Rainforest Cafe

Restaurant Name:	Rainforest Cafe
Location:	Downtown Disney Marketplace and Animal Kingdom Park
Serves:	Downtown Disney: Lunch thru' Dinner 10:30 to 11:00 p.m. (Sun-Thurs) Lunch thru' Dinner 10:30 to 12:00 a.m. (Fri & Sat) Animal Kingdom: Lunch thru' Dinner 10:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Atmosphere:	Both "branches" are similar in outlook. Essentially this is a jungle theme with several audio-animatronic animals coming to life at certain times. There are also several large aquaria with dazzling displays of fish where you can spend hours trying to find all the characters from Finding Nemo. Food is varied and runs the gamut from pure Americana (huge burgers) to quite adventurous offerings.
Writer's Thoughts:	Let me confess here to not being the greatest fan of the Rainforest Cafes, so I am biased in my judgment. The food in the cafes is good but not wonderful. That I can live with. What I take huge exception to are the interminable waits that you have to endure to allow Rainforest Café the opportunity to take your money. They seem to have an outside wait area where you put your name in and you wait. Then your name finally gets called and you get sent to another area -- to wait. You are then finally admitted to the dining room to eat. Abysmally poor in my opinion. It is painfully obvious that these "waits" are structured to be a "reverse marketing opportunity" where you wander around the store buying merchandise before your meal instead of the usual method where the shop is at the exit area as you leave an attraction.

Last Updated: May 9, 2009