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Rainforest Cafe

2 star rating
based on 30 reviews

Category: Restaurants  [Edit]

290 Southcenter Mall
Tukwila, WA 98188
(206) 248-8882
Price Range:
$$
Accepts Credit Cards:
Yes
Parking:
Private Lot
Attire:
Casual
Good for Groups:
Yes
Good for Kids:
Yes
Takes Reservations:
Yes
Delivery:
No
Take-out:
Yes
Waiter Service:
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible:
Yes
Outdoor Seating:
No
Good for:
Lunch, Dinner
Alcohol:
Full Bar

30 reviews for Rainforest Cafe

Review Highlights   

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"…I always get the exact same thing when I visit: The amazing appetizer…" (in 4 reviews)
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"I guess it's all worth it when all the kids were having such a great time." (in 4 reviews)
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"…SPECIAL OCCAISION then take them here, My nephew is one and a half and even…" (in 4 reviews)
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Photo of Linda C.

Elite '09

82

344

Linda C.

San Leandro, CA

2 star rating
10/18/2009

Am I a chain basher?

Maybe.

Was the food and service here decent for what I'd pay?

Probably - although a little on the high side.

Rainforest Cafe is like any other chain out there. The prices are slightly higher than the neighborhood Denny's or Sizzler's (though these rarely exist anymore) but the food is not spectacular.

Head here if you want to entertain your children or the youngsters in your life, or even if you've never been. If you want gourmet and wanna talk to your company without monkeys and elephants going off every three seconds, go somewhere else (duh?)...

I'd give this place three stars for being dependable, standard to sub-standard fare (depending on when you come), but I am docking a star for those damn parents that bring their kids here and let them run amok. Yes, I know its targeted towards kids (evident in that ridiculous gift shop) but it still is a restaurant with people trying to eat and waiters carrying hot places. Get a leash on your brats, people!

Ugh.

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Photo of nancy c.

Elite '09

29

253

nancy c.

Federal Way, WA

1 star rating
Updated - 11/25/2009

Yes, the decor is cool but everything else sucks!  Went on a Tuesday night, place was empty (they sat us in the middle of the room - out in the open - we couldn't sit by one of the cool animal displays??)  Nice waitress comes over tries to sell us their club and fancy drinks, the kid orders the recommended strawberry lemonade ($3)  but then comes back and says she made a mistake and we weren't her table - Jorge would be taking over.  Sullen Jorge comes over and takes our order - 20 minutes later food arrives - my salad is cesear not chinese chicken as order (brought by a 3rd waitperson) and she says to me "well it is chicken.........."  Take it BACK! not my fault Jorge wasn't listening......... 15 minutes later get right salad - maybe I should have stuck with the cesear - yuck!  Over dressed (and if I'm saying this - it's bad...........) and no wontons (but lots of black sesame seeds).  Kid thinks burger is just alright (actually disgusting I took a bite - tasted like cardboard) and the shoestring fries were gross.  Their new menu is tiny compared to the old (so you think they could perfect the few items they now serve).  Jorge was all swarmy smiles when he brought the check (hey, we only saw you twice but you walked by our table a dozen times.........).  Way overpriced $30 for salad, burger and 1 kids drink........... Maybe next time we'll just go and order water and watch all the cool animals!!

p.s. Don't ever have a birthday party here - they totaled screwed up one of my kid's parties (and see I've never forgot!).  We spent $500 and it took them over an hour and a half to bring any child food (but they sure brought the adults their overpriced alcoholic drinks and apps)

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1 Previous Review: Show all »

  • 3 star rating
    1/8/2009

    My kids love this place - they love all the animals and only want to sit next to the elephants or… Read more »

Photo of David M.

 

0

18

David M.

Seattle, WA

1 star rating
10/27/2009

My partner and I have taken our nieces and nephew here a few times. The food was usually blah. It has really gone downhill. We went again this past week-end and the food was awful. Obviously, little kids love this place and its very entertaining for them. I understand they have to charge a little more for the animal bots but, there is no excuse for the food being that terrible. I ordered fish & chips, I thought I was safe. It was nearly inedible. The batter was very bitter and tough, the skinny french fries were cold and had no flavor.. No one liked the food.
Also, some of the waitresses were very grouchy though ours was ok.
We wont go back.

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Photo of Randy C.

Elite '09

4

71

Randy C.

