Florida Guide > Dining
The T-Rex Restaurant building at Downtown Disney
The T-Rex Restaurant building at Downtown Disney
A few years ago at Downtown Disney a part of the parking area was removed to create the new T-Rex restaurant. The part that was removed was the old shaded garden between what was McDonald’s and the start of Pleasure Island. This was leased by the Landry' s chain and is the same group that own the Rainforest Café concept. In fact this restaurant is the Rainforest Cafe it’s just that they have replaced all the animals with Dinosaurs. Also instead of the rainstorm you get at the Rainforest every 20 minutes you now encounter a meteor shower.
My daughter had taken her two children here so when I took some of our other grandchildren I knew what to expect especially as we have being to the Rainforest in the past.
The exterior calls to you from some distance by grabbing your attention with large set of dinosaur bones displayed across the front of the building which you can see in the attached photos. There is also a Land Rover expedition setting and a small ‘dig site’. These are to the right of the entrance so that small children can be kept amused looking for fossils during your initial wait.
We have been by here a number of times in the past and there have been very long queues in front. This can be confusing as unless you know it can take some time before you realise that that you first need to go to the podium to book a reservation.
If you go at a quite time as we did for a late lunch, around 3:00pm, you can often walk right in with no wait. This is also true of the Rainforest Café. However during the peak lunch and dinner periods you will probably have to wait so time for your name to be called. Using the same style as the Rainforest they call the ' ‘Yourname’ Expedition of four is now ready' . If you are not familiar with their style of wait you may thing that you will now get your table. However this is just the call to join the queue to be seated. There is one of these queues for each of the themed dining areas and at busy times this can add another 30 minutes.
You can call the restaurant directly and get a priority seating booking. This works similarly to Disney’s priority seating process. This means that when you arrive at the correct time you join the queue of people who have booked. These people get seated before the walk-ins so you will have a shorter overall wait.
If you do just arrive without a booking then there is plenty to keep your children’s attention and part you from more of your money. The store area is large and you can find clothes, toys and lots of other things. However the Build-a-Dino section lets all the children have a chance to create their own special friend which they can take to dinner.
The second part of this article will now review the interior and some of the food options.
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