With D23’s announcement of the impending closure of DinoLand U.S.A., our team decided it was time to pay tribute to the one and only Restaurantosaurus located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This quick-service dining location offers your typical fair of chicken tenders, burgers, and hot dogs but offers so much more in theming and nostalgia.
The back story of Restaurantosaurus is that it was once a camp before the first fossils were discovered in Diggs County, home of DinoLand. Since then, this large space has served as a welcome center to DinoLand, a dormitory for the paleontologist students, a repair bay for the Time Rovers, and now is a mess hall turned into a restaurant for visitors.
Restaurantosaurus is quite large with four distinctly themed seating areas. Craftsman-style touches like the dinosaur chandeliers and the rock fireplace call back to the restaurant’s time as a camp. While the kitschy dinosaur memorabilia and nods to Americana capture the essence of DinoLand’s roadside attraction, Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama.
On a recent visit to Animal Kingdom, Disney Legend and Walt Disney Imagineer, Joe Rohde, recalled back fondly to one of the dinosaur murals featured in Restaurantosaurus. “The painting in this wall is also a Rohde original. It was, at the time, supposed to be a recent more accurate painting… hadrosaurs tending a nest while some theropod looks from the distance.”
If you ever want to know more about the history and lore of DinoLand U.S.A, our very-own Chloé Ferreira is undoubtedly the expert you need to talk to! Now on to the food – Restaurantosaurus is open for lunch into early dinner and entrees range from $9.99 to $13.99. You can Mobile Order, plus use your Disney Dining Plan credits at this quick-service location.
Cobb Salad with Chicken – fresh greens topped with chicken, cucumbers, tomato, hard-boiled egg, bacon, blue cheese, and green goddess dressing for $11.99.
Truthfully, I’ve had the cobb salad here before and liked it enough to order it again! As you can see it’s loaded with bacon. What’s not to love?? The spring mix salad was fresh and the dressing tasted as if it was made in-house. Other than the chicken being dry, this quick service salad is a winner.
Fried Chicken Sandwich – crispy fried chicken breast on a warm brioche bun finished with pickles, lettuce, tomato, and roasted garlic aioli and served with fries for $12.19.
In person, the chicken sandwich was more impressive than most Disney World counterparts. Chloé commented that the fried chicken was more like a giant Disney chicken tender (in a good way), and the brioche bun was fluffy and delicious. There likely needed to be more aioli since the flavor was pretty absent. The fried chicken sandwich is one we would recommend ordering at Restaurantosaurus, but wouldn’t be enough reason alone to visit here.
Impossible Spicy Southwestern Burger – plant-based burger patty topped with “pepper jack”, chipotle sauce, lettuce, and tomato and served with fries for $13.99.
Ryno decided to mix it up and order one of the more interesting things on the menu. Which isn’t saying much when his other option was a chili dog, but hey, the sign out front says “Home of the Impossible Burger”. Unfortunately, it really wasn’t interesting at all and needed more chipotle sauce or different toppings to give it some spice or flavor. Ultimately, this was just another standard Impossible burger.
If you’re visiting Walt Disney World in the next 6 months before the DinoLand closures, you should absolutely pay a visit to Restaurantosaurus to enjoy the atmosphere and detailed props. It’s also a great place to refill your water and grab chicken tenders or mac and cheese while your kids play in the Boneyard playground.
Watch our full review to see and learn more about Restaurantosaurus and our fun lunch in DinoLand!
