Make California Post a Preferred Source Talk about lunch and a show.
Mkutano House, the buzzy new restaurant buried inside the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, has become an unlikely dining hot spot thanks to its biggest attraction — enormous African elephants casually roaming within view as customers tear into $42 ribeyes.
The two-story restaurant opened in March inside the park’s splashy new Elephant Valley, where diners can snag coveted patio tables overlooking a lagoon used by the herd.
And apparently, Californians are going wild for it.
“It definitely comes with some different operating parameters,” Pat McTigue, executive director of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, told SFGATE. “The wildlife is at the heart of everything we do,” McTigue added. “… We want to make sure that we keep our herd at the forefront of our thoughts.”
Inside, the venue honors its Swahili moniker — mkutano, meaning “gathering” — with a massive faux “Heritage Tree” sprawling across the ceiling, adorned with handcrafted beadwork from Kenyan female artists.
Despite the fact that would-be diners first have to pay for admission to the Safari Park before spending another chunk of change on food, it’s wildly popular, having reportedly nearly sold out weekend bookings through the end of the year.
And the menu is a long way from the sad hot dogs and french fries usually associated with a day at the zoo. Current offerings include $23 koji-marinated chicken wings slathered in an agave glaze, $27 vegan spicy rigatoni, $38 broiled black cod with coconut curry and mango chili sauce, and $41 braised beef short ribs. Even cornbread will set diners back $12.
But it’s the scenery, not the food, that is packing people in — though it does have 4.7 stars on OpenTable.
The restaurant overlooks Denny Sanford Elephant Valley, the Safari Park’s massive new elephant habitat, an $80 million project that debuted in March after more than three years of construction. The 13-acre area was designed to put visitors startlingly close to herd — in some spots, around 15 feet away.
For diners who can’t score a coveted reservation, there are consolation prizes: the upstairs Ona Lounge serves cocktails and small bites, while a quick-service window offers food that can be taken to nearby seating. But for the full dining flex, there’s only one table that matters: outside.
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