Rainforest Cafe

This place is awesome! Every hour what sounds like a rainstorm happens, and all the props move. We were seated right by the fish tanks and it was beautiful. I ordered the fish tacos which came with a side of rice and beans. They didn’t post anywhere the rice and beans were spicy :(after a few bites the spiciness became too over powering that I couldn’t finish my food. HOWEVER, THEIR GUAC AND CHIPS ARE THE BEST GUAC AND CHIPS IVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE! Our server was extremely attentive. Kept coming table to ask if everything was good, if there’s anything else we need, and letting us know the status on our food. Highly recommend!

I decided to surprise my girlfriend’s 4-​year old son by bringing him to Rainforest Café. By the time we hit the road, we discovered that the place closes at 9:30PM, and it was already getting close to 9PM! So we decided to keep on going and see if lady luck would be on our side. We arrived a little after 9PM, but were still seated with a smile. Not only were the staff very friendly and accommodating, they never once rushed us out of the place, even though we were there until about 10:30PM. My girlfriend and I both ordered burgers, which were juicy and delicious. Little Jeremy had the macaroni and cheese, and it looked fresh (not microwaved). We got the brownie and ice cream dessert and admittedly, I ate the majority of it. It was either that or it goes in the garbage, so I decided to put on an extra two pounds to my already fat torso, just so we don’t waste food. I’ll get back to the diet and gym tomorrow, I swear! Her son got a huge kick out of the ambiance and animals, especially when the rainstorm started up! We had an excellent, unforgettable time, so I tipped our waiter a little bit more than usual just to show my appreciation for their good nature. All in all it was an excellent night!

Absolutely the worst service. The bathrooms were incredibly gross with toilet paper everywhere and urine all over every seat in the bathroom. We come in at 6:15 pm and didn’t leave until 8:45 pm. We were like a forgotten table. Not only that, my sister is a vegetarian who ordered something without chicken and they loaded her salad with chicken. Also, my mom had a chicken salad sandwich with NO chicken salad on it. The manager didn’t comp us anything or remove the chicken salad from the bill. Disgusting.

Just had lunch here. Brought my 7 year old he loved it. The service was great and the food was good too. Got the spinach artichoke dip to start which came out with tortilla chips and was delicious. I had the veggie burger but on the guacamole set up. Loved it. Big portions. Overall great experience.

The worst service I have ever seen. Went in on a Monday night with my 7 year old and there was no more then 12 people in the whole place. After 20 minutes and no service we left. Did I say there was maybe 12 people in the whole place!!! Will never go back way to many places to eat in South Florida.

The service was good and fast people were very polite. I ordered the steak, shrimp & ribs trio. The ribs taste good but the steak could have used some seasoning. I would come again great family friendly restaurant… be sure to try the awesome adventure appetizer…

The food is relatively average leaning towards good but the service is below average. Also prices are a little high. I sat by the bar due to the high waiting time for a table and there was tables behind us that remained dirty the whole time that I was eating. Where is management in this place?

My parents and I went here to get lunch. I normally rate restaurants on food, service, cleanliness, prices. It was a funky place kids will love it because you are eating inside a jungle. When we walked in, all the animals stared to move and sounded just like a jungle. I though it was a cool idea until I thought of all the decorations collecting dust. I don’t mind when restaurants have artificial plants as long as they are clean. Luckily the restaurant was clean and I hardly saw any dust which was good. But of course that was when I went. The bathroom could used more Cleaning. Dirty bathrooms are a turn of for me. My burger was ok for me, my mom liked her fish and ships. Our waitress was friendly and the food didn’t take long since it wasn’t that busy. It was on a Wednesday around noon. The prices were a little high 57 $ for three lunches, $ 3.29 for a cup of coffee but I think it wasn’t worth that much. Every kid in there loved seeing the animals come to life and the large fish tanks they had. Their gift shop was fun to look around. I will take my boys here when we come back to FL they will enjoy it. Although is not a 5 star restaurant for me, the experience was fun to try and if you want to take kids to eat and be entertained I say try it yourself.

Once again, bad reviews almost kept me from a hidden treasure. 1^st it is on the pricey end. 2^nd it is really noisy. But everything tasted great. The kids loved the décor and the animals. I enjoyed seeing them happy. Our waitress was very nice and attentive also. I will be back soon.

I work nearby and thought I’d stop by for an afternoon drink and snack. I say at the bar and watched them walk by me and state as if I was a foreign object for about 10 minutes before the bartender asked me if I knew what I wanted. I’ve never been here and didn’t even get a menu so when I asked for one she rolled her eyes as she walked away to get it. I asked her what she recommended and started with that. It wasn’t as good as I expected in fact I actually had to return it. Instead I got a rasberry lemonade which they sell frozen. As I’m waiting for my food a lady from another table asked for a glass of water with no ice, they looked at her and walked away. The salad was decent at least. Probably the best thing about this place besides the scenery.
I guess if you don’t have kids there’s not much reason to be here. I’m trying to find the motivation to stay.

