Ride maker Mack Group’s FlowDiner is a self-driving dining table that carries a family through five themed scenes during a meal. The first one opens in Germany in summer 2027, and it’s all about strawberries.
Dinner and a ride usually means two separate things. A German company wants to turn them into one.
Mack Group, the family company behind Europa-Park and rides at parks around the world, has unveiled a new “dark-ride dining” concept called eatX, per Attractions Magazine. The star is the FlowDiner, a self-driving table that rolls through themed scenes while you eat.
The first one opens in summer 2027 at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf in Elstal, just outside Berlin.
What is the Mack FlowDiner?
It’s a dining table that is also a ride vehicle.
The FlowDiner is patented and battery-powered, and it carries a group of up to four adults and two small children, per Attractions Magazine. It moves slowly, with a top speed of about 0.5 meters per second, or around 1.6 feet per second. That’s slow enough to keep the soup in the bowl.
Mack spent two years developing the table, Attractions Magazine reported.
How does the dark ride dinner work?
You sit down, and the table does the rest.
The FlowDiner rolls through five themed scenes while a three-course meal comes out course by course. Each course is timed to the projections, sets, lighting, sound and motion in that scene, per Attractions Magazine.
Think of it like a slow dark ride where the snack break is the whole point.
What is the Strawberry Dining Journey?
It’s the first story for the FlowDiner, and it’s a very on-brand choice.
The debut experience is called “Erdbeer-Speisereise,” or “Strawberry Dining Journey.” It’s built around the 1714 discovery of the garden strawberry, per Attractions Magazine. Karls is a German farm and strawberry-themed attraction, known for its strawberry fields and strawberry-shaped just about everything.
Karls founder Robert Dahl said the goal wasn’t a restaurant with a show added or a ride with a meal tacked on, but both fused so closely that guests forget the outside world, per the official announcement as reported by Attractions Magazine.
Is this the same as Eatrenalin at Europa-Park?
No, but they’re related.
Eatrenalin, also from the Mack family, opened at Europa-Park Resort in Germany and serves an eight-course meal over about two hours, with each guest riding in an individual Floating Chair, per Attractions Magazine.
The FlowDiner is the family-friendly version. Everyone shares one table, the meal is three courses, and the first version is designed as a family experience. Thomas Mack, who leads both Eatrenalin and eatX, pitched the FlowDiner as a mix of Mack’s ride engineering, hospitality and storytelling.
Will the FlowDiner come to U.S. theme parks?
Maybe someday. Mack built eatX for other parks to buy too, per Attractions Magazine.
That’s the big deal for the industry. A park could turn a regular restaurant into a reservation-worthy attraction, with its own theme and story. Mack already builds rides for parks worldwide, including coasters at major U.S. parks, so the connections are there.
No U.S. park has announced a FlowDiner yet.
When does the FlowDiner open?
Summer 2027, at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf in Elstal, per Attractions Magazine. Mack first showed the concept publicly at the IAAPA Expo Europe in London.
So if you’ve ever wished you could eat dessert while riding past strawberry fields, start saving for Berlin.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
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Attractions Magazine (Jon Self, Sept. 27, 2026), all FlowDiner, eatX, Karls and Eatrenalin details
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