It’s a Jungle in There

COSTA MESA â€”  If South Coast Plaza were a theme park (and it’s pretty close), Rainforest Cafe would be an E ticket. This elaborately conceived restaurant, next to Sears, cost nearly $6 million to build, and it’s quite a ride.

When you check in at the concrete elephant that serves as a front podium, you get a “passport� and a cute, tropical-type code name--say, Gecko, Macaw or Alligator. After a wait--as much as 45 minutes at peak hours--they call out your code name, along with the portentous, “Your adventure is about to begin.� (Don’t wander in the mall, as I did. Miss that call and you might have to wait even longer--another 20 minutes, in my case.)

After the host stamps your passport, you proceed to a seating line, where you wait another 10 to 15 minutes. But when you are led to your table, in the heart of the rain forest, what a show! The decor simulates a dense jungle, complete with an indoor waterfall and full-size animatronic elephants that trumpet and bellow.

The ceiling is a canopy of surprisingly realistic-looking flowers, shrubs and vines. The air is full of mist, and “rain walls� of controlled falling water (well away from tables) justify the name Rainforest. Simulated thunder mingles with the constant bellowing of jungle animals and the shrill calls of tropical birds.

The detail is incredible. The brightly painted stools at the juice bar look like the hind quarters of tigers, giraffes and zebras. Giant butterflies flap in ceiling-high trees.

If you are slightly overwhelmed by all of this, welcome to the club--small children may thrive on the Rainforest Cafe experience, but most adults I’ve brought find it wearing after a few minutes.

Happily, meals are expedited by an efficient, patient staff. There are remarkably few glitches for a restaurant that serves as many as 2,000 customers a day.

If the theme is exotic, the menu is thoroughly American: salads, sandwiches, pastas, entrees and complicated desserts. Don’t expect great cooking in the rain forest. On the other hand, you can look for plenty of dishes children will eagerly eat, served in huge portions almost no one can finish.

The best starter, hands down, is Amazon flatbread,, a pizza of herbed, unleavened crust topped with four Italian cheeses and marinara sauce. It comes on a flour-dusted wooden plank and is delicious hot. Mojo bones, another appetizer, are reasonably tender baby back pork ribs basted with a workmanlike barbecue sauce. I like the waffle fries too--they’re well-seasoned, waffle-cut potato slices cooked to a rich, golden brown.

One appetizer to miss is Bimini wings, not at all to be confused with Buffalo chicken wings. They’re bland, deep-fried wings served with a gummy blue cheese dressing.

*

Sandwiches are the menu’s most consistent section. They’re all huge, too big even for an adult to pick up with one hand. Spice Island catfish is a fresh, sweet filet dusted with Cajun spices and blackened, served in a multigrain kaiser roll. The Mambo Combo is your basic ham, salami and turkey sub with lots of Bermuda onion and a good balsamic vinaigrette. Best of the lot is Rumble in the Jungle, a turkey Caesar wrap given a more sophisticated buzz with cranberry relish and crisply fried onions.

The pastas and entrees are so-so, though some of the side dishes, such as roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, are surprisingly good. The best entree is Kalahari Safari Pot Pie, not really a pot pie but a massive plate of breaded chicken tenders, pearl onions and cooked carrots in a rich country gravy, served with a mountain of good mashed potatoes and a buttery biscuit.

Still, my order of linguine Caribe (pasta with blackened shrimp and a Creole tomato sauce) came badly overcooked, particularly the shrimp. And the pork chop entree called Jamaica, Me Crazy, which my waiter recommended highly, turned out to be two huge, over-seasoned, dried-out chops, served on top of good, smoky red beans and deliciously spicy rice.

The desserts are sweet, gooey and big enough to share. Skeleton Key lime pie is easily the best and certainly the most adult. The tart, custardy filling, in a rich, buttery crust is topped with real whipped cream. Rainforest Rick’s hot apple crisp is cloyingly sweet. For chocolate lovers, there’s Chocolate Diablo, a devilishly rich chocolate cake layered with a stiff, fudgy mousse, served in a pool of heavily concentrated raspberry sauce.

The kids probably will insist on a stop in the Rainforest Cafe retail shop alongside the restaurant. Here you can stock up on stuffed animals, Rainforest Crunch bars, scented candles and T-shirts, wistful memorabilia from your rain forest experience.

No need to get nostalgic though. The world’s rain forests may be slowly disappearing, but Rainforest Cafe is a chain, and shopping malls are not an endangered species.

Rainforest Cafe is moderately priced. Appetizers are $3.50 to $6.99. Salads and sandwiches are $7.99 to $10.99. Pastas and entrees are $9.99 to $16.99.

BE THERE

Rainforest Cafe, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. (714) 424-9200. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. All major cards.