The restaurant is gorgeous and the kids will LOVE IT.
My server was very friendly and attentive even though it is hectic in there.
Kids meals are not really the best.
My complaint: I ordered the Jungle safari soup and it was a SALT BOMB!!! It had only 1 or 2 kidney beans, no spinach and LOTS ans LOTS of salt. My eyes are swollen today from so much salt in one small bowl of soup!
Please be more conscious with your food, there many many spices that can spike flavor instead of adding so much salt.

I was shopping around Sawgrass and decided to try this place.
This restaurant belongs to the same group that owns Bubba Gump.
It serves some tropical/​Hawaiian food on a jungle themed restaurant.
The place is big, but the gift shop is huge as well. Would recommend only if you’re with kids.
The service was slow, and it took a long time to prepare our food; and the place wasn’t that crowded. We sat close to the gorillas and I almost had a heart attack when they started moving and making noises, lol.
The food was good, though. Don’t remember the name of the dish, but it had rice, shrimp, chicken and some vegetables. It was really good. My friend had a burger with fries. The portions are big, and you could normally share an entrée with no problem.

We ordered 2 adult entrees and a kids pizza. The food took at least 30 mins to reach us, and were brought out within 5 minutes of each other. The food was good, no problem there… But we waited another ²⁰⁄₃₀ mins for the server to come back to clear the table, and he never checked on us to see how it was. Then I waited another at least 30 mins for him to pick up the check… I gave up, and asked the 3 other servers who were at the front doing nothing, and they seemed confused about what to do with my bill and my credit card. Finally got out of there at some point, but his tip reflected the service we received… And to be honest, he didn’t even deserve what I gave him.
The kids loved the animals though, and they had a balloon guy coming around making balloon animals… He was very nice, and we spoke more to him than our server.

Today they broke my bugaboo stroller @ Rainforest Café at Sawgrass Mills and after making me look like a liar and telling me that it was impossible because their employees were trained to not move strollers, which is a big fat lie since when I went to retrieve my stroller there was a guy moving strollers around, they also told me that it was not their responsability even though I was obligated to park my stroller in the stroller parking of the restaurant because you cannot go inside the restaurant with the stroller. What a joke! I was reading reviews and lots of people got either their stroller broken or stuff robbed ! BE AWARE PEOPLE. In addition, the food is truly mediocre and very expensive. Today we got 2 iced teas, 2 kids meals, one burger and one taco and paid $ 60 and the food was bad! This is very sad! Such a nice place they don’t care about you, it is a turist trap!
Eu vim aqui para alertar voces! Hoje quebraram o meu carrinho bugaboo no stroller parking do Rainforest Café no Sawgrass Mills em Miami. Apesar do restaurante nao deixar entrar com carrinho e obrigar estacionar no «parking» eles nao se responsabilizam por danos ou roubo, inclusive me chamaram de mentirosa dizendo que os empregados nao. podem mexer nos carrinhos oq e’ uma grande mentira pq assim que eu fui buscar meu carrinho tinha um. funcionario organizando. Tambem li reviews de pessoas que tiveram. os perteces roubados e o restaurante tambem nao se responsabilizou. Alem disso a comida e’ mediocre, hj na verdade estava ruim, e cara. Pagamos $ 60 em 2 chas gelados, 2 kids meals, 1 hamburguer e 1 taco. Ou seja nao percam. seu tempo, o ambiente e’ legal e os animais bla bla bla mas o Cheesecake Factory da de mil!

