Eating with Dinosaurs - A Review of T-Rex Café
By: Caralee Wirges
T-Rex Café! Even the name sounds “chomping” good, right? Well, my family and I finally decided to give it a try one Friday evening in early August. As we approached the check-in/reservation podium, we saw there was a line of at least eight people. I was glad I had made reservations about five weeks earlier. At that time T-Rex had several time choices available, but when I made it to the podium I learned that those without reservations would have a ninety minute wait! After checking in, we were directed to another line of about twelve people, where we were to wait to be seated. However, we avoided this long line and our name was called within a minute. How did we do this? We are part of the Landry’s Select Club.
Landry’s owns several restaurants including Rainforest Café, T-Rex Café and Yak & Yeti, to name a few. It costs $25 but as soon as you purchase the card, a $25 credit is applied to be used on your next visit. In addition, Landry’s applies $25 to your card on your birthday, plus you earn points with every visit to be used toward future rewards. One of the best features is priority seating. Card members get to jump to the front of the virtual line.
Enough about the owners, how was the experience? When you walk into the restaurant your eye is instantly drawn to the bar area. It is adorned with blue neon lighting and is grounded by a spectacular salt water aquarium that covers the length of the bar. There is an “under the sea” theme in this section and it features prehistoric jelly fish and a 13-foot long octopus hanging from the ceiling. As your eye moves farther back you notice life-size animatronic dinosaurs! Not only do you see them, but you hear them as well, and they can be quite noisy. The dinosaurs have a tremendous roar!In addition to “under the prehistoric sea”, there is a prehistoric insect section and an ice age 
section. The prehistoric insect section contains over-sized animatronic bugs and a second, smaller aquarium. The ice age area is complete with ice caves and mammoths that are animatronic. This is not all! Every two minutes something special happens. There is meteor shower and it displays various size asteroids and the ice caves turn from a bluish/purplish color to a fiery orange giving the appearance that the caves are melting. So what do all the animals do when they are being invaded by meteors? That’s right, they go berserk! The rooms are filled with earth quaking roars, high pitched hoots and hair raising squeals!
We get the picture, how is the food? To start, the place is not all kid stuff. I mentioned a bar earlier and it is stocked with various mixed cocktails, beer and wine. They have a signature drink called the Cotton-tini. It is a mixture of cotton candy and spirits in your choice of one of three different flavors and you get to keep the shaker ($ll.99). The kiddos are not left out as T-Rex has several unique drinks just for them, one of which is the T-Rex Character Cup that comes in a dino-head cup and filled with layers of ICEE flavors. There is also a plastic dinosaur in the bottom of the cup that provides hours of entertainment ($8.99).
T-Rex is not short on food choices. They have several appetizers with their most popular being the SuperSaurus Sampler.It comes with Chili Con Queso and chips, Brachiosaurus Bruschetta, T-Rexidillas and onion rings ($18.99). It says it serves four, but was plenty for our family of six. Soups and salads are also on the menu. Entrees range from Carnivore, Pasta, Burger & Sandwich, and Seafood choices. I chose the Woolly Mammoth Chicken and it was not disappointing; I was pleasingly surprised. It was a grilled chicken breast sautéed with spinach, onion, roasted red pepper, zucchini, peas and mushrooms. It was served over a bed of red-skin garlic mashed potatoes and finished with a light tomato and red pepper sauce ($19.99).
The kids menu is not short on choices either. It offers a choice of twelve different entrees, a choice of one of ten different sides and a drink ($8.99). My little dinos chose the Jurassic Chicken Tidbits, Rocksy’s Pasta, and Paleo Pizza. They must have enjoyed them because they chomped down every bite.
If you still have room for dessert, they have that too! Their specialty is called Chocolate Extinction. It is a mammoth proportion of chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream, whipped topping drizzled in chocolate and caramel sauces and sprinkled with Butterfinger pieces! It says it serves four if you want to share…or not, it’s vacation, right? ($16.99). Sadly, we were too full and had no room for dessert. Next time we will skip the appetizer and go for the Chocolate Extinction!The only negative with the whole experience was where we sat. We were seated in the Prehistoric bug section and tucked far inside are two large, rounded booths with walls so high you can only see each other. No part of the thrilling dino landscape was visible. Fortunately, I believe these are the only two booths like this, so your chances of scoring an awesome view are very high. Overall, the experience was well worth it and my kids had an unforgettable time. It was a roaring hit!
T-Rex is part of the Disney Dining Plan, please contact your Wishes Family Travel agent for reservations. There is also a gift shop on premise where you can Build-A-Dino provided by Build-A-Bear Workshop. Menu prices and offerings were correct at time of publication. You can purchase your Landry’s Select Club membership at Landrysselect.com.