Snohomish, WA

1 star rating
9/23/2009

This place was like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids!

I read all the reviews on The Rainforest Café so I knew what I was getting myself into. But my daughter wanted to go for her birthday and she was having none of my request to read the Yelp reviews first. The food was overpriced ($100.00 for 2 adults and 2 kids), we had to wait for a table in a 2/3 empty restaurant, and as promised the service was bad. The non stop noise will get to you but what I found most annoying was the unattended children running freely through out the restaurant checking out the animals. We were in a booth in an empty section and still had to deal with other peoples brats!

The volcano dessert was OK, but by the end of dinner my kids had enough and headed straight for the car. The only upside was no stopping at the gift shop.

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1 star rating
7/1/2009

OMGGGGGGG.........A freaking ZOO plus dark trees and humping animal noises....GET ME OUT OF THIS JUNGLE! It ain't no rainforest or even a cafe!

I can't blame rainforest cafe for their animal decorating and scarey jungle noises because the kids loves it.
Took my niece who just turned 3 yrs old here for her lovely birthday. She was amazed by the huge fishes and elephants, but yet the jungle noises scared her too.

Their service was ok but it just seems like no one smiles in this place?!? It seems like they were all bitten by their head LION KING boss and no one wants to work there...I don't blame them for feeling like that if I worked in a wierd place like that.

Their food sucked sooo bad! The stupid part is that the food sucks and it is over priced. I would never again come here with kids, I will stick to the old school birthday party at home theme.

On top of that, their so called "Raspberry Lemonade Freeze" taste like crap. It was wayy to sour and taste nothing like it. $4.50 for the darn drink...OMG..Makes me want to hunt down a zebra or something and burn the flippping rainforest trees in this place!

Thank you Rainforest cafe for sucking at its worst.

I love animals and the whole outdoor theme thingy but this place killed my fanatsy of eating at a cool jungle fever place!

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Photo of Brad E.

 

14

137

Brad E.

Pleasanton, CA

3 star rating
9/21/2009

They get 3 stars because my 5 year old nephew absolutely loves this place and him happy, makes me happy. The food is aight and I enjoyed my BBQ bacon burger. I seriously doubt I would ever just come here on my own, say with a date or anything but it's great for kids. Service was friendly and attentive.

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Photo of Dana S.

 

0

62

Dana S.

Juneau, AK

4 star rating
9/28/2009

I thought this place was cool: great theme, good food.  Only problem is it's pretty spendy.

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Photo of Heather O.

Elite '09

44

164

Heather O.

Seattle, WA

1 star rating
6/22/2009

Kids love this place, and for good reason...the jungle ambiance and fish tanks and wild animals look pretty cool when you're a kid!  

The food is horrible, and that fantastic-looking volcano sparkling candle tower thingy?  3600 calories.  YIKES.  As a vegetarian I had a hard time finding much on the menu, and what I did find was....awful.  I'll never be back here again.  Well, at least for the food.

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Photo of Aimee M.

Elite '09

20

186

Aimee M.

Tacoma, WA

2 star rating
2/22/2009

I have to say this is my own version of hell!  I equate it with Chuck E Cheese.  The only reason I have been dragged into this place is for kids birthdays.  I know, it is all about the kids.  But come on, where did Farrell's ever go??!!  That was awesome!!

Our last trip here was for our son's birthday,  In tow we had 4 adults and 3 kids (two being 2 years old).  Now, I thought the younger ones would love it.....not the case!  From the moment we stepped in the screaming ensued. Our 2 year old did finally calm down and the meal was manageable. Again, not the case for the second young one.  He was horrified of all the animals....particularly the elephants.  So enough with the tears.

On to the food.  I understand it is a chain restaurant, but you would think for the price the food quality would be a lot better.  Also, the service has been quite slow on both of our visits.  We waited what seems like FOREVER for our drinks to come out. I know it is hard to pour a beer from the tap....but come on!  The food took forever and a day as well, and with kids dining they need to be speedier.

The food itself was mediocre at best.  Things not hot, tasteless....I could go on.  One thing I think was worth the HIGH price was the volcano brownie and ice cream thingy.  It was huge!  And, you can't really screw up store bought ice cream and brownies!

Will we ever go back? I seriously doubt it.  I would rather spend my hard earned money somewhere else that provides quality food.

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Photo of Erin B.

