Rainforest Cafe — Restaurant in Katy

Rainforest Cafe 🤦🏻‍♀️ Overall a complete disappointment. Decor wise, it’s a novelty for kids who thought it looked cool with the whole forest theme. It was our first visit. Drinks are great! Apart from that, it’s overpriced, we got poor service and food wise, was quite a let down.

We were 4 of us, got our table at 7pm and were seated in a section where no one else was sitting. Everyone else who was walking into the restaurant were being taken to the other side, under the starry sky ceiling.

We kept sitting for 15 mins and no server showed up. That’s because neither one realized we had been seated there as it was empty, and with all that plastic foliage around you and dim lights, it was difficult to see us from the bar area as all the servers were standing there and chit chatting.

I walked to the bar and asked for help. That’s when Brittany realized we’d been seated there. She came, took our drinks order, 1 platter appetizer and since kids were hungry we ordered their food first.

15 more minutes passed. No drinks. No appetizer. I again walked up to the bar where I could see Brittany talking to other servers. She saw me and said she was just about to bring the drinks. I went back to my seat. Brittany went back to being at the bar and began making drinks that were being carried out by other servers.

I then requested another server who happened to walk by, if I could speak to the Manager. Manager arrived promptly. That’s for sure.

I told her everything and she said “Brittany is also at the bar today and I will go check the rest.” In all this, on the other side of the restaurant it was buzzing with activity. Servers were prompt and singing for birthday tables multiple times.

When the Manager went to the bar, she brought the drinks to us. Herself. The appetizer showed up too. Cold. We had ordered the platter. Most of it tasted horrible. Except the tortilla chips and mozzarella sticks.

Now I just hoped we got hot food. We ordered both their Salmon dishes , a Beyond burger and a fish tacos. Food was hot. However, If you like extremely salty food, then Rainforest Cafe is your place. Not for us! Especially when my husband is a Cardiologist and we all know better.

We all ate something nevertheless because we were hungry and it was almost 8pm.

My son just used a fork and picked out a little filling from each tacos as he couldn’t pick them up as the tortillas were literally crumbling and breaking so easily, he ate a little as it was way too salty!!!

My husband didn’t much care for his burger as it wasn’t salty but wasn’t flavorful either. Beyond Burgers from Gurus (Sugar Land, TX) are phenomenal!

My daughter picked on her Korean salmon and the shrimp in it were so heavily coated that the tiny shrimp got lost in the huge coating on them. She pretty much left it all.

I had the shrimp and Hawaiian salmon combo in which the Shrimp were grilled to the point they were immensely dehydrated, teeny tiny, heavily salted bites that I disliked. The salmon was sweet but cooked well thankfully, but I was already disappointed watching my kids dislike their food.

The 4 drinks we ordered, however, were great! Tasty. So thank you to whoever made the drinks.

We paid a whopping $185 for this dinner. 4 entrées, 4 drinks, 1 appetizer platter. Definitely Not worth it as food is really nothing to rave about. Very mediocre. Service is basic and decor, well it didn’t justify the experience we had

Kids said, now that their curiosity about the restaurants interior decor is satisfied, they wouldn’t like to visit again. I agree! This was our first and last visit. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Since the cafe is inside Katy Mills Mall, the distractions outside and a walk in the mall cheered us all. A quick visit to 5 below made my kids happier than the Cafe did...

To RainForest Cafe: Regarding the response I received below, did you not actually read my below post? We did NOT dine there. We left because of sitting at the bar waiting way too long for our table, and there were concerns about a lack of sanitation and service practices after what my wife and I had observed. When I received a text alert later that evening - about 30 minutes after we left - saying my table was ready, I didn't even bother to respond. We won't be back at this location because what we experienced was completely unacceptable.

Went there last weekend to have an anniversary dinner with my wife (just the two of us), but was told by a sullen-looking hostess that it would be a one-hour wait although I could see that there were plenty of empty tables. We decided to go ahead and wait, and we went to the bar to have a drink. After an hour, I checked my phone's text to see my status and it showed that we were still #7 in line and there were still a lot of empty tables available. I then observed a male waiter come to the bar area to collect several plastic glasses, and one of them fell to the floor. What did he do? He picked it up and placed it with the other glasses without even putting the dirtied glass into the sink to wash it! I also observed a few people hanging out a lot around the hostess booth and chatting up a storm when they really should be working and serving the customers in the dining area. Feeling disgusted and concerned that the place might not meet acceptable sanitation & service standards, I told my wife I didn't want to keep waiting any longer and that we can go elsewhere. I then informed the bartender that I was ready to pay the tab (for my one beer and for her Coke with one refill), but surprisingly she told us not to worry about it since she knew we had been waiting a long time. She also told us there was so much going on there that night (the way she said it, it didn't seem like it was a good night for them). I was terribly disappointed but at least we found another restaurant down the road. Since I know Tilman Fertitta owns this place along with many other restaurants, I really hope he reads this review so something can be done for needed improvements at...

Family dinner at the Katy Texas Rainforest Cafe was a good experience. The kids (ages 5-13) enjoyed the themed elements and decor of the restaurant. The elders (ages 62-70) also enjoyed the rainforest theme, but made frequent mention of how loud it is in there (music + rainforest noises + loud children); they could turn the volume down a bit without sacrificing theme elements. Was slightly disappointed that the large archway fish tank was empty; no fish swimming around. Probably getting it cleaned or re-stocking soon; still, a bit of a let-down that the kids didn't get to see it. It wasn't crowded (arrived at 7pm on a Thursday night) so the service (Syariah is an outstanding waitress; she didn't miss a beat and single-handedly held down a table of 15 with impeccable service!) was what I consider to be quick for such a large group. Food was ok; we ordered a variety of dishes from across the menu: chicken fried chicken, taco salad, appetizer platter, coconut shrimp, and the kids all ordered from the kids menu. The adult portions were on the small side, while the kids meals were generous. All of the adults made mention that the kitchen uses salt very generously. Good flavor, just more salt than we are used to. The kids were so happy about the mud pie (chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos and gummy worms) dessert that comes with the kids meal that they were in sugar-overdrive heaven by the time we left. The restaurant was understanding about splitting the bill into separate checks for the various family component groups, and we asked ahead of time if we could skip the automatic "large party" gratuity and tip individually; we promised that left to our own devices we would do better than 18%. Management gave it the ok. We were done eating and sitting around chatting when were politely but firmly informed that the the mall closes at 9pm, and we walked out as they were closing the metal grating. As we were walking out of the restaurant to the Katy Mills Mall exit, the mall turned off the lights! A good restaurant for a one-off unique dining experience, very kid friendly, but regular menu items are too expensive and undersized for us to make it a regular family...