Raise your hand if you love Disney food! 🙋 There are so many new restaurants coming to Disney World in the near future and you know what that means — MORE. DISNEY. FOOD.

The brand new Connections Cafe and Eatery opened in EPCOT a couple months ago which gives you another quick service option (and Starbucks location) in the park. Now, we’re waiting on several other restaurants to open including Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Hollywood Studios, The Cake Bake Shop on Disney’s BoardWalk, and more! Another restaurant we’ve been waiting to hear more about is Summer House on the Lake which is set to open at Disney Springs sometime next year, but luckily there are other locations so we know what to expect!

Summer House Santa Monica has two current locations: one in Chicago, Illinois and one in North Bethesda, Maryland. We visited the restaurant in Chicago to get an idea of what will be offered at the upcoming Disney Springs location!

The restaurant has a California-based cuisine and you can tell by the atmosphere and menu. Disney has not released much about the brand new restaurant, however we did get to see some concept art to get an idea of what it looks like.

Without further ado, let’s check out the Chicago location of Summer House!

Atmosphere

The Chicago location is on a busy city street and packed in with several other building, but that doesn’t stop this place from looking GORG. The exterior has the same sleek black and white design that you can see in the concept art for Disney Springs.

When you step into the restaurant, it really does feel like you’ve entered a summer beach house! There are adorable windows separating the entrance and waiting area from the main dining room. If you get thirsty while waiting to check in at the hostess stand (there was a line to the door when we got there), there is citrus and melon-infused water for you to sample!

Also at the entrance is the bakery case with several delicious looking treats! Since the bakery case is right up front when you enter, it had us thinking about dessert before we even sat down!

Summer House accepts reservations and it is likely that the Disney Springs location will have a reservation system as well. However, we walked up without a reservation and had no wait for a table!

There were three main dining rooms — we were in the dining room to the right which looked like this! The greenery was one of our favorite parts about the atmosphere and the seating and brick walls completed the beach house look.

The center dining room has a large glass roof that lets in plenty of natural light. There are also tons of string lights and pretty lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the arched ceiling makes the room feel 10 times bigger than it is. We can’t imagine watching a Florida rainstorm through that ceiling!

There is also a bar area with a few TVs in both side dining rooms. The bar counter has hooks for your purse and the seats reminded us of something we’d see at a beachside restaurant!

After exploring the decor, it was time to take a seat at our table! There were a variety of tables including regular, high top, and semi-circle booths, like the one we dined at!

We sat down and received a big bottle of water for the table. There were cloth napkins with silverware and small plates waiting for us.

And this was the view from our table. We could see the open kitchen in the other room and could view the pizza oven area where we watched chefs make pizza.

After all that exploring, we worked up an appetite — it’s time to EAT!

Eats

Menu

As we mentioned earlier, the menu is California-inspired, and you can tell just by reading it! Summer House had a QR code menu on the table, however our server did say that paper menus were an option.

The Summer House menu overall is HUGE. There are so many different menus broken down on the website, but we’ll walk you through them! First we peeked at the cocktail section where there are several hand-crafted cocktails ranging in price from $13-$16. There are also a couple of lemonades that you can choose to make boozy for an extra $6.

There is an extensive wine list with sparkling, rosé, white, and red wines…

…and several types of beers, including ciders, a seltzer option, and more.

Now let’s take a look at the food! Summer House has seasonal specials that rotate depending on the time of year. During our visit, there were items like the summer corn pizza, Malibu peanut noodle salad, and chicken tomatillo soup!

You see that little camera icon next to some of the menu items? When you click on that, it pulls up a picture of that item — this was one of our favorite parts about exploring the menu!

The main menu is broken into a few sections. You’ll see starters like guacamole and house-made chips, salads, sandwiches, pastas, vegetables, and a raw & chilled section. There’s plenty to choose from!

Here’s where we get to the exciting part. Our server told us that Summer House is known for their pizza and the menu says, “Each day we handcraft our dough with California milled flour, filtered water, sea salt, and fresh yeast. It rests for 18 hours to ensure a crisp crust and unique flavor.” Cue the drooling.

There are also a few options for kids! You’ll find things on this menu to please the picky eaters like grilled cheese and chicken fingers.

For dessert not from the bakery case, you’ll find light coconut cream pie, a peaches and cream waffle, and chocolate cake.

Remember that bakery case right at the front of the restaurant? Well, here’s what they have! There are several cookie flavors to choose from (and these cookies are GIANT, but we’ll get to that later)…

…as well as some crispy rice treats and brownies! There are gluten-free and vegan options, so the bakery is friendly to different diets.

Also on the dessert section of the menu is the after dinner drinks

On top of all of this, Summer House also offers a weekend brunch option. Just like Homecomin’, Wine Bar George, and The Boathouse, we hope the Summer House brunch will also be offered at Disney Springs! Let’s dig into the food and drinks.

Drinks

We started off our meal with a few cocktails (because why not?). Our server was super helpful and gave us recommendations for drinks. On the left is the Tropical Dreams and on the right is the Watermelon Sugar, Hi!

The Watermelon Sugar, Hi! is made with summer house selected codigo 1530 rosa tequila single barrel, lime, and watermelon. And WOW, they did not go light on the tequila. This drink was very strong but the watermelon made it go down pretty smooth! If you’re a margarita or tequila fan, we think you would enjoy this one. We do wish, especially because of the name, that a sugar rim came with this drink instead of a salt rim. This is the priciest drink from the cocktail list at $16, but hey, you do not get cheated on the amount of alcohol in your drink!

