The Fragile Kingdom grottoes are much better than countless others in a variety of other American zoos simply because they are much more naturalistic. However, the animals are mainly separated from visitors via a moat instead of glass and thus they appear farther away in enclosures that also feature a lot of mock-rock concrete. There are far superior lion exhibits out there than this one, and Brookfield has such an immense animal collection that there is always going to be a section or more of the zoo that is outdated. I can recall seeing a snow leopard pressed up against the glass on my 2008 visit, but the entire Fragile Kingdom area is simply adequate and not even close to being immersive or spectacular. I actually think that sums up the entire zoo, as I'd rank it in the top 15 in the United States based more so on the overall experience and collection rather than the mainly average exhibitry.
The lions, snowleopards and Amur leopards all have glass viewing. Plus most of the big cats are young so they are pretty active (both snowleopards are 1-year-old, the lions are both under 7-years-old and the sloth bears are also young and got a new male to start breeding.)
I think that this lion exhibit, is a great exhibit, at least these lions do not have to walk on concrete like at some zoos, I would not exactly call this enclosure spacious but IMO it is perfectly adequate for those lions
