnt Ends, that's my favorite meal at Kings Island

[CoryK]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:33 PM, chad_1138 said:

I asked one of the managers that was serving the same thing yesterday.  She said they are going with a simpler menu and may be rotating different items throughout the season.

The chicken tenders that I had on the 15th were hand breaded. Went back on the 16th and they were the frozen kind. I'll stick with Chicken Shack when I want tenders. It's odd for a BBQ joint to no longer have ribs. Pork isn't that expensive.