Busch Gardens All-Day Dining

Last year when Robby came to visit, the rain had quite an impact on our plans. Originally one of our days was supposed to be at Busch Gardens, but with a 90% chance of rain, we opted for Universal instead. I had already purchased All-Day Dining passes based on my experiences with All-Day Dining at SeaWorld for us, figuring if we were there most of the day, we could make good use of them. Since we didn’t end up going, Jay and I had a year to use them before they expired, and we finally got around to it. 

We’ve been to Busch Gardens a few times in the last year, but we usually had other people with us, who didn’t have All-Day Dining, and we didn’t want them to be missing rides while we ate. 

I think I have eaten at Busch Gardens maybe twice in the several years we’ve been going there. We usually end up grabbing fast food on the way, just for the sake of saving money, so I was excited to give it a try. 

I meant for us to start at the Zambia Smokehouse, but we got turned around, because I didn’t read the map correctly. I can find any ride in that park without a map, but I honestly am not familiar with the restaurants. I didn’t realize that there were multiple locations with the same numbers, but they were color coded. All the merchandise locations are numbered 1 to 10, or so, in yellow, and all the restaurants are numbered 1 to however-many-restaurants-they-have in green. I was just looking at numbers, not the colors. So, we wound up at Dragon’s Fire Grill first.

THERE WERE SO MANY SCHOOL GROUPS! We waited behind at least forty teenagers to get our food. Dragon Fire has the most variety in the park. It has multiple kiosks with different styles of cuisine. Jay wound up in the line for the Italian kiosk, and I went for the “Asian Wok”. I snagged my dessert from the middle section, since his line was a lot longer than mine, and waited for him to meet me, so we could check out.

The extremely nice lady at the register asked if we’d done All-Day Dining before, and we said “Kind of.” Then I added, “At SeaWorld.” She went over the process, and handed me a flyer describing it in more detail.

This was the first time I’ve ever seen it in writing, inside any park, not just Busch Gardens. Also, the first time I’ve ever seen the Buy One, Get One on snacks and alcohol! 

We sat down to eat and I started the one-hour timer on my phone. Jay had opted for a meatball sub and mozzarella sticks over a dessert. I went with teriyaki beef and shrimp, with chocolate cake. We didn’t finish everything because we wanted to save room for round two! 

We made our way to the tiger exhibits, and wandered around there for a while. All the lines for the rides were longer than we cared to stand in, so we took our time looking at the animals. 

We went to scope out Sheikra Eats, which was listed on the All-Day Dining. Sadly, while the meals were on the list, the funnel cake I had my eye on was not. So, when my timer went off, we headed over to the Zambia Smokehouse. It’s basically Busch Gardens’ equivalent to SeaWorld’s Voyager’s Smokehouse. 

We both got the Brisket sampler. I decided to try the warm apple cobbler and Jay got carrot cake. We snagged two bottles of water, and Jay still somehow managed to get a fountain drink too. I’m never fast enough to get a picture of the total at the register, but it was around $50, and it was free with the All-Day Dining! 

My absolute favorite thing at Busch Gardens is the kangaroo exhibit, because you can pet them! We hopped on over there (get it?) to find most of them sleeping off the heat of the day. One was asleep next to the fence and he didn’t seem to mind some back scratches. We also made friends with a rescue bird named Lefty. He’s missing a wing, and his beak looks like it was 3D printed, but the kid selling the kangaroo food couldn’t tell me more than his name. Lefty certainly likes having his picture taken!

We wandered through the rest of the exhibits. Most of the animals were sleeping, but the giraffes were posing nicely. Between the long lines of teenagers on school trips and the heat, we decided to grab one last meal and call it quits.  

Beauty of having annual passes, we can always go back. 

Our last stop was the Serengeti Overlook Pub. It’s the counter service location in the same building as Busch Gardens only full-service restaurant, the Serengeti Overlook Restaurant. Jay ordered the pepperoni pizza and I got a chicken tenders basket. Jay didn’t want dessert, so I got two of the cheesecakes. 

Busch Gardens All-Day Dining is not as good as SeaWorld’s. The food just isn’t the same quality. It’s not bad food by any means, but even the cheesecake wasn’t as good as SeaWorld’s cheesecake. If you’re looking to spend most of the day at Busch Gardens anyway, it is a fantastic value. If you eat twice, you will get more than your money’s worth. If you get drinks as you go, or eat more, you will come out ahead. It’s not a great fit for Jay and I because we do All-Day Dining solely to pig out and eat as much as we can for the day. So, we will stick to SeaWorld! 

Cost: $34.99 plus tax. Annual Passholders get 10% off. 

Value: If you’re going to be at Busch Gardens a full day and will need to eat, it is worth every cent. 

Duration: All-day! 

Add Ons: Beer and snacks are BOGO when you have All-Day Dining. We did not utilize this, but it could be fun!