REVIEW: We Ate At One Of Animal Kingdom’s Most UNDERRATED Restaurants

There are tons of fantastic options in Disney’s Animal Kingdom when it comes to food.

For quick service, you have amazing spots like Flame Tree BBQ and Satu’li Canteen, and for table service, you don’t want to miss the character breakfast at Tusker House, the Tiffins lounge, or Yak & Yeti. Just like the other theme parks though, it does have its lesser-known and less desired options. But are the ones in Animal Kingdom REALLY as bad as they seem? We’re trying one out!

Over in DinoLand U.S.A. you’ll find Restaurantosaurus (yes it takes us at least 2 tries to spell that each time so we WILL be copy and pasting). With a 7.2/10 rating on AllEars.net, it’s not necessarily despised, but it’s seen as pretty mundane compared to the other offerings in Animal Kingdom. But we’re testing that out for ourselves today!

Atmosphere

The theming and story behind this whole restaurant is actually quite unique — it was the dorm for the paleontology students who came into the area when dinosaur bones were discovered, and they decided to turn it into a restaurant!

So you’ll find tons of indoor seating, simple wood paneling on the walls and floors, mixed in with, you know, dinosaur bones everywhere.

Like…LOTS of dino bones.

But enough looking around, let’s get onto the food!

Food

We decided to grab 4 entree items and 2 different drinks.

For those who love a good chicken sandwich, we grabbed the Fried Chicken Sandwich for $11.95. This is a Crispy Fried Chicken Breast on a Warm Brioche Bun finished with Pickles, Lettuce, Tomato, and Roasted Garlic Aïoli served with French Fries.

While we really loved the fact that the chicken was a decent size and the aioli had a nice garlicky taste to it, we were quickly disappointed by the stale bun.

What also really gets us is that this costs more than the chicken nugget meal (coming up next), but it’s LESS chicken! Overall, this one really isn’t worth it to us unless you really want a chicken sandwich and don’t care about the bun being fresh.

We decided to stay on our chicken kick and try the 8-Piece Chicken Breast Nuggets for $10.99. These are just regular chicken nuggets served with French Fries, and while we appreciated the seasoning on the thick breading, and the amount of chicken inside each one, these just aren’t anything special.

However, this is enough food to split with someone if neither of you are too hungry and you’re looking for some protein. It’s a good amount of chicken for the price you’re paying, so that is something to keep in mind!

Taking a break from chicken, if you’re a cheese-lover, you can snag the Cheese Fries with Chili for $6.49. These are crispy French Fries topped with Chili and Cheddar Sauce. We will say, while this isn’t spicy, there is a kick at the end of the chili that you should know about!

Listen, chili and cheese is always a good combo in our book, and we like Disney’s cheese sauce. However, is it anything to write home about? Most certainly not. It’s not a terrible value for the price, but also isn’t fantastic either.

Our last entree is one of the lighter options — the Cobb Salad for $9.79. It’s made of Fresh Greens, Cucumbers, Tomato, Hard-boiled Egg, Bacon, Blue Cheese, and Green Goddess Dressing. We’ll say one thing — we LOVED this dressing! It was very herby and creamy — a combination we adored.

However, the lettuce we got was pretty wilted in places, but very crunchy and fresh in others. We thought it was a little light on the vegetables, but it had plenty of bacon and egg, which we appreciated. Easily, the best part about this dish was the salad dressing, but you probably don’t just want that for lunch.

As for the drinks, we grabbed the non-alcoholic Wildberry Lemonade for $5.99, which is made of Wildberry Monin and Minute Maid® Premium Lemonade. We really enjoyed this drink! It’s tart, how lemonade should be in our book, and the Wildberry Monin adds a great berry flavor without too much sweetness. It might actually be a little too tart for kids, but if you’re an adult who doesn’t drink, it makes a good mocktail.

And on the alcoholic side, we grabbed the Golden Margarita for $15, which is made of Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila, Grand Mariner Liqueur, Sweet-and-Sour, and Lime Juice.

This drink was VERY lime forward, and we actually didn’t taste the orange from the Grand Mariner at all. For the record though, we also didn’t taste the tequila, so if you’re someone who doesn’t like to taste the alcohol in their drinks, this could be a great one for you. At the end of the day, this is a solid quick service margarita that’s refreshing, but won’t really blow your mind. 

Overall

So should you spend your money at Restaurantosaurus (HA, we only had to spell it once that time!)? The answer may be yes if:

• You, or members of your party, are a picky eater
• You’re looking for something simple, fast, and has a lot of options
• You want to dine inside with plenty of seating and cool theming

However, your answer may be no if any of the following applies:

• You want a unique meal that will really impress you
• You’re an adventurous eater who wants to experience what Animal Kingdom really has to offer in the dining department
• You have zero interest in dinosaurs

Ultimately, it’s up to you if this dining location is worth your time and money, but even if you don’t want to grab something to eat, we do recommend at least walking through it once to check out that theming!

Plus, not to mention that this restaurant could be going away soon with the retheming of DinoLand U.S.A. Disney is planning on! Grab a bite here while you can so you can say that you have! As always, stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news!

Learn more about the DinoLand U.S.A. retheme here!

Where is your favorite place to eat in Animal Kingdom? Tell us in the comments!

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