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Rollercoaster Restaurant: It's just dire.

AstroDan

AstroDan

TS Team
Favourite Ride
Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
RCR is absolutely terrible.

A few years ago, in 2019, we posted on the TS facebook page that we simply couldn't recommend the restaurant due to successive visits where there were issues.

3 years later, things are just as bad in many ways.

  • On entry, a strange smell of bleach/mushrooms meets your nose. This has been the case on several visits over the years. Vile.
  • Issues are standard. Whether a lack of knives and forks, glassware not being available for bottled drinks without asking, used pots piling up on tables while you eat and not being cleared...
  • An absolutely terrible menu for lunch (which is the only menu available during Scarefest). Here's the choice of dire food options:

MAINS
Loaded Chicken Goujoins - £15.95 (served with fries)
Buffalo Chicken Wings £15.95 (served with loaded fries)
Caesar Salad £12.95
Scampi £13.95 (served with fries)
Chicken Burger £13.95 (served with fries)
Chicken & Beef Stack Burger £16.95 (served with fries)
Cheese Burger £13.95 (served with fries)
Wicker Man Wrap (chicken) £13.95 (served with fries)

VEGGIE/VEGAN
Tomato Pasta £13.95 (served with garlic bread)
Onion Bhaji Naan £13.95 (served with side salad)
No-Meat Sub Roll £13.95 (served with fries)
Vegan Doner Wrap £14.95 (served with fries)
Jackfruit Burger £15.50 (served with fries)

Chicken, Scampi or Veggie,

Who comes up with this crap? And people worry about Aramark? Can it really get any worse!?

On exit, I was asked how the experience was. I shrugged, said it was dreadful but I knew that before I went in. I only went in because one of the group hadn't been before and inisisted. I decided to have just chips and an Appletise, because the rest of the food looked so awful. Honestly? I think the staff there know it's lousy but the management clearly just enable it without a care because it makes money hand over fist.

When Woodcutters can serve Chicken, Ribs, Steaks and other items - RCR is truly the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, an absolute cash cow with no care WHATSOEVER on quality, service or anything else.

If it closed down, I wouldn't care less - it has been crap for years. The only reason it survives is because children smile so parents are happy. End.

To use a phrase from early 1990s Paris... the restaurant is a culinary Chernobyl.
 
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It's theme park food that comes down a rollercoaster track. I agree the selection isn't great. We were there a couple of weeks ago and found the food perfectly acceptable (the loaded chicken goujons were delicious actually). Service was fine and we didn't notice any smell at all.

Maybe my expectations are too low as I've only been to UK theme parks? I just don't expect high class food at these kind of places...
 
I’ve dined in the Rollercoaster Restaurant 3 times in total since it opened in 2016; once in 2017, once in 2019 and once in 2022.

I’ve only ever gone for an evening meal, so I admittedly can’t talk about lunch, but I’ve always liked the Rollercoaster Restaurant myself. Admittedly, the main thing I enjoy about it is the novelty of having your food come to you via rollercoaster, as well as the experience of basically being in enthusiast paradise with all the roller coaster posters and models and concept art, but I’ve always enjoyed going there, personally.

As for the food; I’ve never personally had an issue with it myself. All of the things I’ve eaten there have been perfectly nice dishes that I’ve enjoyed. However, I’m not really much of a foodie myself and don’t mind eating slightly more “basic” food, so perhaps I’m not the best barometer.

My mum and nan were both profoundly disappointed with it on our last visit; they bemoaned the lack of vegetarian options on the menu, and complained that the food was “all beige”. My mum asserts that she’s never going back there because she feels it’s “hideously overpriced” given the food it offers.

I’ve never personally had any service problems myself (the plates and such have always been fine, and replaced quickly, for me), but I’ll admit that one minor niggle with our last experience was that there was often considerable variability in when people’s dishes came out; our main courses came out at very different times, even though we ordered them all together.

Overall, I personally really enjoy the Rollercoaster Restaurant, but I’ll admit that my love for it lies more with the novelty factor than the food (although that’s probably in large part due to me not being much of a foodie). I’ll digress that RCR is not a Michelin star fine dining establishment, so if you’re going there expecting the world’s greatest gastronomic experience with the fanciest menu, you will probably be disappointed.

However, if you look at it as a fun novelty experience, I don’t think it does badly myself. I personally think the food is perfectly fine for what it is, and the novelty of having it come down a roller coaster is always fun, in my view!
 
Food has been abysmal across the resort for quite some time. Options gets less, as quality goes down. Anything half decent usually disappears within 12 months to be replaced by something worse and more expensive.

