Rainforest Cafe

145 Jefferson Street

Tel: (415) 440-5610

Last Friday, I had Date With Myself. I decided to treat myself to a dinner out. In Fishermen's Wharf. When was the last time you had dins there? Precisely. I highly recommend the trip if you're feeling the need to (briefly) escape San Francisco. You won't run into a soul you know. They're too busy canvassing the Dishion for the latest hip eatery.

The crowds outside of the Rainforest Cafe were too much to ignore, and so I headed inside for some dinner. Wow, what a trip! It's like the Tonga Room gone ape. Great fun. The restaurant, up on the second floor (ensuring that you have to walk through the store selling cheerful rainforest crap such as the Japanese talking monkeys) is pure cacophony. First off, there's a waterfall that's larger than my apartment. Then, there are life-sized animals that bust out of the rainforest (yup, the entire joint is decked out with for-real looking trees and my favorite drippy Spanish moss), and they growl and yelp and make it quite impossible to hear. And finally, there are throngs of teenage girls from Somewhere Else sashaying their JLo'd bums back and forth across the restaurant in an attempt to woo tables of spotty boys.

Great people watching.

The food? The plastic menu is a bound book. Typical American fare with a below the border slant. Overall, quite unremarkable except the sheer size of the plates. My burger was tasty. The entertainment was better.

Great place to take kids.

Susan MacTavish Best

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