Rain Forest Cafe Has Short Run in NoHo

The on Magnolia Boulevard in the NoHo Arts District has closed down.

The restaurant and served Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food in an all-you-can eat Brazilian style buffet manner, and also doubled as a hookah lounge.

Recently Patch posted a story about the new near Valley Plaza that used to be and was owned by Avo Hakopian, who said he sold it in order to open up the Rain Forest Cafe. In the story we mentioned that Hakopian joked it may not have been wise to open a hot wings place right next door to a KFC. In the comments section, reader wrote that the Rain Forest Cafe is now closed.

We called and stopped by and she appears to be correct.  The phone number is disconnected and peeking through the cracks in the door, leaves can be seen all over the cafe's floor, which appears not to have been swept in some time.

Hakopian grew up in North Hollywood and it is disappointing to see a local owner have to close such a prime location. Hakpoian put a lot of effort into the decor of the Rain Forst Cafe, which featured 6,000 square feet of outdoor dining, a fish pond, fire pits and wild rabbits roaming the space. But the most common complaint heard was that not enough effort was put into the food. Many of the reviews on Yelp complimented the service but trashed the quality of the food.

A Patch reader posted a review here on the that was similar, saying, "For the price the food is mediocre and expensive. There is not much selection for a buffet either. It's outdoor only so it's full of flies and not very clean."

The Rain Forest replaced the , which had been at the location for 18 years.