T-Rex at Downtown Disney

Yesterday was my son's 8th birthday and at his request we ate at the T-Rex restaurant at Downtown Disney. Wow. I can't say enough about the atmosphere at this restaurant. It's just awesome; animatronic dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, ice caves, and simulated meteor showers. It’s enough that you really can’t even concentrate on your food. It’s kind of like eating at a dinner theatre.

So here’s the report on the cuisine. It’s about what you would expect at a Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Café. Eight dollar kid’s hamburgers, and pre-frozen chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs for $8 as well. There are certainly no bargains here and the food selection is 100% about taste and not food quality or health.

Most of the food items are pizza, burgers, ribs, or fried foods like chicken nuggets or popcorn shrimp. Many items were heavy on the cheese including the Layers of Earth Lasagna and Mammoth Mushroom Ravioli. Usually I would recommend a sandwich as long as the meat is lean. However I can’t say that about T-Rex. For example the Paleonzoic Chicken Sandwich is served on Fried Pizza dough! I found only two healthy food items on the menu:

• Several Salads - Most of the salads came with crumbled blue cheese, bacon, and dressing mixed in. For a healthier salad ask to hold the cheese and bacon, and get the dressing on the side.
• Fire roasted Rotisserie Chicken - Half a chicken, slow roasted and served with your choice of two of the following sides: Garlic mashed potatoes, waffle fries, Raptor rice, baked beans, cinnamon apples, cole slaw, or roasted vegetables - $19.99 Of course you would have to nix the fries and I am assuming the mashed potatoes are made with butter and the cole slaw has full fat mayonnaise. If you hold these items and take the skin off the chicken you could probably have a healthy meal here.

I ordered this dish:

Pteradactyl Salad - Roasted Chicken, mixed greens, celery, tomatoes, Bleu cheese crumbles, chopped egg and bacon. Tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing - $16.99

I was able to successfully get the salad with no cheese or bacon and they did give me the dressing on the side. The salad arrived perfect the first time and I didn’t have to send anything back to the kitchen. I got a fairly large portion as well and I was overall very satisfied with my meal.

Sometimes when I get a stripped down salad for $15-$20 I feel that I’m not really getting my money’s worth, but I certainly don’t have that complaint at T-Rex. The atmosphere more than made up for it. Granted it was a bit over the top and I wouldn’t want to eat here every day, but for a special occasion it’s great. And if you have an eight year old having a birthday, you really can’t do much better than T-Rex.

Chocolate Extinction - Can anyone else see the irony here?!