Confession: I am local and I eat here twice a month with my dog. Sometimes you just want to sit at the zoo with your dog to share chicken fingers and French fries. Dancing Crane Café is the place for that! I don't understand the bad reviews. What else did they expect from a zoo concession stand? The food is salty and delicious. The soda and beer are cold. The cashier line is fast. The seating area is clean. That's literally an A+ everything for a concession stand. They even have a bathroom inside, despite the signs that say otherwise. It's just outside the fence of the Central Park Zoo, but I like to tell people I'm at the zoo having lunch with my dog. :)

Dawn Schmidt

Confession: I am local and I eat here twice a month with my dog. Sometimes you just want to sit at the zoo with your dog to share chicken fingers and French fries. Dancing Crane Café is the place for that! I don't understand the bad reviews. What else did they expect from a zoo concession stand? The food is salty and delicious. The soda and beer are cold. The cashier line is fast. The seating area is clean. That's literally an A+ everything for a concession stand. They even have a bathroom inside, despite the signs that say otherwise. It's just outside the fence of the Central Park Zoo, but I like to tell people I'm at the zoo having lunch with my dog. :)

Pretty good, I loved the fries. You go there, they stamp your hand so you can go back to the zoo after eating. The food is ready so you take what you want and then pay. You only have to ask for the drinks

We had a great experience here! I don't understand the negative reviews! Def go get a coffee!

Yohana Florencia Mendizabal

Pretty good, I loved the fries. You go there, they stamp your hand so you can go back to the zoo after eating. The food is ready so you take what you want and then pay. You only have to ask for the drinks

Dancing Crane Cafe, położone strategicznie przy Zoo na Manhattanie, to wygodny przystanek podczas zwiedzania. Skusiłem się na klasyczne, szybkie przekąski – hot dogi i frytki – oraz napój z dystrybutora. Było to dokładnie to, czego można oczekiwać w takim miejscu: proste, smaczne jedzenie serwowane sprawnie. Choć nie jest to kulinarny cel podróży dla konesera, jako miejsce na szybki posiłek w przerwie od atrakcji, sprawdza się bardzo dobrze. Czysto, funkcjonalnie i bezproblemowo. W swojej kategorii, czyli baru przy popularnej atrakcji turystycznej, zasługuje na solidne 4 gwiazdki za niezawodne spełnianie potrzeb odwiedzających.

It's a quick bite to eat that's located in the zoo, prices are a bit much but it's convenient. Chicken tenders were good, the squirrels and birds see to enjoy the popcorn and fries as well

Great chicken. Employee Shakirah is very nice person. Greg is a rude guy throwing chairs around.

A bit of a cold treatment but the place was nice and coffee and muffin were good

Cheaper than expected considering the location. Food was cold, but not too bad taste wise. Nice lunch for a zoo trip

Expensive but it is what it is. Sandwiches were not labeled and were $10 each and small bag of chips (also not labeled) $4 each. Semi cafeteria style.

I only came here because they serve bird-friendly certified coffee. It’s great to actually see a cafe that only serves coffee with the bird-friendly certification. I would say that is the best thing about this place. I wouldn’t recommend coming here for anything else, as everything is quite expensive.

Eliza Faiz

I only came here because they serve bird-friendly certified coffee. It’s great to actually see a cafe that only serves coffee with the bird-friendly certification. I would say that is the best thing about this place. I wouldn’t recommend coming here for anything else, as everything is quite expensive.

Pequeño lugar para tomar café, comer fast food y descansar del paseo. Hay baños..

Café bom para relaxar da longa caminhada pelo parque. Possui um Brownie muito bom.

Aceptable

The food is costly

It is exactly what you would expect from a Zoo cafe- very basic, mass produced, etc. However it gets the job done. Chicken tenders and pizza work for the age demographic.

Food's good and all, soda's about 4 bucks, and chicken tenders are rock hard

Pleasant enough if going the zoo.

Tomato soup was nice

GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE, VERY FRIENDLY. FOOD IS EXTREMELY CASUAL AND PLAIN. TAKES THE HUNGER AWAY WHILE YOU FIND SOMETHING BETTER. WOULD I GO BACK? NO, ONLY IF I HAD TOO.

