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How Cedar Point Dining Works!
While visiting the roller coaster capital of the world, you probably need to stop and grab bite between epic roller coaster rides. Cedar Point has multiple dining options throughout the park , but in this article we are going to focus on the best places to eat INSIDE the park.
Food at Cedar Point can be purchased per meal, or they also offer all day dining plans and all season dining plans. If you are only going to visit the park once or twice, we recommend purchasing the all day dining during your visit, which allows guests to redeem meals every 90 minutes. I don’t think anyone really eats every 90 minutes, but it essentially allows guests to eat multiple meals during their visit.
Definitely check out Fun Food Blog for all the details on what’s offered at each of all 13 of the Meal Plan locations!
For those who visit more than twice per year, we highly recommend purchasing the All Season Dining plans. These usually run between $99 to $150 depending on your home park and options (All Park vs. Home Park only), but it will definitely pay for itself after 4-6 meals. Meals in the park can average around $15 per meal, so it’s a good investment if you’re going to be at the park this summer. Unlike the All Day Dining, the All Season dining allows guests two meals per visit with 4 hours in between redemptions. We recommend eating as soon as you enter the park (or when locations open)to start that timer!
For those on the meal plan, either all day or all season, there are 13 locations in the park for meal redemption. The purpose of this article is to list the best five locations to redeem your meal plan inside the park.
#5 – The Corral
Coming in at #5, the Corral is great place to eat that’s centrally located on the main midway near the front of the park. This location opened in the summer of July 2020 and is one of the newer dining venues at Cedar Point.
To get to the Corral, it’s on the main midway. Once you enter from the front of the park, go past Raptor on your left and it’s on the left across from the Arcade.
This is a great place for those picky eaters in the family, since its main options are Chicken Tenders and Pizza. They usually have two lines on busier days, and they are really efficient at feeding a lot of guests quickly.
The weakness of this location is the seating is outdoor only and there is no bathroom on site. The closest bathrooms to the Corral are the Raptor bathrooms and the Arcade bathrooms. The seating area is often crowded and your conversations can be drowned out by Raptor as well.
For us, we usually stop at The Corral for both kids first to get pizza. For sides (which can change during the year), we get waffle fries for one , and mixed fruit for the other. I think at one point they had Mac and cheese, which was nice, but we haven’t seen that yet this year in 2024. Once we have picked up the kids food, we will walk to the Grand Pavilion or Hugos, which both have indoor seating and bathrooms on site for some more “adult” entrees’.
#4 – Hugo’s Italian Kitchen
In the #4 spot, we have Hugo’s Italian Kitchen. I wasn’t sure about adding Hugo’s to this list until I visited the location again in 2024. In previous years, it wasn’t my favorite, but this year they added the Piadina. Overall, Hugo’s is a great place for Pan Pizza and Italian favorites. In addition to Pan Pizza, they have Pasta and the Piadina (at the time of writing) on the menu.
Hugo’s is the first restaurant most guests will see once they enter the park. It’s on the left once you enter on the Main Midway before the Corral.
Hugo’s opened in 2019 and replaced the Midway Market, which was there for almost 20 years. Hugo’s is named for one of the previous general managers at the park.
A great highlight of this location is the indoor seating and onsite bathrooms. It’s one of the only venues with a restroom inside, so it gets bonus points in the category. One weakness of this location is the side dishes. Currently, they offer Breadsticks or a side salad. While I LOVE the salads since they are HUGE for side salad, the breadsticks is a pretty weak offering for a “side” and not everyone wants salad as a side.
#3 – Farmhouse Kitchen & Grill
Now we can get into the top 3 places to eat a Cedar Point! This was a really hard decision to make, since all of them are great places to eat inside the park. In my mind, they are all solid picks to eat depending on what you are looking for.
Farmhouse is in the back of the park in Frontier Town near Maverick and before Steel Vengeance. To get there from Top Thrill 2/ The Magnum Entrance, follow the Gemini Midway into Frontier Town over the railroad tracks. Once you get into Frontier Town, Keep Left and Farmhouse will be on your right. If you accidentally go right , farmhouse will be on your left.
