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Our family loves eating at T-Rex Cafe in Orlando at the Disney Springs complex. In fact, it’s one of our favorite restaurants (if not top favorite) at all of Disney Springs.
And what is Disney Springs? Well, it’s a part of the Walt Disney World Resort that has lots of shopping, dining, and entertainment options. But unlike the theme parks, you don’t need a ticket to enter. So it makes a great place to visit on a day that you don’t have tickets to the park.
Then again, it’s a fun place to go even if you do have park tickets!
One of those reasons is T-Rex Cafe. It’s such a fun restaurant that my family has been there lots of times.
In this review, we’ll let you know what T-Rex is all about. We tell you about some of the foods we’ve eaten there. We give you some tips you can use the next time you eat at T-Rex. We’ll also let you know where to stay on your next Disney World vacation so that you can be close to Disney Springs!
What the T-Rex Restaurant is Like
What really makes T-Rex Cafe stand out is the total experience. It’s the kind of restaurant where you’d really be missing out if you just had take out. That’s not an insult to the food, just a reflection of how unique eating inside T-Rex is.
If you’ve ever been obsessed with dinosaurs – or even just a casual fan – you’ll enjoy the life-sized animatronic dinosaurs inside the restaurant. You can even see woolly mammoths.
The restaurant is divided into themed rooms or sections. The most eye catching to me is the ice cavern, which actually changes colors during your meal.
We got to eat in there for the first time a few weeks ago, and it was a neat experience.
A few times during your meal (depending on how long you’re in the restaurant), you’ll experience a meteor shower. Now, this involves things like lighting effects and loud noises, which can be frightening for some children (and disturbing for anyone who is sensitive to those types of sensory experiences). So, keep this in mind if you’re wondering if T-Rex is a good fit for your family or group of friends. That being said, it’s quite impressive to see. Check out the animals’ reactions, and look to the ceiling – you can see the meteors in the sky.
Another fun thing to do during your visit is to check out the gift shop. There are a lot of fun dinosaur themed souvenirs in the gift shop. There’s also a Build-A-Dino (think Build-A-Bear, only with dinosaurs) where you can create your own Friend-a-saur.
Our T-Rex Cafe Review
So now that you have an idea of what the restaurant is like, let’s talk about the experience my family had when we had dinner there earlier this month. We were able to take a boat from our hotel, Disney’s Old Key West Resort. It’s a fun and relaxing boat ride, though I do recommend bringing a jacket as it can get a little chilly at night on the water.
Now, you can get a reservation for T-Rex beforehand, but we did not. A couple of us are Landry’s Select Club members, which gives you priority seating, even without a reservation.
I highly recommend that you join, if you’re not already a member. It costs $25 to join the Landry’s Select Club, but you then receive a $25 welcome reward within 24 hours of registering online. (You can sign up online or buy a Landry’s Select Club card at a restaurant, but if you buy it in person you’ll still need to register online.) So basically, make sure you register at least 24 hours before you plan on going to T-Rex – you’ll get your money back and get priority seating!
Anyway, because we were Landry’s Select Club members, we were able to go to the top of the wait list. One time when we went, we were told it would be a 35 minute wait but could be shorter. It ended up being just an 8 minute wait! And you get a text when your table is ready, which means you can visit some of the stores nearby (like World of Disney) and go shopping while you wait.
We were seated in the part of the restaurant where you can actually see the meteor effects above you during the meteor showers. This was something that I had never noticed before, which was neat. I love being able to have new and different experiences each time I visit a place.
Overall, service was fairly quick inside the restaurant and very friendly.
But I’m sure you want to know about the food! After all, if the dinosaurs are great but the food is awful, that doesn’t make for a good overall experience, right?
T Rex Restaurant Food
Over the years, the menu has changed at the T Rex Restaurant. But they have always had great food options. So we want to tell you about some of our favorites.
Let’s start with the Prehistoric Pasta.
This dish consists of alfredo sauce and fettuccine pasta with a piece of garlic bread. We could have added chicken (for $4 extra), shrimp (for $6 extra), or salmon (for $9 extra). We have it plain and with shrimp (more about this later).
Now, I am a big fan of garlic. Unfortunately, the bread was actually TOO garlicky. The flavors were too strong and overpowered the bread taste.
Luckily, the main part of the meal, the fettuccine, did not disappoint. The pasta was very delicious. And the sauce was creamy without being too heavy.
So how was it when we added shrimp?
While the Prehistoric Pasta was good on its own, it was even better with shrimp! The shrimp seasoning was really good, and the shrimp and the pasta blended really well together.
Another dish my mom likes is the Cobb salad, which comes with rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, chopped egg, blue cheese crumbles, and bacon. It also comes with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, but she get the blue cheese dressing instead.
She found the Cobb salad to be excellent. The only thing she didn’t like was that she never found any blue cheese crumbles in the salad, unfortunately. But luckily, the chicken was particularly good and not overcooked at all. (She’s found that chicken is often overcooked in Cobb salads.)
We also like the burgers there, too. One of those burgers is the Mushroom and Swiss Burger.
This was a really good burger. Very filling, too.
Another good burger my family liked was the Bronto Burger, which comes with American cheese.
This was also good.
Most of the entrees come with a side like French Fries. But you can change your side to a different side. We really like the Red Skinned Mashed Potatoes.
These mashed potatoes are absolutely delicious. We highly recommend them.
Another side we want to mention is the French Onion Soup.
It is good, though we must say is not the best French Onion Soup we’ve had. Mainly this was because all of the onions were at the bottom. Once you got to them, the soup was great. But before then, it was a bit lacking.
But I don’t think I can talk about T-Rex Restaurant without talking about its best menu item: the Chocolate Extinction!
The Chocolate Extinction is a delicious dessert for four people. It has chocolate cake. It has ice cream. It has an amazing presentation. What more could you want?
And it really is so good that even one of my family members who doesn’t always like desserts loved it.
When we had it last time, it was my birthday and my family surprised me with it (though I must say I was hoping the dessert would come and made sure to not finish my pasta so I would have room for the dessert – I took the pasta back to my room and finished it later during the trip). The staff sang happy birthday to me and it was a really neat moment. If you have someone in your family who is having a birthday, I definitely recommend getting the dessert for the special day – and letting your server know about it!
So to sum up about the food, we all enjoyed our meals, as well as our time at T-Rex!
Where to Stay near Disney Springs
Do you want to visit Disney Springs during your next Orlando Florida trip? You can get bus transportation from all of the official Disney World onsite hotels to Disney Springs. However, you might be interested in staying at a hotel located in the Disney Springs area.
Disney World Onsite Hotels Near Disney Springs
Free boat transportation is available from all of these hotels. Additionally, there is a walking path from Saratoga Springs to Disney Springs.
Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels
You can walk (some are closer than others) to Disney Springs from these hotels. There is also complementary bus transportation – be sure to check with each hotel to see current information concerning bus schedules, since they often change depending on time of year.
- Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
- Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
- Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
- Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
- DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
- Holiday Inn Orlando
- Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando
- Renaissance Orlando Resort and Spa