When traveling to Disney’s Vero Beach Resort last month, we decided to spend a few hours at Disney Springs to do some shopping and dining. We had heard a lot of buzz about a newer restaurant The Edison. We were excited to book a reservation here and grab lunch. Read on to hear more about this spot and a review of our dining experience.
Restaurant Atmosphere
The overall vibe and atmosphere of the Edison is quite evident the moment you walk through the front doors with the large clock and its exposed gears being the first thing guests notice. Disney describes this place as industrial-Gothic, which is pretty much spot on with the aged details and pops of metal, mixed with vintage furnishings. The cast members all wear outfits from the early part of the 20th century such as flapper dresses for the hosts and newsie type uniforms for the servers.
Hanging out in the front entrance area.
While there were some tables upstairs it seems downstairs is where most of the dining area is. The Edison also features multiple bars, a stage, and a dance floor. There were cool projections throughout the space showing old fashioned cartoon clips on the walls. During the day, the dance floor doubles as the main dining area, which is where we were seated. Outside of that area, there are a few booths and high tables near the larger bar. The restaurant isn’t all that large so we could see that during busy times, there could be a significant wait to dine here.
The stairs that lead to the lower level.
One of the many well stocked bars.
The stage with cartoon projection.
The Drinks
Being a bar, The Edison has an extensive menu of most any drink you could want. They also have a signature cocktail list which we were excited to try. The drinks all have an old fashion flare with fun names and unique ingredients (similar to The Hangar Bar).
Julie ordered the “Samantha Sterling”, composed of Grey Goose, millet rose, line, watermelon juice and cinnamon cordial. She thought this was a great combo of ingredients and really delicious. Andrew had the “Time Turner”, made of white rum, campari, lime juice, pineapple and orgeat. With an understated tropical flavor, it was tasty but pretty much an average rum cocktail.
The Samantha Sterling and the Time Turner.
A list of signature cocktails.
The Food
Unfortunately the lunch menu at The Edison is super limited, to the point that when Julie finally settled on something to order (fish tacos) and informed they were out of that dish, she was at a complete loss for what to eat. The menu is mainly sandwiches and pricey salads that don’t even come with protein. The server suggested ordering an appetizer as a meal but the options seemed to be more of the shareable kind, not anything that could really resemble a meal (when she suggested a plate of deviled eggs for lunch, we asked ourselves “Seriously?”)
Since Julie wasn’t really that inspired by anything she decided to just have a bit of what Andrew ordered. We let the server know that we were splitting everything we ordered so they were kind enough to bring out the dish and an extra plate or bowl for easy sharing. As an appetizer, we split the Caesar salad, which was a great size for the both of us. Instead of the usual caesar dressing, this was served with a colatura vinaigrette. Julie found it different and refreshing, but Andrew was luke warm to it and is more partial to traditional creamy ceasar.
The Cesar salad.
For lunch, we chose the Croque Burger, which happened to be the special of the month. This was a sirloin, short rib and brisket burger with honey mustard, maple cured ham, swiss cheese on a sourdough bread dipped in egg, that was then grilled. It was essentially a french toast sandwich that also came with a side of maple syrup to dip the sandwich. It was quite and interesting creation with a great sweet/savory balance. The sandwich was rather large and the fries were well seasoned too.
The Service
We are a little bummed to report that our service wasn’t that great. Our server was somewhat friendly, but slow and forgetful. She would disappear for long periods of time, and when bringing something to another table would not even make eye contact for us to grab her attention. The worst was when we asked for ketchup to go with our fries, we had to ask again 15 minutes later, and then by the time we got the ketchup the fries were beyond cold and unappetizing. Definitely a lack luster experience missing that “Disney level of customer service”.
Overall Thoughts
We had really high hopes and were super excited when making this reservation, but unfortunately this was an average meal at best. The limited menu and sub par service made for an experience that completely missed the mark for us. The drinks and food were good, but when we received the check for our 2 drinks, one salad, and a sandwich we felt that what we ordered certainly didn’t warrant such a high price point.
Now we must say we absolutely love the vibe of the restaurant and the robust drink menu. We both agreed that the Edison seems like an awesome place to hang out at night. We would love to go back in the future to try some more drinks and apps with friends, and try to check out the music and dancing. It just seems The Edison is not the best choice for lunch. We suggest to save your money and find one of the many other great options at Disney Springs instead.
Do you remember when Planet Hollywood used to be a big blue planet with “The Jenny” boat from Forrest Gump parked outside? We sure do and we have to admit we probably haven’t actually visited since then. With the redo of Disney Springs the restaurant received a facelift in 2017 to fit the new theming and we were definitely due for a visit to see the remodel. Last week we had a hankering for some American food and went to go check out the redone Planet Hollywood Observatory which included a different menu too. We have always been big movie fans so were also excited to see the memorabilia inside too. Read on to hear about our dinner at this fun themed spot…