Following on from my post about our trip to London, I wanted to blog about the Rainforest Café in more detail. We went to the Rainforest Café when we were in Orlando a few years back and loved it. So when I was planning our trip to London, I just knew that a visit to Rainforest Café would be on the cards. I booked a table online a few weeks before as I knew it would be busy.
Rainforest Café is just around the corner from Piccadilly Circus tube stop. You enter into the shop and head towards the back where you book in. The actual restaurant is downstairs, and we were told to wait at the bar until we were called. After about a 3 minute wait we were introduced to our server and led to our table. I have to say I was really impressed with our table. We were right in front of the elephants which my daughter loved. Though there were lots of funny moments when servers passed our table with new customers and introduced the ‘mummy and baby elephants’ and my son was convinced they were talking about me and his darling sister !
I had scrutinised the menu online at home, so I pretty much knew what I was having. I opted for the lamb shank, husband had a chicken sandwich and the children had a pizza and burger meal. The kids meals were priced at £12.50 (which included a main, pudding and a drink). Of course my 8 year old wanted an activity pack priced at £3.00. I figured it would be cheaper than the shop and I was pleasantly surprised with the contents. Good value for £3.00.
All of our meals were extremely tasty, and there was not one bit of food left on the plate (well apart from my lamb shank bone). The children really wanted the ‘Volcano’ for pudding. Basically its a pudding to share which is covered in chocolate and cream. As I am on Slimming World I drooled at their pudding for around 10 minutes, and then tucked into my fruit salad. The fruit salad was from the kids menu, but as they were busy overdosing on chocolate I was happy to eat the fruit salad which was very nice (I say this through gritted teeth) !!! We have had the ‘Volcano’ in Orlando and the servers come out shouting and waving your pudding in the air for all to see. Thankfully this did not happen in London.
The atmosphere is amazing in the restaurant. The elephants in front of us kept coming alive every so often. There is rainforest noises and even thunder and lightening. I had read reviews that it was very busy and very noisy but I have to say we did not find this. We actually enjoyed a lovely meal which was nice and chilled out. The service was very good with our server interacting well with our children.
Our meal came to just under £70.00. We would not normally pay this for a meal, but I think for a treat the Rainforest Café certainly ticks all of the boxes. You are definitely paying for the atmosphere which I think I loved just as much as the children. If you have a Merlin annual pass (which we do) you get 20% discount off your food. There is also a 12.5% service charge added to your bill. Next time we are in London, we would not hesitate to return to this fantastic restaurant.