Elite '09

12

123

Erin B.

Seattle, WA

2 star rating
6/23/2009

wow. just wow.

My mum is a funny lady & the place she picked as the last meal our German foreign exchange student would have in America was here. wow.

The place is covered in jungle theme & when I say theme I mean super overdone kitsch. The monkeys "go off" every 15 min. And no, this does not mean that they come to life and go berserk on the kids- that would be awesome. They just clunky jiggle and moan. There is also a high pitched dog bark that goes off that makes me go berserk. The night feature, aquariums, and falling rain are somewhat cool, but way overshadowed by the tacky.

The food is nondescript at best & way overpriced.
$13.99 for a chicken Cesar.
$12.99 for an uneatable soup bowl & Cesar.
$15.99 for any entree at least

Will never go back but man oh man what a place!

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Photo of Tina S.

Elite '09

60

205

Tina S.

Fremont, CA

3 star rating
8/9/2009

I am not a fan of the jungle, so I avoided Rainforest Cafe in London but I couldn't avoid this one when I went to visit my cousin.  Her friends invited me to join their daughter's 5 year old birthday party at the Rainforest Cafe.  Oh my.  It's a place for kids.  My cousin's babe was barely 3 and she was scared by most of those animals and the loud noises happening around at random times.  She's normally slippery like a fish and that was the only time she was clinging to me for her dear life when I picked her up coz she was scared lol... I felt her heartbeat, I guess it could be like 200 per minute lol... even she wasn't at the point of crying I had to tell her these are merely fake animals and they are not coming after her so it's no need to be scared.  Once she got used to it then she's ok and calmed and even started to enjoy the animals!  It gets very loud sometimes so it's a total jungle.  Crazy place.  The host told me it's expensive for a birthday parties coz she assumed the party favours were free from the deal but she ended up having to pay everything.  I guess it's all worth it when all the kids were having such a great time.

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Photo of Will M.

 

8

29

Will M.

Seattle, WA

3 star rating
9/26/2008

For being a restaurant in a mall.  Not bad at all.  Great atmosphere, but be aware it's noisy.  Thunderstorms every 20 mins and the whole place moves. Plus it's a family place so it gets a bit loud.  The drinks are tropical and very sweet, food is American with a twist.

Recommended:  Awesome Appetizer, Chimi Cha Chas. Lava Nachos, Chimichanga, Diablo Cake, Pot Roast, or Burgers.

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Photo of Dave M.

 

35

14

Dave M.

Seattle, WA

1 star rating
3/8/2008

WOW!

I mean WOW, what a colossal waste of money and time this place is!

I have been to Rainforest about 3 times over the last 6 years or so and each time I hope they will redeem themselves in some sort of way..  Do they?  NO!

What they are is consistent:
Consistently bad food.
Consistently mediocre service.
Consistently way overpriced!

This is supposed to be a family joint and I do see the kids having some fun but really they are taking advantage of families by serving them such overpriced culinary cannon fodder while attempting to squeeze every last nickel out of the parents after running them through the gauntlet that is their attached gift shop!

On this last visit I had some sort of shrimp seafood trifecta which sounded like it would be good, however it was completely inedible.  The stuffed shrimp looked to have been preformed at a factory somewhere not in the same state, and it was swimming in a gelatenous butter lemon sauce...Disgusting!!!  Needles to say I didn't even make it half way through this dish.  
The Beers $6 a pop.

When one of our party had to leave early she asked for a check for just her portion, an inconvenience I know but guess what that's their job.  The server basically threw a temper tantrum and made it clear that if anyone else made a similar request that all hell would likely break loose and that he would probably need a serious chunk of time to get his panties out of a bunch!

Rainforest Cafe... Good Job!  
You're Probably one of the worst "restaurants" I've ever had the distinct displeasure of being rolled for my hard earned dollars at!

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Photo of Nina W.

Elite '09

135

255

Nina W.

Everett, WA

3 star rating
6/6/2008

OK OK SO most of the reviews are correct about the food. it isnt amazing

BUT

I have to give it three stars because KIDS LOVE THIS PLACE!!! If you want to take your kids to a really fun unique place for a SPECIAL OCCAISION then take them here, My nephew is one and a half and even though he was a little scared by the thunderstorm sounds and the animatronics, he LOVED it here. There was so much to see and do!  If you do end up going, Big Kids, stick to the sandwiches appetizers and burgers, because the seafood and bar b q platters are definately not work the 20.00 a plate and are extremely sub-par.  The coconut shrimp , buffalo wings, and crab dip were all palatable and tasted good. I would have liked a stronger mai-tai but i think if you order a beer or 2 the stress of the dinner bill wont seem so shocking, Not to mention your kids will think you are the coolest mom/dad/auntie/grandma/grandpa/uncle ever!!!

