Kings Island 2025 Food Reviews and Discussion

[DoomPlague]

Seems to be the same items as last year?

I had that smokehouse mac & cheese last year and it was great.

[SmartCat7162]

6 hours ago, chuck norris said:

Wishbone grill


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Thanks for all the pictures by any chance did you get to checkout the Sweet Spot? If so how did everything look is it mostly new desserts for haunt with a few classics returning or is it the same menu?

[chuck norris]

Thanks for all the pictures by any chance did you get to checkout the Sweet Spot? If so how did everything look is it mostly new desserts for haunt with a few classics returning or is it the same menu?

My only interest is dining plan items… so I didn’t look at sweet spot offerings.


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[robintodd]

Three more that I found.  These are back at Potato Works:

This one is at Juke Box:

 

And I believe this was a Coney BBQ:

All photos taken by me.

 

[IndyGuy4KI]

14 hours ago, SmartCat7162 said:

Thanks for all the pictures by any chance did you get to checkout the Sweet Spot? If so how did everything look is it mostly new desserts for haunt with a few classics returning or is it the same menu?

Here are some photos I took at Sweet Spot.

 

[brenthodge]

If you are hungry, hit up Coney BBQ tonight. They are doling out heaps of chicken strips and the roast chicken is huge. Like the good old days! 

[Diamondback_Is_King]

17 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

If you are hungry, hit up Coney BBQ tonight. They are doling out heaps of chicken strips and the roast chicken is huge. Like the good old days! 

Great to hear! They must have more food than they can sell-must not be as busy as they thought...

[disco2000]

3 minutes ago, Diamondback_Is_King said:

Great to hear! They must have more food than they can sell-must not be as busy as they thought...

It's actually fairly busy and as of 8:15 many food lines are out the entrance with some decent lines for rides and mazes.

[brenthodge]

1 hour ago, disco2000 said:

It's actually fairly busy and as of 8:15 many food lines are out the entrance with some decent lines for rides and mazes.

That. Yet people keep

posting pics from 6:30 of a dead park predicting the downfall of KI as we know it. Keep the whiney “I’ll never be back because they promised me haunt” crowd at home. They are doing fine folks! 

[Tr0y]

1 hour ago, disco2000 said:

It's actually fairly busy and as of 8:15 many food lines are out the entrance with some decent lines for rides and mazes.

Goes to show that the haunt mazes don't matter. Ditch the mazes and scare roamers and decorate religiously like Dollywood. 

[brenthodge]

35 minutes ago, Tr0y said:

Goes to show that the haunt mazes don't matter. Ditch the mazes and scare roamers and decorate religiously like Dollywood. 

Dollywood isn’t decorated RELIGIOUSLY, just with care and attention to detail. 

[disco2000]

41 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

That. Yet people keep

posting pics from 6:30 of a dead park predicting the downfall of KI as we know it. Keep the whiney “I’ll never be back because they promised me haunt” crowd at home. They are doing fine folks! 

Yeah a full Beast queue is a sign of a dead park lol.

[brenthodge]

35 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

Yeah a full Beast queue is a sign of a dead park lol.

65 min at 10:30. 

[shark6495]

This is more I’m an idiot or I’m confused:

 

One son I bought a regular drink pass, the other son I bought an Icee pass.  Later I upgraded the original drink pass to the icee pass.  Over the weekend they said one kid had a small icee and the other had the larger cup.  She couldn’t tell me which one was which. 

 

But any reason for this or just a weird SF thing?

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

That sounds a little more like a training and/or POS system issue (which would be a Six Flags thing) than something related to the drink passes themselves. I think the associate might've hit the ICEE button and the season pass cup button instead of the former twice. It's also possible that the system glitched and only allowed them to hit one, especially if both passes were scanned from one phone.

Very odd thing to happen either way.

[PKIVortex]

This is more I’m an idiot or I’m confused:
 
One son I bought a regular drink pass, the other son I bought an Icee pass.  Later I upgraded the original drink pass to the icee pass.  Over the weekend they said one kid had a small icee and the other had the larger cup.  She couldn’t tell me which one was which. 
 
But any reason for this or just a weird SF thing?

There isn't an option for a larger cup with the drink plans. Sounds like a training issue. Icee or soft drinks you get the red cup.

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[shark6495]

On 10/1/2025 at 4:43 PM, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

That sounds a little more like a training and/or POS system issue (which would be a Six Flags thing) than something related to the drink passes themselves. I think the associate might've hit the ICEE button and the season pass cup button instead of the former twice. It's also possible that the system glitched and only allowed them to hit one, especially if both passes were scanned from one phone.

Very odd thing to happen either way.

 

On 10/1/2025 at 5:35 PM, PKIVortex said:

There isn't an option for a larger cup with the drink plans. Sounds like a training issue. Icee or soft drinks you get the red cup.

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Yeah super weird but makes sense. 

 

Which tracks earlier in the night we had to do 3 separate orders for our meal plans (all coming off my phone with the passes) as festhouse said she could not do more than one meal plans and drink at a time.  

