Dining and drinking review: The Social

I'd like to think that every resident at The Esplanade has enjoyed a summer afternoon sitting out on the patio of The Social, sipping the tasty sangria. Or maybe you prefer a chilly autumn evening at one of their fire tables, with a hot Irish coffee. There's no doubt that The Social's great location in close proximity to The Esplanade makes it a favorite of residents. But I've also heard quite a few people grumble a little about the service and the quality at The Social. This week, Ted Broussard addresses the highs and lows of our culinary neighbor to the south.

"I'm Anti-Social," by Ted Broussard

It’s not that I don’t like people; I think they’re just fine. But when it comes to The Social Bar and Grill, I have issues. With an incredible waterfront outdoor seating view and the traffic from the Museum of Glass next door, the place was bound to be a big hit. And a hit it is if you can handle the inconsistent quality of food and spotty service. 

Take a stroll on the esplanade on a weekend night in the summer and you’re likely to see clusters of large groups of people on the patio clearly enjoying themselves. Most times they appear to be groups of the twenty-something crowd laughing, celebrating or just catching up with each other. It’s great to see people having a good time there. For those of us, though, who just want a good meal, or drink with a beautiful view within easy walking distance of our home, the experience doesn’t feel quite as fun.

Having visited The Social several times over the two years we’ve lived here, I’m pretty close to swearing them off. Of course, I was dazzled by the outdoor patio when we first discovered them. We even went there to celebrate signing the papers to buy our condo. But starting at that meal and continuing to even our most recent visit a couple of weeks ago, I find the food to be mediocre at best and the service can range from adequate to pretty lousy. 

We visited The Social with a friend at our most recent visit and after a lengthy wait for a server to come by, we went with a couple of orders of tacos and the V-Burger. The seafood tacos were described as blackened rockfish, chipotle slaw, Pico de Gallo and mango-habanero salsa. Given the flavor-packed description, I was disappointed in the blandness of the fish, and overall the taco was a little light on the seafood and a little heavy on the cabbage and other filler. I did like the black bean quinoa salad that came with it, which had good chili flavor and a nice little crunch to it. Our other taco choice was of the pulled pork variety served with the same black bean quinoa dish. Again, good, but nothing remarkable. Our friend had the V-Burger composed of a large portabella mushroom with pepper jack cheese, tomato, basil, sun-dried tomato aioli on a brioche bun. He was not overly impressed either and thought it didn’t quite meet the promise of the menu description.

Our service was particularly slow.  After waiting a while to be greeted, drinks did not come as ordered, silverware was nowhere to be found after the food was delivered and we had to wait a bit to get our server’s attention even though they did not appear to be overly busy.

Since I know many Esplanade residents have eaten here as well, I polled a couple of neighbors for their opinions; looks like there is some consensus that food and service is overall very inconsistent. One neighbor described the experience as follows; “I find the food inconsistent and generally very weak. What you order from one time to the next can be completely different That's very frustrating. As far as service goes, I cannot complain. But I sit at the bar. I have found some staff more interested in their own [things] rather than focused on the customer.”

Like I said, it’s not that I don’t like people. I just don’t love The Social Bar and Grill. I keep hoping that one day they’ll see the light and work on the food quality inconsistency and service issues, but so far it hasn’t happened. My new hope is that The Henry will feature an outstanding restaurant with killer views and great food and service.  But for the time being, I remain anti-Social.