Oh and the Volcano dessert... definately worth going there just for that, especially if its your bday!! We ordered one and could not finish it between a group of 10 of us.

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Photo of Veronica A.

Elite '09

4

101

Veronica A.

San Diego, CA

2 star rating
5/13/2009

lol i guess everyone already put it in words for me! OVERPRICED! FOOD IS...BLEH. SERVICE SUCKS. TOO MANY PEOPLE RUNNING BACK AND FORTH SCREAMING "VOLCANO!!!!" I SWEAR I FEEL LIKE SOMEONE IS GOING TO ACCIDENTALLY TRIP ON SOMETHING AND THE VOLCANO SPARKLING CANDLE IS GOING TO HIT MY FACE! Only came here twice to take my kids since is has all these cool animals and fish around. I'd rather take them to chucky cheese!!!!

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Photo of Diana L.

Elite '09

346

363

Diana L.

Seattle, WA

1 star rating
8/20/2007

Me:  "We need to go to the store."
R: "I need to do some walking for the betterment of my aged back side and I need to go to Renton and drop some paperwork off."
Me: "Let's go to Freddie's in Renton  - we can browse all their cheap furniture and dream about power tool purchases after we get all our crap in the cart."
R: "Three birds, one stone - let's do it."

How we then ended up in the seventh layer of concept restaurant hell I can't tell you.  These things happen to us in the name of entertaining the mini-hero all the time.  It's a really good argument for self-sterilization.

The food and service couldn't have been worse if our apathetic waitress had just come and shat it onto our table.  I literally spit my bite of Rick's Paella into a napkin - it was inedible.  

All this for the bargain price of $80.  

And the "thunderstorm" scared the shit out of the mini hero.

And we didn't get our damn shopping done.

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Photo of Erin N.

 

2

4

Erin N.

Seattle, WA

2 star rating
8/9/2006

I'm not sure what scares me most about the Rainforest Cafe:  the Westfield Mall location, the red gum stuck to the bottom of my appetizer plate, the $150 spent on a mediocre meal (four adults, one child), or the fact that I'll probably be back.  

Kids just love this place (although I did notice that my girlfriend's 4-year old nephew refused to make eye contact with the animatronic monkeys at times) and when you've got family visiting it's nice to be able to sit down and enjoy an entire meal together.  Sure we hit a myriad of highly regarded eateries, but nothing mesmerized the nephew like the Rainforest Cafe. When not completely entranced by the thundering storms, bubbling fish tanks, erupting desserts and waving elephant tusks he even inhaled every last bite of that old Italian classic---pasta with butter---while we took solace in our overpriced drinks.

If you've got kids, this is a great place to check out on a very special occasion --- but it's all about the kids, not you.  One helpful hint---although it may initially seem like a treat, don't let the staff sit you in front of the fish tank which houses the Clownfish (Nemo) and the Regal Blue Tang (Dory), unless you enjoy having ten very small children standing at your elbows while you eat.

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Photo of D.J. Y.

Elite '09

160

649

D.J. Y.

Shoreline, WA

3 star rating
11/27/2007

For my momentous 400th review I've decided to sing my favorite karaoke song......ahem.....*cough cough*

La la la la....me me me.....ahem....hit it boyz....

In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

(Chorus)
Imbube

Ingonyama ifile    [The lion's in peace]
Ingonyama ilele    [The lion sleeps]
Thula     [Hush]

Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight
Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight

(Chorus)

ETC, ETC, ETC .....

From Wikipedia, so it HAS to be true...Alan Lomax brought the song to the attention of Pete Seeger of the folk group The Weavers. It was on one of several records Lomax loaned to Seeger. After having performed the song for at least a year in their concerts, in November, 1951, they recorded their version entitled "Wimoweh", a mishearing of the original song's chorus of 'uyimbube' (meaning "you're a lion"). end quote...

