T-REX Opens at Downtown Disney

T-REX, the new restaurant concept by the Rainforest Café people, opened Tuesday at Downtown Disney Marketplace (across from McDonalds and Lego). We checked it out for dinner last night, and let me just say, if you like Rainforest Café, you’ll love T-REX! It’s dinosaurs instead of wild animals, a meteor shower instead of a thunderstorm, and a Chocolate Extinction dessert instead of the Volcano. Otherwise, it’s the same idea, down to the shop.

One nice thing they added — things to occupy the kids while you wait for a table. They’re not taking reservations until January. Just outside the shop is a fossil dig site, where kids use paintbrushes to uncover dinosaur fossils. Inside, the shop is filled with prehistoric-inspired toys and stuffed animals. Best of all, in the back is a “Build-a-Dino” store by the “Build-a-Bear” people.

An aquarium in the bar (look up to see the enormous, undulating octopus and the colorful jellyfish lights), huge prehistoric insects, and dinosaurs of all types that move and roar captivated our kids (6 and 1 years old). An open kitchen with open flames added drama next to our table, and adjacent was an ice age dining room, lit up blue by a ceiling and walls of ice crystals.

Pictures of T-Rex in Downtown Disney