[Timchat2]

Sweet Spot has some unique autumn offerings this weekend along with a few remaining Haunt items:

 

[IndyGuy4KI]

11 minutes ago, Timchat2 said:

Sweet Spot has some unique autumn offerings this weekend along with a few remaining Haunt items:

 

That fall cake looked amazing. Very well decorated.

[kingsislandfan1972]

I'm still loving the Blue Ice Cream at Kings Island... it never disappoints! 

[BeeastFarmer]

Jukebox Diner has now been relegated to  the "only eat there if I don't mind terrible food" category for me. 

We are there yesterday, and the burgers were left in open air, displayed sideways.  So the top was dried out and the bottom was greasified.  My friend was not impressed with it.

I got the chicken tenders.  They were huge, but hard to choke down. They were Sysco type institutional food and were literally mushy towards the middle. I gnawed off the edge of one.  Fries were cold. 

More than 80% of our meals went in the trash.  I mean, I have the meal plan, so it is what it is, but I learned my lesson and won't try the food there again.

The employees did not engage other than "what do you want?" and eye rolls and the gen z stare.   

This was even worse than Six Flags Over Georgia dining, both with food and experience. 

Compare that to the people at the stand by The French Bar...quick, making jokes and smiles. As well as Grain and Grill who smiled and served great food. And no gen z stare haha.

 

[PKIVortex]

Jukebox Diner has now been relegated to  the "only eat there if I don't mind terrible food" category for me. 
We are there yesterday, and the burgers were left in open air, displayed sideways.  So the top was dried out and the bottom was greasified.  My friend was not impressed with it.
I got the chicken tenders.  They were huge, but hard to choke down. They were Sysco type institutional food and were literally mushy towards the middle. I gnawed off the edge of one.  Fries were cold. 
More than 80% of our meals went in the trash.  I mean, I have the meal plan, so it is what it is, but I learned my lesson and won't try the food there again.
The employees did not engage other than "what do you want?" and eye rolls and the gen z stare.   
This was even worse than Six Flags Over Georgia dining, both with food and experience. 
Compare that to the people at the stand by The French Bar...quick, making jokes and smiles. As well as Grain and Grill who smiled and served great food. And no gen z stare haha.
 

My Burger was good yesterday Onion Rings not so much. I agree the employees where not very friendly or engaging. The guy serving the sides had to ask the first employee what my side was. I mean he could have easily just asked me.

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[CedarPointer]

They ruined Juke Box when they started premaking all the food. The setup certainly wasn't efficient before, but at least the food was edible. Now it's $20 for a school cafeteria quality burger with no toppings... and they wonder why people aren't spending money in the park. It was nice when they brought the patty melt back, but it's 50/50 whether it's good or whether the bread has the texture of a crouton and the patties are more like shoe leather. 

On the bright side, I feel like Enrique's has been more consistently good this year. The portions can vary quite a bit (although, with the exception of the protein, I was never told "no" when I asked for more of something), but the quality was more consistent than I remember in the past. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Jukebox is now calling the Big Dog Platter "All New" instead of everything being one general Platter item. That probably helps with the clarifying the standardization of the menu, but it's odd to call that new while the cheeseburger and chicken tenders aren't listed as "new". I haven't been in there in a while but I also remember them not having any hamburgers with the cheeseburgers. Why not have two without cheese on the tray if you're going to have everything pre-made — especially if it takes 5+ minutes for the kitchen to make a plain burger? Having to throw out unsold food is standard practice that I'm certain already happens in the park.

A lot of restaurants in the park, like Jukebox, would benefit from having order numbers w/ screens and/or food lockers. For Jukebox I'd divert the exit toward the larger seating area and install either a window or food lockers on that side of the building. It'd probably be easier to take out Ralph's on the other side and replace it, but that side has less seating. This way they could make the food fresh without stalling the line. Potato Works and Tom + Chee also need order numbers/screens, but I've said my piece on those.

 

I think I might do a general 2025 season-so-far KI Dining review to get all my thoughts out. So far I've had a lot of good experiences, but I've also read about a lot of issues this year. I'd hate to see all the good work Chef Major and Chef Perez did go down the drain in the name of cost synergies.

[jbeast]

Having the meal plan and drink plus plan the past few years, I can say that KI has some amazing options for food. My go to is Brewhouse for the Pub Burger. Grain and Grill and Island Smokehouse are my other favorites. I have not been to Jukebox in ages. Not when I can stop in Brewhouse, in air conditioning (or heat) and get a far superior Cheeseburger. And I love my blue raspberry Icee and hot chocolate having the drink plus plan...won't go without it now.

My youngest son and I went to Cedar Point this past summer (his first trip ever), and for the most part, the food was great, but wow did the burger and fries suck at Coasters as our last meal after 2 days there. I was shocked how bad it was. I stomached it because we were hungry before the park closed and it was close to where were getting after just riding Siren's Curse. Won't eat there again.

