Best Place To Eat At Seaworld San Diego – There is a lot of discussion these days about theme park food. The food industry as a whole is rapidly changing from machine-processed to personalized. It looks like farm fresh, local, hormone free, and healthy alternatives are included on most menus except for one place. The area is a theme park. Today’s theme parks still live by the tradition that anything fried will sell and sell big! Some theme parks are starting to change for the better but it seems to be a slow process for the most part. To my surprise, SeaWorld San Diego is breaking my knowledge of everything I already knew about theme park food.
On a media trip to California, I was invited to SeaWorld San Diego to do a food tasting with SeaWorld San Diego’s Executive Chef. Chef Axel Dirolf is a famous and respected chef who has cooked all over the world! He began his culinary training in Germany and has cooked in countries such as Greece, Fiji, Switzerland, and of course the USA! Chef Axel was also the Executive Chef of the Olympics as well as the Executive Chef of Super Bowl XXXIII before the game. Axel not only currently works as the Executive Chef at SeaWorld San Diego and Aquatica San Diego, he also teaches cooking classes. Axel brings a lot to the table at SeaWorld San Diego, combining his love of European cuisine with the California lifestyle!
Best Place To Eat At Seaworld San Diego
Now let’s focus on the food! SeaWorld San Diego in general has made some big strides in the right direction when it comes to food. Let’s start with the newest restaurant, Shipwreck Reef Cafe. Shipwreck Reef offers so many amazing things that are not only affordable but delicious. Chef Axel and I started our tour here and I sampled the rotisserie chicken, sustainable soy ginger salmon cooked in banana leaves, shrimp and catfish, and some healthy options including homemade chips and salsa and hummus. Everything I had was delicious and honestly I couldn’t believe it came from a quick service restaurant in a theme park!
Culinary Tour Of Seaworld San Diego
Shipwreck Reef Cafe also has something I don’t see often in theme parks. They serve up ever frozen, local, farm raised burgers with a bar on top so you can put as much or as little as you want on your burger. Chef Axel explains that the local aspect of the farm is one of the driving factors for him. Unlike here in Orlando, a large portion of their guests are locals. Having local produce in the park makes community members proud and helps keep visitors eating because they’re supporting their neighbors! This is true for the beer available at the park as well as SeaWorld San Diego. Gone are the days of indoor gardening. Throughout the park, you can find craft beer which is rare in a theme park.
Next Axel and I wandered around the park and focused on the walk-in style restaurants for food. SeaWorld San Diego food tours are popular because of the shows. The first thing I noticed about this stand was the food itself. When you think of going up to the food, you expect to see corn dogs, bad hamburgers and hot dogs that have been baking under the heat lamp since the park opened. This is far from the truth at SeaWorld San Diego! They have a taco that offers chicken nachos where the chicken is placed on your nachos straight from the grill and sliced in front of you. They also had fresh fruit with boba, fresh waffles on a stick with bacon and real maple syrup, as well as flatbread!
Finally we continued to Cafe 64 which for me shows what this farm and Chef Axel have done! Cafe 64 is located in the former Budweiser Beer School location. Just like here in Orlando, this building has been restored as a restaurant. Here in Orlando, the scene is now an all you can eat BBQ buffet, but in San Diego they’ve elevated their cuisine with Hand Crafted Burgers and a Local Beer Bar! When you enter Cafe 64 you take out a ticket that changes you to “Burger Master”.
First, the burgers here are all natural, hormone-free grass-fed beef. Don’t like beef? Cafe 64 also offers whole organic turkey, or chickpea pasta if you’d prefer one of those options! Next you have two options: You can choose the burger combination that Chef Axel brought you, or you can make your own burger! The best part of creating your own burger? You can name it whatever you want! These burgers are made to order (which usually takes 7 minutes each) but the wait is definitely worth it!
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Need something to wash your master creation? Cafe 64 offers a wide variety of local, specialty, and craft beers that you love! Come on now, who doesn’t love a fresh burger just the way you like it and a craft beer to wash it all down on a hot summer day!
As you can see SeaWorld San Diego is changing the face of theme park food every day. Chef Axel is constantly in the garden, talking to the guests, and changing his menu to not only suit his tastes but to suit the needs of the guests. I have had the opportunity to spend time with many chefs in my career, but Chef Axel is one of my favorites. You can tell a lot about a man by his words and actions. For Chef Axel, making fresh food great is his life. Throughout the garden I saw Chef Axel in the mind and actions of everyone I met. His entire team loves what they do and makes sure to go out of their way to make sure the guests are happy!
I asked Chef Axel if he ever left SeaWorld San Diego what he would want his legacy to be. His answer was simple and powerful, and it says a lot about not only the CEO of SeaWorld San Diego, but also the park as a whole. He said that every day I try to make amazing snacks. I want to see my guests happy and coming back not only for the animals and the shows but also for the food. My legacy, I just want the person behind me to take what I did and make it better!
I want to personally thank Chef Axel as well as the entire team at SeaWorld San Diego for an amazing day! Check back next week to see my article on Shamu Dinner and see what it takes to make this recipe come together!
Attention, Coasterheads: Seaworld’s Emperor, With A 143 Foot Drop, Set To Open In ’22
My name is Jason Mayhew and I am the owner of OFF On Go. When not running the website, I own a marketing and PR firm, J Mayhew Marketing. I have the best job where I get to travel the world and share the most amazing and unique experiences!
Travel and entertainment review site Live in @exploreminnesota ✈️ professional photographer 📸 Brand Ambassador Thankfully there are ways to lighten the load a little, like All Day Dining at SeaWorld. Here’s what you need to know before you go to the park.
My kids are no stranger to theme parks. We have been visiting theme parks since the kids were old enough to walk. From the thrills, the characters, the delicious food, we love everything about theme parks!
On our last trip to SeaWorld we purchased the All Day Meal Deal for our day at the park. Since we were at the park from opening until dinner time, I decided to buy the meal plan to see if it was worth it.
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The All Day Dining Agreement allows you to enjoy hassle-free dining at SeaWorld and Aquatica San Antonio. You pay one price and eat (and drink) all day, without ever taking out your wallet again. An all-day meal at sea includes an entrée, a side item or dessert, and a non-alcoholic drink usually once an hour.
Like most other theme parks we’ve visited, any child over the age of 9 is considered an adult. This is done on an honor roll basis as they do not require any age documents. The groups are different colors for adults and children, so anyone with a group of children will only be allowed to have food in the restaurants. With that said, if your 9 year old eats adult food most of the time, you may want to consider buying it for an adult group. Or if your 14-year-old is younger
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