T-Rex Cafe

drduck

New Member
I have been to T-Rex, in Kansas City. My experience was quite pleasant. The interior is actually divided up into different areas. The big octopus that everyone is talking about is in the underwater themed area. The octopus is joined by giant crustaceons, jelly fish, and several aquariums. In addition to the sea, there is a fire section that has volcanos, dinosaurs, and giant bugs, and an ice-age section that has whooly mamoths, and occasional snow showers. As an aside, the ice-age was my favorite area. The theming was really great, and the whooly mamoths were uber-realistic.

Every once in a while, there is a meteor shower, akin to the Rainforest thunderstorms. Lights flash, lights shoot along the walls, and comets fall with a loud bang. It was pretty cool. There were about ten to twelve anamatronic figures, there. There was also a wall by the staircase. This wall looks like a tree trunk, and had about ten dinosaur heads poking out of it. These were much more detailed, and higher quality than the other dinosaurs in the restaurant. I was told that these were actual props from the Jurassic Park movies.

The main T-Rex, at the front door, was impressive. It was large, and loud, and moved with several different articualted joints. It would even lower its head and kind of snap at you. Around its feet were animatronic babies, hatching from t-rex eggs.

The food was palatable, if not outstanding. I paid about what I expect to pay at a theme park. I had steak and shrimp disguised by some clever sounding dino-name. It was good, and the steak was tender.

There were many different types of drinks, with exotic names, and some good desserts, including a do-it-yourself S'mores bar that is brought to your table.

All-in-all, it was a pleasant (but not cheap) experience, and I will probably return. On a different not, all the kids there had an absolute ball! My kids were super-thrilled with the theming, even enjoying a trip to the bathroom. The dinos were a little scary, but my two-year-old even loved them, reaching for the T-Rex like he was Barney. If the Orlando incarnation is even half as themed as the KC one, then it is going to be a super hit with the kiddies, and might even put a smile on the faces of an adult or two.
 

typhoonguy

New Member
For those of you wondering, T-Rex Cafe will not be replacing rainforest. I've just seen touched up plans and it is still in fact going in infront of Fulton's Crab House near McDonalds. Construction should start after the parking lot refurb. If you were wondering, the parking lot refurb is simply to consolidate the trafic flow in that area. It will now be much easier to access the parking lots (one entrance, one exit to each lot, both in the same area, attached to one road). Once this construction is done, the construction at T-Rex should be able to begin. The exact location is the area where the Shades of Green bus drops of it's guests in front of Fulton's. You all should be able to see an updated drawing in the near future in the area. I'm not sure if the new drawing has been put up yet, but I'll do my best to stop by P.I. tomorrow to take a look.
 

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
I am more concerned about the Asian Themed restaurant going into AK. There is a RFC at the gate and now another possibly similar restaurant in the park. This will be the first real table service restaurant in AK and I hope it has a differant menu than RFC.

Has any renderings for this restaurant been released?
 

he-guy

Member
BTW I just watched the video, and it in no way does the restaurant justice.

I have to agree with drduck on this one, the video does not show the quality of this restaurant. I just visited the KC T-Rex a couple weeks back. We took a weekend trip to KC and just happened to see the billboard so I knew I had to visit.
The theming for this place was incredible, the building exterior, shopping area, even the restrooms are completely prehistoric themed. The only non-themed spot I saw was a small section of brick at the top of an outside wall.

The food was excellent! You pay a bit more, but not out of line with RFC or other DTD eateries. We ordered an appetizer called the supersaurus sampler which consisted of an excellent queso dip with chips, coconut chicken, quesadillas, and more. I also ordered the enourmous "gigantosaurus burger", which is very deserving of its name: two half pound beef patties with fried onion strings, fried pickles, bacon, mushrooms, and your choice of cheese with a large helping of fries on the side. I left stuffed! :slurp:

The Shopping area was nice, but I imagine will be greatly expanded for the DTD version. They have also partnered with the Build-a-bear workshop people to make the first build-a-dino. My 3 year old daughter made a Pachycephalosaurus with a custom amount of stuffing and roar(she decided the tail should roar). The prices for this were more reasonable than the bears, around $20 for a Dinosaur compared to the bears which I believe are $45-$50.

The biggest negative is the noise level. There are constant atmosphere sounds and a meteor shower every 15 minutes. This means conversation at your table will also have to be elevated to talk over the dinos. Also, the hostesses and servers didn't speak up enough, something I hope will change when this restaurant is on Disney property.

Overall, I think this will be a great addition to DTD. This seemed very much like a WDW type dining experience located in the middle of the country. Can't wait to go there again, just don't know which location I would get to next as DTD won't be open for over a year, and Kansas City's best drawing point for us was the $49 fares through Southwest. :p
 

colliera

Member
Back to you Disney

From what I saw in the video and experienced at The Aquarium resturant Disney really needs to step up to the plate with The Corel Reef Resturant at Epcot. I understand they are doing a rehab now with the problem of keeping the resturant open while the work is ongoing but freshining up the paint job and laying new carpet isn't going to be in the same league with these resturants.
 

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