Who doesn’t love good food and a fun environment?! This place is awesome and a solid 5 stars!
They entice you for the very beginning with the rainforest theme — animals hanging from vines of varying lengths, jungle sounds playing in the background and huge boulders wrapping around the front of the restaurant. Also, you pass by their huge, FREE, indoor children’s playground on the way to the hostess station (which is a large purple elephant), so if you’re not feeling the pull to eat at the Rainforest Café, any kiddos in your party will definitely pull you in its direction!
After they call your name (which you leave at the large purple elephant hostess station), you follow animal tracks –conveniently leading you through the gift shop — to the second hostess station where that host or hostess leads you to your table. If you choose to sit at the bar, you have your choice of animal butt stools so that you look cool while sipping on your beverage of choice. And awesome side note — they sell Icees!
I scoped out the place (my 2-​year old nephew insisted on giving me multiple tours) and honestly, there’s not a bad seat in the entire restaurant. If you’re not sitting next to an animatronic animal scene, you’re sitting next to a fish tank or pseudo waterfall with smoke billowing over you every 10 minutes or so. Also every 10 minutes, a different animatronic animal scene «goes off» (they move, make noise, blow smoke whatever that particular animal does) and after each animal group goes off, they all go off and thunder and lighting fills the atmosphere and it feels like a big rainforest party.
As for the food, there are plenty of options to choose from and the portions are large and delicious. Even my nephew (who is a notoriously picky eater) ate his macaroni and cheese, garlic bread and apple slices. I opted for a barbecue grilled chicken smothered in barbecue sauce and topped with gooey cheese and mushrooms. My side items were broccoli and scrumptious smashed potatoes. None of us had room for dessert, but we saw a few other patrons order a chocolate lava cake that is presented with a sparkler on top — awesome! I definitely want to go back and try out other menu items and explore the «rainforest» again!

I gave the three stars just because the place is pretty well done. It looks like you are eating in a forest but that doesn’t mean that the food and servers have to make you feel like you are in a forest. The place got animals (fake of course) and trees all over. Once in a while the animals start moving and making sound. If I have to suggest something that will be «do not seat close to the monkeys and gorillas «they are so loud and I think the tiger is pretty loud as well. The server that welcomed and served us looked like if was tired and angry for something. Didn’t welcome us with a smile and kindly but it was just like «whatever». The food took so long to eat and the room wasn’t that busy. After the food arrived I didn’t like almost anything but I was so hungry for the waiting that I ate everything. I ordered a double cheeseburger the meat was good but too dry and the bread too hard. French fries were weird to eat like it tasted of nothing. Not good experience.

I recommend this restaurant for the following reasons.
Location:
The atmosphere is directed towards children, although entertaining for grown ups.
Animal-​animatronics, jungle flora and lots of live fish and sound effects. Thankfully nothing too distracting.
Food:
I was satisfied with the food.
As I only had a light hunger my meal consisted exclusively of appetizers.
The onion rings were probably frozen, but tasted really well. The sauce was a great addition.
The mozzarella sticks have a great flavor.
I also tried the tomato soup which was rich flavored and tasted fresh.
My drink was a very refreshing home made lemonade.
Service:
The staff is polite and did a good job.
Our tables as well as the toilet were very clean.

expectation vs. reality — pedi el shirimp enbrochette del menu brasileño el plato no se parece a la foto aunqe es de buen sabor los camarones son pequeños y pocos!

I came here on a rainy Saturday afternoon with my two year old son. I was hesitant to dine here after reading the review about the other two year old being scared of the animals but I’m glad we took the chance in coming here. We were seated right next to the elephants and although my son was scared at first, he ended up loving it! By the time we left the Rainforest Café he was waving to all of the animals (minus the gorillas, they were pretty creepy).
We wanted to start off with an appetizer and ended up ordering the nachos. In between ordering the appetizer and our entrées, we ordered the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and fries for our son. The plate must have come out about 5 minutes after we ordered it! We thought this could be a good or bad thing. However, the fries were hot and tasty and the chicken nuggets were average. We decided to order our entrees about 10 – 15 minutes after the appetizer since we figured the appetizer would be out any minute now. I took off a star because our nachos arrived after a long wait and maybe three minutes later our entrees were placed right in front of us… I definitely didn’t like that.
The nachos were surprisingly good. The cheese was hot and melted, there was plenty of beef all over and the ratio of bare nachos was very low. I wish we had gotten our appetizer earlier as we had to take home the majority of it in order to have room for our entrees. My partner ordered the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and I had the Rainforest Burger. My burger tasted like a plain cheeseburger (I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary out of a plain burger) but I felt that my son’s fries were somehow better than mine. The BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger was really good though and I like that it’s not smothered in barbecue sauce. You can taste a small hint of barbecue that blends well with the bacon. I was surprised that they portion out the fries in a small little bucket rather than heaping a whole bunch of fries next to your burger.
We definitely enjoyed our experience at the Rainforest Café and I will most likely be back sometime this year not only because this is probably one of the very few restaurants that I don’t have to run out of with my son when he acts up because there are kids all over the place. If you are scared that your child might be scared of the animals just let them ease into the environment, you will be surprised!

Had 2 of
exclusive entrees for lunch with my kids included and had a great time. The food was excellent. Could have split the entrée it was so big. Would recommend and return.

