BZ Red Hots — Restaurant in Riverside Township

We arrived at the zoo, bought zoo membership, entered the zoo with my granddaughter and son. My wife and I were a bit hungry so we decided to hit BZ red Hots for a hot dog. HUGE MISTAKE. First of all we were thinking Chicago style hot dog. They loaded dog had watercress (what is that), chopped convictions (again never heard of that), charred herb aioli (what herbs, and who puts that on a hot dog) and watercress (on a hot dog...). There was nobody around to ask questions, so we ordered cheese burgers. This should be a quick process. Nobody told us it would take an hour to fill the order. We are at a zoo with a 4 year old. We don't mind waiting for a bit, but a 4 year old should not be expected to wait for 57 MINUTES. Once we found other people were waiting over 40 minutes for two plain hot dogs, we sent my granddaughter with friends to enjoy the zoo while we waited. There were very many guests who were very unhappy waiting. We could not cancel our order. We kind of felt like prisoners. I did talk to other customers getting ready to order at the kiosk and let them know the wait time. The were appalled, but thanked me for letting them know. They decided to eat elsewhere in the zoo. I asked two employees to let people know the wait time. They said good idea, but nobody told the customers. I was greatly disappointed with this lack of service. We waited on the outside area for our order. When another customer came out with food, I asked him how long ago he ordered. He said 50 minutes so I went inside to wait the next few minute. It was good that I did this. They were not activating the pager disks to let us know our order was ready. Another thing they did not do well. The BZ red Hots really needs to get some training from chick filet management to better serve the zoo members.

It was disappointing that we missed a great deal of time with our granddaughter and son visiting animals. By the time we caught up with them, many of the favorites were visited without us.

The food was good, but the wait was unbearable. The loaded hot dog ingredients should be made clear to average people. Nobody I talked with knew what the ingredients were....

Would recommend the food, but order before you leave home and it might be ready...

Honestly, this was the best cheeseburger I've had in Chicago thus far. And it's not even Chicago. I don't know why everyone is complaining about the prices, it's a zoo cafe, of course you should expect it will run on the pricey side, but it actually doesn't. Compared to a lot of hipstery "burger bars" in the city, the prices are pretty awesome, I think even McDonald's has worse prices nowadays. The burger patties were huge, the bun was a lightly toasted brioche, and all the toppings were fresh. This was just a great, simple burger. Seriously, if I'm convinced that the best place to get a burger in the city is to hop on an infrequent Metra train and walk 30 minutes through suburbs and zoo life and screaming toddlers to get it, then it's a pretty damn...

BZ Red Hots. Located near Seven Seas, map location E13. Choose from a variety of summer foods including Pizza, Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, Tuscan Chicken Sandwich.

Buy the souvenir cup for $12, get free refills til the end of the year.

Great selection of food and drinks at the zoo.

Five-piece Chicken Nuggets, Mac-N-Cheese, Pizza or Hot Dog with french fries or chips. Served with milk or Capri Sun juice.

Everything is pretty tasty (for zoo food) and hard to beat in the zoo. It gets really crowded right at noon, so it's best to show up before noon to grab a...