Should we go to Rainforest Cafe for lunch at Animal Kingdom?

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We cancelled our dinner reservation for Rainforest Cafe at AK because we decided the time wouldn't work out since it was later in the evening. There are a couple of lunch time slots available and I was wondering how people felt about the RC as an option for lunch while at the AK? We've been interested in eating at RC for awhile now and there aren't any locations near us. I've also heard that the service is better at the AK location than the DTD location. I am concerned that selecting this location for lunch would take away a lot of our park time due to its location in the park and how long it may take for us to be seated since it is a popular restaurant. Should we go ahead and plan to have our lunch at RC or just stick with the counter service options in AK? Thanks

 

[JimmyV]

With full knowledge and expectation that plenty of others will disagree, here goes.....No.
Park hours at AK are short enough as it is. If you are out near EE or KS when your ADR time creeps up, you will have a long walk to the restaurant, followed by a potential wait of 15-30 minutes (or maybe more) for a table, and then a long walk back to wherever you are headed next. Kali Rapids? Nemo? EE? KS? All in, you might kill 90 minutes to 2 hours for lunch and for me, that is too much time eating away at my entertainment time (pardon the pun).

 

[DisneySarah80]

Personally, I don't do sit down lunches while in a park because I think it takes way to much time away from my touring plans. I don't know your familys tastes, but I would do the day at AK, and then shoot over to AKL for dinner at Sanaa.

http://allears.net/menu/menu_sanaad.htm

 

[OhThePain]

If you plan on doing more in the park after lunch, I would skip it. I personally don't care to much for the food, plus it could be a long walk to the restaurant depending on where in the park you are and it could be a long walk from the restaurant depending on where your going. Tusker House and Yak and Yeti are better TS lunch options if you want a longer lunch. Flame Tree is a pretty good CS restaurant if you don't want to lose the extra time.

If you plan on leaving AK after lunch, RC is an alright choice.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

With full knowledge and expectation that plenty of others will disagree, here goes.....No.
Park hours at AK are short enough as it is. If you are out near EE or KS when your ADR time creeps up, you will have a long walk to the restaurant, followed by a potential wait of 15-30 minutes (or maybe more) for a table, and then a long walk back to wherever you are headed next. Kali Rapids? Nemo? EE? KS? All in, you might kill 90 minutes to 2 hours for lunch and for me, that is too much time eating away at my entertainment time (pardon the pun).

This is exactly what I was concerned about. The location of this restaurant is quite a distance away from a lot of things in the park and the seating time may be long. AK isn't one of those parks that we can come back to later in the evening and do more attractions if we opt for a lengthy table service lunch (closes at 6pm everyday during our trip). Also, since we will be relying on bus transportation and can't go back to the park in the evening to do more attractions we decided that hauling ourselves back down there for a dinner ADR wasn't worth it.

 

[scooter7487]

go to flame tree it is better!

 

[mrssmith06]

We did Rainforest in AK just last week and we loved it! We got to AK at RD and only planned on spending a half day there anyway so we went to our ADR there on our way out of the park. We only had to wait like 10 minutes for our table and the kids really enjoyed it there. Our food was really good too!

 

[KYMickey]

Not worth the time!

 

[tink2044]

If I was going to do a sitdown lunch, I'd pick Yak & Yetti over Rainforest. Just love Yak & Yetti. Price is the same for lunch or dinner. It was when we went in April.

 

[Mom2micayla]

We did Rainforest in AK just last week and we loved it! We got to AK at RD and only planned on spending a half day there anyway so we went to our ADR there on our way out of the park. We only had to wait like 10 minutes for our table and the kids really enjoyed it there. Our food was really good too!

That's what we plan on doing too. We'll book a later lunch and leave after then. As to the food, we've always found it to be pretty decent. Nothing spectacular, but certainly decent. The big drawl for us is it has a large kid's menu with a few unique choices (ribs, popcorn shrimp, etc). We decided to do RFC instead of Yak & Yeti b/c we didn't really care much for the food (it was just moderately ok for us) and the kid's menu is very limited.

 

[excited4dis]

My kids and I have an ADR @RC for lunch, and I plan on keeping it.

We are not looking for gourmet food, just edible.

I figured lunch time would be a great time to take a break from the heat. We then are going to do the Jungle Parade after. If I feel like we don't have time to do it, I can just cancel it beforehand and then grab QS. But in the meantime, we have the ADR.

No one says you can't change your mind the day of.

 

[Linda T.]

We always book a later lunch at RC at Animal Kingdom. That way we can finish up the park and then leave when we are done eating.

 

[nyrfan00]

I always avoid chain restaurants when I'm at home, and I'm no different in vacation. I would NEVER go there.

If you want a TS meal at AK, id recommend yak and yeti...if you like food with an Asian flair. Otherwise, as others have said the flame tree is good as well.