Camperdown Wildlife Centre — Attraction in Scotland

You will see from my other reviews I always look for and find positives about the places/venues/restaurants I've visited. However I'm really struggling here, other than the staff members were all polite and friendly.

Our visit started with a lunch in the Cafe, all was fine ordering and siting, plenty of staff keeping things tidy etc. We ordered 3 x Nachos at £11 each, what we were served was a cereal bowl (at best) of Tortillas, which were ok, a scoop of Chilli, which again was ok. However on top was a white unidentifiable goo, we tried to identify it, but failed, no cheese, no salsa or guacamole. Our son ate his and actually ate a chunk of ours until we stopped him for fear of his health, we both ate the Chilli and Tortillas that weren't contaminated by the goo.

Now I must hold my hands up, we didn't bring our displeasure to any staffs attention and I really don't know why! We just left feeling very aggrieved at the lunch quality and cost, I should have said something and allowed the manager etc to do something about it.

As for the Wildlife Centre, our perception is shared by so many others and has now made national news, massively over grown weeds (Mainly) around the public areas and inside the majority of enclosures, low hanging branches over public paths, Items with in the enclosures that were clearly broken/smashed and I believe could have caused harm to the animals/birds within, broken and unkempt fences. This led to the overall perception of the enclosures being far to small (for the majority) and nowhere near enough space for the birds etc to fly/move about. There is a place for Wildlife Centres, however when they are this poorly managed it just leaves you wanting to free the poor animals or wanting the appropriate organisations/authority to inspect them and provide enforceable recommendations. I really do hope something happens that sees the Centre improve dramatically and those animals quality of life reach a level they deserve....

The zoo is okay for young kids but any over 6/7 would definitely have more fun at the play park.

The cafe I would avoid next time. The girls who were standing to serve just stared through you. 5 of them at least behind the counter just watching while 1served. They have a Sign up to say any allergy/diet requirement to notify them asked if the had anything for dairy free which they don’t.

The £5.75 kids sandwich meal is pathetic half a disgusting ham sandwich made with the cheapest of bread, cheap frube yoghurt and packet of crisps with a little carton of juice. Defiantly a waste of money on it.

The girls serving really need trained in cross-contamination and service. none wore gloves while preparing anyones food, chucking the hands in the dishes that had the vegetables In, now there was spoons in them dishes but for quickness they didn’t bother. Using the knife that cut fresh baguettes to then cut all the baguettes that had food on them. No knife washed just placed to the side to use again. So hopefully no one else with an allergy went in after that. They also used the knifes to scrap up of crumbs/salad stuff into the hand and place them back to use. And to place 2 roasting hot pots of tea in front of a 3 year old child was a joke. Had to ask for cutlery since they expect you eat with bare hands.

So would return for the zoo but give the cafe a wide birth and take your own food...

Honestly please do not go here and support this. This place needs shut down and animals given to other reserves who have the ability to look after the animals wellbeing. This place has so much potential but it's not looked after. Most animals look seriously depressed amd the wildcat is circular pacing with a head tilt. The enclosures are overgrown with weeds some of them even filled with rubbish. The anteater looks like it's lost the will to live. It's actually created a circular path the amount of times it's circulating. The monkey enclosure has very little shelter today we saw a gibbon with her baby in heavy rain wrapping around it. My heart broke for it it looked so sad. The cafe is disgusting and way over priced. £38 for a kids meal and 3 soups. The sandwich in the kids meal was cheap and disgusting. The soup was the most bland tasteless soup thickened up with corn starch even a tub of salt n pepper couldn't rescue it. Got a cappuccino which I didn't drink but got it transferred into a takeaway cup as I was leaving and it filled less than half of it. You would think with the massive profit they are clearly making in the cafe would go towards feeding the animals. One of the gibbons was even tearing up the grass reaching out of it's enclosure to find worms to eat. 3 unisex singular toilets in the whole area so having to wait in queues to use...