A thus we ended up at the Rainforest cafe, the food and service were, meh, at best.  One word for the wise, watch out for the dessert upsell...VOOOLLCANO!!!!  The kiddos will luv it.  OH and the watered down "adult" drinks....

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Photo of Lindsey S.

 

20

110

Lindsey S.

San Francisco, CA

2 star rating
8/21/2007

It's a tradition to kidnap my friend Boyd on his birthday and take him somewhere horrible on the Eastside for dinner.  Olive Garden, Old Country Buffet....Rainforest Cafe.

It was a huge hit as far as "oh my god this place is so horrible it's perfect!"  The food was really bad.  It's pretty rare you can go out and have a bad dinner, but this remains embedded in my head as a yucky waste of money.  

Drinks were very 'Spring Break in Cancun' or 'Walking Down the Strip in Vegas' and very expensive.  The only cool thing that came out of it is they have these cups with lights on the bottom you can buy with your drink.  It really is cool.  I keep mine at my boyfriend's house so he can make me drinks in it (insert his eye roll here).  Personally, I love that cup!

Anways, it's gross.  Don't do it!  Eat at the foodcourt!  Sbarro forever

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Photo of nate j.

Elite '09

50

214

nate j.

Renton, WA

1 star rating
6/11/2007

Hopefully a lot of endangered animals get saved from the proceeds of our meal bill...

I wished I'd read other reviews prior to going to this place and being milked of almost $100 for a meal for four... two being kids who had items off the kids' menu.

I say "milked" because a lot of the items are not so much "add-ons" as they are "opt-outs".  When our server asked what we'd want to drink, she offers a few suggestions, like Icees for the kids (that they couldn't stand after a few sips!) but the server doesn't mention that they come in special collector novelty cups with a collectible souvenir endangered wildlife figurine (ie. cheap 2 cent rubber thing that your kids will fight over in the car on the way home).  My wife ordered a special drink that, wow!, it has a special glass too!  My beer of all things, in a plain glass, was $4.25.  

The food is airport restaurant quality but takes forever to get it to your table (maybe it is flown in from a rainforest)?  It's like they took a Denny's menu and peppered it with jungle themed names.

The service was slow and attentive only to a point (like when they take the order and drop it off).  The server was a little obnoxiously casual with multiple "how you guys doin' tonight" and "you guys ready to order" and also threw in a lot of "awesome" and "totally" peppering her diction as if to artificially sound hip or trendy... a fake Aussie accent would've capped it off well.

This place is loud and my kids (3 and almost 5) finally are not scared to death of the loudness, the dim lighting, and the animated huge gorillas sitting perched above a few tables away.  Still, that's the spectacle of it I suppose.  That's why anyone would venture there, mostly like what we'd done, it was for the youngest's birthday.  This is not the kind of place I would go with the guys for a meal or to hang in the bar (just like an airport bar in that respect).

...and the only reason we'd went here instead of Renton's Whistlestop Ale House was due to the fact that I couldn't get the Whistlestop's menu to download online!  I was trying to verify what types of kids' foods they offered.  Plus, it was my understanding the Whistlestop has kids eat for free special on Monday nights!  So that's like getting kicked in the... wallet.  Twice.  All I gotta say is we'd better have saved a bunch of baby elephants or tigers or something and they'd better make that money last a while, because we won't be back for a while unless grandpa's buyin'.  And if he did, I'd want a special glass too!

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Photo of tony g.

Elite '09

274

407

tony g.

Seattle, WA

3 star rating
1/17/2007

I had a pretty good experience here. Food is not that bad, I usually get the pizza which is surprizingly good, decent caeser salad, strong Jack n' Coke. And the prices are not too bad. It is weird that the location is in a mall though and the animals and thunder can get annoying.

Rock!

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Photo of Ameenah S.

Elite '09

20

92

Ameenah S.

Seattle, WA

2 star rating
4/14/2008

Two stars because what I ordered wasn't bad. They are extremely over priced...probably because they need to pay for those thousand dollar fish in the aquarium or because they need to pay their servers for having to put up with those naughty kids who freak out every 25 minutes and break out in to tears when the electronic animals and fake rain storm turn on.

I had the appetizer bundle @ 14.99 (RIP OFF), I can't remember what ridiculous name they gave it, but that's what I ordered. It doesn't sample ALL the appetizers offered, but isn't that what an appetizer sampler plate is supposed to do? Anyway, the Chimi-Cha-Cha is pretty good, I enjoyed it as well as the Blue Crab dip, but I can make that dip with my eyes closed with canned crab, cream cheese (or Boursin cheese) onions, chopped garlic and cayenne pepper. Are you serious? Sigh.

