Rainforest Cafe

[Ladyhawke10]

Has anyone else had chronically bad meals at Rainforest Cafe? I adore the environment here...and wish I could like it. But I've tried it several times now (in DTD, DL and AK) and never got anything that tasted of quality.
It wasn't that it was altogether bad tasting, it tasted like not good quality ingredients. Am I just having bad luck?

 

[Stitchfan]

Sorry to hear you haven't had good meals there We've always had good meals at DTD and AK locations, service has been hit-or-miss but the food has always been good.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

What did you order?

 

[slo]

It's been about 3 years since we visited the Rainforest Cafe in DTD (we haven't returned because of the long wait) and I don't remember the food being bad. What did you order??

 

[Keith]

We've been to RFC 7 or 8 times, and have always had very good food.

 

[the kabuki]

I am forced to go there-my kids love it & it's the only sit down in AK. While the foods' not bad, the service is so sloooowwww. 2 hours for lunch in a 1/2 empty restaurant in slow season. Ugh!!!

 

[Ladyhawke10]

I remember trying the soups (clam chowder and another type w/ vegetables and sausage, I think) and an appetizer platter with several different items on it--I can pretty much finish anything because I LOVE food but I remember not even really having any desire to finish the platter and being bummed I wasted the money on it. I don't remember the entrees well--I remember one being seafood...it's been over a year since the last time we went. I remember a dessert entree w/ ice cream and some macaroni and cheese my son got...I think another time he got pizza. Nothing has been good so far.

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

We've ate at the Rainforest Cafe in AK, one in Texas and one in Southern Florida and all were very SLOW service and medicore food at best - The last time we went it was so bad that the kids said they do not ever want to go back to a Rainforest Cafe so we will be skipping that one for now on.

 

[glencoe]

I used to love the food, but our last visit at AK in eary Feb. was lacking. Even w/ a PS we waited 45 min. to be seated in a half empty place, service slow and the "animals" and other theme activities were really lacking this time. The food was ok, we have had better at other places and at Rainforest before. We wasted over 2 hours of precious park time which I will never do again. That is the biggest regret I had on this past vacation.....going to the Rainforest in AK.

 

[djm99]

Has anyone else had chronically bad meals at Rainforest Cafe? I adore the environment here...and wish I could like it. But I've tried it several times now (in DTD, DL and AK) and never got anything that tasted of quality.
It wasn't that it was altogether bad tasting, it tasted like not good quality ingredients. Am I just having bad luck?

Nope, your not the only one, but I LOVE the atmosphere of RFC. I've been to WDW, Chicago's and Las Vegas. None really had "good" food, but its worth it to me. The desserts are really good - who couldn't love this.....

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

I used to love the food, but our last visit at AK in eary Feb. was lacking. Even w/ a PS we waited 45 min. to be seated in a half empty place, service slow and the "animals" and other theme activities were really lacking this time. The food was ok, we have had better at other places and at Rainforest before. We wasted over 2 hours of precious park time which I will never do again. That is the biggest regret I had on this past vacation.....going to the Rainforest in AK.

I have to agree with you on that one glencoe! On our first trip we had lunch at Rainforest in AK and the service was so slow that we wasted 2 hours of park time there - I was really upset and said never again - I have since tried other Rainforest Cafes in other areas and all were about the same in service and food , just not great - I think if people want to try RF at AK they should but maybe do not make the same mistake we made and have lunch there - make a PS for Dinner would be better so that it does not take away from park hours at AK.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Nope, your not the only one, but I LOVE the atmosphere of RFC. I've been to WDW, Chicago's and Las Vegas. None really had "good" food, but its worth it to me. The desserts are really good - who couldn't love this.....
QUOTE]

I just remembered the burger from our last trip....my son said it tasted funny so I had a bite...it didn't taste like beef at all--soy maybe. Don't know why but it grossed me out. Ugh. I got key lime pie which was something I could have whipped up in the kitchen (and I'm no great cook). I'm bummed because I LOVE the animated animals and atmosphere. I don't even know what to order at this point that would be better. I know I've tried at least a half dozen items. Any suggestions on what they got that was good?

 

[ArielsMommy]

We also found the food mediocore at best. We will not go back because our DD is afraid of the animals. She has a thing against animated things that she has seen the real version of. She also hates the Elmo's that dance and a Pooh that tells stories with puppets of the other characters. Oh, well. we just stick to the live action stuff, at least until she's not afraid anymore.

