Here’s something most people don’t know: the Plano location of Medieval Times is one of only two in the state of Texas, and it has been running jousting tournaments for paying dinner guests since 1990. That’s more than three decades of knights on horseback, and the place still sells out on weekend nights. I went in expecting to feel vaguely embarrassed the whole time. I walked out having had a genuinely great evening.
The castle is hard to miss — it sits right off U.S. 75 near Spring Creek Parkway, an actual crenellated structure that looks like someone airlifted it out of a theme park and dropped it into suburban Plano. Inside, the main arena holds around 1,000 people arranged in color-coded sections, each rooting for a different knight. You get assigned a color at the door, and from that point forward, your knight is your guy. I was in the yellow section. We lost. I still cheered.
Dinner is served without silverware — that’s part of the shtick, and it works better than you’d think. You get a whole roasted half-chicken, spare ribs, herb-seasoned potatoes, tomato bisque soup, and a garlic bread roll, all delivered in ceramic bowls and eaten entirely with your hands. The food is legitimately fine, not catering-tray fine, but actual hot food that doesn’t make you feel like you wasted dinner. There’s also a vegetarian option now if you ask when you book, which I appreciate. Soft drinks are included; beer, wine, and cocktails run separately and are reasonably priced at around $10–$12.
The show itself runs about two hours. There’s a storyline involving the king, a villain, a princess, a sorcerer, and various acts of treachery, delivered with total straight-faced commitment from the cast. The jousting and sword fights are real — these performers train extensively, and some of the horsemanship sequences are legitimately impressive. Watching a knight at full gallop drive a lance through a hanging ring from the saddle is the kind of thing that’s hard not to respect regardless of your feelings about dinner theater.
Pricing runs about $67 for adults and $43 for kids ages 12 and under for the standard package. There are premium upgrades — early access, better seats, a photo package — that push the total higher, but the base ticket gets you the full show and the full meal. I’d skip the photo package personally and just take your own.
When to go matters here. Friday and Saturday nights pack the arena and amplify the crowd energy considerably — it’s genuinely more fun when 900 people around you are yelling at a guy on a horse. Sunday shows are quieter and maybe 20 percent calmer, which could be a plus if you’re bringing young kids. Avoid going hungry to the pre-show displays thinking dinner will be fast — there’s a 45-minute social period in the bar area before you’re seated, and that’s when you browse the gift shop and look at the horses in the stable viewing area near the entrance.
I took my nephew for his birthday and he talked about it for two weeks. I’ve also gone with a group of adults on a purely ironic basis and ended up just… enjoying it. Whatever your reason for going, Medieval Times doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is — a big, loud, theatrical spectacle where you eat chicken with your hands and yell at jousting knights. In Plano, of all places, it’s one of the more memorable evenings you can have.
