From the 1930s to the 1950s, Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant was the main attraction at Knott's Berry Farm. The Ghost Town streets and eventual theme park were slowly built up around the restaurant to entertain the guests who waited for hours to be seated for some good food. If you go back further in history, Knott's Berry Farm was, well, a berry farm (I know ... shocker!). The versatile boysenberry Walter Knott cultivated still inspires many drinks and dishes at Knott's today. As Knott's was created around food, you can bet that there are some great Knott's Berry Farm restaurants inside (and just outside) the theme park.
We have a few favorite places to eat, including unique foods you don't find just anywhere. Hop along as we take a look at Knott’s Berry Farm restaurants so you can put some locations and foods on your must-do Knott’s dining list. From traditional theme park foods to a taste of the Old West to boysenberry-inspired dishes, here's our guide to Knott's Berry Farm restaurants!
Traditional Theme Park Food Locations at Knott's Berry Farm
Let’s knock out the places to get your burgers, fries, pizza and chicken tenders that your tadpoles know and expect at a theme park. Then, we'll get a little more creative!
- Grizzly Creek Lodge — Camp Snoopy has your theme park favorites such as burgers, dogs, pizza, chicken tenders and Snoopy’s Kids Meals. But what we love is the upstairs patio. Sit and relax near Grizzly Creek Falls. If you need a campout spot in Camp Snoopy or a place to rest your tired flippers, this is it. This location usually opens earlier than other food locations, so hop by for an early meal and beat the peak lunch hours.
- Coaster's Diner — In the Boardwalk area, Coaster’s Diner combines '50s classic tunes with American classics, including burgers, tenders, fries and thick shakes. What we especially love is the burger topping area to customize your burger. You can pretty much add a salad to your burger with fresh leafy lettuce, tomatoes, onions and more. The shakes are delicious!
- Sutter's Grill — This restaurant is surrounded by several other very close dining locations. That makes it easy to divide and conquer, then reassemble at a nearby picnic table if you have varying opinions about what to eat in your party (and we always do). Sutter's Grill offers burgers, Buffalo-style chicken sandwiches and salads. But pizza, tots, snacks and funnel cake are all steps away.
- Fireman's BBQ — We will discuss this restaurant below in the barbecue section, but you can please a lot of people in your party here. You can get hot dogs for the kids or chicken, ribs and flank steak for more adventurous eaters.
Are your kids pizza-tarians? Here are a few more places (besides Grizzly Creek) to find that cheesy bready goodness. Be sure to look for limited-time options during festivals.
- Wagon Wheel Pizza — You exit Ghostrider and need to sit down and stuff your face. You’ll run smack into Wagon Wheel Pizza as you exit the ride. This tucked-away location has the shortest pizza line in the park. The carne asada pizza adds a fun and tasty twist to an old classic.
- Sutters Pizza — Find traditional and seasonal styles of pizza here. It’s sold by the slice and as a whole pizza.
- Prop Shop Pizzeria: An Italian Kitchen (new!) — The old Hollywood Hits location has a new pizza and Italian food eatery in its place. It calls itself a Boysenbrewery, but it's not an actual brewery. However, it sells beer and wines. You can pick up made-to-order salads, pizzas, breadsticks and pastas. Pizzas are served whole or by the slice. For pasta, it's beef bolognese and alfredo.
Barbecue Restaurants at Knott’s Berry Farm
Some of our favorite Knott’s Berry Farm restaurants are barbecue locations.
- Boardwalk BBQ — This cafeteria-style restaurant will have you drooling as you look at your choices. It's hard to make a decision about what to get. You have your platters, which give you an entree and a side, mac and cheese bowls with barbecue entrees and more. Entree choices include Knott's rotisserie chicken, Carolina pulled pork, smoked sausage with pepper and onions, boysenberry barbecue meatballs, teriyaki flank steak and boysenberry chicken wings. You have mac and cheese choices, as well. Choose from three cheese, hatch chili and white cheese or seasonal flavors. Bring your appetite!
