Food was a lot better than I remember it pre-pandemic. Everything was made fresh. Chicken Tenders: The largest and meatiest I've ever had. Makes Raising Cane's look bad. The batter was light and crispy and the bbq sauce and ranch were perfect condiments. Chicken Salad: Southwestern style with pico, black beans, and roasted corn. Came topped with perfectly crisp fried onions and a broken up chicken tender. I think the dressing was a chipotle mayo. Bacon Cheeseburger: Perfectly cooked but the beef patties they used are thin, tiny, and not great. If they could just upgrade it to a higher quality quarter lb patty, I think everyone would benefit. The Fries: What the heck! Why would a safari park have some of the best fries anywhere?! Crispy, thick, hot and soft in the center, and so well seasoned. They came with the burger and the tenders in a large mound so our meals were super filling. Staff-wise, Brant was amazingly friendly. He turned us onto the tiger tail fudge (peanut butter and white chocolate) and we ended up buying some of that and the rocky road fudge to take home and enjoy. read more

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The chicken tenders and the French fries here are so insanely good that I would go and say they are better than Raising Canes. The food preparation time was a bit slow but I found that they cook their food from scratch and they aren't just warming it up. This is a plus when it's not busy but a huge problem if they are. The park could do a better job than go purposely understaff the location. The fudge was also insanely good and super sweet. I highly recommend the rocky road and the peanut butter one! Super rich super satisfying. Huge thank you to our cashier and service fam Brandt. People like him is why I patron specific places. Excellent service, super helpful, and always helped when he could! TL;DR Eat here if you have some time and it's not too busy. Brandt is awesome. Fudge is great! read more

The Mombasa Cooker is a great place to stop for traditional American fare and to dine alongside the colorful birds that frequent the Safari Park's Lagoon Loop, just outside its doors. The kid's meals (cheeseburger, chicken tenders, etc.) here hold more than enough yummy goodness to satisfy young zoo fans and the young at heart. They're served with baby carrots, jungle crackers, and your choice of milk, juice, or soda. For an additional $3, you can add a generous serving of seasoned fries that are more than enough to feed two. Service here is friendly and efficient but busy. Restaurant pagers free guests to settle into their preferred outdoor dining spots while waiting. Fun fact: Did you know the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is home to the only two platypuses living outside Australia? After several failed attempts, we were extremely fortunate this visit to catch glimpses of both elusive platypuses at Walkabout Australia, so you can imagine how excited our kiddos were when they discovered that their meals came in lunch totes and drink cups featuring a friendly platypus on one side and a playful, hirsute mystery animal (that we're leaving for you to discover!) on the other. What terrific souvenirs! Tip: Show your current San Diego Zoo membership pass for an additional 5-15% off food and merchandise. The Wildlife Protector pass netted us 10% off our entire order. read more

Pretty good for amusement park food! The chicken wings and tater tots are surprisingly tasty. There are different varieties of chicken flavors. The chicken is very moist. The tater tots have a good crunch and they don't taste greasy. We ordered the TJ flavor chicken strips and they have a flavor explosion. The chicken burger is ok they only give you 1 strip with the burger. Would not order the chicken burger again. I would order the wings and tater tots again! read more

Mombasa Cooker - TJ Wings and Tater Tots - Food Court Near Me - Escondido, California

Nope nope nope. Waited in a very long line to order - and waited an even longer time to actually get the food. I got the $14 cobb salad (listed on the menu as "chicken tender | salad blend | bacon | tomato | blue cheese | swiss cheese | broccoli slaw | eggs | sun-dried tomato vinaigrette dressing"). When I finally got it, the salad was covered in black olives, which I cannot eat. I asked for a new salad without the unadvertised olives and was told they don't make them there, they're only prepackaged. I sat down and tried to take the olives off, but they had soaked into everything (even the sliced egg). After another very long wait, I finally got refunded for this awful entree but was not offered anything else instead (so I didn't get lunch). Skip this place! read more

Came in here and there was no line so I assumed it would be a quick order. After ordering a corn dog with fries we ended up waiting close to 15 minutes for food. We asked the only person that seemed to be working here how much longer and she said she had no clue. I saw some lady (who probably ordered before us, definitely not after) get her sad order of fries at least 5 minutes after we got there. Food was edible but not worth the hassle. read more

