We've been to both -- DS (7) was TOTALLY freaked out by the monster/horror movie trailers so just based on that I would strongly advise you against Sci-Fi for a five year old! I see that there is a range of opinions (naturally!) on the food -- we enjoyed our meals at both places, DH and I thought the atmosphere at Sci-Fi was great, but the silly horror movie stuff really ruined the meal for our son. He's not a scardy-cat type at all, but for him the black and white, old movies came across as scarier than what he's comfortable with, and I have to admit that I was a little surprised at how "graphic" some of the clips were -- rotting skin on the living dead, etc., that's clearly fake to an adult but quite disturbing for kids.