City Works Eatery & Pour House is the newest restaurant at Disney Springs and we made it out to have dinner on opening night yesterday for our City Works review. Billed as Disney Springs’ premier sports restaurant, City Works promises good eats, plenty of beer, and a sports viewing experience that is second to none at Disney Springs. City Works is also committed to putting a spotlight on local craft beers, dedicating 30-40% of its taps to Florida offerings. With two happy hours, guests can enjoy discounts on beer and bites while catching the game.
While City Works generously offered to host us for a meal, we paid for our dinner 100% out of pocket for this review, minus a 20% Tables in Wonderland discount. Other discounts offered include 10% off for Annual Passholders, Disney Vacation Club, and Cast Members. Let’s jump in!
Theming
City Works is in the unique position of sharing the same structure as The NBA Experience. Even though the two share a building, the are completely separate entities. For more photos, check out our photo tour.
The space is very open and inviting. City Works finally fills the void in Disney Springs for a place to grab a drink, some bites, and watch a game. With 17 TVs and a variety of seating arrangements, the space is pretty well thought out and never felt overly crowded due to just how open and inviting it is.
That said, you aren’t going to find a level of theming like you might at The Edison or something along those lines. This is decidedly different offering at Disney Springs, and it’s probably needed given the already stacked lineup of restaurants already.
Before we jump in to what we had, you can find the full food menu and drinks menu on the City Works Eatery and Pour House website.
Drinks and Happy Hour(s)
With a bar that runs nearly the entire length of the restaurant and two massive beer lists on display, it’s no wonder that City Works features a deep beer lineup. Perhaps more important than what we can say about a handful of beers that we tried is just showing you what options you have. Here’s a rundown of the taps on display and the beer lists that you can find right now.
Oh yeah, did we mention that there is not one, but two happy hours?
City Works offers what it calls “Happier Hours” which runs Monday through Thursday from 3-6pm and again from 10pm to midnight. It’s worth noting that the 3-6pm Happier Hour includes $2 off well cocktails, glasses of wine, and local craft beers, as well as offering everything on their “bar bites” section of the menu for $7. The Happier Hour that runs from 10pm to midnight drops the discount on the bar bites and is drinks only.
Right now, City Works tells us that about 30% of their beer list falls under the “local craft beers” heading, giving you a pretty great selection for Happier Hours.
Also of great importance to know about is the Build-Your-Own Flight. With the build-your-own flight, you pick any four beers (minus blended beers) and create something wonderful. If the task of building your own flight is too daunting, you can choose one of four pre-selected flights. Prices on the build-your-own flight will vary based on the beer you choose, and each pour is 6oz.
As for what we had, we were seated towards the end of the earlier Happier Hour which meant we had a wonderful opportunity to try some of the local craft beers at the $2 discount.
The West Floridian belgian beer came highly recommended from our server and didn’t disappoint. At 10.5% ABV (and $2 off), it’s one of the best “values” on the menu that never gets “hoppy”.
At the risk of either explaining what you already know if you’re into beers, or what your server will likely do a better job at explaining, here are just some more photos of beer that we got. Our server, Vinnie, was able to walk us through the menu, taking into account what our individual likes and dislikes were. Vinnie didn’t recommend a single beer that we didn’t end up liking and he explained that the servers went through enough training to be able to make your visit enjoyable.
Bar Bites
We ordered off of the bar bites to take advantage of the Happier Hour and we weren’t disappointed with our choice!
Fried Pickles – $10 $7
Kosher dill, beer battered, ranch dressing
Normally $10, the Happier Hour knocked these down to $7 and they were some of the best fried pickles we’ve ever had. A light, airy beer batter never overwhelmed the kosher dill pickle that it housed. We can see these becoming our go-to bar bites offering on subsequent visits although there are some other items that we’d definitely like to try like the Popcorn Chicken with Nashville Hot sauce and the Cheese Curds. Stay tuned for reviews on those when we return.
Sharables
Duck Nachos – $18
Pulled confit duck, pepper jack cheese sauce, pickled jalapeños, smoked tomatoes, red onion, white beans, avocado, micro cilantro, queso fresco, wonton chips
We strayed from the Bar Bites menu simply because we saw a neighboring table order the Duck Nachos and they looked really good. The wonton chips made for a wonderful base to the nachos and were even flavorful on the rare bite that didn’t involve any of the toppings. The duck was delicious and paired wonderfully with the queso fresco and assorted toppings. We’d definitely recommend the duck nachos and look forward to trying some more of the shareables on a return visit.
Entrees
We tried to vary our approach to the entrees for the review, selecting a burger, salmon, bbq platter, and pasta. All were very good, especially for an opening night at a restaurant. Let’s take a bite!
Scorpion Burger – $18
Habanero pepper jack, jalapeños, five pepper jam, arugula, vine-ripened tomato, scorpion pepper aioli
First up is the Scorpion Burger. How can you not order something called the scorpion burger, first off? As promised by our server, this burger packs a punch with heat thanks to a scorpion pepper aioli and habanero pepper jack. We actually ordered ours with an Impossible Burger patty for an additional $2, an option for all of the burgers.
The member of our party who is typically much more adept at handling heat than some other members of the party was even impressed and taken aback a bit by just how much heat there is. A five pepper jam was the only odd part of the flavor profile, bringing a bit of sweetness to an otherwise spicy lineup of flavors.
