RESTAURANT REVIEW : Savor the Rain Forest : The jungle atmosphere and exotic cuisine has turned the Amazon Bar and Grill into a popular spot for a high-fashion crowd.

I’m standing in front of an indoor waterfall and I can’t hear myself think. Reggae music is blasting away in one ear; in the other, noise from a well-dressed young crowd struggling to be heard above the din, like trees competing for sunlight in the jungle.

Makes sense. The restaurant is Amazon Bar and Grill, a Disneyesque mock-up of a rain forest complete with (stone) banyan trees, (real) palm fronds, tropical flowers, indirect lighting and indulgent special effects. It’s as dark as a rain forest in here, too, though certainly not pitch-dark. An incredible planetarium ceiling twinkling with lights representing the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, and the high-fashion clientele inevitably radiates a light of its own.

Wait, there’s more. Rain forest sounds--electronically provided twitters and hoots--filter in through the reggae. But fear not, this is an insect-free rain forest. Nature didn’t program jungle insects to survive here in Sherman Oaks.

There’s no denying this is quite a concept, or the fact that this unusual restaurant has been drawing serious crowds from day one. Reservations are tough on weeknights, practically impossible on weekends. “Six or 10:30,” said the voice on the phone last Saturday, a primordial chant rarely heard on this side of Mulholland.

Four of us took a chance anyway, and showed up about 9. We got a table about half an hour later. Parties of two or less are seated on a first-come, first-served basis, no matter what the hour.

Perhaps it is its political correctness that is making this place such a huge hit. A percentage of the profits here, says a press release, will be donated to rain forest preservation groups like RAN (Rainforest Action Network). Many of the products offered here are harvested from rain forests: Brazil nuts, cashew fruit, banana chips and honey, for instance. The menu tells us that this production is helping indigenous groups to survive.

Or maybe it is the spicy, colorful cooking of chef Mario Guerraro, late of Cha Cha Cha and a disciple of that restaurant’s famous founding partner, Toribio Prado. I’d describe Guerraro’s food as a combination of Caribbean, Mexican and ‘80s California, a range that includes veggie burgers, “earth chicken” and Ben and Jerry’s Rain Forest Crunch ice cream.

Starters include a giant puffball empanada that could pass for a calzone , highly eccentric soups and salads. The sweet and spicy Brazilian chicken soup surprises you with banana slices as well as giant pieces of chicken in a broth with a citrus-like bite in the finish. Think of organic veggie soup as a New Age minestrone: carrots, broccoli and zucchini mingling with vegetable rotelli in a spicy, tomato-based broth.

“Amazon chop” is just a green salad--assorted lettuces with organic tomato, cucumber and onions tossed in a good house vinaigrette--but the warm spinach salad is like none you’ve ever tasted. It’s the densest salad I’ve ever eaten--spinach leaves, sliced carrot and sweet red onion weighed down by a heavy pesto dressing and mixed up with chunks of an intense, cumin-happy chicken sausage. At the very least it’s a conversation piece.

The sandwiches mostly push environmentalist and health-food buttons, as with dolphin-safe tuna sandwich (with tuna from Thailand, where, the menu tells us, the deep waters are too cold for dolphins) and the inevitable free-range chicken breast sandwich, smeared with a low-salt barbecue sauce. There’s a flavorful veggie burger made from mushrooms, onions, oats and brown rice.

The entrees run to seafood and poultry. Black salmon is a nice grilled chunk of fish in a spicy tomatillo sauce; Amazon shrimp consists of five large prawns grilled in butter and garlic, served in a pineapple shell. The one I like best is earth chicken, a really spicy free-range chicken breast in a complex brown sauce that rivals the best Indian or African sauces. All entrees come with good, unctuous black beans and a slightly insipid rice pilaf.

If the atmosphere doesn’t flood you with the desire to have a dish of Ben and Jerry’s Rain Forest Crunch, try the exotic brownie Xapuri: a rich, fudge pastry with a batter loaded with crushed Brazil nuts. The nuts, you are told, were purchased from a co-op in the western Amazon, so feel good about your brownie. It tastes good too, which in this context might even be regarded as a bonus.

Where and When Location: Amazon Bar and Grill, 14649 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Suggested Dishes: Brazilian chicken soup, $5.95; Amazon shrimp, $11.95; earth chicken, $9.95; brownie Xapuri, $3.95. Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5-11 p.m. daily. Price: Dinner for two, $25-$40. Valet parking. Full bar. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Call: (818) 986-7502.