Farmhouse replaced one of the old time car rides back in Frontier Town back in 2022. This location always has a ton of options and sides to pick from. The best thing (in my opinion) to get is the Steak at this location. It’s one of their staples since it is “Wood Fired”. However, it’s worth noting that I feel like the steak quality has gone down since its opening season, but I am due for another visit in 2024!
This location has TONS of outdoor seating as well! They do not have indoor seating, but some of the outdoor seating is covered to keep you cool during those hot summer days. They almost always have both lines open as this location gets busy during lunch and dinner. I recommend eating here during off meal times, like 11 AM and 3 PM.
This location also has had some country themed entertainment on the stage and they have a free standing beer stand as well outside.
One weakness for this location is that the food quality seems to be declining and it does not have indoor seating or an onsite bathroom. The closest bathrooms are the SkyHawk bathrooms or the ones near Build a bear.
#2 – BackBeatQueue!
This was really hard not to put this #1. In my opinion, BackBeatQueue has the best food since I LOVE Barbecue, but not the best venue. The reason it’s not #1 for me is because there is no indoor seating or onsite bathroom. The outdoor seating here is still spectacular since it has an awesome stage for live music for the “Bands in Residence” They also have a freestanding beer stall here too, similar to Farmhouse.
To get to BackBeatQueue, it’s the first restaurant from the Magnum Entrance. If you are not familiar with the Magnum gate and enter from the front of the park, walk straight until you see Coasters. Once you get to Coasters, you have the option to go left or right. Go Right. Walk passed Top Thrill 2 and BackBeatQueue will be on your right.
The BBQ here is nothing short of sensational. If the weather is nice, definitely stop by BackBeatQueue if you get a chance. BackBeatQueue opened the same year as Hugo’s where the Witches Wheel attraction formerly stood. The menu changes, but the mainstays are usually pulled pork, burnt ends, Brisket, Sausage, and Chicken Tenders.
It is nice that they have Chicken Tenders on the menu so the kids have something to eat too! For sides, the most popular is definitely going to be that Mac N Cheese. They also have Potato Wedges (similar to a French Fry) , Coleslaw, and side salads/side fruit. They also rotate other sides like corn and potato salad.
BackBeatQueue brings rock n Roll and BBQ together in single plate. My go to here is the pulled pork and Mac N Cheese. All Entrees come with some corn bread too!
The one weakness for this location is that they haven’t had self serve in house barbecue sauce the past few visits. They used to have multiple barbecue sauces to choose from, but recently it has just been Heinz BBQ next to the Ketchup and Mustard dispensers.
#1 – The Grand Pavilion Restaurant and Bar
Now for the #1 best place to eat at Cedar Point, The Grand Pavilion!
To get to the Grand Pavilion from the front gate, stay on the right side of the midway .Take the first turn on the right at the Fenway Arcade. When you see a sign for the midway, turn left toward the Ferris Wheel and the Grand Pavilion is right behind the Ferris Wheel. If you enter from the Windseeker gate, turn left and walk past the wild mouse coaster and it’s on the left.
This is the newest restaurant venue on site that opened in 2023 where Wicked Twister used to be. This is a two story restaurant and bar venue. The Grand Pavilion is a new take on the original On the first floor, there are two buffet style lines where they are serving up greatness. The first floor has stroller parking when you enter, but it also has handicap accessible entrances to the left and right of the main entrance too.
On the second floor, the views from the second floor are spectacular. This location is right on the beach and has amazing views of Lake Erie.
This location has indoor and outdoor seating a second floor bar and snack location (which also serves Breakfast). The Bar has a custom roller coaster alcohol rack and they have paintings that also function as televisions. This is the best place to grab a drink and cool off during the day. We often grab the Corral for the kids, and bring it to the Pavilion so we can eat too!
