Specialty: Jungle themed restaurant
Neighborhood: River North
Attire: Casual
Reservations: Recommended
Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 11:00 am to 9:30 pm
Friday - 11:00 am to 10:30 pm
Saturday - 11:00 am to 11:00 pm
Sunday - 11:00 am to 9: 00 pm
Prices: Moderate
Payment: Cash, all major credit cards
Parking: Valet parking
ADA: Wheelchair accessible

 

If you’re looking to do something with the kids, a trip to the Rainforest Café will really delight them. This is a theme restaurant providing the “rainforest experience.” What’s that? Well, the restaurant’s decor is a cartoonist’s idea of what a jungle looks like and is alive with animatronic animals; as you walk through the front door a mechanical alligator can be seen wading in a waterfall; moving apes, gorillas, parrots and butterflies greet you in every nook and cranny of the dining room. Occasionally there are rainstorms throughout the restaurant, complete with darkness, thunder and lightning, but without the actual rain.

The menu calls a grilled cheese sandwich a “Gorilla Grilled Cheese” and describes the café’s breaded chicken as dinosaur shaped “Jurassic Chicken Tidbits.” And you can’t go wrong taking the kids to a place that offers a humongous chocolate brownie shaped like a volcano and called “The Sparkling Volcano” because it comes to the table with a lighted sparkler sticking out of the top of it.