Rainforest Cafe552

The winner of our 2008 Parents' Picks quest to find the best family-friendly restaurant in Dallas-Fort Worth, The Rainforest Cafe is a themed restaurant that was designed with families in mind, and therefore it's just about always packed with parents and kids.

High chairs, boosters, kids' menus, crayons, and coloring books are all part of the program, but the main draw is the animatronic animals and jungle decor.

Since it is supposed to mirror a "rainforest" experience, the restaurant holds periodic "thunder storms," complete with darkness, then flashes of lightning, and the distant rumble of thunder. Some kids find this sort of thing a bit alarming, but if your child does have a fear of storms, you might find that the Rainforest Cafe is a good place to walk him or her through that particular phobia.

Rainforest Cafe is a wild place to celebrate a birthday. Birthday party packages include invitations, selections from a special menu, a souvenir cup, a Rainforest Cafe treasure map and crayons, and a keepsake photograph of the birthday child.