Not too bad for attraction food. They do have a section for baby food if you are not prepared.

I enjoyed this black coffee for its mildly roasted flavor, & decent temperature (as in, not boiling hot). Good place to warm up in the cold weather.

I used this place as the meeting point for my son as he went off on his own to visit the zoo here. I sat outside and supped a Cafe Latte whilst working out what to do for the rest of the morning. Using the cafe's free WiFi was helpful in that respect. I then left for a stroll through Central Park before returing a couple of hours later. By then I needed the restrooms so joined the short, orderly queue. They say that the restrooms are only for customers only but, of course, I had been one a few hours earlier. As it was no one arrested me and I felt more comfortable to continue our walking tour of the Big Apple. Neither my son nor I felt that this looked a particularly appealing place to have lunch and, anyway, their prices were "impressive"...

An oasis for Nathan’s Hot Dog lovers amidst a sea of Sabrett carts. Fries aren’t bad. Only negative is plastic bottle soda instead of cans. Who the heck drinks plastic bottle soda?

Anne Hathaway did not spit in my food.

I enjoyed this black coffee for its mildly roasted flavor, & decent temperature (as in, not boiling hot). Good place to warm up in the cold weather.

Ian Knights

I used this place as the meeting point for my son as he went off on his own to visit the zoo here. I sat outside and supped a Cafe Latte whilst working out what to do for the rest of the morning. Using the cafe's free WiFi was helpful in that respect. I then left for a stroll through Central Park before returing a couple of hours later. By then I needed the restrooms so joined the short, orderly queue. They say that the restrooms are only for customers only but, of course, I had been one a few hours earlier. As it was no one arrested me and I felt more comfortable to continue our walking tour of the Big Apple. Neither my son nor I felt that this looked a particularly appealing place to have lunch and, anyway, their prices were "impressive"...

The Green Mountain Coffee is actually water. Not good.

What can I say... $3.99 + tax for a bottle of coke!

Low quality, not tasty, expensive junk food.

Expensive. Decent selection.

The food is okay I guess. Not impressed. Pretty expensive but I guess that's expected for a place near the zoo. Very little room and hard to find a place to sit indoors. So if it's raining, this is not a good place to go.

The staff should be arrested, the meal should be quarantined by the usda and clients should mandatorily sit down and watch the food network for 10 days to avoid eating at non healthy places.

We ordered chicken and fries and pepperoni pizza. The chicken was very salty and everything quite expensive for the quality of the food

Friendly staff, OK hot chocolate, I was lucky to get a fresh pretzel, but the rest is disgustingly overpriced and disgusting to the taste (and texture)

Crowded and cramped. Very busy but I did visit during August- High Season, so understandable. Prices are extortion for very average food. Typical NYC tourist rip off tactics 🙄💵💵💵💵💵 There is a LINE for restrooms..... always! Up to 20 minute wait so be careful! Wouldn't go there again if visiting NYC 👎👎

Overpriced, substandard food and unprofessional staff. One half serves the food, but the microfranchised coffee kiosk next door serves coffee, tea and hot chocolate (would it really have been so hard to provide these on the same ridiculously long lines on which droves of customers stand for their "food"?!). Cleaning done by shutting down sections at a time of the seating area, which concentrates strangers into the remaining seats. The one redeeming feature (weather permitting) is the al fresco dining section.

The food prices are great if you want a decent snack but the fries were COOOOOOOOOOOOLD. Very nice staff though!

Everything is over priced and I just paid $1.62 for a single banana JUST to use the restroom. The staff is nice and understanding and the place is generally clean. Nobody should have to pay this much to eat at a ZOO.

Daniel Donnelly

Overpriced, substandard food and unprofessional staff. One half serves the food, but the microfranchised coffee kiosk next door serves coffee, tea and hot chocolate (would it really have been so hard to provide these on the same ridiculously long lines on which droves of customers stand for their "food"?!). Cleaning done by shutting down sections at a time of the seating area, which concentrates strangers into the remaining seats. The one redeeming feature (weather permitting) is the al fresco dining section.

