Rainforest Cafe — Restaurant in Bloomington

So let this be a warning to anyone with any sort of handicap or disability that has a bad experience with this place that is discriminated against who might complain. The way I was treated with my handicapped and disabled child was disgusting and grotesque. The fact that was lied to by the regional vice president and general manager who told me they would send me something through the mail and through email to make up for what happened was disgusting that they lied I didn't get anything I didn't get any email I didn't get any things sent to my house.

Sounds like they're just trying to buy me off with my bad review about the fact that I was discriminated against because I wanted to sit in the booth with my child for a reason what you could clearly see with your own eyes...

(Original review) Terrible place and horrible customer service. The two younger female hosts working today around 2 p.m. discriminated against me and my disabled, special-needs child.

They told me I couldn't take his special wagon into the restaurant, couldn't sit at a booth, and wouldn't accommodate me and my son (who is 5 years old). They said only more than two people could sit at a booth.

Keep in mind I'm also a Landry's Select Club member (for years) and have spent thousands of dollars at Landry's Select Club restaurants over the years.

The hostess who sat me even told me I had to put my "stroller away" with the others. I had to explain my priority seating as a member.

I told the waitress, and she acknowledged that they'd had many complaints. She told her manager, and the manager comped my meal.

I appreciated that, and I appreciate the waitress for being awesome. I tipped her 20% despite the awful discrimination from the two teenage, maybe 20-year-old, hostesses.

What's truly disturbing was that the restaurant wasn't busy; plenty of tables, including booths, were available. I was embarrassed to have to explain my child's disabilities, and they still made a fuss about me sitting in a booth, even after I said I would fold up his wagon.

I want to remind everyone of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Businesses must accommodate those who are handicapped and disabled.

Shame on you, Rainforest Cafe hosts; you are truly sad people. My son Charlie is severely autistic, nonverbal, and wears AFO leg braces (gait disorder). He also has moderate to severe congenital hearing loss and wears hearing aids, an incontinence disorder, and combined immunodeficiency (CID) requiring weekly SCIG (subcutaneous immunoglobulin infusions) at home. His immune system is like someone with AIDS, HIV, or leukemia.

My child was also recently diagnosed with PHTS PTEN Hamartoma tumor syndrome, a rare genetic disease. I will never return, nor will I recommend this Rainforest Cafe location.

It's crazy; I've never had issues like this before. I used to eat at the Fisherman's Wharf in Galveston, Texas, all the time. This particular restaurant has really gone downhill. I think the reviews reflect that.

Edit, 2:19 AM I'm sitting on the toilet for the fifth time now with diarrhea after eating here today. This was the last meal I ate today, so there was obvious food poisoning. My wife also mentioned our son, Charlie, had diarrhea...

All I can say is DO NOT book a large party here. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so disappointed in a restaurant in my life. I’ll share a few pros and cons from my daughters 4th birthday party:

Pros: the kids gift bags were great! My daughter had a good time, mostly just because her family was there. Also the photographer Crystal was AMAZING. She was the only saving grace of the night.

Cons: for a group of 20 you WILL NOT be put in the actual restaurant. We were on the patio area and felt like we were literally in the mall cafeteria. Not an exaggeration. Not only were we not in the restaurant, they didn’t even seat us at the same table. We ended up having 17 people with us and we had to sit at two tables; There was plenty of room to seat us at one. Everyone knows the food here is ok AT BEST so you’re not paying for a good meal.. you’re paying for the atmosphere. When you don’t even get a slice of the atmosphere then it feels like a major scam. $30 a plate for sitting in a freaking mall food court.

I asked to speak with the manager after we were seated in the reject area to try and correct the issue and she more or less rudely acted like I was insane for thinking they could fit 17 people in the restaurant on a Saturday. She said if I wanted to reschedule during the week they could maybe fit us in. My family of 17 from all over was already seated….. also if they could fit 17 on a Wednesday then they obviously had the room inside. When walking to the restroom I saw at least several groups of 10-16 so she absolutely lied right to my face. Mind you - I booked this a MONTH AND A HALF before the actual reservation. It’s not like I called the day before asking to be squeezed in.

Also, they literally never bussed a single plate on our table. An hour in we were ready to open gifts and the soup and salad dishes were still there. We had to stack everything ourselves in order to make space for our dinner. Again… $30 a plate for THIS?? Crappy food, no service, AND no rainforest cafe atmosphere. What a joke. My sister-in-law started taking photos of the table because it was THAT bad. If the owner contacts me I’m happy to supply those.

They also never came with the birthday dessert or song for my daughter so we sang to her ourselves.. which was fine.. but again, not what we were expecting and felt like we were paying for. As mentioned earlier the only good thing about the night other than being with family was the photographer, Crystal. She treated my daughter like a princess and took very nice photos of us. The second star of this review is for her only.

In conclusion we paid an $800 tab for what was MAYBE worth $200 AT BEST.

If you have a small group and are in the restaurant then maybe the bill is worth it. But I’ll say again: DO NOT BOOK large parties here. You will be so...

Our service was really bad today. We made a reservation for 1p for a party of 8. We were not seated until 1:20. Which by itself would not spark me to write this review, but it turned out to be the theme for our visit today. Our complete party was there ten minutes prior to our reservation, we checked in and were told we would receive a text when our table was ready. There was a line of people also checking in, or who were walk-ins wanting seats. All of them were seated before us, even those who came after us. At about 1:15 we inquired again and they said our table would be ready for us shortly. It appeared only half the restaurant was open, at peak lunchtime on a Sunday. About 5 minutes later we were seated.

The wait staff we had asked us for our drink orders immediately, we hadn’t even looked at a menu yet. For the adults, we could scramble, but it did take us a minute to figure out what they had for the kids to drink. Although, I am not sure what the rush was because we then waited another almost 15 minutes for our server to reappear with the drinks and take our food order. Then the real wait began….

It took forever for our food to come out. We noticed people around us arrive, order and get their food while we still waited. Our server nowhere to be seen. Never refilled our drinks, except one glass of water and ignored everyone else. Maybe the water was easy and the sodas or children’s drinks were not? We did not have any alcohol, just waters juice and sodas.

Our order was really easy as well. Sandwiches, lasagna, kids foods and a salad. After waiting another 40-45 minutes the food finally arrived.

On our reservation we had listed it was one of the kids birthdays. We were just planning on their standard birthday cupcake and their singing fun. I did tell our server we had a birthday and the response I got was to let them know 5 minutes before we wanted it served and they would have it ready. But our server vanished and we never saw them again until we started to get up to leave.

You see we again were waiting so long after finishing our food that our group decided to just give up and leave to go to the indoor park with the kids while I stayed to pay for the bill. I am guessing the group all getting up to leave may have signaled to them to then rush over and ask if there was anything else we needed or if we wanted the birthday song now. It it was too late.

Typically I am a very generous tipper. Especially for a large group and since I was paying for the entire check as part of the birthday celebration I was planning on giving a large tip. Instead I gave the bare minimum standard and left it at that.

Overall, I was very disappointed in the service and the experience at the MOA...