Birds and Burgers at Rainforest Cafe

Last week I celebrated National Burger Day at one of my kids favorite restaurants “Rainforest Cafe“. I love the location as it is smack in the center of Downtown Disney and there is so much to see.

Before I tell you how awesome the food is here l must share with you some really fun photos of the interior.

Rainforest Cafe Interior

When you first walk in there is an enormous elephant podium where a hostess will greet you. To the left is the bar and instead of regular bar stools they have these cute seats that are animal legs and tails. If you walk through the gift shop you will feel like you are in the jungle as there are lots of lush foliage above your head and they even have animals hanging from it such as monkey and Toucans.

Fish also swim happily in the illuminated aquariums that are built into the walls. My daughter was mesmerized watching them.  And in the back of the restaurant a gorgeous rainbow is projected on the rock wall. It makes for a perfect photo opportunity.

The animals inside the restaurant also move. There is a Gorilla that pounds his chest and makes monkey noises during the thunderstorms that happen . (every 20 mins or so). And the giant Elephants move their heads.

I loved the ambiance in the restaurant too. It’s somewhat dark but lit nicely with spotlights, dim overhead lights to keep the jungle effect.

Rainforest Cafe Food

To start of our meal we had the spinach artichoke dip. It was served hot with festively colored chips that were perfectly salted. And when we ran out of chips our waitress brought us some more so we could finish every last bite.

Of course since it was National Burger day I had to order one of their burger specials. I chose the  Blackened steakhouse blue cheese burger and  wow was it good!I think what made it so good was not just the blue cheese but the fact that it was served on a pretzel bun. This burger just had so much flavor between the crisp bacon and the blue cheese. I also loved that they put shredded lettuce in it. It was so unique and i literally ate the entire thing which I rarely do.

My daughter had the kids grilled cheese and I was surprised to see how big the portion size was. She was able to share with one of her friends and still had left overs. They use sourdough bread too! Exactly the way a grilled cheese should be made.

After we finished eating we took the kids downstairs to look at the fish some more and while we were there the manager came up to us and asked us if we would like to meet the birds that perform outside in front of the restaurant! Of course we did! I thought he was going to take us out there but instead we got a lucky surprise. We got to go in the back where they house all the birds and get a special meet and greet with one of the bird handlers.

On the way to meet the birds we had to walk through one of the kitchens and I was seriously shocked at how clean everything was. The counters were spotless, the floors were super sparkling and the chefs were busy preparing food. The whole kitchen was so sanitary. Even the area where one guy was cutting chicken was  super clean. And it’s not like they had time to prepare to clean up. They weren’t even told we were coming through.

Then we met the birds, Elmo, Blake and baby. What characters!!

On the way out I saw this mural on the wall of the offices downstairs.It was “10  Rules For The Ride Of Your Life” and it was all about motivation and thinking positive thoughts. There is a little tiny vampire in the bus and one of the rules is no vampire thoughts. Love it!!! Such a great way to keep morale up.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here as did my daughter and we cannot wait to come back and try out some new entrees.

For more information visit Rainforest Cafe on Facebook and on Twitter.