Arthur Trusov

The food prices are great if you want a decent snack but the fries were COOOOOOOOOOOOLD. Very nice staff though!

叶晨丰

Everything is over priced and I just paid $1.62 for a single banana JUST to use the restroom. The staff is nice and understanding and the place is generally clean. Nobody should have to pay this much to eat at a ZOO.

In a nice spot in the park, but staff not so friendly, food very average and could do a lot better for the price

Chick Petterlin

In a nice spot in the park, but staff not so friendly, food very average and could do a lot better for the price

Ancora una volta, uno staff di 10 persone per un locale semivuoto, la metà con il telefono in mano, risposte brusche, aree arbitrariamente chiuse e ci siamo dovute sedere allo stesso tavolo con altra gente che era più ospitale del personale, troppo impegnato a chattare o a scherzare tra di loro . Il bagno era sporco, senza Sapone per le mani o carta igienica, i tavoli sporchi, il cibo assolutamente irrilevante, ma davvero non capisco cosa ci sia di frustrante nel fare un lavoro del genere in un'area con verde e animali intorno. Comunque mi sembra di capire che agli americani lavorare pesi molto più che a noi, gli immigrati da altre nazioni sono più gentili e solerti.

Mala calidad, el café frío y malo el personal desagradable. A evitar 🤮

Ces hotdogs étaient clairement horribles. Pain, frites, saucisses, tout était raté, huile pas changée.

Les paninis ne sont que des sandwichs (attention le panini au poulet est rempli de bleu degeu) et puis le prix est exorbitant comparé à la qualité des produit proposés, le poulet est très sec (préparé 2-3 litres d’eau pour les mangé), je vous déconseille ce restaurant.

No me gustó como me trató una mujer de color el que servía la comida de las papas y pollo fue muy grosero conmigo y me sentí muy mal.

Yurky!

De loin le pire café de notre vie.

El personal es totalmente grosero, sin calidad humana

Horrible!

Rude manager

Really lousy

Worst food ever completely overpriced and tastes terrible. Classic tourist rip-off...

Terrible cafeteria food that is overpriced and served by surly staff. A total tourist trap.

Need to buy an apple for 2$ to get the keys for restroom so the kids could use the toilet - CRAZY 😈

The cashier refused to give me a military discount......even though im her fiance

Awful quality. Service and mood of staff is lower than a gas station. This is NYC... Step it up

Very bad location. Unfriendly service. They don't need guests. NO STAR!

Cold, unappetising food and surly staff. One to avoid.

There was MOLD on my 2 year old daughter's burger

Overly expensive and bad quality food!! Stay away!

There was a hair in m my salad! 😖

Food choices are very limited, expensive, and not good

Inflated zoo prices for high school cafeteria like food

It was my worst experience in a restaurant in the US

Because others rated it 1 star lol

Here's the bathroom code.

It's too expensive

The worst. I needed the restroom and there is an advise in the restroom’s door that says that you can open the Bathroom only with a code in the receipt. Therefore you are unable to use the bathroom without buying. The worst part is that it is the only bathroom in the zoo area.

The food was very soggy and expensive a small pizza was 10 dollars and my friend was called a dumbass when asking a question, also the chicken wasn’t fully cooked

Very bad food and way to expensive! The pretzel was hard and dry. The chicken strips were tough and the fries were cold! Don't go here, a total waste of your money!

$50.00 for two hotdogs (one I waited 15 minutes for) a pretzel (no cheese available) and two drinks! Nothing available for condiments except ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. The worst hotdog and burger tourist trap there is!

Extremely rude and curt staff who would not give us a lid for the 4 coffees we paid for. Had to look for the manager who sorted it out in a minute. Avoid.

Extremely rude (female) staff. I was waiting for my son (who has autism) outside the bathroom and they took me out of there

Guy taking orders was super rude here. The food selections are limited & overpriced even for nyc. What a crane in the neck

Peanut Zee! They didn't let our 3 year old to pee . Because they wanted to close, even though there were at least 10 people inside

Ridiculously overpriced. We got 2 sandwiches and 2 sodas from the fridge. There weren't any prices on the products but we thought a sandwich like that couldn't possibly cost more than 4 dollars plus maybe 2-3 dollars for a coke. In the end we had to pay slightly over 30(!) Dollars for two substandard sandwiches and two softdrinks. Total rip-off. Avoid this cafe by all means.

