Rainforest Cafe — Restaurant in Bay Lake

It’s been a long time since I’ve dined at a Rainforest Cafe. We came to Animal Kingdom right before close at my sons request for his birthday, he also wanted to dine at Rainforest Cafe, so we obliged because it was his birthday! I joined the waitlist, about 15 minutes before RC “closed”. We definitely weren’t called in 15 mins, took longer than I expected for a restaurant that was closing at 7:30pm. When it was finally time to order, the rainforest was rainforesting and I don’t think our server could hear us. The entire meal came out wrong. The server wanted my daughter to go first as she was in “seat 1”, but she wasn’t ready (& gets very anxious ordering) so we asked to start from my end, which seemed to be the wrong way for him and he made sure to make a comment about it— having been a server, I would have never said anything to a guest, the order in which you order doesn’t matter. I started and I plainly stated that my husband and I were sharing the Awesome Appetizer, the birthday boy ordered pizza w/ fries and my other son ordered pasta with mashed potatoes. We got around to my husband and he reiterated that the app was the meal him & I were sharing. My daughter then CLEARLY said she wanted the shrimp tacos. The food took forever. The first item to come out was thankfully the birthday boys and it was correct. Then they came out with TWO awesome appetizers, another kids meal of pizza with mashed potatoes and a shrimp platter. The girl dropping the food seemed extremely confused. We told her what we ordered and they walked away. The server came over to check on us and asked what we were waiting on, we said the shrimp tacos & the pasta with mashed potatoes, we also informed him that a second app was sent out but we only ordered one. He left only to come back and insist my daughter ordered the shrimp platter, because “that’s what she pointed to” and that “spaghetti” wasn’t on the menu for kids (my son wanted the pasta, when the server asked what he ordered I guess my husband or son said spaghetti—but it should have been obvious he meant the pasta) We then also noticed that our $25 appetizer was missing the cheese sticks, so we had to inform the server of that. The server then informed us that the kitchen was closed and my daughter could not get the tacos she ordered and my son was handed a plate of pasta with fries, which he didn’t order, he asked for mashed potatoes. Not once in any of this did a manager come over to apologize. Both my husband and I have worked in the service industry and we were floored that a manager never came over. The server informed us that the app and the shrimp platter were removed from the check since they couldn’t give her tacos and they didn’t give us the cheese sticks initially (they did bring them out separately but they were ice cold) The bill came and the only thing removed was the shrimp platter, the app wasn’t removed from the bill, we had to tell him that it as still on there. The whole experience was weird and not exactly what I expected from a restaurant on Disney property. I understand it’s 3rd party but it was awful and I’m highly disappointed that we wasted not just our time but our money. Not a single item we ordered was worth the price paid. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone at all. You can eat better at McDonald’s on property! There are plenty of other places to eat within Disney property that are way better priced and have better customer service. I’m extremely disappointed in tonight’s experience and will never be back. I wish I would have taken photos of the food— not a single dish was worth the price. As far as the server, he was nice and polite, he was apologetic but I still think this experience could have been better. Taking orders while the sounds are going off isn’t the best idea because apparently he couldn’t hear anything we ordered. I’d also like to add that we added to the waitlist that we were celebrating a birthday, I event mentioned it 3x and not once did they acknowledge it. My son left and said, “I’m sad they didn’t...

My family and I had dinner here on August 3rd, and had a woman named Ashley as our waitress. We felt very lucky to get a reservation through the Disney app at 6:15 PM, and we arrived on time. The first thing that started to make us rather unhappy was that we still had to wait approximately 40 minutes to get a table even though we had made the reservation the day prior. Also, the hostess said that our table would be ready in 5 minutes. And of course, once we sat down, there were at least six other empty tables that we could have sat at, so there was no reason to make us wait that long, or to have sat the nearly 60 people who are crowded in the doorway before us. The very first thing that Ashley said as she approached our table was, "We're actually closed, but how how can I help you." I responded with, "You're closed? I just watched over 50 people swarm in at the same time as us, and we had a reservation. And the restaurant is nearly packed." She said very angrily, and with a horrendous attitude, "We close at 6." I responded, "Why does the website allow us to make reservations after 6 then? And are you saying this to all 300 guests in here right now? This seems very strange." Obviously we immediately wanted someone else to be our waitress, but we gave her our order, and handed her the menus. Before she walked away, she said, "This place simulates a rainforest, and can be incredibly overwhelming if you're unfamiliar with it." Really seemed like a great way to introduce the restaurant to us, and to make our kids feel happy about being there. After a few minutes, she brought out our drinks, and said, "Is there anything that you are going to need later that I can get now?" As if she was going to leave the second that our food came out. I responded, "Um, not that I can think of." Eventually, our food did come out, and looked great (kudos to the kitchen staff for being nothing like the front-of-the-house staff). I had a New York steak with shrimp, and I requested a side of barbecue sauce, to which she replied, "Seriously?! You couldn't have asked me for that earlier?" By now, even my wife was getting very upset with her, and responded, "Why would he have wanted a side of sauce before getting his food?" She came back after a few minutes and set down two sides of barbecue sauce, and said, "Here's two of them in case you need another one later that you forget to ask for." Needless to say, our dining experience was already completely ruined by this awful person. She came back one more time when we were nearly done and said, "How is everything so far?" To which I was not able to properly convey, so I remained silent. Unfortunately, since my wife and children were also very upset, no one wanted to look up to answer her, so she stood still, staring at us until I responded with a head nod to make her leave. I want to make a point that this place is not just a restaurant. The majority of people who eat here are going to be like we were, from a very long distance away, on a very scheduled (very expensive) vacation. Having the horrendous misfortune of coming across someone like Ashley can not only ruin a dining experience, but an entire vacation. This person needs to be not just reprimanded, but immediately fired, and never be allowed to work in the service industry again. I have spent more than 9 years in the restaurant business, and have seeing such behavior from...

I was very disappointed with my experience at Rainforest. The food was extremely overpriced and unappetizing. I ordered the Awesome Appetizer and the BBQ Bourbon Salmon and Coconut Shrimp combo. The appetizer came with cheap tasting chicken strips and mozzarella sticks that tasted like they were bought in bulk at Walmart and microwaved, a very stingy portion of chips and dip and southwestern egg rolls. That alone cost us $25.00. The meal I had was $33.00 and everything was very bland. The salmon was not well cooked or seasoned at all and relied heavily on the sauce they put on top, which was unremarkable. The veggies were also not fresh, undercooked and under-seasoned. I ordered fries as a substitute for rice, and they threw my salmon on top of them, making a lot of them wet and soggy. The only thing on my plate that I liked was the coconut shrimp, and the four small pieces they provide hardly held me over. I left feeling disgusting from all of the low quality food I forced myself to eat, due to how expensive it was. As far as atmosphere goes, lights are very dim in the restaurant, which I guess is part of the theming, but it made it hard to see the animals and decor around us. If their goal was to make the temperature feel like a rainforest, they succeeded, because I was uncomfortably warm and felt sticky sitting in there. Not sure if that was due to the waterfalls around us creating humidity or a lack of good air conditioning. The background music wasn’t immersive to the theme at all, mostly just outdated pop songs. We were also served our appetizers on plastic kids meal plates, which for what we paid, was kind of off putting. I definitely would not recommend this restaurant to anyone I know. Save your money and go to TGI Fridays. You’ll get the same quality food if not better for half the price. The theming is definitely...