It's pretty sad that the highlight of my experience at the Rainforest Cafe was a dip that they gave me, probably for my Chimi-Cha-Cha, but it could have also been for my chicken pieces. It was a honey mustard curry sauce. Delicious stuff.

I won't go here again, because the prices are wallet gouging. For food that is sub-par. For goodness sake, they aren't serving filet-mignon!

I suggest you don't even bother.

Oh and that store in the front that sells RC merchandise is a joke. 20 bucks for a stuffed animal?! Who do they think they are Disneyland?

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Photo of Susie C.

Elite '09

30

80

Susie C.

Port Orchard, WA

2 star rating
6/30/2009

Elephants, monkey's, birds, and fishie's, whats not to like right. The place is decorated in theme to the nines. The walls are covered in insane plant life, there are atomic animals every where, the ceiling is a sky of twinkling stars, and every now and then you'll here a clap of thunder. The restaurant itself really is amazing. The food on the other hand... meh! The first Rainforest Cafe I went to was in Ontario Canada, in Niagara Falls, and there is something to be said for this one. The food here was actually really, really good. Crab cakes the size of a soccer ball, with a spicy mango mustard that's to die for. So I was very eager to try the one in Seattle when I got back home. It was a whole other world here. The prices are extremely expensive for the portions and quality of food. The staff seems to be forgetful, and there just wasn't the same "atmosphere" as I had experienced in Canada. The bathrooms were disgusting and very smelly. Although my kids enjoyed it, my fiance and I were very displeased. I think so much more can be done to make this a better restaurant. They have a good thing going, its an interesting idea, and that is mostly what people pay for. But the food is less than mediocre at best. I suppose it just depends on the chain you go to. If you are ever in Niagara Falls, check that one out, it was excellent. But the Seattle chain is nothing more than a place to look at in my opinion.

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Photo of Gavin N.

Elite '09

130

449

Gavin N.

Bellevue, WA

3 star rating
11/6/2007

I've been here twice. The decor is really cool. I know it's cheesy kid stuff, but hey i'm a kid at heart and I love this kind of stuff..at least just once. The food was okay, maybe the same stuff you'd expect out of a chilis or something..it's not horrid, it's not amazing either. The service was okay too. The pricing however is pretty steep for what you get and you're definitely paying for the atmosphere here. It's a decent joint to take people who are kids at heart or in reality..kids...and have never been here. But I don't think i'm gonna go out of my way driving to get here.

~G

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Photo of Jerome B.

 

1

23

Jerome B.

Kent, WA

4 star rating
10/31/2007

Everytime I come and eat at the Rainforest Cafe, I always have an exciting and pleasant time. I think its just because of my luck. Once, I came here with a group of friends, and they got food that they didn't like, whereas me, I enjoyed the food I ordered. I guess its because I always get the exact same thing when I visit: The amazing appetizer... or something like that. I don't really like eating fried calamari, and they're always happy to replace it with either cheesesticks or chicken strips.

I abosolutely love how the restaurant is decorated. If you're looking for a good and exciting time, go to the Rainforest cafe. Many people complain about the noise at the restraurant and want a nice quiet romantic setting. PLEASE.... you're in the mall, where many people go there to shop and have fun... not to get intimate and whatnot. The target demographic of this place is towards children and those who like the action and uptempo speed of the restaurant. I love the lightning sounds, I love the moving animals, I love the galaxy lights on the ceiling. Its entertaining!

I omitted one star, because there was a chair with some sort of sauce on it, so the waiter took it away. I insisted that there was sauce in my chair, however the waiter said not to worry. Little did I know, when I was walking around the mall later on that night, there were 2 stains on my Diesel jeans... .grrr....

other than that, i love it.

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Photo of Rob B.

 

2

43

Rob B.

Seattle, WA

4 star rating
10/6/2008

Yes a BIT Expensive, but I took my friends niece who's 10 now there, SHE was in heaven!!!!! I enjoyed seeing someone on this Earth having a good time and not worrying about whats outside in the world! I highly would take even just one or two kids there who has never been there or just once in awhile as a treat! Kids annoy me in most places but its cool for adults there!

