Thomas Edison Inn

You need to let people know, The Thomas Edison Inn doesn’t exist any longer. It is now a Hilton Doubletree Hotel. The restaurant is called FREIGHTERS.
I can’t tell you how the rooms are. I’ve never stayed in one but the restaurant and adjoining lounge/​bar are wonderful.

RIP TED. The once glorious TED had become a run down disaster in recent years but now that it’s a newly renovated Double Tree it’s a perfectly nice place to stay. Super clean rooms, soft bedding and the ambiance you would expect from Hilton Double Tree. It definitely feels more like a cookie cutter chain hotel now, but let’s face it, the TED was in shambles and needed some serious help. This renovation is just what the TED needed short of being razed altogether.

I am with the Dean Graziosi real estate events and we had an event in this hotel.
This ballroom was open and didn’t really have any privacy to it. The lobby was right by our event and the people attending the hotel we could hear through the sliding doors. The staff was very helpful but the room and screen were not very accommodating.

This restaurant and hotel are closed 9÷8÷12.

Had a wonderful lunch while watching large ships roll by. My carrot cake was spectacular. I also enjoyed the house clam chowder.

Poor Tom Edison, having his name sullied by this restaurant. From poor service to cold steaks and fish everything that could go wrong did. 18 of had reserved for a Sunday Bday dinner so far so good. Seated right away and the place was more or less empty on a Sunday mid-​afternoon. We chose 2pm as in b/​t brunchers and dinner service. After being seated the waitress asked for drink orders, I asked what kind of beer they had as no beer menu was presented. She said the had just about everything, sure. !5 minutes after ordering a Michelob she returned to say they were out. 2 beer requests later she returned with a beer menu.
We finally ordered our dinners and after 45 minutes the salads came out, we’re now at 3:15pm. Salads finished we expected dinners to arrive soon. Some of our party arrived late, we told them they haven’t missed dinner yet so hurry and order. Well the kitchen had the early dinners finished they kept them under the lamps until the late arrivals dinners were ready and had finished their salads. My med-​rare strip steak was now beef jerky, and veggies were rock hard.
Save your money go somewhere else

I went for the st pattys pub crawl 2012 with several of my friends. It started wrong when the house keeping did not have our rooms available. Next, the bar did not have the bracelets to go on the pub crawl. It is clear that this was once a great place but now desperately needs to be remodeled. The balcony guard had to be shaken to verify it was not going to fall off. The roof needs to be replaced. The bed/​TV/​furniture are all old. I didn’t see any refrigerator options. The main hall has a bunch of dead port huron pictures of yesterday to remind you that this places prime was not in this century. The food was overly priced. I had grey hair in my food — the 3 nut chicken. All the steaks were not cooked properly. Service was completely null. Complaining to the manager resulted in him telling us his old chef was down the street and to go there. There is rumor the place is now bankrupt and a new or potential owner wants to build a rec center for port huron business but the city is declining him. The only reason this place did not get 1 star was the view of a bridge and a narrow river overlooking a run down casino and the convenience of the shuttle bus.

When the room tries to decapitate and kill you while you sleep, you know this is going to be the worst hotel experience you’ll have ever had. Allow me to explain.
My wife and I booked a room in this hotel for a wedding we were attending in the Port Huron area. First off the beds are as old as the hotel itself that was built in 1987 and it was like sleeping on a slab of concrete. Apparently they are in the midst of renovating from what I have heard, but they have been saying that for years now and it doesn’t show. Half the rooms have the old beds and the other rooms have newer beds that according to them are much more comfortable. Not true. My in-​laws who also attended the wedding stayed there and had a newer bed and there’s was just as hard. Also they claim that the beds are Queen sized, but it was no bigger then a standard Full size at best.
I get they want to have it feel all «old timey» and stuff there. I actually like that about the place, but update the things in the room that matter like the beds and the broken down recliners. The leg rest on one was bent on a slant so your left leg would slowly slide off. The other was just a broken down mess that only partially opened and then wouldn’t close. The arm you pull to recline got locked and we had to flip it on its side to get it to close back up. Seriously?
Now on to how the room almost decapitated me. As stated the bed was like a rock and it was so bad my wife ended up taking the cushions off of the couch and lying them out on the ground so she could sleep on the floor. According to her it was 100 times more comfortable then the crap bed we were provided. I stuck it out in the bed and found a weird sweet spot that made it almost tolerable which had me sleeping in an awkward angle. It was about 3:30 in the morning when I was asleep and went to roll over. I am a bigger guy so I tend to flop a bit when I re-​position at night and when I did the headboard came crashing down on my head.
After shaking off the initial shock of what had just taken place I pushed it back up to a vertical base and turned the light on to see what the heck happened. After doing a quick investigation I found that the head board wasn’t even fastened to the bed frame. It was just pinned up against the wall by the bed and when I rolled over the bed pulled away and like Humpty Dumpty it came falling down. How did housekeeping not catch this when they changed the sheets and cleaned the room?
During checkout I told the lady at the front desk how awful it was and how I was almost killed mid sleep and she seemed like she didn’t care one bit. Her answer was «Sorry, but we are in the process of switching out all of the beds so you unfortunately got one of the bad ones. Since you already got a discount from AAA and were part of a block of rooms set aside for a wedding we cannot give you any further discounts.» I was livid. As much as I wanted the room to be comped for the night I would have settled for a decent apology at least, but instead I got an insincere excuse with a half ass «Sorry» for the troubles.
We don’t head out that way too often, but if we ever do there is no way I am staying at the Thomas Edison Inn again. I’d rather sleep under the Blue Water Bridge as that seems safer then the death traps they charge you for there.