- Fireman’s BBQ — Deep in the heart of Ghost Town, get in line early for this barbecue location. You can watch grillers heating up your food on a large open-air grill. We have found the barbecued chicken to be very tasty. You can also get ribs, hot dogs, smoked sausage and flank steak sandwiches and giant turkey legs. Add corn on the cob, slaw, baked potato or garlic bread or chips as a side.
Table-Service Restaurants at Knott's Berry Farm
When you want to sit a spell and allow someone else to serve you, here’s where to go. The quick-service food lines can get crazy long, and it can be challenging to wait in line and hunt for a table with a tray of food, all while keeping track of hungry froglets. It's worth it for a family to sit down at a table-service restaurant to relax. They are not on the dining plans, but the prices are equivalent to other food in the park.
- Ghost Town Grill — Take a table inside or on the porch to catch the scene in Ghost Town while you enjoy a sit-down meal from the new menu. You can enjoy salads, burgers, sandwiches, country-fried steak, baked mac and cheese topped with pulled pork and chili. We really enjoyed a British delight — a Cornish Turkey Pasty. It was turkey breast, sweet potatoes, spiced apple stuffing with a red wine cranberry gravy all wrapped up in a flakey Knott's Berry Farm pie crust. What we also love about Ghost Town Grill is that the prices are equivalent (or less than) the quick-service items in the rest of the park. Seafood lovers can enjoy grilled salmon here. Vegetarians can enjoy the Impossible Burger or Brie-Grilled Cheese. End on a sweet note with a slice of warm boysenberry pie with ice cream or a sarsaparilla float.
- Johnny Rocket's — Hop into the largest Johnny Rockets in North America. It's located in the Boardwalk area. You can get burgers, sandwiches, fries, onion rings, shakes and more American fare with a retro vibe that will take you back to the 1950s.
- Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant — This is the restaurant that inspired it all! Technically, it's located just outside of the theme park. That means you don't even need a theme park ticket to enjoy this meal. In 1934, Cordelia Knott's started serving fried chicken dinners on Sundays. But by the 1940s, the lines to get in were so long that Walter Knott built an Old West attraction to entertain the guests while they waited and, no doubt, built up an appetite. While the menu has grown, along with the restaurant (and park that sits behind it), you'll still find a classic fried chicken dinner. It comes with three pieces of golden fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits with boysenberry preserves, other sides and of course, a slice of pie.
- Amber Waves — There's another table-service location outside of the park at the Knott's Berry Farm Hotel. Amber Waves Restaurant & Bar has a buffet breakfast or full-service breakfast, lunch and dinner. As you can tell from its name, it serves American food but it's the apple bomb dessert that we are after.
Mexican Restaurants at Knott's Berry Farm
When in SoCal, you'll likely want to taste some of the local flavors. Here's where to find Mexican food at Knott's.
- Cantina — Head to the Cantina in Fiesta Village to find some tasty eats under the colorful Papel Picado with cultural music playing in the background. We loved the tamales and tacos at Cantina.
- La Papa Loca — This restaurant fuses french fries with Mexican toppings. Get the carne asada fries, chili cheese fries, elote fries or chorizo fries, seasonal specials and more.
- Fiesta Dogs — From traditional and footlong dogs to the Mexican Dog with bacon and peppers or elote dog, Fiesta Dogs has it all. There are vegan options, esquites and kids' dogs too. We tried a newer BLT&A dog recently. It's a big dog with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and a drizzle of ranch — all that and a bag of chips (literally, a big bag of chips comes with it). Wash it down with a Michelada or craft beer. Though we frogs do believe there are many better dining locations in the park, especially with Cantina just across the way.
Chinese Food at Knott's Berry Farm
Asian food is pretty popular in SoCal, so it's no surprise that there is a Panda Express in the park. This is a food chain but the food quality is pretty consistent. This location allows us to take a break from traditional theme park foods. Plus, as a mom, I like to ensure we get some dishes with vegetables for our growing tadpoles. I tell the tadpoles, "If you want a churro later, you'll need some broccoli now." It works every time! The line moves faster than it looks at this location.