Taking a 2 year old out to dinner can be a taxing feat. Taking three of them out nearly impossible. RC makes it easy to take out several howling children who are not on their best behavior, and you don’t have to be mortified or fear that you will be asked to leave.
The first thing, for a Sunday evening, you probably neeed a reservation. When I called to ask what the best place to park was, we were told that they were completely booked, no waiting list, no ability to stand in line. I explained we had a reservation. Wonderful. They said park at Vanity Fair. This worked out for several reasons. The first it is the closest place to park to get directly into the restraurant, also, the restaurant is open later than the mall and there is an exit right next to Vanity Fair so that you can get out of the mall when all the stores are closed.
The fish and chips were a sizeable portion and delicious. Everyone else enjoyed their food, especially the kids (mac n cheese all around). The salmon was also quite good with rice and beans.
The fishtanks are certainly a wonderfully beautiful focal point of the dining experience. They are enormous, well maintained, and stocked full of beautiful fish. They have a face painter, balloon blower, and a bird trainer for extra entertainment.

I’ll start off by saying the kids love it, atmosphere is very unique and entertaining. They have thunderstorms and moving animals and gigantic beautiful fish tanks. That being said, the food is horrible and expensive and the service is the worst. Seriously overpriced, example. try paying $ 14 for just a desert. If the food was good it wouldn’t be so bad being price gouged Oh yeah and don’t bother to use the bathroom, a porta potty is more sanitary.
Oh and 2 of us had stomach issues that lasted hours after the meal.

Great place for kids, the kids meal has a great variety! They also have a very good kids playground. Although i took a 2 year old thinking she would love the animals and the atmosphere and she was crying every time the monkeys and the lions started making noises because they’re extremely loud ! I had to ask to move tables somewhere away from them!
TIP: good place for kids OVER 3 years old.
She did love the fish tanks very much though.
The food was good but not memorable nothing out of the ordinary. It just wasn’t bad.
The volcano dessert is my favorite one of the reasons why I go there, it’s very big and you probably won’t finish it with a party of three people. But it’s still very nice and yummy: p
OH My server was a mess, she messed up on my order and forgot to ring in the baby’s food… But she was so nice that it was forgivable :)

My previous review was from 7 years ago so I think it’s time for an update.
We’ve been to Rainforest Café several times with our preschooler. During the weekends the wait times are pretty long, but if you don’t mind being on the outskirts of the rainforest action there’s usually no wait to sit in the bar area. It’s better lit and slightly less noisy there too.
The portions are big enough for two. My husband and I split the Hickory chicken (sans cheese) on our most recent visit and were surprised at how great it was.
I usually order the grilled chicken with a side of fruit for my kid. They have a dozen main dishes to choose from on the kids menu, a few options for sides, and I think juice, milk, or soda is included as well.
Service is always friendly, though usually on the slower side.

We all love this place, we are coming here since 2005 for my kids birthday, staff always lovely, fast service and awsome food, LOVE IT!!!

Positive: Came to this restaurant, mainly because of the atmosphere. My daughter is 3.5 and I knew she would enjoy it, and she did! We asked to be seated next to «something that moved», we were seated next to the elephants, my child was entertained and happy! She also loved the little froggy crown they give to everyone.
Not so positive: The kids meal was terrible. Costing about $ 6, we asked for pasta, which came with side. The picture showed spaghetti, the outcome was another type of pasta, I forget the name (small, Mac and cheese looking pasta) the Marinara sauce was acid. I had requested chicken for protein (additional cost). This is why we have an obese society. All carbs! for the side, we got broccoli, out of the whole meal, my child only hate the broccoli (the chicken had touched the acidy sauce).
Adult meals (-): I ordered the veggie burger. I loved that it had a generous amount of avocado, aside from that, the veggie burger tasted VERY SIMPLE, so seasoning at all. I ate it because I was very hungry, but definitely not worth the $ 11+. My friend ordered a regular burger, she said hers was ok. Not great, but ok.
Adult meals (+): Appetizer was yummy and plentiful for 2 adults. Artichoke dip.
Service: I believe her name was Isabel, was good. She had the curtesy of removing cost of children’s plate as I explained the acid taste. This would have gone from good to great, had she offered to replace it with something else.
Will I return? if in the area, maybe. We traveled about an hour, I would have liked the meal to have tasted better

The food takes forever to come out. Once the food does arrive it’s mediocre at best. The wait staff is very nice but that doesn’t make up fir the time it takes the food to arrive. Been to this location 3 times in last week trying to decide if it’s a regular stop for our family.
The kids do like it but not enough to override the food /​slow service.

Good job by the waitress, very good situational awareness and service. The place simply falls short, this was my second visit.
We ordered the chilli queso with ground beef and a dinner with 3 different meats. The food was okay, although the chips for the chilli queso were soaked in grease. The drinks were okay and beer was served cold.
I won’t return.