Rainforest Café, Disneyland, Paris

Rainforest Cafe is situated in the Disney Village at Disneyland Resort Paris. The Disney Village is accessible and free for everybody to visit whether you are staying in the Disneyland Resort or not. The Disney Village is full of shops and restaurants.

On our latest trip to Disneyland we dined at a restaurant called Rainforest Cafe which is an Amazon rainforest themed restaurant situated at the bottom of the Disney Village, next to the big lake (Lake Disney). The restaurant has a caged crocodile outside (it's not real but it does move and make realistic sounds!), full sized elephants around the side and giant mushrooms at the entrance - it's hard to miss!

We visited in the evening when the Disney Village starts to get quite busy. We had pre-booked our table earlier on the same day. As the Rainforest Cafe isn't a Disney restaurant you cannot pre-book a table at your hotel - instead you must pre-book at the restaurant itself. There were only a few people in front of us and we were seated quite quickly. You don't have to pre-book but I would advise it as later on I noticed that quite a few people were queuing to be seated.

You enter and exit through the cleverly situated Rainforest Cafe shop which sells all sorts including toys, clothes and homewares. The first thing you will notice is the decor, most notably the leaves and vines (and snakes!) hanging from the ceiling. At the bottom of the shop is the reception desk which has a huge fish tank arch that goes around it. The fish tank is full of beautiful tropical fish. There's also a talking tree!

There's so much to see that when you are seated it might take you a long time to even take a look at the menu! The whole ceiling is covered in leaves, vines, branches and the restaurant features all sorts of animals including parrots, frogs, butterflies, gorillas, elephants, zebras and monkeys! None of it is actually real but it sure looks it. There is also a water fountain, another fish tank and some of the animals are animatronic which are great fun to watch - for children and adults! Every 30 minutes there is a simulated thunderstorm which involves flashing 'lightning', loud 'thunder' sounds and simulated 'rain' (you don't get wet though) which is good fun.

As soon as we had been seated we were all given menus and my daughter was given a childrens menu and crayons. None of us fancied a starter so we all took a look at the main dishes.

The waiter soon came over and took our order. He seemed friendly enough and there was no problem ordering our food despite the fact none of us knew a word of French!

To give you an idea of the menu...

Starters included Little Caesar, Big 'O' Onion Rings (V), Tam Tam Chicken Wings, Garlic Bread (V), Rainforest Pita Quesadillas, Jungle Combo (a seafood and vegetable sharing platter), Oriental Safari (a shrimp, chicken and spicy vegetable rolls sharing platter), Awesome Appetizer Adventure (a chicken, mussel, pita quesadillas and garlic bread sharing platter). Starters ranged between 4.30 - 21.90 euros.

Main meals included Rio's Rita (vegetarian pizza), Molokai (BBQ chicken pizza), Cruzzeiro (ham pizza), Rasta Pasta, Natural Pasta (V), Rainforest Burger, The Biggie Burger, Chili Bacon Burger, Hawaiian Burger, Tuki's Veggie Burger (V), Maui Chicken Burger, Siva's Curry (chicken and shrimp curry), Fish 'n' Chips, Primal Steak, Mojo Bones (a rack of pork ribs), Maya's Mixed Grill, The Big Fajitas Party (chicken fajitas), Volcanic Cobb Salad, River Wild (seafood salad), Big Islander Chicken Caesar Salad. Main meals ranged between 15.90 - 25.90 euros.

Deserts included Bamba's Pancake, Gorilla in the Mist Cheesecake, Chocolate Diablo Cake, Coffee Trails Cafe Gourmand (espresso with a vanilla creme brulee, mini waggle and mini exotic fruit salad), Volcano (a giant chocolate brownie cake with nuts, ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce and whipped cream. Suitable for two or more). Deserts ranged between 6.90 - 14.90 euros.

There is a seperate childrens menu which includes a main dish, desert and drink. My daughter wanted a vegetable pasta which sadly they didn't have, so she decided on an omlette instead. The omlette looked overcooked and not very appetising, however my daughter ate it without any complaints. She enjoyed the desert which was chocolate moose with smarties and came served in an edible bowl. Her drink was served in a plastic Rainforest Cafe souvenir cup which we took away with us.

I ordered Tuki's Veggie Burger which was a large sized soya burger that came with fries and colslaw. It was priced at the lower end of the menu which I was pleased about but at 15.90 euros I still wouldn't class it at cheap! I found the burger a little on the dry side but other than that I thought it was tasty and enjoyed my meal. Other people dining with us had Fish 'n' Chips and Siva's Curry - they said they enjoyed their meals but they weren't anything special. None of us had a desert as we were all full up from our main meals.

The restaurant is quite large and can seat a lot of people. It was packed during our visit and although service wasn't slow, it wasn't fast either. My daughter started to fall asleep at the table and I had to call somebody over to get her a desert before she zonked out for the night! We requested a spoon that never came and we almost got given drinks that we didn't order, so I guess the staff were having a hard time.

Although there are Rainforest Cafe restaurants all over the world I hadn't ever visited one before so visually it was a nice surprise for me! However for this reason I can't compare the decor, food or service to other Rainforest Cafe restaurants.

Do I recommend this restaurant if visiting Disneyland Paris? Well it is most definitely overpriced. The food was pleasant but also quite average - in our experience the price tags weren't reflected in the dishes. However there seemed to be a decent choice of dishes and the dishes appeared to be quite large. Like most (or all) of the restaurants in the Disneyland Resort there wasn't a huge amount of vegetarian options but there seemed to be a few more than some restaurants we visited. Be careful of dishes labelled as vegetarian as a lot of them contain fish and seafood. Some might be put off by the fact Rainforest Cafe is not a Disney restaurant (you're in Disneyland afterall) but others may see it as a good opportunity to escape the Disney overload! The service was friendly but as the restaurant was so crowded it wasn't as efficient as it could have been. The theming of the restaurant is excellent and is probably the main reason why people visit Rainforest Cafe - to be honest I would recommend dining at the Rainforest Cafe for the atmosphere alone, certainly if you haven't visited a Rainforest Cafe before.

Summary: Overpriced but so much to see.