San Juan Grill

25 minutes later, we were served the worst meal imaginable. Never, never again! The «Half chicken» was two pieces of leather tough bird requiring extensive chewing for each bite. The corn appeared to have rotten pieces mixed in. This food appears to be so bad that it must be deliberately prepared this way.
If you are tired and hungry, do not fall into this unregulated trap. They present the menu and restaurant as gourmet with like pricing.
City of Gilroy should be held accountable! Operating a deceptive tourist rip off.

San Juan Grill was fine for amusement park food. My wife and I had Mission Burgers with fries and my kids had Mac n cheese with apple slices. Food was mediocre but edible. I did like how we took a number and they brought us our meal, Panera Bread-​style. Our kids are a bit older now, but with little kids it can be super difficult to corral them and lunch trays with drinks resting precariously on top.

This is probably the most «grown up» atmosphere at the park. A sit down restaurant where a waitress brings your food. Only a couple real kids options. Good burgers, which surprised me a bit. My daughter liked their mac and cheese, usually a hit or miss. And the air conditioning makes this place a winner over most the others.

Pick carefully: some food is good (Mac & Cheese, chicken), some horrifically awful (corn, fries).
Other food on the good list: The fruit plate. The salad (though it comes with Kraft vacuum pack salad dressing).
All of it is of course overpriced, but that’s to be expected.
Also notably bad: the service.
Just about every other place in the park is a better place to eat.
Don’t believe me? What color do you think corn should be? If you answered «brown», then you agree with my server, who both gave me brownish yellow corn, then refused to think that something could be wrong with it.

Oh. My. God. I hated our meal here.
For a kids park, you’d think they’d make kid-​friendly food. For example, if you order a dish that includes corn… you’d think, hey, corn. That’s a good thing. Veggies, yay! This is totally kid-​friendly. Well, no. They for some reason cover the corn in a hellaciously hot peppery sauce that was inedible. Beans were also spicy, as were the ribs. Bah.
I understand they’re going to price gauge since they’re in a theme park and you’re stranded (no food or drink allowed inside — thanks!) — but at least make the food edible for all! If I want spicy, I can add some hot sauce. But to pay $ 15 and have most of the meal be too spicy for my kid… awful.

for a kids park, I expected more out of the restaurants located on site. There’s only one kids’ meal option — mac ‘n cheese — and other options (burger, chicken strips) run $ 9.99. Chicken strips are OK… a little dipping sauce would be nice. You get enough fries with those meals to share. There’s a «zesty» orange chicken over rice that is super spicy. I’ve never known orange chicken to be spicy and I’m surprised they have something so spicy, again, where kids might order it. But it looks to be the healthiest option. Everything else I noticed is fried, so no real healthy options for the kiddos… would love to see a yogurt, or carrot/​celery sticks & hummus… anything. We’re in California. Usually the first place to embrace this sorta thing :) Maybe I’m just spoiled by Happy Hollow, which has all of this and more. Another sign that this place is more for parents than the kids… you can order a shot of Bailey’s in your hot chocolate!

The chicken strips were good however the fries were awe-​full! How do you mess up fries? I’ll tell you how… you still serve them when you let them sit under the heat lamp for over an hour. Even my 2 year old son (who loves his fries) would not eat them. They also do not use Heinz ketchup. You can definitely taste the difference. They per-​portion the ketchup for you in little cups so you don’t know what brand of ketchup it is. What ever it was, it wasn’t Heinz.
I’ve come to expect to be gouged when eating at a theme park but I also expect semi decent tasting food. Our meal of two chick strip platters and a kids meal came out to $ 29 and some change.
From an operational efficiency standpoint… why do they give you number and have the food brought to you? Everything is pre cooked and «ready» to be picked up after you order. Why pay 3 or 4 people to run the food out increasing wait time? I would pay these 3 or 4 people to work the kiddie ride so the on/​off transition is faster.

A decent place to eat while at Gilroy Gardens. The chicken strip bucket is a pretty good deal (4 drinks, chicken strips for 4 – 6 people and fries). The chicken strips are good and all white meat. The fries had an odd taste, I think it was from being cooked in the same oil as the sweet potato fries. The salads here really are not work the $$ and neither DD liked the mac n cheese on a past visit.

This seems to be the best option for food in the whole park. They have better options and prices. I came here around 4pm so they pretty much ran out of everything. I wanted a #2 but they ran out. They also ran out of mac & cheese. They told me they ran out of mac & cheese bit they didn’t tell me they changed by order because they ran out of #2 until I got my food and asked them about it. Maybe I was hungry because I thought the chicken strip were crackin’. The chicken nuggets were alright. The fries were cold !

Best Mac & Cheese! Standard chicke strips. Burgers and salad. Show your pass and get a discount.
Map of California Miisions has Mission San Jose and Mission Santa Clara marked in the wrong place (needs to be switched).

Located inside Bonfante Gardens, this fast-​service restaurant offers standard-​fare theme park food at prices that are not too high. I had a chicken strips platter ($ 7.29) which comes with 4 pieces of deep fried white meat chicken strips and lots of fries. My daughter had a bowl of mac and cheese ($ 2.49) that was plenty for a three-​year old.
Bottom line: If you are a Bonfante Gardens premium pass member, don’t forget to show your card to get 30% off your food.