Who knew that my favourite part of one of the UK’s biggest theme parks wouldn’t be any of the rides- but the restaurant? Well pretty typical if you know my obsession with food but that’s beside the point. Alton Towers’ Rollercoaster Restaurant keeps the action of the theme park going after you're off the ride and digging into your food.
On entrance to the restaurant, it seemed pretty plain on the outside placed in amongst the looping rollercoasters around it. Looking at a dark blue, industrial looking building had me second guessing if I was even at the restaurant yet. However, as soon as you enter the building it's clear you’re in the right place.
The sound of meals locked into a rollercoaster track looping over your head and around the tables is prominent and, looking up, the restaurant is busy with food, drinks and even restaurant merchandise being delivered from kitchen to table on these mini coasters.
After being shown to our table, our waitress explained how the restaurant ordering system worked. Each table is given a tablet that they order drinks and food on, then after they’ve selected “send to kitchen”, they wait for the incoming carriage.
And that was it!
Both of us ordered the steak (which came with thick chips, grilled mushrooms, half a tomato and a small side salad of just lettuce and rocket).
What should have been a relaxing meal after a long day of queuing up for rides turned into everyone craning their necks upwards, mouths open and waiting for their dinner to come down from the kitchen. Most of our discussion before the food arrived was surrounding one loop on the track that seemed to have no end; so we placed a bet on whether this loop was for decoration only, or whether food actually went upside down through it.
After trying to work this out for a good 10 minutes, we finally asked one of the waitresses about it. To prove that the food did actually go upside down and to a table, she said that she’d call the kitchen to send some food down it. To our surprise, the track was real, and the food really did go through the loop- which was good for ME because this meant I had a) won our bet and 2) got my meal paid for. Brilliant!
There was a 15-minute wait for our food, which wasn’t too bad considering the restaurant was still bustling. Watching our food coming down was exactly what the restaurant promised, with both of us gasping like children. Watching it loop down towards us was the fun part – trying to stop it from crashing into the meals before it on the track wasn’t. The clank of the metal bowls was cringeworthy. However, other than this the whole delivery of our meals was definitely worth it.
The food itself was surprisingly nice. Being a theme park restaurant, I wasn’t really expecting a lot. Both steaks ordered were perfectly rare and the sides were all good, but very run of the mill. The only comment I’d have on the meals themselves would be the presentation.
I’m not sure if it was the food’s journey to us or the chefs attempting to shove an 8oz steak into a small bowl, but the meals themselves didn’t look how I had expected for the price I’d paid. It was our job to take the food out of the bowls and onto our plates as well (almost buffet style) which wasn’t what I had expected for such a hyped-up dining experience.