Boy was it a hot one on Sunday. So, me and BF decided to go to Port Huron. Port Huron has a wonderful boardwalk along the river and you can walk under the bridge that goes to Canada. As we were walking and nearing the bridge I told BF let’s go into the Thomas Edison Inn and have something cold to drink. As we were sweating and nearing the Inn I was dreaming of a nice cold one!!! First we hit the restrooms — well needed in order to wipe off the sweat. Then we went into the lounge area and sat down at the bar and ordered 2 Long Island Iced Teas! Yum. Sitting at the bar you can look outside and see freighters and other ships go through the waterway. Here we were sitting in the airconditioned lounge looking out at people on the boardwalk sweating and being able to see the same view that they had!
The dark wood in the lounge is beautiful. Since we were sitting at the bar we did not have to wait for a waitress to come and take our orders (which I think they were slow). Instead the barmaid came up to us and asked us what we wanted. She brought over the Long Island Iced Teas and a basket of freshly popped pop corn.
I was going to go over to the piano and play something but then I remembered I don’t know how to play the piano! I would have liked to have stayed there all night, but there was a 50^th high school reunion and a wedding there that evening, so we had to leave the coolness and return to the heat wave!!!

I was overall very pleased with my stay. The place is a little outdated but that is how it is supposed to feel. Rooms were nice enough. I had dinner and breakfast in the resturant. Both meals were great, dinner service was very slow though.

Excellent food. Ate here twice during our stay. Perch was excellent, as was the onion soup. Edison salad was perfect.

Personal items were taken from room. Hotel staff only ones with key access. When reported to manager on duty, no investigation was done. Should have filed a police report.

I like the idea of the Thomas Edison Inn but I will not eat there again.
This past Sunday we had brunch and 8 out of the 11 of us ended up throwing up 24 hours after we dined. We had come for an anniversary brunch. The gift that keeps on giving!

Great view of the St. Clair River. But the entire place is way overdue for a make over. It smells, looks and feels like the heavy use it’s had since the early 80’s.

This place is so run down and icky now it makes me sad.
I came and stayed here several times years ago when it was new and nice. The food was good, the rooms were beautiful and the views stellar. All that is left is the view.
On my last stay here the recliner in my room was broken down and sagging and the bed was not much better. The whirlpool tub was so slow to fill that it was not worth it really, especially since it made some very scary noises even when filled properly, like the motor was on its last legs or something. The carpet was worn in places too. The view was not as nice when we discovered the railing on our balcony was downright rickety, hard to relax when you find something like that.
The restaurant had bland food, I swear my fish was previously frozen. Come on we are right on the water people, do not buy Gorton’s fish. Service was hit or miss and complaints were met with shrugs. It was not cheap priced but the quality was pretty low.
Overall scary and not worth the money at all. I will never be back.

The Thomas Ed Inn is stale and old. (Sorry it is)
The biggest pro is the location. The restaurant sits just under the blue water bridge and has prime view of freighters and tourists. A great place to sit and watch, don’t expect much in the way of service or food.
I have never had good service, except for Sunday buffet. Food is over priced and just not that good.
The best times at The Ed have been in the bar. Best area in the entire hotel.

Positives:
The food was very good. Didn’t knock my socks off but was definitely worth the money. In fact, the bill was less than I anticipated even after ordering the priciest entrée on the menu and a $ 40 bottle of wine.
The seafood bisque (I think they call it a chowder) is delicious.
The rack of lamb was very good if perhaps a little delicate.
Negatives:
The server was not really on the ball when it came to bussing our table. Dirty dishes on one side of the table is not romantic.
The view of the river and the Blue Water Bridge is nice, but because the building is set back from the water it’s not astounding.

A good Sunday brunch, but very over-​priced for vegetarians. I would not recommend eating here when you want to go out to eat, but this is the place for wedding receptions and the such. When my reception spot told me 3 months before the wedding they could no longer accommodate the amount of guests I had booked it for, the Thomas Edison Inn came to my rescue and did a wonderful job on very short notice!