Taste of Disney

 

Did you know that the Rainforest Cafe is an endangered chain restaurant? Apparently since the year 2000 over half of all the Rainforest Cafes have closed down. There are currently less than 30 in the world, and two of these are located at Disney World. So I guess my kids did their part to save the Rainforest Cafe by choosing to have dinner at the Animal Kingdom one. Did they regret their decision…or more importantly, did I regret their decision? Stay tuned to find out.

Following the use of our 5th Fast Pass, we were hot, we were tired, we were DONE! So we decided to try to check in early for our dinner at Rainforest Cafe, and happily we were seated within a few minutes.

Our table was close to the restaurant’s entrance, in the Elephant section of the rainforest??…

First, here’s their menu…

Emily decided she wasn’t that hungry and ordered only soup from the Soups & Salads section of the menu…

Jungle Safari Soup with zucchini, tomatoes, sausage, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, and spinach lightly stewed in a zesty broth with pasta and topped with parmesan cheese

It probably seems a bit odd that she ordered soup on such a hot Florida day, however the restaurant was very cold so this actually hit the spot and warmed her up. She said the soup was very good and gave it a rating of 5.

My son really wanted chicken tenders and fries, however there was no such entree listed on their menu. So instead he ordered the Chicken Tenders from the Appetizer section and added a side of Safari fries…

I thought the presentation in a mini brown paper bag was pretty cute. According to my son the chicken tenders were good and received from him a rating of 4.

As for me, I had the opposite problem with the menu as my son. I really wanted just coconut shrimp (no sides) and was hoping that they offered it on their menu as an appetizer. However, it was only listed as an entree choice so that is what I ordered…

Caribbean Coconut Shrimp – Tender shrimp rolled in fresh coconut, fried golden brown and served with mango sauce, cole slaw and Safari fries

And a another photo, focusing on the shrimp…

Now had I been thinking with all cylinders, I would have told my son not to order the side of fries and given him my unwanted fries instead. So my mistake ended up costing me $3.99 for the extra side of fries that we didn’t need. And to add insult to injury, they were kind of cold and therefore not very good so most of them went uneaten. My bad.

As for the coconut shrimp, they were tasty. I didn’t really care for their mango sauce though and the fries were cold, so overall I gave this entree a rating of 4.

We were too full for dessert, however they had asked me if we were celebrating anything when I checked in for our reservation. Consequently, our server brought Emily a complimentary cupcake complete with a lit candle in celebration of her graduation.

This cupcake seemed to be made-to-order for Emily, as it was all of her favorites. White cake + whipped cream frosting + raspberry sauce = A very happy Emily. So the cupcake of course received a rating of 5+.

Overall our meal was pretty good, but I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better had we had dinner at Yak & Yeti.

ETA: Rainforest Cafe does not give a discount to Tables in Wonderland members, however they do give a 10% discount on their entrees to Annual Passholders. Therefore, I was able to get the discount on my Coconut Shrimp entree.

Want to know what I did next on this trip or just want to share a comment on this review? Click here to go to this trip’s blog post!