Leaping Lemur Cafe — Restaurant in San Francisco

If you're visiting the San Francisco zoo and planning to have something to eat: either dine in or takeaway, I suppose you wouldn't have much of a choice in terms of eateries. This cafe is pretty much it and you'll have to make do with whatever is available here.

I visited on a Wednesday afternoon and it was almost empty although as time progressed, I saw more customers. There is plenty of seating available: both inside as well as outside. You can order via the self-service touchscreen. My order of hot dog and fries was ready in literally 2 minutes. I understand why: they just put the hotdog in the bun and give it to you. The sauces (barbeque sauce, tomato ketchup), mayo, yellow mustard etc are kept separately in big plastic dispensers and you're free to add whatever you want as many times as you may require.

The cost could be slightly less: I paid around $17 for the 2 items and felt it was more than what I would pay at a standalone cafe. I suppose they charge a small premium as they're based within the zoo premises. Maybe that is standard practice.

There are refrigerators stocked with cold fizzy drinks and there is also a separate area vending hot drinks like coffee which I did not try. They also serve the Bay Area specialities like Clam Chowder.

Overall, an average experience: nothing extraordinary or specifically worth highlighting. The hot dog and...

Very rude staff and stale food. I had completed an order on the tablets inside and whilst waiting for my food to be ready, I was looking around and picked up an extra water bottle in addition to my order to check out. When my order was ready i picked up the bag to check the contents and the male at the till came to me and spoke in an aggressive manner with a raised voice saying “do you understand what a pick up is?!” And took the extra bottle away from my hands and took it to the fridge. I was like what are you doing i wanted two bottles, then he was oh yeah you want two then? I said not anymore thanks and he and his colleagues were making hand gestures behind me when i turned to look. The food was stale as it was prepared way before the order and just waiting around in case someone ordered it. Very...

The food was not bad, expensive for sure, same as what you might expect from a zoo. The thing that I didn't appreciate was that my order was ready. I saw the food and the name, but the guy said I had to wait for them to put the food in the pick up shelf, (which there was not even an indication about it) so he let the food there for an extra 7 minutes before he decided to grave it and put it in the shelf. Imagine a 5yo who's been walking and wants his food. It just amazed me how little empathy the worker had. I worked in the food industry when I was younger and come on. He just needed to say, "Oh sure, you can grab it," instead of making me wait for idk...