I bought a caned Minute Maid drink which was fine, but the bathroom was disgusting

If you like cold, over-priced, well below par food and extremely rude "service", look no further!! This is the place for you! It seemed like the staff were inconvenienced by being there and were very rude. Clearly it is more important for them to discuss what they are going to be up to at the weekend etc! Couple this with a distinct lack of information about it being a self-service type thing and you get a blunt response from the person hanging out behind the counter and a ..."it's self-service...as if I am going to actually SERVE her!", to the lady in front of us! Wish we had done ourselves a huge favour and gone hungry!

Micros the manager was beyond rude. I came in the zoo side door and was told by staff to move to the spot on the floor. After purchasing my food he told me I had to go out the other side and re-enter the zoo with my ticket. Despite the fact that my child waited on the zoo side. Trying to get out the door which despite there being 4 staff members no-one tried helping my sodas spilled. The day at the zoo was lovely, trying to lunch there was disgusting. You need new management in your cafe!

I wish I could give 0 to this place. We were eating there and the guy shutdown the washroom, yelled with everybody on the line, and said welcome to US here it is like this... apparently some people were there just for the washroom. However that was not my case, and my family felt horrible to presence this scene on Christmas Day. Fortunately, I live in Canada and don’t have to deal with people like this moron. The food is overpriced and tastes bad.

Please Avoid! We visited from the UK and they tried to rip us off by claiming food didn’t come with fries when it did. Then gave us undercooked fries and cold food. Had a horrible argument with the staff. Disgusting food and staff which unfortunately spoilt a lovely day out to Central Park and Zoo. (Actual Zoo Staff are lovely though)

Extremely rude staff. Expected better but reading reviews it seems acceptable

This place is not family friendly place We went to this place just to avoid heavy rain earlier today. We didn’t have a choice to avoid super heavy rain with my 15 month old in a stroller. The nasty female manager at this cafe told the security guy to get rid of all the people whose not buying their food, because the place was too full and many people are not buying their disgusting and overpriced food. So the security came to me to go out even I asked him I’m with my 15month just for another 5-10min to wait until rain gets better. He said NO, it’s not his decision, it’s the manager’s order. Not even worth a star. Such a shame. 100000000000% not recommend

Actively stopping the use reusable cups pretty disgraceful for a zoo. Dispute the sign above the counter cashier insisted on giving it me in one of their throw away cups with a plastic lid to tip in to my reusable cup. Very backwards thinking and annoying.

Terrible - Sanjeev Khatri the restaurant manager was extremely rude; I went outside to grab an item from our stroller (he let me out); attempted to lock me outside of the restaurant and said he would 'shut the door in my face', ‘how do I know you’re not a customer’ despite my family still being inside the restaurant.

Ben Lim

Terrible - Sanjeev Khatri the restaurant manager was extremely rude; I went outside to grab an item from our stroller (he let me out); attempted to lock me outside of the restaurant and said he would 'shut the door in my face', ‘how do I know you’re not a customer’ despite my family still being inside the restaurant.

Norma Just Girl

Extremely rude staff. Expected better but reading reviews it seems acceptable

Ma Tom

This place is not family friendly place We went to this place just to avoid heavy rain earlier today. We didn’t have a choice to avoid super heavy rain with my 15 month old in a stroller. The nasty female manager at this cafe told the security guy to get rid of all the people whose not buying their food, because the place was too full and many people are not buying their disgusting and overpriced food. So the security came to me to go out even I asked him I’m with my 15month just for another 5-10min to wait until rain gets better. He said NO, it’s not his decision, it’s the manager’s order. Not even worth a star. Such a shame. 100000000000% not recommend

Sean Bedford

Actively stopping the use reusable cups pretty disgraceful for a zoo. Dispute the sign above the counter cashier insisted on giving it me in one of their throw away cups with a plastic lid to tip in to my reusable cup. Very backwards thinking and annoying.