3.5 stars Keep in mind this is one of the restaurant is in the Safari (Wild Animal) Park. Mombasa cooker is probably the best place to eat in the Wild Animal Park. Brisket plate with (upgraded) parmesan garlic fries. The brisket was very tender, had a nice smokey flavor, and was moist. i'm not usually a brisket type of person because it can easily become dry, this was actually good. ($14.30 for brisket, fries and cole slaw) The garlic parmesan fries were ok, they came with lots of parmesan but the garlic was the pre chopped type out of a jar, which has a slightly bitter taste to them. Not worth the up grade in my opinion. BBQ bacon cheese burger with fries $11. The burger was ok, i didn't really taste any BBQ, though i did see the sauce. It came on a nice fresh bun, not soggy and mushy like you'd get at a fast food joint. Over all its a decent burger and comes with fries. Baked Mac and Cheese $5. Looked pretty basic, but the nephew ate it all up, so must be pretty good and kid friendly. Over all this place is not a bad deal for being in a tourist attraction. Im not saying you should enter the wild animal park to check this place out. But if you're in the park, its good food at a reasonable price given its location. Some of the items like nachos and such did not seem like much of a deal but i thought the brisket and burger were fairly priced. read more

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Definitely took away our hunger but I definitely do not recommend. Unfortunately very slow service even without any clientele. However, very nice employees and clean area. Food was definitely not great. Something you can make at home. read more

Looking for a place that had cheeseburgers for our kids, we landed at this place. It took nearly 20 minutes for our 2 kids meal, 1 blue cheese burger and Chicken wrap. Unfortunately the wait was not worth it. The burgers were dry and tasted like cardboard. The buns tasted like it was made of paper and the Pattie's were worst than microwaved frozen variants. Yes it's park food but this was even below standards for park food. Advise to zoo patrons, try a different place in the park and thank me later read more

Skip. I paid $14 for HALF a soggy "wrap" (more like a roll, it wasn't even put together) which had 3 pieces of chicken in it, half a slice of cheese, and 5 pieces of romaine, including the stem??? Fries were decent for $5, and the draft .394 IPA but for $14 I expect to be full. Oasis deli was much better read more

When it comes to park food, Mombasa Island Cooker is pretty good for what it is. Their menu mainly focuses on American fare (burgers) with some BBQ plates. You order at the counter, then they give you a buzzer to pick up food. We got the following for food: - Pulled Pork Nachos ($12): At first appearance it may look weird - they have the chips, nacho cheese, and pulled pork on one plate, then they give you the coleslaw topping on the side. Mixed together it looks a lot better, and it tastes better than it looks, and it's very filling. Wish they used better chips, but at least the pulled pork had a nice sweet, smokey flavor to it. - Asian Chicken Wings ($13.50 w/ garlic fries): Came with 6 wings, coleslaw, and fries... which we upgraded for garlic fries for $1.50. Not a bad deal as the wings and fries were really good - wings were moist and flavorful. It had a ginger soy flavor to it. Portion wise the wings were pretty big, so 6 wings was very filling with the additional sides. The fries are wedge cut, but with the garlic and Parmesan they were especially tasty. I highly recommend upgrading any meal that comes with fries instead of buying a separate side of garlic fries! Safari Park is pretty isolated, so you have 2 choices: Bring your own food, or eat at the park. Being an annual pass member I opted to take advantage of my 15% discount and pay for the convenience. Yes, prices on food at high... but if you think about it, at least your money is going to zoo's maintenance instead of some theme park corporation. Plus the food wasn't really that bad - it was tasty, filled us up, and kept us going for the rest of the day. Here's a tip: Don't get tricked into buying one of those damn souvenir cups for $12 - unless you plan on refilling it 12 times in one day. Sure, you get free refills for the day you purchase it, but if you buy one of the regular sodas for $5 you can refill it for $1 at any stand. The regular soda comes in a really large reusable cup, plus you can bring it back on another visit for $1 refills I'm not sure why anyone would spend $12 on the souvenir cup except for the fact it looks nice. As another Yelper mentioned, the actual food stand is called Mombasa Island Cooker... the Mombasa Island Pavillion is merely the seating area. read more

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Food is better than typical theme park fast food. It is pricey, but everything made to order, so food is fresh. You get a buzzer to let you know that the food is ready. Hand breaded chicken tenders. Hot chicken sandwich. Caesar salad with chicken. Fries and tater tots. Good portion size. Refillable drinks for $1 for zoo members. read more

