Kisiwa Mkahawa Island Cafe

Your at the zoo. You’re hungry. What are you going to do? I had a hot dog (how about some toppings other than packets of relish?) which was OK. My daughter had the chicken nuggets ($ 7.99) which were quite good. They tasted like real, fresh chicken.

Hey for a zoo not bad and priced right.

As expected, the menu here is a bit on the expensive side due to its location inside the Oakland Zoo. The food isn’t gourmet and everything is pretty standard fare at other counter-​style eateries, but I appreciate that I have never ordered anything that was under/​overcooked, inedible, or even tasted bad.
I also have to commend them for being able to offer such an intuitive variety of items that could potentially appeal to children. Many popular theme parks like Disneyland only offer 3 «kids menu» items per restaurant, but this little café offers hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, chicken teriyaki, vegetarian rice bowls, chili, pulled pork sandwiches, grilled cheeses, tuna melts, tuna salad, vegetarian burgers, caesar salads, deluxe tuna salads, french fries, nachos, animal cookies and chocolate chip cookies. They even have a variety of ice cream including Haagen Dazs, ice cream cookies, and ice cream candy bars as well as a selection of chips including baked Cheetos. My toddler is a relatively picky eater and she would probably eat nearly half the things on the menu here.
Most of the seating is outdoors, on wicker chairs with umbrellas to provide shade. One of the seating areas give you a view of an artificial waterfall and some pink flamingos, which is fun.
They do not provide plastic/​disposable straws or lids due to their environmentally unfriendliness. In fact, if you’ve ever tried to enter the zoo with a cold Starbucks beverage, you’ve probably also had to throw your straw away at the entrance. If this could pose problems for your toddlers and babies, I recommend bringing your own straw sippy cup or a reusable straw from home.