[CedarPointer]

I think the issue that shapes a lot of the discourse about food at the parks is that the passholders who have the dining plan and go all the time know which places have good food. For example, I know that the chicken tenders at Festhaus are the Sysco Special, so I just don't get chicken tenders there and go to Chicken Shack instead. But Tammy Ticketholder who comes to the park once or twice a year isn't going to know that and is going to assume the food is similar quality everywhere since the prices are similar everywhere. And then when she's disappointed with her $17 meal and shares her experience, passholders scold her for not knowing better and drop the classic "I haven't had any problems this year" line. 

On a totally unrelated note, I wish they had the buffalo chicken flatbread and harvest flatbread at Street Pizza all the time. They definitely looked a little sloppy and could be messy to eat, but I would take those over the regular LaRosa's pizza any day.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Kings Island November 2025 Food & Beverage Write-up

For a park that once had laughably uninspired dining options, Kings Island has come a long way since Cedar Fair introduced meal plans and hired Chef James Major to improve the park's dining. Now with Chef Perez at the helm, we have continued to see specialty food options added to compliment the rest of the regular-season food. Festival food items are advertised outside each location and Chef's Plate items are announced online. This year has not been all sunshine and rainbows, though. Despite online posts from the park about the specialty festival foods, there has been a notable lack of a complete list of items and even less transparency on which of those items are included with the Dining Plan. Chef's Plate items are also often announced via a Facebook or Instagram story in the middle of the day about 1-2 hours before the item becomes available. The beginning of the season saw continued challenges with the quality of fountain drinks. More complications arose when refill stations and restaurants started running out of Drink Plan cups and refused to provide an alternative even after the pass had been scanned. Guests visiting Cedar Point and Kings Dominion received 10oz cups — down from the standard 16oz — for about two months in the middle of the season. 

Another issue has presented itself as various KI dining locations have begun to use Sysco (or similar generic commercial food supply brand) chicken tenders. This is a notable change from the higher-quality tenders still found at the Chicken Shack. Standardized options are good for saving time and money, but the lower quality should be made up for by it being hot and freshly prepared. Daily ticket holders may not know the tips and tricks of buying a One-Day Dining Plan to share amongst their group. These are the guests that will (rightfully) complain about the high price of food and often mention the quality after bad experiences. Yes, us passholders understand where the good dining locations are, but the gap between the good and the bad seems to be wide.

Third-party dining vendors have changed over the last few years as well. While Chik-Fil-A and Subway have unceremoniously left the park, LaRosa's, Panda Express, Skyline Chili, Starbucks, and Tom + Chee remain. Most of these offer a few basic options as part of the park dining plans and allow out-of-town guests to experience a version of local cuisine.

My personal experiences with my 2025 Kings Island Dining Plan have been considerably good so far. Out of 39 dining plan meals at Kings Island, only 5 have been what I consider to be sub-par. Out of 86 drinks I think I've encountered at least 20 instances of soda fountains being out of syrup. There have been even more experiences of fountains being out of ice. I haven't been able to achieve my goal of eating at most restaurants in the park, but I have eaten at most of the big ones and a few of the smaller ones. With my All-Park Dining Plan I would've "spent" $716.25 on food and $215 on drinks across 5 Six Flags parks throughout the 2025 season. To get all of that for a total price of almost $200 is a very good deal. Some might argue that myself and others have "abused" the dining plan, but the reality is that most normal guests will not even reach the 10-12 meals it'd take to break even on it.

 

So I've analyzed these different parts of the KI dining experience: what now? I have a few suggestions for if the park would like to improve their dining even more. Let me know your thoughts and if you have suggestions for how the park might continue to improve their food and beverage experience.

• Transition to an order number system for counter service dining locations that already require guests to provide a name for their order (Rivertown Potato Works, Skyline, Tom + Chee, etc.).
  • Each guest would be given a receipt with their order number on it and a monitor next to each pickup window would display the progress of each order.
  • This ensures that each order will be tied to an identifying number and that guests receive a list of items they purchased.
• Implement an Order Slip feature on the park's mobile app that includes the order number and details.
  • This would show guests how many times they have used their meal plan, what time they used it at, and what they got with it.
  • It might also provide a function for guests to rate their meal, giving direct feedback to the park about the quality of their food.
• Provide trays for larger orders and install tray return locations at each dining location.
  • This already happens at some locations, but there are no dedicated tray return spots.
  • The tray return spots could be placed next to each pickup window for convenience. Guests would then be able to see the return location when they pick up their food.
• Dedicate at least two associates to restocking Coca-Cola Refresh Stations each day.
  • These associates could ensure each machine has ice and proper carbonation/syrup.
• Consider installing food lockers at some locations for mobile/kiosk ordering.
  • Guests would still get a receipt and an order number.
  • The largest hassle would be with ensuring total unfulfilled orders do not exceed the number of available lockers.

These are not all of my thoughts, but they're enough of what I could get out right now.