Rainforest Cafe – Animal Kingdom
This is one of the few, if not the only, restaurants that is part of a national chain. Rainforest Cafe restaurants can be found in malls across America, but not near my location. So, visiting this restaurant was a treat for us. I was always under the impression that you are really paying for the atmosphere. I had eaten at the Rainforest Cafe on a previous trip and was not overly impressed. A few years difference in age and the right menu choice made all the difference.
My husband ordered a BBQ bacon cheeseburger. It was $13.99, and he enjoyed it. I did not try it as I was too busy tackling my Pastalaya. It was a dish much like jambalaya that substituted rice for pasta. I am a huge pasta fan, and I also LOVE spicy food! This dish had shrimp, chicken, and sausage. It also had peppers and onions and was tossed in a spicy Cajun sauce. All of this was served over linguini. The menu says “only for the truly adventurous.” I don’t think it was that much of an adventure. It had some of my favorite things so it seemed perfect to me. This was probably my favorite dish from the entire trip! It was extremely spicy. It came with a piece of garlic bread, which confused me because the garlic did not help neutralize the burn of the Cajun spices. Nonetheless, it was still amazing. I would recommend this dish to anyone who loves spicy Cajun food!
For dessert we had to share a dessert from our meal plan. This was the only place we weren’t allowed to get separate desserts. This turned out to be perfectly ok with us. All throughout our meal we heard waiters and waitresses in a train shouting “Volcano!” as they carried a tray with this chocolatey threat. As it was our “anniversary” they sang to us and lit a sparkling candle. I’m not sure if the sparkling candle is on everyone’s or just special occasions though. This dessert had 3 large brownies leaning on a scoop of ice cream, and drizzled in chocolate sauce. The brownies were a bit dry for my taste but were as good as any other restaurant brownie dessert. It wasn’t my favorite dessert to eat, but it was a lot if fun to look at.
My main note about this restaurant is to be aware that it is dark and extremely noisy with the sounds of the jungle. This may frighten small children. There are huge fish tanks throughout the restaurant so these areas may help alleviate some anxiety as they are brightly lit.