We’ll also take some time to talk about the fries. All burgers come with your choice of olive oil parsley fries or a side salad. The fries were absolutely wonderful. The olive oil parsley gave them a unique and enjoyable flavor, so much so that we decided to order another round as a side for the table to pick at.
Smoked BBQ Platter – $38
Hardwood-smoked baby back ribs, half chicken, pulled pork, Louisiana hot link, lime queso butter grilled corn, spicy maple bacon baked beans
At $38, this is the most expensive entree, so we had to see if it could provide some value at that price point. Just looking at the description we could imagine it would be a full plate of food and we weren’t disappointed with the portion.
The baby back ribs were really smoked well in City Works’ in-house smoker while still maintaining a wonderful flavor from the BBQ sauce. Hidden behind the ribs is a half-chicken that follows the same trend of impossibly wonderful, smoked exterior.
The Louisiana Hot Link sausage was another standout part of the dish. The only thing that we felt was sub-par was the amount of super fatty pulled pork we received. Who doesn’t love fat, it can be delicious when it compliments other parts of meat, but this was just overly fatty.
All in all, it was a delicious plate that we see as more of a dish to split between two people due to the portion sizes than something a single patron might want to spend neary $40 on.
Cajun Linquine – $22
Blackened chicken, andouille sausage, bell peppers, red onion scallions, sriracha cream, linguine pasta
If everything to this point hasn’t filled us up, we find ourselves with another impressive portion in the Cajun Linguine. While we were initially hesitant about a sriracha cream it worked really well here with a balanced flavor profile and a suggestion of heat. Not anything close to the scorpion burger of course, which makes this a very accessible offering. We were pleased with how the pasta was cooked and the chicken and andouille sausage were delicious. This is another offering that we would consider not only a good value for portion size, but one that hits all of the flavors of something with the word cajun in the name.
Salmon – $29
Pan-seared salmon, butternut squash purée, olive oil poached fingerling potatoes, salsa verde, succotash – grilled corn, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, butternut squash and grape tomato
Finally, we have arrived at our final entree of the evening, the pan-seared salmon.
As an aside, we didn’t expect to go into a pub-style eatery and pour house with high expectations on presentation, but the kitchen knocked it out of the park. We haven’t even made it to the desserts yet, but our (perhaps) low expectations have been exceeded. It’s also important to go back to the fact that we’re dining as regular guests and not as invited media. That means that while something like the salmon below might be meticulously plated for a photo op at a media event, this is actually what you can expect from your visit on a random Thursday during March Madness.
Ok, back to the salmon. The salmon was wonderfully prepared and soft to the bite. Never overly fishy, a light season combined with the variety in flavor from the accompaniments made it a delicious dish that we can recommend. Again, the portion was significant enough to justify the price point, a recurring theme at City Works as far as our food is concerned.
Dessert
As you might imagine, we didn’t have much room for dessert, but we were able to order two of the 6 offerings and had a split-decision.
Peanut Butter Snickers Pie – $10
Oreo cookie crust, peanut butter mousse, whipped cream, Snickers, chocolate and caramel sauce
We’ll start with the better of the two desserts we tried and probably something as close to a must-get as you can find. A delicious, yet subtle, peanut butter mousse sits between an oreo cookie crust base and chunks of snickers and whipped cream. If you scoop it up right, you’ll combine those flavors with a chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled across the plate for a wonderful dessert offering. It’s a smart combination of flavors that is balanced perfectly, earning a recommendation.
S’mores Dip – $10
Hershey’s chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers
While we had a consensus on how good the Peanut Butter Snickers Pie was, we encountered a couple of setbacks on the S’mores Dip, one logistical and one as it related to the actual dish.
First, the skillet itself comes out scalding. To the point where our server suggested that only he moved the handle away from the dessert after procuring a thick layer of napkins to protect his own hands. We’d like to see a sleeve of some sort placed on the handle, especially for something that will likely draw the attention of kids at the table due to the fun nature of the dessert.
Our second setback is actually a bit of a head scratcher because as scalding hot as the skillet was, it didn’t translate to the marshmallow too much. We found them to be about room temperature and the Hershey’s chocolate at the bottom of the skillet the same. We were hoping for a much, much warmer setup and have to wonder if the heat is just being captured by the skillet.
Either way, even with those two setbacks, it’s still a fun dish that gets the flavors right. We can’t recommend it in its current state though and hope to see City Works improve on what would otherwise be a pretty popular dish.
Our Thoughts
Overall, we had an impressive first meal at City Works. It’s a different type of restaurant than anything else you’ll really find at Disney Springs and it should do well thanks to that fact.
When considering a new restaurant at Disney Springs, it’s hard to judge it on it’s own merits and not draw parallels to other existing dining locations around Disney’s shopping and dining district. City Works offers something different. TVs scattered across the wall (and probably room for more near the satellite bars), an extensive and accessible beer list, and well portioned food make this a one-stop-shop if you’re looking to watch the game while at Walt Disney World. It’s a shame that the construction scheduled slipped past the Super Bowl, but with March Madness just around the corner, City Works has quickly shot up to the top of the list for sports fans at Walt Disney World.