We only eat at park outlets if we absolutely have to, otherwise we either take food with us or wait until we leave. As long as people keep accepting such terrible quality, I can’t imagine much will change, other than whatever change Aramark bring with them.

I think RCR is probably the pinnacle of the atrociousness because as you say, they can just about get away with it given the distraction offered by the setting.
 
I walked past the queue for it yesterday and it was pretty long. (walk-ins only during Scarefest)
 
venny said:
Food has been abysmal across the resort for quite some time. Options gets less, as quality goes down. Anything half decent usually disappears within 12 months to be replaced by something worse and more expensive.

We only eat at park outlets if we absolutely have to, otherwise we either take food with us or wait until we leave. As long as people keep accepting such terrible quality, I can’t imagine much will change, other than whatever change Aramark bring with them.

I think RCR is probably the pinnacle of the atrociousness because as you say, they can just about get away with it given the distraction offered by the setting.
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We resorted to a high quality picnic sat on the rocks in express parking for about the last two decades...since all the food was expensive, poor and queues for it long.
Stunning location sat on the rocks in the shade of the big Chestnut tree close to the loos, quality food and drink at cheap prices.
 
I went in for the first time on Thursday.

It's worth doing once for the gimmick, but the whole place is a missed opportunity. The whole illusion is somewhat shattered when stuff gets stuck and a bloke has to poke it with a big stick, which happened twice in the 25 mins we were there.

Ambiance wise it feels like it can't make its mind up what it is. Either go for the super cool modern aesthetic or go for the 90s nostalgic stuff plastered over the walls, but don't do a bit of both. The concept art is all interesting but isn't presented in a manner which means it can really be enjoyed as it's mostly over and behind other diners heads. The way the Wicker Man model was plonked on a wall with nothing else in a place above head height kind of talks to the level of thought in to guest experience that's gone on. The "show" was just an annoyance really, didn't really add anything.

The food was mediocre and expensive, the range thin and the service luke-warm but not out of the realms of what one might expect in a theme park restaurant.
 
Think I went once, and my food turned up so late we had left the table by the time it arrived.

Much like at Europa, not worth the long waits it gets.
 
I agree lunch is very poor in there. If I recall not even any dessert options!?!? Dinner is somewhat better but I also noticed last time we visited in July there was a lack of cutlery and glasses. Service was good though. As for the bleach smell, yep that’s been the case for years and it’s horrible.
 
The novelty of it ensures it’s always busy, and most people are too distracted to notice issues with service/meals, unfortunately.

I’m yet to leave the place feeling anything other than disappointed.
 
You're actually doing a great job of selling the RCR to me, given that Woodcutters has cut their entire vegan range down to just a jackfruit burger this season (last year it was pretty decent, with a burger, nachos, chilli and curry on offer). Wait times at Woodcutters have also increased significantly.

I think food across the resort has gone downhill this year.
 
I went for an evening meal at RCR last June and actually really enjoyed it. My steak was perfect and the sides were actually quite high quality.

The tablet ordering system was a bit bizarre though, but apart from that it was a good experience.

Haven’t eaten in woodcutters for a few years - last visit we ended up at the pizza pasta buffet and I thought the pizza was delicious.

Maybe I’m just easily pleased 😂
 
I rarely visit on a day with decent enough opening hours that there's time to have a sit down lunch anyway. Only time of year I'll ever visit where that occurs is Scarefest and still then I go to great lengths to avoid park food.

Did RCR twice in the early years, both at tea time. First experience was great, the second I saw a decline in food quality (think it was 2017). For how much it costs, I just haven't been willing to take the risk of splashing out that much on food for it to be crap. Other than a quick Burger and a Magnum, I've given up trusting food at Towers. Unless it's one of the hired in vans of course which are awesome.
 
If anybody actually thinks chicken goujons, wings, burger or scampi is any kind of menu I really despair.

The veggie/vegan offer is better, as there are several things.

Honestly, RCR is absolutely terrible. What even is that horrid stench? Time after time?

It is one issue after another in the place.

Avoid.

I would add - the normal, evening menu is of course better - but even then we had several issues. The current Scarefest menu is the worst of the worst.

What the hell does the F&B director think they are doing tolerating this level of offering under their watch? If my teaching was this incompetent I would face disciplinary.
 
AstroDan said:
RCR is absolutely terrible.

A few years ago, in 2019, we posted on the TS facebook page that we simply couldn't recommend the restaurant due to successive visits where there were issues.