 

[djm99]

Any suggestions on what they got that was good?

This was a chocolate cake with some kind of whip creme - not ice cream. Perfect!!!

Oh this was good too - I can't remember what this was called but it had bananas with that whip creme stuff!!

Oh, as you can see, the Hot Wings were okay - they are "safe food" - who can mess up Hot Wings!!!

Oh, my DH along with friends that joined us are vegetarians and they LOVED the veggie burger - they all claim (to this day) it was the best veggie burger they've ever had!!!!

 

[pezpam]

I've always had decent food at RC. Vegetarians should know - not every server will tell you - that the Alfredo sauce isn't vegetarian. :-(

The service is chronically slooooooow. My experience depends a lot on who our server is. Someone fun and upbeat can make it kind of ok to wait if it isn't too awfully long. The kid who tried to blame me because he put my order in wrong just ticked me off. He said that the kitchen staff barely spoke English, so you had to word your orders just right to get what you wanted. I ordered a pasta without the chicken and apparently HE didn't word it correctly, but it was MY fault for not ordering it in the right code. He had all the info........ He was so unpleasant about it that, for the first time in my life, I actually asked to have the manager come over. I have done enough service jobs to be really hard to tick off, but that attitude was just wrong. Luckily, we'd had a really great server earlier in the week, so I knew it was him and not the restaurant.

 

[djm99]

My experience depends a lot on who our server is. Someone fun and upbeat can make it kind of ok to wait if it isn't too awfully long.

That is sooooo true. During my AK RFC visit we had a wonderful waiter who was really slow, but I had to be mindful that we were a table of 11 people with Vouchers. It was okay to be a little slow and our waiter checked on us to make sure our appetizers and drinks were plentiful. But when I was in Chicago in October, we had a horrible waiter, food wasn't so hot, but the atmosphere was better than the one in Animal Kingdom. DTD RFC is too crowded for me. The wait is just crazy, I think they got all the money they'll ever get out of me. In Vegas, the RFC is the best. I guess there is so many other places to eat, its easy to overlook RFC. Vegas was by far the best yet!!!

 

[WDWPartyof5]

Has anyone else had chronically bad meals at Rainforest Cafe? I adore the environment here...and wish I could like it. But I've tried it several times now (in DTD, DL and AK) and never got anything that tasted of quality.
It wasn't that it was altogether bad tasting, it tasted like not good quality ingredients. Am I just having bad luck?

That is a real shame. I've eaten at AK, DTD, and at the one in Phoenix AZ. The one in Phoenix was absolutely the best one I have ever eaten at. The food was wonderful. I've had a great lunch at DTD but the dinner meal we had was not so good. We have eaten at AK twice and were very pleased with our food, we have a reservation for this upcoming Sat night at AK and I hope we have a great meal.

 

[rorosweetheart]

I was there about a year ago and I liked the food at the Rain Forest Cafe. I had one of their Salads and it was enough for abut 2 or 3 people. I could not eat it all, and was sorry I could not take it with me to the hotel, because my friend and I made a pit stop there before we went to go Party at Pleasure Island. So for me, my experience was good.

RoRo

 

[jkmmah]

Our only visit was last fall so I don't have any other visits to compare with it. We thought it was a great meal! I had the crab cakes which were outstanding IMO, though I'm not from the Northeast so I don't know if they were authentic or just really yummy to me. Regardless, I loved them and dream about those things! We also shared the Volcano and thought it was the best dessert of our whole trip, coming in right ahead of the No Way Jose at B&C. YUMMY!

Our service was fine. I don't recall a problem with the pace of the meal.

The enviornment was too loud for us to speak to each other without yelling. That's the only part of our experience that soured me. But the food rated high enough for us to want to return, noise and all.

Oh, FYI, we were at the AK location at about 1 pm-ish.

 

[mrsgroove]

Hello!

Apparently I have had very different experiences at the RC than most of you all. We have been very pleased with the food.....I generally get the crab cakes or the pot roast and my DH will get seafood of some kind. DD orders typical kid fare....chicken nuggets or whatever. We find the service to be efficient and love the atmosphere.

Some time ago we joined their Safari Club. It costs $10 or $15 (one time fee) but it gets you priority seating (fast) and a free appetizer each time you visit. You also recieve a gift certificate in the mail for your birthday. If you join the club when you go next, you can use the "perks" right away! Love it!

MG