Downtown Disney's T-Rex Cafe

I had a chance to eat at Downtown Disney's T-Rex Cafe on January 23, 2009. It rocks! Even though the noise level is every bit as loud in real life as it seems to be on the videos, there is no beating the atmosphere or the food. Check out my full review of Downtown Disney's T-Rex Cafe by following the link. And while you're there, take a look around for more Walt Disney World travel tips.

MouseSteps has some great photos of the outside of T-Rex Cafe. AllEars.Net has some great shots of the dinosaurs (note that there's a second page of photos on that site), and although Watch Me Eat's pictures aren't as clear as AllEar's, there are some interesting shots that I've not seen elsewhere, plus a video and a meal report.

The inside is designed to look like the Jurassic period, with rooms themed to look like the Ice Age, a Fern Forest, a Shark Room, Geo-Tech Room, Aqua Room, and a Shark Bar with a giant octopus over it. There are also rumors of a geo thermal room with hot "lava" oozing over the walls with a waterfall to create steam.

While I have been in the T-Rex Cafe, it was extremely crowded and I was unable to explore. There was a giant, moving octopus over the shark bar, and the carpet really looks like you're walking through water- it's a little disorienting. There was certainly an ice room (it's also a little disorienting to walk through, and isn't the most appetizing to eat in, but it's very cool from the outside), and definitely the Fern Forest. The Geo-Tech room seems to be a little booth area rather than a full room, and, sadly, I saw no sign of a geo thermal room. however, the kitchen area had nice big flames coming out of it, and so it's possible that such a thing exists in an area that I was unable to view.

There also seemed to be one or two booths in each themed room that were almost completely secluded. They had their own theming, but the high walls I would think block much of the coolness factor of the rest of the restaurant. The booth areas are huge, and so I suspect that they're reserved for large parties.

Unfortunately, because of the crowd, we couldn't even reach the T-Rex Cafe store. I saw some t-shirts and dinosaur toys through the sea of people, but we didn't even reach the entrance of the shop. If anyone can tell us more about the shopping at T-Rex Cafe, please do!

T-Rex Cafe in Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World opened October 14. Disney Dining does not handle reservations for T-Rex Cafe. They can patch you through, but it's much easier to simply dial T-Rex directly at (407)828-8739.

Please note that reservations can be made as far as 6 months in advance, but not same day. Unfortunately, if you decide you want to eat there and haven't made reservations, you'll be stuck waiting in line. With how popular this restaurant is, it could be an hour wait or longer!

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Even though I'm not so devoted to everyone's pre-planning pleasure as to copy out the whole T-Rex Cafe menu, AllEars is. Note: Kid's menu can be found here, and a link to the rest of the menus on property is on the upper left.

Mesozoic Mahi Mahi- This was my husband's dish, so I only had a taste. It was so delicious, however, that he had to chase me away. : "butter cracker and Parmesan crusted Mahi Mahi topped with Gulf shrimp and lemon shallot butter served with Raptor rice and roasted vegetables $24.99"

Lost World Chicken Salad Sandwich - This was very good, but not much better than I can do at home. The tarragon added a very nice touch, but I found that the almonds rather put me off the whole thing. : "Rotisserie chicken with tarragon, celery, onions, toasted almonds and mayonnaise, served on a croissant $12.99"

Chocolate Extinction- The menu calls this a chocolate fudge cake, but our waiter called it a brownie cake. Brownie cake is a much more accurate description of the texture and flavor, and boy, was it to die for! Which is probably why it's called "extinction". You'll see this at the end of the video below. : "A gigantic portion of chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream, fresh whipped cream drizzled with fudge and caramel sauces and sprinkled with Butterfinger crumbs. Enough for two or more. $14.99"

Besides having dinner (or lunch, or breakfast) in a very cool, prehistoric restaurant, there are lots of activities at T-Rex Cafe which are mainly aimed at kids.

Much like Rainforest Cafe, there's plenty of shopping available, but unlike Rainforest Cafe, that's not all that's there.

For starters, there's a Build-A-Dino by Build-A-Bear Workshop. In the Paleo Zone, you can excavate fossils (you can see this in one of the YouTube videos below), dig in a mine, and pan for precious stones, metals, and fossils.

T-Rex Cafe is an awesome place to eat while you're in Florida (or anywhere else they exist), but there's a lot more to a Walt Disney World vacation than just restaurants owned by Landry's!

There are rides, theme parks, water parks, mini-golf, outdoor activities such as fishing, speed boats, and parasailing, as well as golfing on PGA tour courses, and more. There are tons of Disney World tips and secrets, and that's just one vacation resort in the area! After all, there's also Sea World, Universal Studios, GatorLand, Holy Land, and a bunch of other theme parks in addition to the typical beach side resorts. Granted, with all of the activities you'll have to pay for on vacation, you'll certainly want to find supercheap Disney World tickets, but be supercareful when looking, because most of those tickets are scams. You can certainly find discount tickets that are legitimate, but they'll usually only save you $5-20 per ticket. You're better off saving on food or hotel expenses.