Next, we tried the Tropical Dreams which is made with tito’s vodka, habanero-honey, grapefruit, and rhubarb. We expected this drink to be much spicier than it was, but there was only a hint of that habanero flavor! The drink was VERY sweet, so if you don’t have a sweet tooth, stay away. However, it was a nice and refreshing tropical drink and we really enjoyed it! And for $13, it was one of the cheaper cocktails.

And last but not least, we tried the Scotty Doesn’t Know which includes redemption rye, brovo pink vermouth, liquid alchemist pomegranate, lemon, and orange bitters. While this obviously isn’t an old fashioned, we think old fashioned fans would love this drink. It was super smooth and we really have no complaints about this drink!

The whiskey flavor was intense (which we expected), so this drink is for whiskey fans only. You can try it for $15. 

Eats

Are you ready? Because now it’s finally time to dig into the food! We ordered two entrees — the first was the Crispy Chicken Sandwich for $14.95. On top of the all natural chicken breast is slaw and snappy pickles. We will say, they did NOT lie about snappy pickles! The pickles and slaw were both super crunchy which added a nice texture to the sandwich. The chicken itself had the perfect breading and it wasn’t too thick. Overall, we thought this was one of the best chicken sandwiches we’ve had!

For a side, we could choose from garlic mashed potatoes, french fries, or sweet potato waffle fries. We ultimately went for the  Sweet Potato Waffle Fries, which were good, but not our favorite part of the dish. These were extra crunchy, but we prefer our waffle fries to be a bit softer (if you’ve ever had Chick-Fil-A waffle fries, you know). However, we think any sweet potato fan would like these — if you also prefer your fries on the crispier side, it’s a win win!

You didn’t think we were leaving this place without trying one of their pizzas after that mouth-watering menu description, did you? Good, because we ordered the Spicy Salumi and Burrata Pizza for $21.95. They weren’t lying when they said they made good pizza. This one is made with salumi, garlic, fresh mozzarella, whipped burrata, and tomato sauce.

The crust was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and now we understand why they brag about it. The salumi (which is cured Italian meats) was delicious and a fun variation on pepperoni pizza. And although ours melted quickly, the whipped burrata had a nice and light taste that paired nicely with the salumi! The one downside is that the burrata made the bottom of the crust watery pretty quickly. Our first few slices were definitely crispier and better overall because of this, so it’s something to keep in mind when ordering this pizza!

On the side, we got red pepper flakes and freshly grated parmesan to top our pizza with. Having the fresh cheese made a huge difference instead of having old parmesan from a shaker.

Okay, remember how we talked about those giant cookies? Well, it is time. We ordered one giant chocolate chip cookie for $3.95.

These aren’t quite as large as Gideon’s Bakehouse cookies, but they are still easily sharable. We got a regular chocolate chip cookie and unfortunately we have to say that this was not our favorite. The outsides of the cookie were almost too hard and crunchy and we wish that there were more chocolate chunks. However, we did like that the chocolate chunks were big and the cookie was slightly softer in the middle. Overall, it was not a bad cookie, but we’d recommend grabbing one of their other desserts on the menu.

And that wraps up our meal at Summer House Santa Monica!

Nosh or Not

You should check out Summer House on the Lake when it comes to Disney World if you:

• Want to try something brand new! There are only 2 other Summer House locations in the country and there are several unique items on the menu, so this is perfect if you’re looking for new dining experiences in Disney Springs.
• Are going to celebrate a special occasion. This has the perfect date night or celebration atmosphere, so it’s a good spot to for those events!
• Want to bring the whole family. As we said, the menu is HUGE and there is something for just about everyone and every type of diet. From picky eaters to adventurous foodies, there is plenty to choose from here!

You should stick to the other restaurants in Disney Springs if you:

• Want a cheap meal. Now, this place isn’t Victoria & Albert’s expensive, but it is not cheap either. Things add up quickly especially if you want a full meal with cocktails, appetizers, entrees, and dessert.
• Are hoping for a quick meal. While our service was great, this does take longer than grabbing a bite to eat at a quick service location like D-Luxe Burger. So if you like to be in the action with little down time, you may want to skip!

Overall

All in all, we really enjoyed our experience at Summer House and think this restaurant will fit in perfectly with the Disney Springs atmosphere. Our server was kind and attentive and was super helpful with recommendations. If you can’t tell, we’re obsessed with the atmosphere and decor of this restaurant — it truly transports you to a California beach house! The amount of natural light in that center dining room is just *chef’s kiss*.

The food is pricey overall, with our pizza costing us about $22. The cocktails were reasonably priced compared to other Disney World bars and they were all a heavy pour. We do think the price is justified for the quality of food — we’ll be dreaming about that pizza crust until the Disney Springs location opens next year! Although the cookie wasn’t our favorite, it is a big sweet treat to share with the table at the end of your meal.

Disney has not announced an exact opening timeline for Summer House on the Lake yet, but we’ll be the first to let you know when an opening date is announced. In the meantime, there are so many Disney World projects to keep up with, so stay tuned to DFB for the latest updates!

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Will you dine at Summer House on the Lake when it opens in Disney Springs? Let us know in the comments!