Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine is Fun and Serves Yummy (but Expensive) Food

The Rainforest Cafe serves delicious (but pricey) meals and the service is good, but the environment is the reason we go!


We decided to head to the Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine Mills (the shopping mall), on Grapevine Mills Parkway near the the giant Bass Pro Shop. The restaurant is in the mall, and you can find it by the large sign outside the closest door. Once inside the mall, you will recognize the restaurant by the huge rain forest display by the entrance.

The Rainforest Cafe's mascot
Image taken from
the Rainforest Cafe homepage

When you walk into the restaurant, the first thing you see is the gift shop, which is piled with stuffed animals, t-shirts, and a lot of tropical decor. If you're looking for a souvenir, you can definitely find as many as you need in the Rainforest Cafe's gift shop!

As you approach the actual restaurant at the back of the gift shop. The line was reasonable, especially for a summer night, and we were at our table in no time. (I suspect that's because it was a week night. On weekends, some guests can wait over an hour to get a seat.) The decor of the restaurant is all rainforest themed, with plastic animals that move and make noise. The ceiling is decorated as a sky, and every three seconds, a shooting star passes overhead. The surroundings are very kid friendly and adventure like. The restaurant is noisy and cool.

Jurassic Chicken Bits
with French fries

Just a warning: The large, mechanical animals move and make loud noises about every 5–7 minutes, so be prepared for the surroundings to come alive; you will hear a variety of sounds, including rain dripping, the gorillas grunting, the birds chirping, and the lights flickering like lightening in a rainforest.

Our service was amazing! Our server, who's name was Kelly, took great care in serving us on time. She got our food to us quickly and she was friendly and showed that she really enjoyed her job. She was personable and willing to stop and talk to her customers. She forgot to bring the salad to the table, but when we reminded her, she immediately brought the salad. She brought us all large glasses for our drinks; we were ordering kiddie meals, but the drinks are very small, so she thought we would like larger drinks. (That also meant that we didn't have to wait for refills if she had other customers waiting—very insightful.)

Dinner was attractive, tasty, and enjoyable. We were not all very hungry, so the kiddie meals were the right size for our appetites. N ordered the Mini Hot Dogs, which were kid-sized and delicious. He got two mini dogs with French fries, and the meal came with a drink.

I had the Jurassic Chicken Bits, which were dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I took great pleasure in reenacting the Jurassic time period by making the dinosaurs fight. When I ate them, I thought they were perfectly tender, and they were served warm, fresh, and delicious! I also got French fries and a drink.

E chose the Rainforest Rascals: the char-broiled mini burgers off the kids menu. She said they were good, but not the best thing on the menu. She also had French fries and a drink.

Tuscan Chicken at the Rainforest Cafe

C ordered the Tuscan Chicken. According to the menu, it's a "balsamic and tomato marinated chicken breast char-broiled and dressed with cucumbers, kalamata olives, tomatoes, and garnished with a honey dijon mustard sauce, served with red skinned garlic mashed potatoes." The entree was attractive, satisfying, a little spicy, but good. (We all tasted the Tuscan Chicken!) We ordered a side Caesar salad, which was enough for three of us to share with our meal, and we took a little home. C also took about 20% of her meal home, even after all of us sampled it.

The entire meal came to a total of $43.25 before the tip, which was well-deserved. This was not a bad price for three kids meals with drinks, an adult meal, and a side salad. We provided Kelly with a 20% tip because she was attentive, personable, and gracious.

We gave the Rainforest Cafe a seven thumbs up, because the surroundings were fun but a little surprising at times. The food was great, as was the service, but the restaurant was a little dark and noisy (to be expected, but we sometimes could not carry on a conversation). The prices for the full menu were a little high, compared to other restaurants, but the novelty makes the price worth a splurge now and again. We will definitely be going to the Rainforest Cafe again.