Easy to see why this place has such a low rating. Fries came cold & even when replaced were still lukewarm, but that's not the worst part, the worst part is they're the worst fries I have ever eaten in my life. How you mess up something so simple is beyond me.

The food is overpriced and is practically inedible because it tastes rancid. A water is $5, and if you want to get a refillable drink it is a whopping $15. There are no refunds, even if you have not payed yet, and the staff are rude and unhelpful. The building in itself is hot, damp, and unsanitary. Overall, we had a horrible experience! Would not recommend this cafe.

Not baby friendly at all. Asked us to take our kid’s stroller outside even though the place was almost empty. Ordered fries which had a really bad aftertaste. Wont recommend.

They give you chicken strips with a horrible taste, i tried to change it but they never helped, somebody cleaning called Sergio told me that is closed to avoid the mistake

You would think that the cafe at the zoo would be good right? No, of course you wouldn't - it's the cafe at the zoo - you would think it was overpriced garbage, and you'd be right! $15+ for a few room temperature chicken fingers and fries.

If I could give zero stars I would. Kid at the cafe counter (white with thin mustache) literally said he doesn’t wanna be there and acted like it. 2 lattes and a chai took 20 minutes to serve and skipped me on purpose for reasons that escape me. Look for better employees that at least have a little sense of customer service.

Unbelievably bad. On the Tues of Thanksgiving week, tourists everywhere, at lunchtime there was literally one lukewarm pizza & A couple of servings of french fries and chicken nuggets on display and that was it. The grab and go shelf was empty, so I have no idea what normally was on it, but i expected sandwiches, salads, Something creative, special and delicious not to mention healthy & appealing, which none of what was there was. This is Central Park in New York City, it is not some 7-11 in The middle of nowhere. Shame on the zoo to have such a terrible concession operator, running a café in the greatest park in the greatest city in the world. Incredibly disappointing.

If I could give 0 I would, the worst food I have ever seen or tasted. Of course they know this and tell you if you touch it you buy it. Never ever will go back there.

Beth H

Unbelievably bad. On the Tues of Thanksgiving week, tourists everywhere, at lunchtime there was literally one lukewarm pizza & A couple of servings of french fries and chicken nuggets on display and that was it. The grab and go shelf was empty, so I have no idea what normally was on it, but i expected sandwiches, salads, Something creative, special and delicious not to mention healthy & appealing, which none of what was there was. This is Central Park in New York City, it is not some 7-11 in The middle of nowhere. Shame on the zoo to have such a terrible concession operator, running a café in the greatest park in the greatest city in the world. Incredibly disappointing.

Dream To Reality (Manifesting)

If I could give 0 I would, the worst food I have ever seen or tasted. Of course they know this and tell you if you touch it you buy it. Never ever will go back there.

Arturo RuCo

They give you chicken strips with a horrible taste, i tried to change it but they never helped, somebody cleaning called Sergio told me that is closed to avoid the mistake

Ben Hendin

You would think that the cafe at the zoo would be good right? No, of course you wouldn't - it's the cafe at the zoo - you would think it was overpriced garbage, and you'd be right! $15+ for a few room temperature chicken fingers and fries.

Eugene Rodriguez

If I could give zero stars I would. Kid at the cafe counter (white with thin mustache) literally said he doesn’t wanna be there and acted like it. 2 lattes and a chai took 20 minutes to serve and skipped me on purpose for reasons that escape me. Look for better employees that at least have a little sense of customer service.

Billy Shaw

Easy to see why this place has such a low rating. Fries came cold & even when replaced were still lukewarm, but that's not the worst part, the worst part is they're the worst fries I have ever eaten in my life. How you mess up something so simple is beyond me.

rowan

The food is overpriced and is practically inedible because it tastes rancid. A water is $5, and if you want to get a refillable drink it is a whopping $15. There are no refunds, even if you have not payed yet, and the staff are rude and unhelpful. The building in itself is hot, damp, and unsanitary. Overall, we had a horrible experience! Would not recommend this cafe.