REVIEW: Disney World's Newest Restaurant Has STUNNING Views - But How's the Food?

If there’s a new restaurant in Disney World, you know we’re going to be there on opening day!

Disney Springs has finally added the highly-anticipated Summer House on the Lake to its repertoire of dining options, and of course, we had to stop by and see how it stacked up. Let’s dive into our full review of this new table service spot!

Background

Summer House on the Lake is located in the West Side section of Disney Springs. You’ll find the entrance to the restaurant directly across from Salt & Straw.

Summer House is a California-based chain serving Californian cuisine. You’ll see the laid-back, beachy flavors reflected in the menu.

Summer House on the Lake is a table service restaurant, so it’s probably a good idea to snag a reservation before your visit! Since they’re run by a third party, you’ll need to make your reservation on OpenTable instead of the Disney World website.

But if you just want dessert, this restaurant is offering a SECOND dining option! Anyone can walk up directly to The Cookie Bar, which is attached to Summer House.

The menu at The Cookie Bar changes daily, but there are several display cases filled with cookies, brownies, blondies, and more for you to peruse. If you’re dining inside the restaurant, you can order them at your table.

Now let’s take the full tour!

Atmosphere

Once you check in for your reservation at the podium outside, you will enter into the foyer. On your left is The Cookie Bar, and to the right are the dining areas.

At the entrance of The Cookie Bar, you’ll find Summer House merchandise available to purchase. They had quite a few items!

There are several dining sections in the restaurant. Near the front, there’s an open-air dining room, complete with one of the bars. This space is mostly filled with hi-top tables.

The main dining room is toward the back of the restaurant. In here, you’ll find a number of booths and regular tables.

The decor in here is really beautiful! They’ve got lots of greenery and the windows bring in plenty of natural light.

And then in the very back, there’s another patio. This section has a great view of the Sassagoula River.

Summer House is home to two bars, and bar seating is first-come, first-serve.

You’ll also find the restrooms toward the back of the restaurant, down a small hallway.

The stalls in the bathrooms have doors that go all the way from the floor to the ceiling!

Everything about this place is bright and clean. We really love the Summer House vibes overall.

So how does the food fare?

Food & Drinks

Like we mentioned above, the menu is mostly Californian-inspired cuisine. They’ve got chicken, seafood, a little bit of Tex-Mex, and of course, a great selection of desserts.

There are quite a few beverages available, as well. From wine to spritzers to zero-proof cocktails, they’ve got it all.

We started our meal out with something to drink — the Strawberry Fields zero-proof. It’s $9 and made with strawberry, sage, and lavender. It’s a little bit bubbly and not too sweet. There’s a strong strawberry flavor throughout.

Then it was time to get some appetizers!

We first tried the Signature Guacamole for $16.95. It comes served with tortilla chips, as well as pico de gallo, a tomatillo sauce, and a ranchero sauce. The guac itself was creamy and thick, with avocado chunks throughout.

The pico de gallo is bright and refreshing, and works really well in tandem with the avocado in the guacamole.

The ranchero sauce was earthy and rich in flavor. It had a tiny bit of a kick at the end.

The spiciest item was the tomatillo sauce, which was smooth with a lingering heat.

After we chowed down on our guac, we dug into the Potato Salad Deviled Eggs, which are $9.95. You get three egg halves with your order, which is not a huge portion for the price.

Since potato salad and deviled egg filling have very similar ingredients, these were quite delicious! There’s a strong potato flavor in the filling and they’re bright and cool — would be great on a summer day.

These were fun, we just wish there were more!

Once we cleared those plates, it was time to move on to the main part of the meal!

The Ahi Tuna Watermelon Tostadas come from the Raw & Chilled section of the menu. They’re $18.95 and topped with hass avocado and Thai chili. You get five small tostadas (like the size of tortilla chips) with your order, and once again, this is a bit on the pricey side for the serving size.

However, the flavors were AMAZING. We were very surprised by how well the watermelon and tuna meshed together, with added creaminess from the avocado and heat from the chili. Lots of fun flavors and textures here!

The main entree we got was Our Famous Herbed Chicken Breast Paillard for $21.95. It’s essentially a chicken breast pounded out flat and served with a side of arugula.

When we squeezed the lemon on top of this and got a bite with the arugula, the flavors were BURSTING. The chicken is well-seasoned, and very herbaceous, and there’s a nice char on the outside. We wish this would’ve been served with another side besides just arugula, but it was really yummy.

Finally, we come to dessert! We of course had to order several treats from The Cookie Bar. They were brought to our table on individual plates.

Let’s start with our favorite, which was the Blondie for $4.95.

It’s thick, sweet, and oh-so-gooey in the middle. We LOVED this one. The textures and the flavors blend beautifully together and it beat out all of the cookies in our ranking!

We got five different cookies, starting with the Pinky for $4.95. This is a sugar cookie topped with strawberry frosting and sprinkles.

And let us warn you — this is a messy one! The strawberry frosting gets everywhere. It has a bit of an artificial taste and the sugar cookie base was pretty basic, so this one fell somewhere in the middle for us.

With a name like Fudge Bomb, who could resist this cookie for $4.95?! It’s a sugar cookie topped with fudge icing.

Once again, the sugar cookie didn’t blow us away. It wasn’t super soft, and the flavors were simply…meh. We were hoping for a fudgy center or some kind of surprise in the middle of this one, but it’s really just topped with chocolate fudge icing. The icing is incredibly rich, but not bad!

We couldn’t resist trying the colorful Birthday Cake cookie for $4.95. It’s a sugar cookie with rainbow sprinkles!

This one tasted a bit more vanilla-ish than the other sugar cookies, but besides that, there wasn’t any distinct birthday cake-like flavor. This one was harder than the other cookies as well. It reminds us a lot of the sprinkle cookies you buy at the grocery store’s bakery section.

The Krispy Chocolate Chip Cookie is a little more expensive at $5.45. It’s their chocolate chip cookie topped with their brown butter Rice Krispie treats.

Now THIS was an improvement! There’s a fair amount of chocolate in the cookie and the krispies on top add a nice texture. We’d get this one again!

And last but not least, we’ve got the Lemon Cookie for $4.95.

It may look humble, but this was the best of the cookies! It’s soft and very strong on the lemon flavor, topped with a coating of icing for some sweetness. Simple and delicious.

Now that we’ve tried everything, where does Summer House stand?

Should You Go?

To be fair to Summer House on the Lake, we have to split it into two categories — the restaurant and The Cookie Bar. As far as the restaurant goes, all the food we ate was DELICIOUS and we thoroughly enjoyed each item. Our main complaint is with the portion sizes and prices.

This is a smidge more expensive than your basic table service spots, and the portion sizes are not large. If you have a bigger appetite, you’ll probably need to order multiple items. We tried several of the signature and more unique dishes and were not disappointed in the tastes and flavors, though!

At The Cookie Bar, we were left a smidge disappointed by the treats that had a sugar cookie base. We really liked two of the cookies (the Krispy Chocolate Chip and Lemon) and the Blondie, but we could’ve gone without the other treats. The cookies are all a decent size and price, but with Gideon’s Bakehouse around the corner, we don’t know if The Cookie Bar will become a fan favorite very soon.

Ultimately, Summer House is absolutely stunning decor-wise and would be a great place to eat if you’re open to trying new things or want a leisurely meal with your friends. It was an incredibly long meal from start to finish (more than 2 hours for several people sitting near us), so be prepared to relax and unwind.