Mombasa Cooker - Food Court Near Me - Escondido, California

Service was fast. Came here with Mr. W. We went in ordered and then got a buzzer for when the order was ready. We sat nearby the pond between the Mombasa pavilion and the Mombasa Cooker. We sat down not longer than 4 min and then our buzzer went off. Ordered the chipotle chicken sandwich which came with fries and coleslaw for around $13.50. Tasted okay - satisfactory. Wish they gave more fries. Also got two cups for water. Originally came here thinking it was the Mombasa Pavilion but it looks as though a couple Yelpers have mistakenly mixed up the two with the Mombasa Cooker which is right next door. Mombasa Pavilion is the seating area where the Bamburi Boat Bar is. Mombasa Cooker is ehere the food is. Just putting it out there. read more

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Post pandemic customer service can be balanced out a little better to match the quality of the food. Distracted cashiers with personal conversations caused an error in my order; however, I wanted to trust their process. 10 minutes go by and our pager doesn't go off (we're seated outside). After patiently waiting near the food pickup for 15-20 minutes, I started noticing customers who came in after us receive their order before my family's, so I inquired about my pager number and receipt ticket number. They realized how badly my order was messed up but didn't really do much to incentivize going back. The cashier didn't align the pager number to the ticket number on our receipt. This caused confusion on our order between us and those working the line. I politely took my order and made a mental note to spend my money on dining OUTSIDE of the Safari Park. It's a waste of calories to get worked up over non-motivated workers. I'm optimistic this could get better, under better management. The eatery was a shell of a restaurant compared to pre-pandemic days; both in staffing levels and quality of service. Unfortunate the establishment has to pay the required minimum wage, for less than satisfactory service. The dollar isn't worked hard for over there. read more

Avoid this place at all cost.... waited 40 plus minutes for a chicken sandwich and a corn dog... wait of time, it's not even organic... how difficult is it to get fast food right read more

Extremely slow service. Overpriced and not that good. Plus, the server people didn't have gloves on. Please pack your own food beforehand!

I have food allergies so I can't rate the food. But the spot is beautiful if you sit in the back, there are widely spaced tables outdoors in shade next to the water. read more

Mombasa Cooker - Onion rings and chicken tenders - Food Court Near Me - Escondido, California

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I wasn't impressed. I got corn on the cob for lunch and it tasted weird. I mean, how wrong can you really go with corn???? There was a clump of Chile that somehow landed at the bottom of my corn. It was supposed to one with butter. I had to go back and ask. The reason I am giving them a three and not a two is because my daughter liked her vegi burger. read more

Mombasa Cooker - Food Court Near Me - Escondido, California

Bought the adobo chicken using the Festival of World Flavours and got... 3 wings that had.. NO SAUCE Is this how it's supposed to be? It tasted like simply unseasoned deep fried chicken.. read more

Stay away from the burgers! They're all fat and fillers. Chicken strips were over cooked and very dry- don't come with honey mustard as advertised. Fries were fresh and seasoned with only salt and pepper- they are what earned the 2 stars. Do yourself a favor and eat before you come to the Park, or else you'll just feel sick the whole time. read more

Food was absolutely disgusting, cheese burger had cheese that wasn't even melted and corn dog had a pool of grease. I absolutely do not recommend this place. read more

As far as theme park food goes, this is one of the worst I've ever had. I ordered the BBQ bacon cheeseburger, it came with fries and I ordered a side of onion rings to share with my husband. The hamburger came out cold. There was no attempt to even melt the cheese. The burger came with a small drop of BBQ sauce and the patty was a little sour and had the texture of cardboard. The onion rings and fries were dried out from being under a heat lamp. I love this park but I will just go through the hassle of bringing my own food from now on. read more

this place actually surprised me for being park food. i researched ahead of time and knew that san diego safari park had more gluten free options than the san diego zoo. so we ended up eating lunch here and i ordered the gluten free chicken strips. the cashier asked if it was an allergy and let the kitchen know. it took a while to get my food, but it was well worth it. very crispy chicken (they use corn meal instead of flour) and it came with a side of chips. they have a nice eating area outside where you can watch the birds. read more

Mombasa Cooker - sweet potato fries - Food Court Near Me - Escondido, California

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