Frog Family Favorites at Knott's Berry Farm
Our tasty guide to the must-try eats at Knott’s Berry Farm will put you on the right track to finding even more yummy meals and treats. Here are a few of our favorite Knott’s Berry Farm restaurants because they offer unique and tasty foods you can’t necessarily find at other parks.
- Calico Tater Bites — Crispy tots topped with barbecue pulled pork, cheese and jalapeno strips? Yes, please! But it is hard to decide between these and other great toppings such as chili cheese, buffalo chicken tenders, mac and cheese and other yummy options. I can eat these as a meal or we can share them as a family snack.
- Wilderness Broiler — True, you can get your flame-grilled burgers and spicy chicken sandwich, but the limited-time offerings are where it’s at. Festival favorites swing by from time to time, with a new offering every two weeks. It’s fun to keep things fresh and exciting! We like the peaceful location of this outdoor restaurant. We grab a picnic table and relax with our food near a waterfall or in a spot where we can watch other guests rush by on the Pony Express or Calico River Rapids.
- Boardwalk BBQ — We know, we know ... we covered this in the barbecue section, but what we love are the Boysenberry meatballs, various flavored mac and cheese dishes topped with barbecued meats, boysenberry wings, salads and so much more. The portions are large at this cafeteria-style location, and the dining area is shaded. This line tends to move faster than other food lines.
- Strictly on a Stick — Where are my corn dog fans? We love corn dogs at many theme parks, but have you tried boysenberry corn dogs?
- Ghost Town Bakery — Hop in to build your own sandwich (including an ABJ — almond butter and boysenberry jam sandwich for the peanut-free crowd). You can also enjoy soup or chowder in a sourdough bread bowl or some delicious baked goods. This location is not on the dining plan, which can mean shorter lines than some other locations.
Adult Drinks at Knott's Berry Farm
You can find adult beverages at several locations in the park (such as a margarita at Cantina or Michelada at Fiesta Dogs), but when in Ghost Town, you’d best be hitting the local saloon.
- Calico Saloon — Belly up to the bar to whet your whistle with beer (including boysenberry draft), wine, a boysenberry vodka smoothie or the Calico Bonfire. The Calico Soda XXX includes a shot. The Brutus is whiskey and ginger beer. Your younger cowpokes can sip some sarsparilla, boysenberry smoothie or boysenberry punch. The Calico Soda (boysenberry cream soda) is served exclusively at Calico Saloon. Your barkeep will make it up fresh for you! While it’s not a full restaurant, you can get snacks such as popcorn, pickles or pretzels. While the barkeep fixes you a drink, you can catch a show on the stage behind the bar for the finest entertainment this side of the Wild Wild West!
- Ghost Town Grill — Have a seat and enjoy beer, wine or craft cocktails such as a grapefruit paloma, cosmo, margarita, mojito or a moscow mule.
How to Save Money at Knott's Berry Farm Restaurants
If you're heading to Knott's, you're in for a treat. The hardest part about visiting Knott's Berry Farm restaurants is deciding which one to try! If you want to taste your way around the park, we highly recommend the dining plans. They allow you to eat every 90 minutes for a one-time flat fee. We recommend the dining plan on less-crowded days when food lines are shorter. You can save a lot of money on food with a dining plan. We sometimes get one plan and share the items as a family. That way, we can try a lot of things by hopping by multiple restaurants without getting too full to ride the roller coasters (priorities). You can read more about the plans in our Knott's Berry Farm foods post.
The foods post might even give you a few more ideas of foods and treats you need to add to your must-try list. If you're a foodie, Knott's really kicks up the food offerings during many of its special events, such as the PEANUTS Celebration, the Boysenberry Festival, Knott's Scary Farm and Knott's Merry Farm.
You'll need a ticket to access the theme park and that's where we can help you save some money on a Knott's Berry Farm ticket so you can have more money to spend on food!
Related: Must-Try Eats at Knott's Berry Farm
Related: Best Theme Parks in California by Age Group
Hoppy planning!
