| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
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| Holiday World has worked on its food offerings in the last decade, and is now competitive with its top rivals and better than most parks in both quality and pricing. Across the park, there is a good mix of adult food, kiddie food, junk food and heart healthy food. Remember you can get soft drinks, pink lemonade or ice water any time you want at the free dispensers. HW's wraps are great, competitive not just among amusement parks but anywhere. It also offers very good pizza, fajitas, stromboli sandwiches, and corn on the cob. The Plymouth Rock Cafe is competitive with Kennywood's Park Cafe and Dollywood's special theme restaurants and beats anything Kings Island or Cedar Point offers. |  |
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Kris Kringle Cafe. This is the first major eatery you'll pass entering the park, on top of the hill. It looks very impressive on the outside, but inside they serve mostly fast food. However, the pizza here is fresh and delicious. We have a bunch of finicky pizza conneisseurs in our group, and they think this is as good as any back home at $5 a slice or $17 for a whole pie. Their stromboli sandwich is great and comes with large fries and a cookie for $6. Other than that, they offer hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and fries. The cheesecake on a stick is an obscene dessert that will leave you feeling stuffed and utterly unfit to ride the Spider or Tilt a Whirl. There's a grilled chicken sandwich if you're watching your cholesterol. There are plenty of tables where you can sit in the air conditioning and watch the crowds strolling by. They have milk and juice for sale or the usual free soft drink dispensers. |
| The Alamo is Holiday World's take on Mexican. Their best item is their chicken fajitas at $6, but the frito pie is pretty good. There are the usual nachos, tacos and burritos, but if you just want something to munch on while walking on down the trail, the nachos supreme is excellent. Seating is in the unshaded outdoor courtyard, which can be a problem on sticky hot Summer days or chilly Fall days, but you could take your food and walk on down the hill to shadier areas. Located just across from the Indian River canoe ride, starting down the hill from the Bumper Cars. |  |
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Zoombabwe Grill. Their best items are their corn on the cob, baked potato and either a garden salad, chefs salad or grilled chicken salad. Their pork chop sandwich is pretty good. Other than that, you're back to hamburgers, hot dogs and fries. |
| The Plymouth Rock Cafe is Holiday World's answer to the sitdown eateries of other major parks. This is very good food at quite reasonable prices, a welcome break from overpriced fast food at most parks. You get an "adult" meal for $10 or a "child's" meal for $8, but the words really mean "large" and "small," and many adults order the child's portions. You go through a cafeteria line and get your choice of entrees, three of 15 sides, dessert, and the usual free drinks. They have white milk (no chocolate) and juice for the kids. The food here is good and portions are generous. We think their best entree is their huge Turkey Leg, which is as big and good as the ones made famous at Frontierland in Disney World. One turkey leg is a meal in itself. All the sides are good, but the Fried Apples, Cole Slaw, Mashed Potatoes and Macaroni & Cheese are especially tasty and comparable to what you would get in a very good restaurant in Louisville or Indianapolis. This is located at the base of the Voyage lift hill. Seating is inside in the air conditioning, or outside under umbrellas. We like lunch at one of the other stands and dinner here. |  |
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Barbecue USA. For $5 you can get barbecued pork or chicken sandwiches, fries, baked beans, and a cookie. Located across the walk from the Carouselon the way to the Freedom Train. We need a campaign to persuade the Kochs to offer this barbecue on plates, not just sandwiches. It's pretty good but the sandwich gets messy. Limited seating but it's shady. Western Kentucky, especially Owensboro, is famous for barbecue, and 40% of HW's clientele comes from there, so it has pretty demanding expectations to live up to. This might not be as good as Mom's back in Daviess County, but it is certainly as good as most restaurants in the Midwest. |
| Bahari Snacks. This could be the highlight of the park. Just ignore their corn dogs, funnel cakes, nachos and fries. What you want are the Wraps. You have a choice of Chicken Caesar, Turkey or Fried Chicken. With the first two, you get a very large wrap containing noncholesterated meat buried in a tunnel of vegetables. These are the best wraps we've had. However, if you insist, they also have chicken fingers, cheese filled breadsticks, dipped apples, and chocolate dipped marshmallows or bananas. Eating is outside. They also have milk. |  |
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The Udderly Blue Ice Cream Shop. Right next to the Spider. They offer soft serve (custard) and milk shakes at $1.80 and flurry for $3.60. This is that good, curled ice cream every adult remembers from when they were a kid and every kid associates with July Fourth and amusement parks. Buy a cone as you get off the Spider and you can eat it while standing in line over at the antique cars. |
| Funnel Cake Factory. Just below the Flying Scooters. There's always a big line here. You can get chocolate, strawberry or powdered sugar toppings on your funnel cake. These are big funnel cakes served on a paper plate for $3. We are not big funnel cake fans, even after trying them several times, so we consulted with the locals waiting in line or sitting down devouring theirs. Turns out they were mostly Southern Indiana farmers who developed their love for Funnel Cakes at State Fairs in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio State, where they go every year to show their hogs, cattle, sheep and chickens. They do not think these beat the State Fair offerings, but they do think the HW funnel cakes beat everything else. Fried oreos are also a specialty. There are four outside tables here but they're usually occupied. |  |
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Hot Diggity Dogs is up on Kiddieland Hill. Their menu is slanted toward popular kiddie fare, but it does contain three adult items : Polish Sausage, Philly Cheese Steaks and Hot Pretzels. We consider ourselves Polish Sausage conneisseurs, having learned to appreciate them on various trips to Northeastern cities. We think these measure up quite well. Other than that, you have corn dogs, nachos, and icees. They serve soft ice cream. There are benches to sit on and eat while you watch the rugrats play. |
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