Wandering around the San Diego Zoo for a day is certainly a good way to make an unvegan hungry. So many animals, yet none of them on my plate. After a while, the Red River Hogs started to look like walking bacon (and I actually don’t have to feel bad for saying that because they aren’t endangered in the least). Finally, as we reached the pandas and saw the long line to see them, we realized it was time for lunch. And we were in luck, because next to the pandas we found Canyon Cafe.
Although they didn’t serve panda (or any other rare animals from the zoo), they did serve the type of food people in the land of the panda would eat: Asian. They even had an Asian-style burger called the Teriyaki Burger. This burger was made with bacon, pineapple, a teriyaki sauce, lettuce and tomato. It also included fried for 10 bucks. Unlike a lot of theme parks and places like that, Canyon Cafe cooked their food to order and had no trouble making mine without the lettuce and tomato.
When it was done, I grabbed the tray and took it back to our table. The meat of the burger itself was just decent and about what you would expect from the zoo. The bacon was surprisingly crispy and the pineapple was also surprisingly tasty. The teriyaki sauce was a nice addition to the burger and although it couldn’t save the meat from itself, it was a decent attempt at making a fun burger at the zoo. In fact, if pandas ever wanted to expand their appetite beyond bamboo, I think they would have enjoyed this burger. So while it wasn’t a burger made of panda, I like to think it was a burger fit for one.
Canyon Cafe is a nice way to get some interesting food at the San Diego Zoo. They make a good attempt at a unique burger and although the zoo residents probably would have appreciated the burger meat more than me, it was decent. Outside of the zoo I would have been upset, but inside I was just happy to find some animal that I could eat.