3 years later, things are just as bad in many ways.

  • On entry, a strange smell of bleach/mushrooms meets your nose. This has been the case on several visits over the years. Vile.
  • Issues are standard. Whether a lack of knives and forks, glassware not being available for bottled drinks without asking, used pots piling up on tables while you eat and not being cleared...
  • An absolutely terrible menu for lunch (which is the only menu available during Scarefest). Here's the choice of dire food options:

MAINS
Loaded Chicken Goujoins - £15.95 (served with fries)
Buffalo Chicken Wings £15.95 (served with loaded fries)
Caesar Salad £12.95
Scampi £13.95 (served with fries)
Chicken Burger £13.95 (served with fries)
Chicken & Beef Stack Burger £16.95 (served with fries)
Cheese Burger £13.95 (served with fries)
Wicker Man Wrap (chicken) £13.95 (served with fries)

VEGGIE/VEGAN
Tomato Pasta £13.95 (served with garlic bread)
Onion Bhaji Naan £13.95 (served with side salad)
No-Meat Sub Roll £13.95 (served with fries)
Vegan Doner Wrap £14.95 (served with fries)
Jackfruit Burger £15.50 (served with fries)

Chicken, Scampi or Veggie,

Who comes up with this crap? And people worry about Aramark? Can it really get any worse!?

On exit, I was asked how the experience was. I shrugged, said it was dreadful but I knew that before I went in. I only went in because one of the group hadn't been before and inisisted. I decided to have just chips and an Appletise, because the rest of the food looked so awful. Honestly? I think the staff there know it's lousy but the management clearly just enable it without a care because it makes money hand over fist.

When Woodcutters can serve Chicken, Ribs, Steaks and other items - RCR is truly the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, an absolute cash cow with no care WHATSOEVER on quality, service or anything else.

If it closed down, I wouldn't care less - it has been crap for years. The only reason it survives is because children smile so parents are happy. End.

To use a phrase from early 1990s Paris... the restaurant is a culinary Chernobyl.
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We went to RCR on the kids pass day, beginning of the season to be fair. The food was literally disgusting, I'd have given it less than 1/10. Everything cold and mostly unrecognisable as edible food substances. We ate it all as we'd paid £30+ for 2 and hadn't eaten much during the day, but not one element was decent. The chips for example some floppy bits of what I presume was potato, a steak (allegedly) like a piece of ham lost down Morrisons reduced fridge and the rest was worse and erased from my mind
 
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Zipperdipper said:
It's theme park food that comes down a rollercoaster track. I agree the selection isn't great. We were there a couple of weeks ago and found the food perfectly acceptable (the loaded chicken goujons were delicious actually). Service was fine and we didn't notice any smell at all.

Maybe my expectations are too low as I've only been to UK theme parks? I just don't expect high class food at these kind of places...
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Trouble is the pricing, £16 for chicken strips and fries is crazy. It might be “theme park food” but it’s not worth the extra £5 premium when the service doesn’t live up to that.

Meister71 said:
We went to RCR on the kids pass day - beginning of the season tbf - the food was literally disgusting - I'd have given it less than 1/10 - everything cold and mostly unrecognisable as edible food substances - we ate it all as we'd paid £30+ for 2 and hadn't eaten much during the day - but not one element was decent - the chips for example some floppy bits of what I presume was potato - a steak (allegedly) like a piece of ham lost down Morrisons reduced fridge - the rest was worse and erased from my mind
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You pay on exit? So you hadn’t paid for the food yet so if that inedible why not send it all back?
 
The only good thing about my first experience there was they kept sending me wrong orders and telling me to keep them. Second time I went we enjoyed watching them trying to dislodge a coke from the loops.
 
I have sent food back at RCR on a great many occasions, and also complained about dirty plates, the smell, lack of cutlery, lack of glassware, tables not being cleared, food not arriving, the tablet crashing....

I have had discounts of anything from the usual MAP rate of 20% up to 50%, and once even 100% - it has been that bad.

I only went in yesterday because it was insisted upon,

Now... ARAMARK MAKE IT BETTER.
 
jon81uk said:
You pay on exit? So you hadn’t paid for the food yet so if that inedible why not send it all back?
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Ate it all - we were hungry. It's not the front of house staff's fault so not going to make a scene. Iworked in catering for years when younger.

Oh yeah forgot about the tablets, they are like some cheap rip off Amazon Fire 2.0. We had the first two didn't work took about 20 - 30 mins to get one that worked, I wasn't that bothered as we went in end of day to avoid the 1 hour car park fun.
 
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