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Photo of Julia Z.

Elite '09

208

477

Julia Z.

Bellevue, WA

1 star rating
7/16/2006 3 photos

Rainforest Cafe is a giant wallet-emptying plot. Their food is straight off the Sysco truck (and the cheapest Sysco line at that, not even the high-end stuff) but your kids will not care and they expect that nobody will notice because they'll be too busy watching the gorillas, elephants and birds, and dealing with the shock of the "thunderstorm" complete with strategic rain.

Well, I'm not impressed with the animatronic animals and strobe lights, and I noticed that the food SUCKS. The fried mozzarella sticks are hot when served but congeal into grease logs quickly and the marinara is cold and very bland... Prego is better. The cheeseburger is thin and plain, the bacon they put on it is the worst kind of mass-market no-flavor meat, and the fries are merely acceptable. The pasta dishes are bland and boring, and at $10-12 per entree, plus a drink, the prices for this kind of crappy food are just insane. They would have to be about $5 a plate for me to consider this any sort of reasonable. They have overcooked farmed salmon for $24 -- no thanks! Anthony's gorgeous wild-caught entree is the same price and so much better it's hard to believe that the fish are even related. And the flashing kid cups for $5 are yet another source of money-bleeding. Prepare to fight that battle ahead of time if you don't want to spend money on that.

Service is tolerable. Very anonymous and minimalist. The servers all cheer whenever someone orders the $13 volcano dessert which is absolutely gigantic and comes with a lit sparkler in the top. Of COURSE they're cheering, $13 for a dessert is INSANE, and judging by the number of times they sell this dessert in an hour, the place is making money hand over fist. $13 desserts also translate into higher tips... all the add-ons here can easily make a 4-person meal cost $100 or more... keep in mind that a burger from Jack in the Box or Kidd Valley will be much bigger and tastier than what you'll get here and you'll realize just how much you're paying to have your kid scared (once) by a fake moving elephant.

They even get you on the way out, with a gift shop to rival a Disney theme park. A gift shop for a restaurant?? I think it's silly at Hard Rock, even given the cachet of many of their far-flung locations, but at Rainforest Cafe it's just a blatant kids-are-begging fiasco.

The ONLY good thing about this place for me are the saltwater fish tanks. Beautiful to look at, their imprisoned occupants swim around and around and provide ample distraction from the kids and noise that surround you. Those poor fish are way overcrowded though and it's hard to feel good about that.

The formula works, though. My six year old BEGS to go there. I'm so glad we moved to Woodinville... it's too far for her to reasonably ask to go there and she knows it.

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Elite '09

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473

Sean M.

Edmonds, WA

1 star rating
8/21/2006

Expensive food of questionable quality... Long ass waits to get a table, when they have plenty available (I think its a plot to make you hang around the gift store)... The only good thing is the android animals in the rain-forest setting, however, it may be cheaper to just go to Disneyland...

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Elite '09

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Chris F.

Seattle, WA

1 star rating
8/3/2007

What a horrible idea. Put an already obnoxiously loud, overpriced kid trap in a noisy mall? The food is way too expensive and not that remarkable, the drinks are overpriced and they are always trying to sell you a souvenir glass - why would you go here? Don't you like things? Aren't you a person of discriminating taste? I mean, I know there really isn't any other restaurant that allows you to stuff your face full of food while staring at an animatronic elephant, but if you want cheap thrills I have a shiny piece of foil with your name on it.

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Elite '09

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Beau R.

Sammamish, WA

3 star rating
4/7/2007

This place is like going to Disneyland without all the good parts.  Long waits, gift shops positioned to make your kids want want want, and strange robotic animals for unclear purposes.
We were given an Adventure time of 45 minutes after we got to the restaurant, so we decided we'd wander the mall.  We got around the corner and my wife suggested we go check back.  So, after a brief 10 minute wait, they said they could seat us.   Huh? What happened to 45 minutes?  Oh, well, I was happy to eat earlier.
The servers are all decked out Steve Irwin style in earth toned Safari clothes and other than to take our order and check on us, I don't think we had the same one.  Our appetizers, kids' meals and meals for the adults were all brought by different people.  Strange.
The food was okay, but pretty pricey mall food. Even if there were rainstorms every 30 minutes.
So, like Disneyland, we've been here and we don't need to go back for a very long time - if at all.

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