The food has an elegant style, so it is not going to be something like the Corral or standard amusement park fare. Today, they offer carved steak, and chicken drumsticks. These have changed since the restaurant opened with turkey and pork loin entrees. One of their staple entrees is the funnel cake fried shrimp! They also offer entrees like a rotisserie sandwich and chicken tenders.
For sides they offer Tropical fried rice, fries cucumber salad and more! The sides often change, but they have had the fries and Tropical Fried rice since it opened.
I think a perfect day at Cedar Point would be eating at the Grand Pavilion and BackBeatQueue! Overall each one of these venues is a good choice depending on what you are looking for since they are all different styles of food. No two are the same!
Honorary Mention – Coasters
Although it didn’t make it into the top #5 places to eat, sometimes you just want a burger. There are a couple places to grab a burger at Cedar Point, but Coasters is our favorite! It’s a classic 50’s style diner with a classic roadster and coupe out front.
This year, we haven’t seen the toppings bar come back, but we still like stopping for a burger and a milkshake (milkshakes are not on the meal plan).
They also have entertainment every now and then out front themed to the 50’s. There is some indoor seating at this venue, but it’s very limited. Once you walk in, I recommend splitting up your party and having someone reserve a table while the rest of the party orders if there’s an open table.
To get to Coasters from the front gate, head straight until there’s a fork in the road/midway and Coasters is in the center! You can’t miss it! If you take the sky ride, it is right at the end!
If the tables inside are full, there is nice shaded seating across the midway toward Valravn. I recommend sitting outside there instead of the outdoor Coasters seating since it’s usually pretty full.
Looks highly disappointing this year, but it is to save the park system. The fry portions you showed here looked particularly bad (link: https://i0.wp.com/kerneycation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/71408074862__26734189-0B82-4B51-BE98-E7B39E51970F-scaled.jpeg?resize=1320%2C1760&ssl=1). From what I have observed, in stark contrast to last year, this year, guest reviews on Google have been nearly all or all negative for the Cedar Point food establishments (all of Coaster’s are 1- and 2-star). The reason? Cedar Point accumulated >$1 billion debt during the pandemic. Long story short, for decades, Cedar Fair operated on a very slim profit margin business model. This left them little savings stored away and no wiggle room for a catastrophic economic scenario like the pandemic. The merger was necessary for both them and Six Flags to provide some financial redundancy (in case one’s parks is doing poorly, they can fall back on the other) while they work their way out of debt. Now, they are doubling down to increase profits beyond anything either has done (since both operated on tight margins) and that means cutting corners. That means, for example, no return of the toppings bar at Coasters, smaller portions, raising lease prices for third-party establishments in the park (which is why Cedar Point has lost Johnny Rockets in 2023, Toft’s this year, and certainly Chickie and Pete’s in 2025)
Yeah I have definitely seen all the posts for portions this year. For me , it’s really been whomever I get behind the counter. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not.
The portions have felt smaller sometimes and I’ll just ask for a little more and I have never gotten push back for sides. For mains, they do weigh the steak at farmhouse, but I felt like the quality of meat has gone down there too.
I’ll definitely start logging all my meals to start recording my portion sizes on our Instagram!
Looks highly disappointing this year, but it is to save the park system. The waffle fry portions you showed here looked particularly bad. From what I have observed, in stark contrast to last year, this year, guest reviews on Google have been nearly all or all negative for the Cedar Point food establishments (all of Coaster’s are 1- and 2-star). The reason? Cedar Point accumulated >$1 billion debt during the pandemic. Long story short, for decades, Cedar Fair operated on a very slim profit margin business model. This left them little savings stored away and no wiggle room for a catastrophic economic scenario like the pandemic. The merger was necessary for both them and Six Flags to provide some financial redundancy (in case one’s parks is doing poorly, they can fall back on the other) while they work their way out of debt. Now, they are doubling down to increase profits beyond anything either has done (since both operated on tight margins) and that means cutting corners. That means, for example, no return of the toppings bar at Coasters, smaller portions, raising lease prices for third-party establishments in the park (which is why Cedar Point has lost Johnny Rockets in 2023, Toft’s this year, and certainly Chickie and Pete’s in 2025)